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How America lost its love for the stick shift

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Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift

#91

Post by esaym »

sebazzz wrote: post #9
Thlom wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn’t most automatic transmissions have that? My old VW Touran have paddles on the wheel for changing gears. I only use it when driving down steep hills though.

Older automatics (my previous Opel/Vauxhall Astra G) had 3 modes, two being for slopes. But not always manually choosing the gear you like, which modern automatic transmissions do appear to have.

Nearly every automatic transmission pre-2000's was a basic double planetary gear system. Which means you got 3 gears. So normally you'd have a gear selector of 'park'-'reverse'-'neutral'-'drive'-'2'-'1' where 2 and 1 were the actual gears that you could force the transmission into for increased engine breaking (for going down mountains so you don't melt your brakes). Or sometimes for low traction, you could leave it in '2' which would make it harder to spin the tires.

After 1980, an 'overdrive' gear was added to most transmissions. "Overdrive" in this sense means that for one turn of the input shaft, the output shaft would turn slightly more than one.

After the early 2000's, we started to see the introduction of 3 and 4 planetary gear sets bringing the total gears anywhere from 6 to 9.

Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift

#92

Post by atomical »

ErnestedCode wrote: post #71

I'm American and I learned to drive in a stick shift. My first 13 years of driving was with a stick. But it got to a point where it was just too difficult to find a stick version of the cars I wanted to get, so now I drive automatics. I get the reason why some people insist driving sticks. You feel more "in tune" and "in control" with your car. But for the vast majority, this is completely unnecessary. Most people ju…

Many newer cars have brake assist and other safety features that make the experience much more "automatic."

Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift

#93

Post by mikestew »

tyingq wrote: post #57
tough_cookies wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always had an easier time getting up snowy/ice hills (in Boston) than my friends did in their autos. I remember once driving up a hill in front of a friend so he could use my tire indentations to get up behind me.

Getting up was fine. Stopping at the precipice at a 4 way stop, then trying to start again was the tricky bit. With an auto you can hold the brake while you slowly press the accelerator, then release the brakes. Need a third foot to do that (or a hand brake) with a manual. Edit: Hill lock definitely sounds nice. Didn't exist when I was young, poor, and had crappy old American made manual shift cars...

Didn't exist when I was young, poor, and had crappy old American made manual shift cars...

You just didn't go old and crappy enough. Studebaker had "Hill Holder" back in the 1930s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill-holder

Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift

#94

Post by esaym »

tyingq wrote: post #57
tough_cookies wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always had an easier time getting up snowy/ice hills (in Boston) than my friends did in their autos. I remember once driving up a hill in front of a friend so he could use my tire indentations to get up behind me.

Getting up was fine. Stopping at the precipice at a 4 way stop, then trying to start again was the tricky bit. With an auto you can hold the brake while you slowly press the accelerator, then release the brakes. Need a third foot to do that (or a hand brake) with a manual. Edit: Hill lock definitely sounds nice. Didn't exist when I was young, poor, and had crappy old American made manual shift cars...

Not sure how old you are, but on my grandpa's 1950 Ford there was a hand operated parking brake (under the dash). I had to use it once after stopping to get gas and the driveway to get back onto the main road went down into a steep ditch and then out onto the road.

Of course some nitwit pulled up right behind me as I was trying to pull out into the road. I tried easing up on the foot brake and allowing the clutch to grab some as a quick test but the car still started to creep back. I said screwed it and yanked the parking brake as hard as I could while getting off the foot brake and meshing the gas while at the same time letting up on the clutch and undoing the parking brake. Not the hardest thing, but mainly made an issue by modern drivers getting right on your bumper...

Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift

#95

Post by mikestew »

newnewpdro wrote: post #67

This article completely misses what I have observed as a major factor in nearly everyone switching to automatics: Drunk driving became illegal, then agressively enforced. This created a powerful incentive for having a vehicle anyone can drive. All my friends growing up were gearheads of some kind, and drove manual cars. Now they have automatics, so they can continue to get drunk when out and have someone sober (their…

Don't forget letting the female half of the population drive in the US is a relatively new development as well...

Do you mean to say "new" as in "before this old man who is bordering on retirement was born"? Maybe you city folk kept the ladies in the passenger seat, but out on the farm and you don't drive stick, you're not much use. My long-dead grandmother drove everything from the farm truck full of livestock for the sale barn, to driving us kids to church on Sunday when we stayed with her. Were I to guess, if there were a time women didn't generally drive, it was maybe the '50s and before. Sure wasn't the 60s.

Besides, as I was discussing with my wife (who shifts more smoothly than you do) this weekend: manuals aren't what kept women from driving, it was lack of power steering. You can teach a seven-year-old to drive stick.

Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift

#96

Post by esaym »

Not sure what "audi" (a German company) has to do with America but what ever.

For my own tastes, once my 2000 Ford mustang's automatic tranny started acting funny sometimes (after 15 years and 200k miles), I bought a used manual tranny, flywheel, and clutch pedal set from a wrecked mustang of the same year and did a swap. Much happier now. I also feel more "invincible". If my starter goes out, I won't be stranded, I can just do a push start! Heck even if your battery is dead you can normally still push start. Nothing can stop me! Heck it even has a spare tire unlike all these "modern" cars. Truly nothing can stop me!

Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift

#97

Post by tyingq »

esaym wrote: post #94
tyingq wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Getting up was fine. Stopping at the precipice at a 4 way stop, then trying to start again was the tricky bit. With an auto you can hold the brake while you slowly press the accelerator, then release the brakes. Need a third foot to do that (or a hand brake) with a manual. Edit: Hill lock definitely sounds nice. Didn't exist when I was young, poor, and had crappy old American made manual shift cars...

Not sure how old you are, but on my grandpa's 1950 Ford there was a hand operated parking brake (under the dash). I had to use it once after stopping to get gas and the driveway to get back onto the main road went down into a steep ditch and then out onto the road. Of course some nitwit pulled up right behind me as I was trying to pull out into the road. I tried easing up on the foot brake and allowing the clutch to…

It was cars with a foot operated emergency brake that locked into place with a separate lever to release it. Not useful in these situations. Even on cars with a hand brake, it was still a bit dicey, because they only operated the rear brakes, and could be mis-adjusted/weak/etc.

Pretty common on late 60's, 70's, and some 80's cars.

Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift

#99

Post by crazygringo »

Except the article doesn't answer it at all.

Why did America lose its love... when other countries (e.g. rich European countries) continue to buy majority stick?

All of the reasons given for the US presumably apply to e.g. Germany too, no? Except no transformation there...

Re: How America lost its love for the stick shift

#100

Post by JoeAltmaier »

mikestew wrote: post #95
newnewpdro wrote: post #67

This article completely misses what I have observed as a major factor in nearly everyone switching to automatics: Drunk driving became illegal, then agressively enforced. This created a powerful incentive for having a vehicle anyone can drive. All my friends growing up were gearheads of some kind, and drove manual cars. Now they have automatics, so they can continue to get drunk when out and have someone sober (their…

Don't forget letting the female half of the population drive in the US is a relatively new development as well... Do you mean to say "new" as in "before this old man who is bordering on retirement was born"? Maybe you city folk kept the ladies in the passenger seat, but out on the farm and you don't drive stick, you're not much use. My long-dead grandmother drove everything from the farm truck full of livestock for t…

Well, 8 year old I think. That's when I learned to drive the truck on the farm, and it was surely a manual. My sister taught me.
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