Interesting. I didn’t know they changed the gear ratios for different markets.
In the UK automatics tend to be for guys who are likely to spend huge numbers of hours travelling up and down the country on straight roads. Salesmen. I had such a car until recently, 3litres of BMW comfort. Very nice on long distance journeys, but a petrol fuelled automatic, it was a complete gas guzzler in urban traffic. With petrol at over $8 a gallon in the UK, I would weep into my wallet each time I filled up.
That and little old ladies, for whom the dexterity required of a manual gear change is a complication too far. Very small automatics, less than 1000cc are popular in this market. Not least because small also means easy to park. I drove my mothers dinky little Toyota Yaris automatic. A cute car that sips fuel.
I look forward to the day when all this gear change business is a thing of the past. Electric cars are coming and they don’t need gears. It should also put pay to car jackers.
Until then, we have the South Africans to thank for applying flame thrower technology as the answer to motoring hazards in unsafe urban areas as a solution to the car jacking problem:
:eek:That’s assuming that the driver is switching gears at optimal times for fuel efficiency. Personally, I would suspect that most people drive “fun and natural” not “fuel efficient”. If all Euros switched to automatic, I wouldn’t be surprised if the average fuel economy went up a smidge.
And don’t even try to find a manual diesel car in the US … it took months to find a diesel Jetta, manual was simply out of the question. I do understand that there is a trickle of interest in getting diesel vehicles in the US starting up, I just hope that when I am ready to get my next vehicle I can get a diesel with a lot more ease.
And oddly enough, we leave my manual 94 jetta sitting next to the barn with the doors unlocked and we have noticed the movement triggered light popping on several times over the past year, yet nobody has bothered or been able to steal it :dubious::rolleyes:
Only thing keeping it off the road is the windshield [it took a tom turkey strike on the passenger side and is illegal to drive, and it didn’t have glass coverage as it just has base collision and we didn’t have the cash to get it replaced.] and mrAru hasn’t redone the exhaust yet though the parts are in the barn.
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I just bought a six-speed manual for $16k. Every other car on the lot (all automatics, naturally) for that model was >$20k. And according to cars.com, there were no other manual models in the metro area, and all the automatics were >$20k.
Are people really paying a 25% premium on a major purchase because they don’t want to take an afternoon to learn a very simple skill? Fuel efficiency seems like a minor side issue. Do you know how much gas I can buy for $4000? In my (admittedly limited) experience, maintenance costs are cheaper for manual transmissions as well. There has to be something I’m missing here.
If people just bought the cheapest car, we’d all be driving Toyota Yarises.
I know that I chose against a manual last time I bought a car, because I live in a hilly city and parking-break starts are always a PITA, with a pretty expensive downside if you mess it up.
I get maintenance free at my dealer, for X number of years after buying the car.
I’ll never need to replace the clutch (which is rumored to be costly).
I’ll be able to sell the car for more, since it cost more to buy.
In modern day, there’s no reason to buy a manual, except to get the absolute cheapest price on the car or because you want to be able to circumvent the car’s choice of gear changes, so you can drive a little bit more zippy. Those aren’t the key criteria for most people.
I never know what to do with my left foot when I drive an automatic. I keep stomping on the floor of the car.
I think it’s fun to drive a stick, but I have had automatics for years now. Partly, it’s because I remember a rotation I did in orthopedics. For patients with leg issues, their main question was “When can I drive?” The answer depended upon which leg was casted and whether or not they had a stick.
I bought a 59 Chev Apache from the son of a deceased owner. First stop was at a Jiffy Lube where I asked for an oil change and antifreeze flush. I didn’t have a garage, and I didn’t want to change fluids out in the street.
I drove into the place, over the pit, and got out.
I settled into the waiting room for a coffee and popcorn.
20 minutes later, the 20 year old manager had to ask me how to start it. I showed him the push button on the floor and demonstrated its use.
Ten minutes later, I had to drive it off the pit. None of the staff were stick shift concious.
I had a 61 Falcon Ranchero. I was the one who did all the work on it, so I never had mechanics get confused about it, but when I let friends drive it, they’d try to put the key in the column, and I’d have to show them where it went in the dashboard. If it was cold, and the car hadn’t been started in a while, I had to explain to them how the manual choke worked.
It ran when I bought it for $300, but it needed a lot of work. I had to replace a lot of the wiring, all the vacuum hoses, and I installed seatbelts, because there was a seatbelt law in the state.
I already know how to drive a manual, and did so for a few years, and I’d still gladly pay an extra 25% for an automatic. I didn’t mind a manual too much unless I was driving in city traffic or the hills in Duluth; but both of those I did a lot of. When it was time to pick out my own car rather than the one my father passed to me I jumped at the chance to let technology make driving easier and more comfortable for me.
Me too! I also keep reaching for the shifter!
I’m looking to replace my current car (a 14 year old stick shift econo-box) and I’m only looking at stick shifts. I’ve been driving stick since 1986, and I hate driving my husband’s car, an automatic.
In regard to “driving” an automatic, my husband, who has never had anything but manuals, since the used Chevette he got for his 16th birthday, “It’s not* driving*, it’s just steering.”
