I miss my manual shift car…I had two but discovered that I needed the hand for other things when I became a parent. Next car I get, now that the kids are older, will likely be stick.
I learned to drive on a stick, a pickup truck, in Brooklyn no less. I have mad skillz, but it can be a pain in traffic. Great for winter driving and that’s when I miss it the most.
Personally, I think those triptronic abominations are for people who want to drive a stick but can’t handle a clutch.
Haha. I agree. They are no where near as nice to drive as a quality manual with a good clutch.
No matter what you call it, it is still an automatic gear box, but one with greater options.
So what is your point again?
Well, I’ve never driven a manumatic, but the car magazines indicate that they do have some performance advantages. That said, those who write the car magazines generally prefer a manual transmission over a manumatic despite any disadvantages.
You might want to check out this link:
http://www.caranddriver.com/features/save-the-manuals-official-headquarters
I use 4x4 and drive on snow and ice EVERY DAY for 6 months out of the year. I’ve driven many manuals and have an auto now. The only thing that bugs me about the auto in snow is if it upshifts or down shifts when I might not want it to. But, if you are a decent driver, it’s not a big deal at all and the auto works just fine in snow.
I’m very surprised how this poll has turned out. I never, ever would have guessed that manuals would have outnumbered automatics.
With the exception of occasionally driving friends’ cars, I haven’t driven a stick for over eleven years. Maybe I’ll reconsider if I get a new car.
I’m surprised at the vehemence this thread has produced in some people! I never thought it was a big deal - I think every driver should know how to drive stick, because you never know if you might need to in an emergency or whatever, but for your everyday car? Whatever you prefer.
(Yes, sometimes I feel like a race car driver, but considering that once you get up to 40 or 50 you don’t touch the thing, that’d be a really slow race).
Hey, I said it was silly. But when I drove my sister’s or my mother’s cars (both automatic), there were often times when I wanted it to shift and it wouldn’t. Probably the car knows better than me, but I’m used to it.
Lately?!
Unfortunately, I think all the newer Vespas have CVTs with automatic clutch systems (at least in the US) so you’ll have to look for something retro. I’m not sure about Lambretta.
To the OP, I’d do a search on AutoTrader. I think you can specify transmission type and options like leather seats. That might give you some ideas.
You shouldn’t be, this is a perennial topic on the SDMB. And just like indoor/outdoor cats, or whether or not you wear shoes indoors or not, or whether PCs are better game platforms that consoles, it frequently degenerates into some level of an argument. Occasionally it is polite disagreement, often it is mildly insulting, once in awhile quite insulting, but in the end it is always the same thing - my preference rules and while you other people might be perfectly nice in other ways, your preference sucks! 
I voted in this thread when it was first posted, then wandered back today and just clicked on the last page to see if it was the usual mudfest and was not disappointed ;).
I am slightly surprised by manuals winning in the poll though. Like libertarians, manual users have always seemed a little over-represented on the SDMB relative to the American population at large. Then again we also have a fair number of international posters here and outside of the States, sticks are pretty dominant.
Doh! :smack: I had looked up the Ford webpage before posting, and I must have had Grabber Blue on the brain. I’ll see if a kindly mod will change it for me - don’t want an error like THAT being left for all to see!
Most of the advantages of a true manual aren’t in the shifter, they’re in the clutch pedal. The line is getting blurred a lot by dual-clutch style manumatics like VW’s DSG system, but the BMW system you’re talking about is still has a fluid coupling, and that’s why it will never be as good. Hell, my Kia Sedona minivan has a manumatic mode. It’s terrible.
I don’t know if you know how to drive a stick or not, but having a real mechanical connection between the engine and transmission, and being able to control that connection, adds a lot of nuance to the driving experience. Being able to select your gear and your shift points is mostly academic.
Anyway, count me among the manual evangelists. I’m 32, and I never would have learned how to drive a stick if my dad hadn’t bought a surprise Civic back in '96. Out of the blue, he shows up at the house with a manual, and at some point I had to teach myself how to drive it one day when I wanted to go to a Magic tournament and it was the only car in the driveway. That sparked a love affair with cars that I wouldn’t have otherwise. And being able to drive a manual set me apart from my peers. I became “that guy” because I had this archaic skill that none of my classmates could comprehend.
I think that’s the reason people in my generation are so in your face about it. My dad doesn’t drive a stick anymore, and doesn’t really want to, and it was never anything special for him because growing up in the 60s, everyone could do it. But for me and folks in my generation in the US who know how to operate a 3 pedal car, it’s something special. Hell, I got one of my first jobs as a lot porter at a car dealership just because I could drive a stick. Most of the applicants couldn’t. So yeah, there’s a chip on the ol’ shoulder there. Which is dumb considering it’s a skill pretty much anyone can pick up in a week, but there you go.
Interesting point. I learned to drive very young. 3 on the tree manual. It was just what you did, not a big deal. I’ve had both manuals and autos. Doesn’t really matter to me.
I honestly don’t think that they do. I think that participation in the poll is strongly self-selecting towards people who drive manuals.
I had to hunt around to find a dealer with a V6 stick, just so I could test-drive one (and this is in Chicago). The dealer I finally found had exactly one, but it was black. When I told them that I wanted the V6, with a stick, in candy red, with the “premium package”, they had to do a dealer search, and found exactly one in the entire Midwest.
Your Kona Blue was my second choice; it, too, is a great color, though what bumped it to 2nd in my book was the fact that my wife’s Mazda CX7 is a nearly identical color to it!
I had also wanted to look at yellow (my running partner has a '99 'Stang in a bright yellow, which looks great), but the only yellow they’re currently offering is “Blaze Yellow Metallic”, which is closer to gold. I finally got a look at the color on a Ford lot (they had a Focus in that color), and the word which came to mind was “butterscotch”. 
My sentiments exactly!
Isn’t that a tautology? “The results of the poll match the people who voted in it”.
Even accounting for that, I mean. Then again, I see from another thread today that only 3% of the population identifies with atheist; we would probably top 50% in a poll on that subject as well.
A self-selected poll is not random and therefore not scientific.
In a self-selected poll, for whatever reason, sometimes more people from one group respond out of proportion to their true representation in the population, thus skewing the results.
For example, in this poll it appears that those who drive manual transmissions are responding at a rate much higher than in the general population. Why this would be happening here is up to speculation–it would be difficult to say definitively why this is happening, but we are not lacking in interesting explanative theories.
Because the SDMB is full of smart people and smart people drive manuals? 
Pour more gas on it man! That’s the way to put out this smoldering inferno. 