Well, you’re wrong. 
It’s not the handsfree or handheld that’s the problem; it’s the phone call you’re trying to take or make while driving. It’s a lovely example of the uselessness of lawmakers at work who are making these laws to prevent people from using handheld phones and completely ignoring the overwhelming body of evidence that handsfree isn’t any better. You can do one thing competently at a time - it can be talking on the phone, or it can be driving - you can’t do both well at the same time.
Otherwise know (to the owners of British cars) as the “FU” (as in f*cked up) carb. I remember those days-in freezing weather, the oil in the damper cylincers would turn to jelly-then you drove around emitting black smoke (till the oil warmed up). Actually , they were pretty simple and reliable in operation-but not when the mercury hits minus 10F!
We’d seldom see 10F here.
I did mention up thread that I have been Assimilated. I do think they make people look they are just starting to turn cyborg, and worse, if the person is neatly and conservatively attired, they tend to look like obedient corporate weenies. (I know! Many of us have to be obedient corporate weenies, and I have spent most of my working life being one, but we don’t have to look like one, do we?)
With that said, now that I’ve got one, I don’t know how I managed without it. Gone are the days when I had to get out my headphones and mic and fire up Yahoo in order to make a call and still be able to use my keyboard or write down notes. It’s a great convenience at home as well as out. With regard to driving, as I said, I don’t think most routine calls are overly distracting. If my wife calls and asks me to pick something up at the market, what’s the harm in that? If I call a business to see what time they close or if they stock an item, I don’t think that’s too dangerous. Since cars were invented, drivers have conversed with their passengers and it hasn’t been a problem.
I guess you’d outlaw calculators too because only real mathematicians use an abacus; you can feel the numbers. 
My first two cars were auto, then I got a 6MT on my S2000, and I was sold
A weird feeling that most of us never notice.
Doesn’t a car move forward in first gear? If you don’t want it to move, you put it in park or neutral.
And for the majority of us, it isn’t. So stop bothering us with your toy train hobby.
Comments like these just reinforce the notion that manual enthusiasts are a species of dictator-wannabes:
On the other hand, Joe Toyota may not be skilled enough at manual shifting to capture the potential fuel economy advantage.
Are your tires screeching as you do this? It may be that this sensation is unique to your particular driving and cornering style. :eek: 
I’ll bet TheLoadedDog’s passengers do. 
I don’t have any great problem with autos, I’ve driven them a few times and owned one for a short while.
The things I find unsettling about them or vaguely annoying is the sensation that someone else has their foot lightly on the accelerator when I’m braking and the fact that it doesn’t change gears when I’m expecting or wanting it to.
I think the first has something to do with it remaining in a higher gear when I’m slowing down. In a manual I’d down shift to 3rd while I’m braking, this means the engine and brakes are working together to slow the car down. An automatic though will stay in a higher gear and so there is less engine braking and I feel like I’m having to use more foot brake which leads to the sensation that I’m working against the car, not with it. The remedy, you may say, is to manually shift to a lower gear, but if I need to use the manual shift feature of an auto, I may as well be driving a manual (and pay less for the car in the first place.)
The second problem touches a little on what The Loaded Dog is talking about. When used as a full auto the car will change gears at what it thinks is the appropriate time, this can lead to unsettling or unexpected changes during cornering or when the load changes such as driving up hill. Using the manual shift has the same problem to me in that I may as well be driving a manual car but also even the manual shift doesn’t give you the feeling of direct control that a true manual/clutch system does. You tell the car what gear you want and then the car does it, there’s a very slight pause before the gear change which contributes to the general disconnected feeling I get from driving an automatic.
I don’t know how valid this advice is, but I have heard Tom and Ray Magliozzi of “Car Talk” say on at least 250 occasions that the brakes only and not downshifting should be used to slow a car.
Do you know what reason they give for that?
I’m not familiar with that show, but my reasoning is that using the transmission to slow the vehicle saves wear and tear on the brakes by causing more wear and tear on the transmission. Brake shoes and drums or brake pads and discs are way cheaper to repair and replace than transmissions. On the other hand, downshifting into the turn and stuff is fun, so we still do it sometimes. Heh.
For all the talk about wearing clutches, brake pads, and transmissions, I’ve never owned a car that’s had problems with a transmission or clutch. I’ve had a brand new car which is now 7, I’ve had a 10 year old car, a 20 year old car, and even a 50 year old car. Obviously these problems do happen, but it seems such a rare occurence to me that I’m not going to let the relative cost of brakes, transmissions and clutches change my driving style.
