Supposedly for safety reasons, don’t want those drivers thinking about shifting gears instead of driving the truck. Admittedly, with the current crop of newer drivers tending to learn how to drive a stick while learning how to drive a truck, the idea may have merit. The technology does not. A skilled driver can use the transmission to help control his speed going down a hill, with the current state of auto trans in trucks today, he has to rely exlusively on his brakes, a bad thing on long and or steep hills. We have 5 automatic trucks in our fleet, they suck. They are electronically controlled so even if you tell it to down shift it won’t until the ecm decides the truck is going slow enough. If the rpms get too high or the ecm senses too much pressure on the drive train, it upshift regardless of what position the shifter is in or that you may be madly jamming the downshift button because your brakes overheated or failed for some other reason(yes trucks now have pushbutton shifting for autos)
Sure. Three on a tree too.
Last two vehicles have been autos. Don’t really care one way or another.
I have never driven an automatic and would be leery of doing so - I mean, what do you do with your left foot? Do you use it for brakes, or does it just sit there like useless lump? Does it fall asleep?
And what’s with all the other gears besides “P”, “R” and “D”? When do you use “N”? If it’s so automatic, why does it have “1” and “2” and sometimes “3”? Why would I want to “OD”, that doesn’t sound like a good thing.
Autos are supposed to be more fuel-efficient. But then, the same people who say that also say we’re not supposed to “sail the car” ever. The “learning to use the stick” thing isn’t relevant for most countries, where manual is still the mental default and automatics tend to be “semi” partly because of consumer acceptance issues (you can use them as manuals and if the engineer doesn’t like it tough titty, he’s not in the car).
Same principle, really. The biggest I ever drove was a 15-speed in three ranges, in a Kenworth W900. But it’s the same principle: you’re getting the most efficiency out of the drive unit. Your bike, and my truck, basically operated the same way, drive-wise.
Note that it’s been years since I operated a truck, but I still recall how to. And I recall how to operate the stick transmission.
Rarely. If the car breaks down and you have to push it, or if you go through the kind of car wash that drags the car through, or…I’m sure there are other uses, but it’s not a daily thing for most people.
For weird situations like when you’re driving down the side of a mountain and don’t want to ride the brake the whole way down, or towing a trailer. Also not a normal thing for most people, and my strong guess is there’s a big group of people who have no idea what the numbered gears are even useful for.
2019 4Runner here. Five speed automatic. Got it 2 months ago.
It’s ether in ‘Drive’ or I can select any of the five gears. For myself, I don’t generally down shift going down hill. Brakes are cheaper than transmissions.
What I am finding though, is that going uphill in snow/ice conditions, I like that I can stick it in say 3 or 4 so that I just have consistent predictable (that’s the key) power. When in ‘D’ or ‘drive’, it may suddenly downshift to keep your speed up causing a bit of lose of control on ice and snow.
Mr. Dribble, I don’t really prefer an auto over a manual. :shug: I think the thing is though, that engines and transmissions have become much more tightly ‘linked’ over the years. Things like cruise control comes to mind.
Manual driver here who occasionally uses an automatic (wife’s car):
N = neutral = out of gear. You would use it in the same situations you’d want not to have a gear engaged in a manual. For example, pushing the car or being towed.
1,2 (and sometimes 3) = means the automatic transmission is limited to those as the highest gears. I think in some slushboxes it may just leave you directly in that gear (looking it up, it does seems to be the case that in some automatics 2 just puts you and leaves you in second), but in the automatics I’ve driven, they’ve all only had 1 and 2, and 1 meant the car stays in first gear, and 2 meant the car only toggles between first and second gear. So, once again, same sorts of situation where in a manual you’d like to select those gears: typically hills and towing heavy loads.
OD = Overdrive. That I’m not as clear on the concept other than it’s basically like an extra high gear to use in highway driving to increase fuel economy. The details are here. If I’m cruising on a flat highway at a steady 70 mph, I generally want to be in overdrive.
I actually learned to drive with a stick… in midtown Manhattan. I prefer driving a stick, but in my old age I’m happy with an automatic.
Idling the engine while parked (the parking brake being engaged, of course). Not so rare.
Restarting from a stall.
If you have to shift repeatedly between 1 and R to rock the car out of a snowdrift, you take it through N in between.
I can always tell when the driver ahead of me is braking with their left foot. Their brake lights are on, even when not slowing down. They must have to replace their brakes fairly often, not to mention lousy fuel economy.
Basically, your left foot just sits there like a useless lump. But rarely falls asleep.
Exactly. In the past, when I’d see this, it was nearly always with an older driver (who, I’m guessing, started using their left foot for braking to compensate for a slower reaction time). But, in the past few years, I’ve increasingly seen it with younger drivers.
Much as I enjoy driving a stick (which is what my current car has), it seems pointless for today’s new drivers to learn to use a manual, since stick shifts are increasingly difficult to find.
I think they’ll be entirely gone except as options on a few expensive sports cars within 5 years or so.
*One possible benefit of having a manual transmission vehicle is that it’d be a bit less attractive to thieves.
I can and do drive manual daily. 6 out of 7 daily driver vehicles I’ve had have been manual transmission. The automatic was a nice Explorer that I only kept for 6 months. It was great for road trips and bad weather, but not great as a daily driver on curvy roads.
Depends on where you are. In the US, yes. If you plan to spend some time abroad, it’s still very useful.
I should note my current car (2016 Prius) does not have a transmission in the classical sense. It uses a set oif planetary gears that constantly vary between using the gas engine, the electric motor, or both depending on the demand (up or down a hill, slowing down, etc). there is a “B” on the gear shift (in addition to D, R and N – Park is a button) that is used to simulate a downshift (Engine Braking mode). Except for down a steep hill I never use it.
Brian
Yes. I got rid of my two manual cars in December but I’m shopping for a fun car with a manual transmission now. More than half of my driving life has been with manuals but I drive them just because I enjoy them. It’s not a necessary skill but it means I can rent anything on the lot in a foreign county. Driving them in traffic isn’t bothersome because it’s just second nature.
I basically taught myself how to drive a manual in the same afternoon I taught a girl I wanted to impress. In high school, my experience with manuals was limited to moving my dad’s truck around the yard a couple of times without his permission. One afternoon during cross country practice, I was holding the keys to my friend’s old Corolla while he finished his run. This cute girl on the team was thinking of buying a a slightly beat-up used Mustang with a manual and she wanted to learn how to drive it. Since my car was an automatic, we borrowed the Corolla before my friend got back. Asking forgiveness is easier than asking permission. I explained manual transmission principles to her, which I understood mostly from reading car magazines. I demonstrated how to get it moving once or twice and she took over. She got it right away after a little bucking on her first launch or two. She drove a couple of miles around the park, then I drove back, perhaps marginally smoother than her.
She bought the Mustang, which involved convincing her dad she already knew how to drive it. She even took me on a couple dates in it. The Corolla survived its encounter with the blind leading the blind. I used my newly-developed skills to pass my aunt’s driving test, which meant I could borrow her beloved five-speed Miata. I’ve put a couple hundred thousand miles on manual transmissions since then (including a couple thousand miles on tracks), and I’ve still never had to replace a clutch or repair a transmission.
This poll is not going to be a good reflection of Americans in general, as this board definitely skews older and smarter than average. I bet less than 25% of American drivers can drive a stick.
There’s a link to a survey upthread that says it’s around 18%. Even that seems a bit high to me, but I live in an urban area where driving manual is less common.
Best possible use of a HondaMatic.