I’ll start off by saying that I don’t drive stick. More specifically, I don’t know how. For as long as I’ve been alive, my parents have owned cars with automatic transmissions, and that’s all that I learned.
In fact, where I grew up (Long Island, NY), manual-transmission cars seemed pretty uncommon. I saw them in dealerships and such, and got the basic idea from Driver’s Ed classes, but for the longest time I never knew anyone who owned one. (When I was about 18, my dad bought a limited-edition Cobra as an “investment”, which of course had a stickshift.)
Now, I know that some people prefer a car with a clutch. (They’d have to, or automakers wouldn’t bother with them.) My question is, why? For those of you who prefer stickshift, what makes it better than an automatic?
I also grew up in New York (upstate.) I am 30 and learned to drive stick 1 year ago. Prior to that I had never driven stick (well, my mom tried to teach me to drivve her Jensen-Healy when I was 11. I smashed the car within 5 seconds.)
When driving in traffic or on flat land, a stick is worthless. It is just one more damn thing you have to do.
However, on hills, or when driving a powerful car (especially on curvy roads) the stick gives you a lot more control.
For example, last weekend I had to drive my VW camper up a 19% grade with switchbacks. The camper is underpowered, so I had to shift into first. And the variability of the terrain made it preferable to have a lot of control over the gear ratio.
But for day to day use, stick is a minor pain in the ass.
The preference for a manual shift is that you control the speed and timing of the shift between gears. Shift cars, in general, pull away faster from a dead stop at a light, for instance. And I don’t mean peeling out or driving like an idiot - just having the control of shifting and not waiting for the pre-set timing in the automatic transmission to shift for you.
Preference for either is all going to come down to…personal preference. Some people never learn how to drive correctly and they burn out their clutches. Some people never learn how to drive correctly and they drop their automatic transmissions.
I prefer the control of a stick (which I drive) but bemoan the loss of being able to put my arm around a girlfriend (which I could do in my old automatic clunkers). This subject reminds me of a great song by Cake: “Stick shifts and safety belts, buckets seats have all got to go. When we’re driving in my car, it makes my baby seem so far”.
The preference for a manual shift is that you control the speed and timing of the shift between gears. Shift cars, in general, pull away faster from a dead stop at a light, for instance. And I don’t mean peeling out or driving like an idiot - just having the control of shifting and not waiting for the pre-set timing in the automatic transmission to shift for you.
Preference for either is all going to come down to…personal preference. Some people never learn how to drive correctly and they burn out their clutches. Some people never learn how to drive correctly and they drop their automatic transmissions.
I prefer the control of a stick (which I drive) but bemoan the loss of being able to put my arm around a girlfriend (which I could do in my old automatic clunkers). This subject reminds me of a great song by Cake: “Stick shifts and safety belts, buckets seats have all got to go. When we’re driving in my car, it makes my baby seem so far”.
I enjoy driving! Therefore I only buy manual transmission vehicles. Driving a stick is just more fun!
There is also a “control” factor. No automatic transmission or even one with a computer can know what the ideal gear for any given situation is better than the driver. I’ve driven automatics up grades and in quick acceleration situations and they are never in what I would consider the “proper” gear.
There’s also the fact that you can’t “race” in an automatic. When the jerk in the cherry red Camarro pulls up along side you at the light and guns his engine, you want to at least have the option of showing him what a loser he really is. I think there is a little Mario Andretti in every driver who prefers a stick.
Those of you who know nothing about computer programming, please skip this post. But those who do may find it interesting.
I once read an article which compared an automatic transmission car to a high-level language like Cobol or Basic. These things make things nice and simple, they do a lot of the thinking for you. They’re designed for the average task, with a lot of preselected settings for the usual cases.
In contrast, manual transmission is like a low-level language like C or Assembler. These give you the freedom to do exactly when you want. They put the power in your hands, to make all the decisions, all the time. But those decisions had better be correct, because if you shift gears at the wrong moment, or type the wrong variable, you run a decent risk of crashing with no warning.