That’s not true. I drive a manual because I want to be engaged with my car, not just a passenger pushing the go and stop pedals. You have to listen, feel, and pay attention. I actually paid a slight premium for my car for the privilege.
It’s funny how all threads about car transmissions eventually become a series of posts by drivers of manuals where each tries to be more smug than the last.
“You start your car with a key? Hmph – the hand crank uses 12% less electricity!”
Can we please get over the idea that there’s some sort of moral or philosophical superiority to driving a manual transmission.
I drive a manual because i enjoy it, but it doesn’t make me a better person, or even a better driver, than someone who drives an automatic. It’s just something i like to do.
The idea that drivers of automatics are not driving, and that they are not engaged with the car, is just silly. Most of the “driving” and “engagement” we do behind the wheel involves paying attention to the road conditions, traffic signs, and what all the other bozos are doing with their cars, in order to be safe on the roads. That’s far more important than whether you drive a stick or not.
A few years ago I rented the freight truck from Home Depot. When I went to return it, I pulled up on the sidewalk in front of the store, and went to push the clutch in with my left foot. Except there was no clutch - my foot found the brake instead, and the truck SLAMMED to a stop, making the loose walls and tailgate around the truck’s bed rattle violently, drawing the ire of startled customers walking in/out of the store. :smack:
Here in the Dominican Republic where I live there two different types of drivers’ licenses, One for automatic transmission cars only and one for people who really know how to drive.
I want to preface this with: Sage Rat, I’m not against you, you just presented a few points I disagree with to back up your position. If you want to drive autos, have at it. Autos are awesome when they work as designed, and are ideal for drag racing, but they fail a bit more completely when they fail.
I hear that with a manual, they’re fun little cars. 
(Ok, I admit that was cheap.)
This is true with most older cars, but a lot of newer manual transmission cars have hill assist, which holds the rear brakes until you get moving. My MINI had it, my WRX does, my wife’s last two TDIs haven’t had it. I’m not sure what motivates a mfr. to add it to their stability control system at this late date. It seems like after you’ve added ABS, it’s just software. I’m probably simplifying that process a lot, please forgive me if I am.
This may not apply to you, but I always drive my cars long after the free maintenance and warranty have run out. Manual transmissions normally have lower maintenance costs, often zero if you don’t damage the clutch (see below).
True, but autos don’t normally last as long as a manual transmission unless you make a big mistake. The clutch is normally considered a wearable part, but the only time I’ve had to replace one in one of my manual transmission cars, I was a teenager. I had been operating the truck so roughly, the firewall had cracked where the clutch cylinder was mounted, and the mechanic described the clutch’s wear as being caused by “drag strip operation”. He missed his calling as a detective. This was at 60K miles, and after I had been driving it for 20K of them. Who knows, the previous owner could have been worse than my idiot ass. Total bill: 600 1980’s dollars. Pricey, but not anywhere near the 1500-3k a rebuilt automatic would have cost.
Conversely, out of 11 manuals and 3 automatics I’ve owned, all of the autos had some sort of minor problem I fought with, fixed or lived with, and the truck was the only clutch I had to replace, despite teaching several people how to drive manual in my cars. My 91 Escort GT entered the family with one clutch, and left with the original clutch at more than 300K miles. Most of its miles were put on by a more skilled version of the same dildo that broke the firewall in the truck (I’m not nearly as much of a stand-in for a penis as I once was, I promise).
And in the interest of full disclosure, I did have one manual transmission break the output shaft at 127K miles. This totally destroyed the transmission, at the cost of about $2700 to replace. This isn’t a problem that would be exclusive to either style of transmission.
TL;DR: Long and short of it: Clutches usually last about as long as an entire hydraulic transmission will, and are much cheaper to replace if it becomes necessary.
Ok, you’re absolutely correct in 90 something percent of the cases, but I have a couple of anecdotes that prove I’m totally talking out of my ass in terms of statistics.
When I sold my family’s '68 Charger recently, the first thing people asked about after rust was “Is it a manual?”. It wasn’t, but I could have asked for much more if it was. When I was buying 60’s muscle cars, I would have paid more for a manual myself. Alas, it was the heyday of the auto in the U.S.
My friend has an automatic WRX. It is an unusual beast that the dealer was willing to take a loss on to get rid of. I mention it to other WRX owners in order to spook them, and it’s worked so far. In this case, I’m doubly talking out of my ass because even though noone else but me wants it, when he talks of selling it, I want to buy it. It’d be the ultimate bracket racer.
I disagree. Reliability is another issue. Most autos will leave you stranded when they fail, and modern computer-controlled manuals have even more fail states that leave you at the side of the road. My father made a 30 mile commute in rush hour driving a VW bug with a dead clutch pedal. (You start it in gear, in first, dragging the car along with the starter. When it starts, drive, then shift without a clutch. Yes, it’s totally possible to shift without a clutch. I’d teach you how - in your car :).)
Mmmm, three on the tree? My 65 Ford Pickup ran when I got it for $200, but it didn’t stop. Literally, no brakes. I learned how to bleed brakes that weekend.
As to the OP: Well, at least I live in the U.S. My cars will leave some of the car thieves stranded. I do not doubt that the situation would be different in the rest of the world.