I just feel uncomfortable with an automatic
I drive ‘heavy on the gearbox’
Well, really any length I guess…
I would - and this is purely a personal preference - rather use a clutch than a brake/accelerator combination.
Stop/start traffic is always going to be awful. It comes down to a situation at low speeds using the clutch (in a manual) or the brake (in an auto) as a kind of de facto inverse accelerator. The difference is that you’ll be hefting the right leg back and forth in the auto, and in the manual it’ll just be a slight twitch if the left foot.
So for me, I’d rather a manual regardless of the time spent in slow traffic.
There’s nothing to “master” with an automatic.
After the 3 or 4 speed manual in your car, there are 4 and 5 speed non-synchro manuals, where you must learn to feel or hear your shift speeds. Beyond those are 5 speed hi-low and 10,12,13,15 speed transmissions. Operate them all smoothly, and you have reached a point of knowledge and skill.
The last car I saw with a 4-speed was made in 1982… these days they’re all 5 or 6.
I drive an automatic, because thats the car my dad found for me when we needed a “kid’s car” - which I promtly took possession of for myself! I did originally learn to drive using manual transmission (well, I learned both at the same time) but it’s been so long now that I don’t think I could do it without a lot of practise.
Despite that, my next car will have a manual transmission! I remember how much I loved driving my dad’s car, and even now when I’m out there enjoying the road (as enjoyable as it can be in a 1996 automatic Toyota Tercel) I tend to put my hand on the gear stick and wish there was something I could do to make it even more fun.
Since manual transmissions are pretty much the default here - and as others have mentioned, if you pass your test in an automatic, you have to retake it to drive a manual - but automatics are a bit like mixer taps(faucets) - a level of convenience that many natives just consider unnecessary, if they even think about it at all.
Same here in Ireland, I sat my test in my [disabled] Da’s automatic (because I had to get my licence ASAP and my hand/foot coordination isn’t much cop) - I’d never go back to driving a manual.
That’s all that had to be said.
I never really loved a car until I got my first stick.
Even these days, a few cars are made with stick only. As I’ve said before, I’d love to have a Subaru Impreza WRX Sport Wagon. It costs another $1000 for the automatic. If I really had money to burn and could buy a WRX STi, the only choice is the stick, as they don’t make an automatic even available. And if you’re going to drop $35,000 on a car like that, where the whole idea is that it’s fun to drive, of course you’re going to want the stick. I’m sure lots of other sports cars are still sold manual-only.
Cheaper in general (cheaper to purchase the car, slightly better gas mileage) - the only car we’ve ever bought that has automatic transmission is our current minivan.
If you can drive manual, you can drive any car. If you can’t drive manual, you’re limiting your choices. Not a huge issue in the US (unless you want some performance car that only comes in manual - I’m guessing Ferraris etc. are usually manual) but if you travel to other countries where manual is standard…
Though I’m with the crowd that manual transmission is awful in stop-and-go traffic. Before we had the minivan, I drove a Saturn. In morning rush hour. In the DC metropolitan area. For 45 minutes.
Aside from the commuting hell, I’d definitely choose manual.
Top five reasons why I drive a manual:
5. It keeps other people from trying/asking to drive my car.
4. Guys dig chicks who know how to properly handle a stick.
3. Hi Opal!
2. It’s fun.
- It makes me cooler than everyone else.
I’ve only ever driven an automatic once (and it would have to be on one of the best roads in the world, the Pacific Coast Highway). There’s a lot to dislike about automatics.
First, and most important - they move on their own! Nobody told me this. First time I get in the car in a parking garage, it starts driving off towards the wall without me touching the accelerator. Sorry, but if I want the car to move, I’ll damn well press the loud pedal myself thankyouverymuch. I don’t want to have to sit with my foot on the brake just to keep from ploughing into solid objects.
Second, overtaking. This apparently requires you to give the transmission a couple of hours’ notice of your intentions, so that it stands some chance of shifting down a gear in time. Otherwise, you’ll pull out, floor the gas, wait for an age before an appropriate gear is selected, by which time a large oncoming truck will have hoved into view and you have to abort.
Third, aesthetics. Would you rather have your car driven by crisp interconnecting cogs, or by half an electric fan immersed in a vat of Jell-o? Exactly.
Actually, just the oposite. I’m driving the bottom of the Saturn barrel. The modern automatic is computer controlled so it’s all in how it’s programmed. Mine is obviously set up to work with the engine for fuel economy. It shifts super smooth and seems dedicated to maintaining high gear with the torque converter locked.
