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Modern cars have automatic transmission where we don’t have to deal with archaic problems.
They are also incredibly frustrating to drive unless they have a massive engine with plenty of torque. Honestly, how have automatics gotten worse in the past ten years?
I bet they'll eventually make electric cars with manual gearboxes and gearing to simulate this experience in an EV. You can already do this on your own with things like thr Ford EV crate motor that you can just bolt in any old car.
Why though? Unless you’ve grown up with it there is no nostalgia. It’s just a sub par experience from every perspective.
I just came back from Monterrey Motorsports Week where lots of rich old guys race many decades old race cars around the track. Again, inferior in every way to a modern car yet its a thing, a big thing.
That said, if you can find them, there are still some modern-ish BMWs that aren't M-series that come in manual. I picked up a 2016 340i and modded in CarPlay, and it feels like the best of the old world and modern world - rides the line perfectly for me. Will be sad when I finally have to let it go.
I reiterate my compromise proposal: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32397975 I will give up my manual transmission, if you will bring back pull-knobs, twist knobs and other tactile switches for the main controls of my vehicle, with the appropriate tactile feedback at set points so I can set them without looking. After thinking on it, I am going to raise my demands, however: you also need to produce cars that are…
That's exactly what Olympian Motors is doing. They're a YC company. It's beautifully styled imo and has only physical controls inside https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/olympian-motors https://olympianmotors.com/
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> Manual transmissions are not "an order of magnitude less complex and cheaper." Don't take my word for it. Just look at the size of a manual drivetrain vs an automatic. The increase in steel is directly proportional to the engineering required/number of moving parts. >Manual transmission vehicles get significantly worse mileage While it's true that CVTs have finally surpassed manuals for fuel efficiency, I think you…
What you're missing about the cost is that engineering cost is amortized. If you spend $10m on the engineering for the manual, and $100m on the engineering for the automatic, the manual will be way more expensive if you only sell 10 of them.
But realistically, what additional work are we looking to have done to accommodate a manual gearbox over automatic? Very little I'd imagine.
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Can I add a request? A car that doesn't phone home. That is, one that the government is utterly unable to remotely turn off, monitor, or impose distance quotas. One that cannot be hacked through a poorly secured server in a car maker's server farm or government server with the username/pass admin/admin.
> government is utterly unable to remotely turn off, monitor, or impose distance quotas This is reality already? I'm starting to think maybe computers were a mistake. I mean how much more screwed up can our world get before it turns into a cyberpunk hell?
eh for cars maybe, but an automatic test for your commercial drivers license to operate a tractor trailer comes with some pretty severe restrictions. they're nice for day drivers like the beer trucks and FedEx mules but regional and over the road/interstate drivers can't upgrade to tankers or low boy trailers in most states unless they can jockey a stick. auto boxes on semi trucks also do some squirrley things on lon…
I picture this is, and will continue to, change with the passing of time. DCT and CVT will likely come for semi trucks as they came for motorcycles and cars.
There's nothing worse than getting stuck in traffic going up a slick hill in a Midwest winter with a manual transmission. Your car goes backward!
In an old manual transmission, that's true. Modern cars have anti roll back systems. But also, use the hand brake.
I wouldn't jump to this conclusion just yet! Porsche, Ferrari, etc all commanded huge premiums this year for their manual versions. Specifically among younger buyers and first time buyers! You even see this effect downmarket - Toyota promised to never make a manual version of their Supra, then just this last year they put together a cobbled transmission to save their car. Manuals are also an order of magnitude less c…
(1) PDK is a free option on the S models, you can't even get MT on the base Carrera anymore (2) the 7MT in the 991/992 is derived from the PDK unit: https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a15120538/a-tale-of-tw...
That being said I own a 991.1 C2S w/ 7MT and I'm never upgrading bc I don't want a turbo and I'm not into the GT3 anymore as I stopped going to the track
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If you read the article is says that dual clutch automatics are much faster than manual transmission and most modern automatics have 7 to 10 gears for better fuel efficiency but no one is willing to use a manual transmission with that many gears.
> dual clutch automatics are much faster than manual transmission and most modern automatics have 7 to 10 gears for better fuel efficiency In what < $15K econobox? :)