Nice analogy, Keeves, however did you mean to use the word “crash” literally for both scenarios? If so, then you’re a bit deluded. Sticks are actually safer than automatics. If the driver of a stick is incapacitated at a light the car will just stall. If the same happens to the driver of an automatic, the car will proceed inti the intersection of its own accord.
Almost all car/train collisions caused by “creeping at the signal” are caused by automatics.
Papabear is correct. I intended the word “crash” in the figurative sense, so that it would cover a wide range of meanings, such as a car which stalls and is therefore crashed into, or a program which runs, but in a badly unexpected manner.
I agree with all the posts so far about driving a manual a “control thing”. I just feel more like I’m driving, not just “steering”. Nebraska isn’t actually totally flat; this area is quite hilly and the manual is great for getting up icy hills in the wintertime.
I learned how to drive on a manual and never drove an automatic until 3 months ago. I had to ask my husband how! (blush). I wasn’t sure what to do with the little thing that stuck out from the steering column (which position was drive, park, etc). And then there was the “phantom clutch” problem where I kept going for the clutch and accidentally hitting the brake. Not good!
So Ken leaves my car alone and vice versa. Not a bad deal…
The stick is for better performance. It’s fun when you’re driving for fun. However, in traffic it just sucks.
A sportscar or truck should be a stickshift, and all luxury cars automatic.
You can’t have it both ways, though. Someday, if I’m fortunate enough, I’ll own 2 cars: A Cadillac and a Porsche. Until then, I’ll just work my ass off.
I can’t recall what it’s called, but aren’t there some cars where the shift had all the usual automatic-type gears in the up-down axis, but you could put it all the way down then shift manually by going side-to-side? I don’t think it was “true” manual shifting, I think it was clutchless.
Revtim, the system you’re referring to is called an AutoShift (among other trademarks). Basically it’s an automatic transmission, but moving the lever in some unique way tells it to shift immediately, either one gear up or one gear down.
For those of you who like stickshift for hills, note that you can downshift in an automatic! If you want to stay in second gear to go down a hill, move the gear selector a couple of notches past the D, to the number 2. That’s second gear, and the car won’t upshift any higher. (It’ll still downshift if the engine speed gets low enough, though.)
Stick shift is more fun to drive, and I don’t find it a pain even in the traffic. But then agin I love motorcycles too…and most of them have clucth and manual gears…
Some historical notes to contribute (?) to the discussion-
When automatic transmissions were first introduced, they were an option, and an expensive one at that. Many people stayed with standards rather than pay the extra $$$ for an automatic. So I think that, early on, the decision between standard and automatic was often an economic one.
Eventually it became obvious that on some kinds of cars (Cadillacs and other land barges for example), almost everyone was opting for the automatic and so automatics became “standard”. (No justification for the expense of two assembly processes, etc.) Many sports cars (and some economy cars) are still offered with both/either, because many people still want the standard for the reasons already discussed.
FTR- I drive a standard Porsche 911, which I bought when I walked to work most days and only drove for FUN. I must confess, however, that having recently relocated to New Jersey (commuter hell), I would like to be able to enjoy my morning coffee without having to steer with my knees!
And to go slightly off-discussion, referencing PapaBear and guys in red Camaros…
Why is it that so many of them who see a woman behind the wheel of a Porsche convertible feel compelled to race her off the mark at every stop light? To paraphrase Freud, “Sometimes a car is just a car.”
I myself prefer a stickshift. It’s just more fun! Except on hills. But then it’s a challenge to not roll into the idiot who gave you 1/2 inch of space behind you and not to ram the car ahead of you! Also, about guys who wanna race, com’on!
I drive a stick shift, and have driven one since I got my liscence. Doing so was an accident, as my first car happened to be a stick (at 16, beggars can’t be choosers) so I taught myself how to drive stick, and I have loved it ever since. As to thr traffic concerns, I don’t find it an issue. To me, there is no more effort in letting out the clutch peddle as letting out the brake peddle. Hill-stops, not a problem. Admittdedly in my younger, more mach days I would just jump from brake to gas and time it perfectly. But I got bored with all of that, and discovered the hand brake. More subtle control than the foot brake, and hey, isn’t that why we all drive stick shift in the first place?