The Mazda line is billed as aggressive and zippy so your tranny is probably programed for zoom-zoom-zoom. They should include dual programming with a button for a choice of driving style. I certainly hated my 86 Honda Accord. It would slip out of lock-up mode whenever you took your foot off the gas (to coast). It was REALLY annoying when you touched the gas because it would then clunk into lock-up mode. Coasting is fine if the transmission works with the engine to mesh speeds.
I think the biggest advantage to a manual is the cost. It gets really expensive to overhaul an automatic. You use to be able to pull it yourself and get it overhauled for $100 and the removal/installation was $200-$300. That was before computers and lock-up converters and front-wheel drive.
Stick rocks. Except on hills. I was actually paralyzed by fear on a hill once. Luckily Mr. K was behind me in another vehicle. I got out of my truck right there and switched vehicles with him. I could. not. move.
I was terrified of hills when I first got my stick. One time, within the first week of owning it, I was coming out of a parking garage where the exit was up a fairly steep ramp and the ticket booth was approximately in the middle of it. When I stopped to pay the cashier, another car pulled up right behind me. I was simply too scared to take my foot off the brake and the clutch, so I had to have the cashier go ask the car behind me if they’d mind backing up (way up!) so I could roll back down the hill and get a running start at it. I felt like such a dork!
:smack:
I love my stick shift. It was ever so cheap, it’s fun to drive and gets great gas mileage. And I drive 20+ miles in stop and go traffic each way most days. It takes a little practice, but you learn to spend a lot of time in neutral. What I was most afraid of was driving in San Fransisco in traffic, but I went up and down those hills without any problems.
My best friend was annoyed when I bought a stick. She said they were always jerky. I told her that she had only ridden with people that didn’t know what they were doing, then. She gave me that look of 'I’m not having the disagreement, but I’m right." When she visited me in California, I picked her up from the airport. Within ten minutes, she proclaimed that I must be some sort of stick shift genius, as she couldn’t tell by feel that it wasn’t an automatic.
And I have never driven an automatic that could match downshifting on steep down hills to reduce speed. An automatic has 3 gears, maybe 3 plus an over drive, which is nominally 4. Mine’s a 5 speed. Shifting for 5 to 4 pulls the speed down considerably.
As for having to learn new stickshift, I don’t see that as a problem. My brother hopped in my car to drive it back from the dealer (I didn’t really know how to drive a stick at that point) and never stalled it once on the hour drive home. My father spent more time figuring out the lights than the tranny. The only thing that has ever caused anyone to have problems is the fact my car has no tac. They seem to be incredulous that I can drive without one. It really isn’t that hard, folks, you can feel the engine and what it wants.
For future reference, the parking brake is useful in this situation. You have one hand on the wheel, one hand on the parking brake lever (which you’ve set to on). The parking brake keeps the car from drifting back when you move your foot from the brake to the gas. You start revving the engine while the clutch is pressed, and you start to let out the clutch. Just as the clutch starts to catch, you release the parking brake with practically zero backdrift.
I figured this little technique out when I was routinely commuting up one road that had a traffic light at the top of a steep hill :eek:
Another downside of stick shift: cell phone usage. Yeah, I know, you shouldn’t use cell phones while driving, or at the least hands-free. But if you forget about that and attempt to answer the phone… lessee: one hand for the steering wheel, one for the shifter, one for the phone… unless you’re a mutant, this will not work :smack: You need a headset or other hands-free tool if you own a cell phone and a manual transmission car.
Replacing clutches and throwout bearings . I dont miss it. Driving in a hilly town ,nofun.
It is true that after you drive a stick for a while it becomes automatic. Ya ha ha ha ha
I went the other way, from stick to auto and do not wish to go back.
As everyone else has said, it’s more fun, and you have more control.
I learned to drive on a manual, and drove only manuals till we bought a new car when my son was born 10 years ago. That was my first automatic, and when we bought a new car a year ago, it was also an automatic. I felt really lazy at first - I kept reaching for the gearshift and my foot would automatically go for the clutch. It was a hard habit to break.
Whenever I’ve driven someone else’s car in the time since then, I get in and think, “Hey, a stick!” It all comes back in an instant. It’s fun to drive and shift.
Both of our cars are manuals. Both my wife and I prefer manuals for mileage, control and maintenence costs. There are far fewer things to go wrong with a manual transmission. And personally I don’t understand anyone who buy’s a 4x4 with the intent to use it off road or in rough weather (lets say winters in Madison WI) and doesn’t get a manual transmission.
The only time I had trouble driving a manual was one of the first times drove a Duce-and-half. I momentarily forgot that reverse on the old Duces and 5 Tons is where first normally is. :eek: Nothing like letting the clutch out and nearly bouncing your teeth off that big steering wheel. I’m certain this is a near universal experience. It only happens once though.