As I said upthread I only drive manual transmission cars. Like anything else, I suppose, driving an automatic is something I’d get used to if I drove them more often. However, of the times I’ve driven them I definitely didn’t like it. I don’t know if I can explain it adequately to someone who’s never driven a manual, but an automatic feels looser to me, like I don’t have as much control over the vehicle, and it is a little disconcerting. For example, I can attest to the feeling (and satisfaction) of being able to downshift into a turn for a little boost of power and control at the same time. In an automatic I don’t feel quite as anchored to the road in a turn and have a tendency to slow way the heck down before I do, annoying drivers behind me.
As far as gas mileage is concerned, those of us who’ve been driving manual transmission cars all our lives know when we’ve hit the sweet spot, when it’s just the right speed to shift up or down. We just feel it. Actually it’s a combination of hearing and feeling. Shifting up and down at the right time definitely maximizes fuel economy. What I know about cars can fit into a thimble, but it seems to me because an automatic transmission relies on a computer to determine when to shift that the accuracy of the up/down shift would diminish over time, negatively impacting fuel economy, whereas with a manual transmission, the more the driver becomes familiar with the vehicle the better s/he becomes at knowing exactly when to shift, thereby increasing fuel economy. This is just speculation of course.
Someone earlier opined that it seemed like too much work to constantly shift up and down with a manual, especially in stop and go traffic. At least one person responded that experienced drivers don’t even think about shifting as they’re doing it. This is exactly my experience. It’s just another aspect of driving. Let me try to explain it. You know how when you’re in the passenger seat and the driver begins braking a little too late for comfort? What’s your first reaction without thinking about it? That’s right, your foot instinctively reaches for a brake (albeit non-existent). It’s exactly the same for drivers of manual transmission cars. We don’t think about depressing the clutch pedel while simultaneously releasing the gas pedal and pushing the shift lever up or down. We don’t (at least I don’t) think about what gear we’re in, or which we have to shift up/down to. We just do it. The feel, vibration, and sound of the engine give us the appropriate signals and we more-or-less instinctively perform the correct coordination of actions to get the car to do what we need, without thinking about it at all.
It is becoming more difficult to find non performance cars with manual transmissions, and I think that’s a shame.
Yeah, I don’t know if it really wears transmissions out that much faster, I was just saying that’s the theory. I’ve had to replace clutches and rebuild both manual and automatic transmissions in cars I’ve owned, although some clutch replacements were done just because the transmission was already out for repair. Maybe I’m just too rough on stuff.
The main reason I recall is something along the lines that the brakes are designed to slow the car and the transmission is not. Using the transmission to do so results in undesirable wear in the wrong parts of the car. I think there are more reasons, but I’m no expert on cars, so I couldn’t get into any more detail.
If you wanted to challenge their views on this, I believe they would be willing to engage you on the question. They seem to be very open to that kind of thing.
You’ve never owned a VW Bug with a six volt system have you?
Blll
I’m not talking about the thingee that you wear on your ear. I’m talking about a car equipped with Bluetooth technology. When you get into your car with your cell phone on it automatically pairs. If a call comes in, your audio dies down, you hit a switch on the steering wheel and start talking. No fumbling and no headsets so you don’t look like a pretentious jerk. Information about the call comes up on the GPS screen. The call goes through a built in microphone and the audio speakers. You can keep both hands on the wheel so that you can fully utilize your paddle shifters while you talk. It’s an amazing convenience and isn’t new except you should be living in the 21st Century.
But shouldn’t we all long for the days when we were tuning our AM radio with one hand while trying to roll down the window with the other at the same time we were clutching, braking and downshifting. THAT was driving!
Yes, I did. And I owned a VW Dasher. To this day I can’t look at a Volkswagen without feeling nauseated. German technology? What a bunch of crap.
That is correct. The generally accepted “rule” is that you use your brakes to slow down and your gears to speed up. In other words, you break into the curve to slow down, and you downshift so you have the maximum acceleration when you lay on the throttle out of the curve. I’ve met many car enthusiasts and performance drivers in my line of work (I used to freelance for Car and Driver), and not a single one has ever advocated using engine braking to slow down in the type of normal driving described before. Of course, the exception to this rule is downgrades where you use the gears to control your speed and keep from overheating the brakes.