Posted on 10/09/2014 6:50:15 AM PDT by C19fan
That manual transmissions in vehicles survive in now-permanent status of endangered species-dom will come as no surprise. Despite all the driving benefits and sense of control a manual brings, even most sports cars now sell more automatics than sticks when they offer their drivers the option. (And when they don't, like the Dodge Viper, they don't sell well at all.)
Today, in its annual report on U.S. vehicle fuel efficiency, the Environmental Protection Agency provided a clear snapshot of just how endangered manuals are in two vivid graphs — along with a surprising sliver of hope for those who prefer three pedals to two.
(Excerpt) Read more at autos.yahoo.com ...
Plain vanilla manual transmissions still don’t have much if anything in the way of computerization. There are what I call automated manual transmissions, which I describe in my previous post, that are sold as automatics.
Crooks generally don’t steal a car with a manual transmission because they don’t know how to drive them.
Plus its going to be a lot of fun to drive up in the mountains on all those twisty roads. :-)
Hmmmmm ... not sure where your terrain is, but San Francisco, a city of VERY steep hills, and any freeway in So Cal during rush hour with stop-and-go traffic, there's constant shifting. I've driven both in sticks all my life ... and still insist on having a manual for my personal car -- my sweetheart's car is an automatic.
In cities especially, a manual helps protect from carjacking and car theft -- most of the hoods that do that kind of thing don't know a clutch pedal from a bag of Fritos.
On very winding, hilly roads, sticks are FAR superior because you use the compression of the engine in down-shifting instead of the brakes to slow down. I often see automatics using their brakes going UP HILL (!!!!) to slow down for curves, which is nuts; for fun, when driving such roads, I challenge myself to use the brakes as little as possible and shift up or down instead. Another great thing about stick shifts is that if the battery goes dead or even if the starter craps out, as long as you've got either a push or a hill to coast down, you can put 'er in second, pop the clutch, and get the engine going!
You steer an automatic. You DRIVE a manual!
Ford Focus ST turbo 2.0 litre and 6 speed a fun car to drive..She hits 60 in second gear.
So I'm glad to hear that they'll be around for a while. I will probably buy 1 more car before I die, and I want it to be a manual.
A manual transmission lasts forever...the major wear part being the clutch disk.
A trained ape (me) can change a clutch and flex spring for around $250. I have done it many times.
Now if an automatic fails, its a little more complicated. There are dozens of friction bands, pressure ports, electronic sensors. This trained ape usually has to replace the whole thing with a rebuild. Average cost $1,200. Often more than a used engine to buy a rebuilt transmission.
I keep my cars for a loooong time. So I like to buy the manual transmissions.
Amen, Brother FReeper!
Great line! I couldn't agree more. I require all my kids to learn to drive one. You never know when you're going to have to.
I went to Ireland last fall, and that's all they had over there. Drove over 1,000 miles in it. I almost killed my family only one time, driving on the left side of the road. The weird thing was that the shift pattern was the same as over here, even though you do it with your left hand. I would have thought it would be reversed. It was weird pushing the stick away from you to put it in first gear. That was harder for me to get used to than driving on the left side of the road.
Ummm .... YES YES YES!!! {^)
My first car was a 2 Dr 70 Chevy Nova. 6 Cyl, 233 Ci, 3 on the tree with 2nd gone. Put in a Hurst floor shifter and accidentally got the pattern backwards 1st and 3rd were back to the bench seat. A lot of girlfriend hand lap time plus a great place to hold a soda :)
I found a 4 Bbl intake and put an old quadrajet on it and we welded up a header for it. Had to weld the sub frames together. I still have it and will be working on restomodding it with better brakes and body and paint. Straight pipes with a glass pack make it sound badder than it is and it gets pretty good mileage.
Not bad for $50 at a fire dept auction in 76.
It’s a bit of a rat rod at present POR-15’d it a couple years ago.
My granddaughter decided to paint skulls and skeletons she made stencils all over it for a birthday present. Tempted to let her do it again with some help after I hang some new quarters.
She calls it the death-mobile ( Ah the joys of a teenage goth Who wants a zombie apocopypse living with you.) But I have honorary cool points when I pick her up anywhere.
I’m happily in that tiny M6 sliver.
All you guys talking about manual transmissions.
I am hearing lots of grinding noises here : )
I have owned nothing but manuals for 30 years, and have never had to replace a clutch. The only time I use a clutch is first gear, reverse, or down-shifting.
As for computers interfering with modern manual transmissions, there have been some cars with mechanisms that force the driver to skip gears by blocking parts of the shift pattern based on how hard you're driving. Easy enough to defeat.
Now, I drive a DSG and wouldn't have it any other way. As much as we would like to think we can, no one can shift as quickly and perfectly as the DSG computer. The only thing absent is the clutch pedal... and the way my knees are these days, I'm quite content with it being gone.
I'm a willing adopter of tech, I remember the carburetor and mechanical points... and I don't miss them one bit!
You’d have to be a tap dancer to run today’s 6 and 7 speed manuals, no thanks. With traction control and a smart 6 speed automatic I miss nothing, even on ice.
I had a manual trans little SUV for a couple of years. I learned that you can use the hand brake to avoid those challenging uphill starts where you are afraid of rolling back. So much easier.
Other than that, dealing with Pittsburgh terrain, you just have to downshift to go uphill sometimes.
You sound like my wife. She hates driving my car. I feel sorry for both of you. I’ve got a 70 mile commute round trip and would be bored stiff if I didn’t get to shift a 50 or so times a trip. Maybe I’ll count tonight.
On ramps are the best. On the way home, I’ve got one that I wind up in 2nd to about 5000 rpm and just as the left front tire skips over a small pothole, I bring it home to 3rd gear. I typically can get past 4-5 cars every day doing that and hit the freeway ahead of them.
Try that in an automatic. Nope, can’t do it. Settle in with the rest of the lemmings.
Sorry, I just like to enjoy driving rather than face the drudgery of it.
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