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Sixt rental cars in France hasn’t been doing manual transmission cars for years - automatics get better gas mileage and are actually better on overall emissions (you’ll notice modern manual cars keep the revs up even when you let off the throttle). Germany has followed, I believe. But you’re right, it’s probably those dumb Americans’ fault.
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A great number of the cool designs from the 50's and 60's are illegal because the front of the car eats people. Swallows them, chews them up, and spits them out. The sloped design of new cars isn't just about aerodynamics. In a low-speed impact a pedestrian is lifted onto the hood. Forward leaning grills, such as on the Dodge Charger, some of the beefier Mustangs, and any number of other muscle cars or sedans, instea…
>because the front of the car eats people. Swallows them, chews them up, and spits them out. How so? Could we just use modern crumple materials in the same shape?
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Funny, you’re reading an American news aggregate site about an American publication called Popular Mechanics. Why wouldn’t you expect Popular Mechanics to be talking about the American market?
Because the world does not revolve around the US. But certainly it's hard for anyone to realize that when they've been brainwashed for an entire century that they live in the greatest country in the galaxy.
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A crumple material that will crumple in a car vs pedestrian collision? Like NERF foam or something?
Ahaha I was thinking of passengers. Hence "how do they get eaten?" But even so, were old car shapes really worse than modern car shapes? Seems like you get hit, you're gonna have a bad time no matter what.
edit: also recently people noticed that high 'trucks' would simply miss the crumple zones in the car they were crashing into
> Another problem is "impact incompatibility" where the "hard points" of the ends of chassis rails of SUVs are higher than the "hard points" of cars, causing the SUV to "override" the engine compartment of the car.[18] In order to tackle this problem, more recent SUV/off-roaders incorporate structures below the front bumper designed to engage lower-height car crumple zones
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There are a lot of handed down memories of shifting in non-synchromesh transmissions with lousy cable driven clutches. These are very old memories. Modern manuals do a lot of interesting things like force shifting patterns for efficiency. If you really want to geek out, do a NASCAR Racing Experience. Those clutches and transmissions are awful in comparison (they’re not supposed to be optimized for feel). They’re mush…
> If you really want to geek out, do a NASCAR Racing Experience. Those clutches and transmissions are awful in comparison (they’re not supposed to be optimized for feel). They’re mushy, the clutch throw is long and very stiff, and the shifter takes forever to move into gear. The base model economy car stick shift I learned in (‘91 Mazda derived Ford Escort) feels like a luxurious precision instrument in comparison. A…
I always found it strange how people in the UK prefer driving manual transmissions, there's always talk of liking the "feeling" and "control" when driving, this is coming from people who are not enthusiasts and don't even like driving sometimes. 90% of driving tests in the UK are done in manual transmission cars[1]. Taking your driving test in an automatic means that you are not allowed to drive a manual[2]. After li…
UK roads can be very undulating and windy, for the couple of times I drove someone else's automatic car it always felt like I was waiting for it to figure out the correct gear - some of this is probably historically inferior designs, but the other element is anticipation...
I can see the steep hill suddenly rearing up around the tight bend, I know to drop down in advance to keep the revs high if i don't want to start rolling backwards (or more realistically in todays cars, resulting in just slogging up it) - an automatic transmission can't do that, it has to wait to feel the load just before it's too late, I can also see the top of a hill quickly drop back down so i know exactly the right moment to shift up again - In short, I don't have to guess like the gear box because I can see and know when I'm going to need more or less torque.
You actually see the same problem in new drivers, they don't anticipate or select the right gear so they crawl up hills and their cars speed tends to match the angle of the road, it's a bit like automatics are newbie drivers, they will eventually select the right gear but not before they've lost all their momentum and revs.
I'd guess that the opposite is true for the US (which by comparison looks to be as flat as a pancake) for the very same reason, you don't need to anticipate gears when the terrain ahead is unchanging, once the box can infer you want to go faster and how much faster, making perfect timing for good acceleration is probably better than a human.
I always found it strange how people in the UK prefer driving manual transmissions, there's always talk of liking the "feeling" and "control" when driving, this is coming from people who are not enthusiasts and don't even like driving sometimes. 90% of driving tests in the UK are done in manual transmission cars[1]. Taking your driving test in an automatic means that you are not allowed to drive a manual[2]. After li…
Im not from/in the UK or US, but not sure that matters. I also prefer manual transmission. As my car is currently in the shop for repair, I have a borrowed car from the shop, who has automatic transmission instead of manual. It's true that it takes less effort to drive. Easier to drive by just using one leg and easier to use one arm. But the loss of control is real, at least for me. One example is moving from zero to…
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Im not from/in the UK or US, but not sure that matters. I also prefer manual transmission. As my car is currently in the shop for repair, I have a borrowed car from the shop, who has automatic transmission instead of manual. It's true that it takes less effort to drive. Easier to drive by just using one leg and easier to use one arm. But the loss of control is real, at least for me. One example is moving from zero to…
I think this is largely dependent on the car, which is a pro for manual transmission (the consistency and sensitivity when driving). I personally prefer the less sensitive automatics because it's better for fuel economy. In my car, switching to Eco mode helps with this.
I always found it strange how people in the UK prefer driving manual transmissions, there's always talk of liking the "feeling" and "control" when driving, this is coming from people who are not enthusiasts and don't even like driving sometimes. 90% of driving tests in the UK are done in manual transmission cars[1]. Taking your driving test in an automatic means that you are not allowed to drive a manual[2]. After li…
Folks are less lazy this side of the pond ;)
Not just for themselves, but for others - automatics have had better fuel efficiency (less pollution) for years now.
We could even go further and say that needlessly polluting to improve the "feel" of driving is immoral.