Manual transmissions are definitely on the decline. Reason: automatics have gotten much better, and it’s hard to drive a stick while talking on a cell phone. AFAIK, it’s still possible to get an automatic transmission restriction on your licence in many areas; usually, it’s for people with certain disabilities. Otherwise, even if you take your driving test on an automatic, you can still drive a stick.
The “modern automatics are better than the average human” argument pops up here frequently, and people tend to have strong views on it. Run a search on the transmission threads, and you will likely get pages of results.
My understanding of this issues is that the latest technology can out-perform an average human being. So in that sense, it is true. But you’re only finding those auto boxes in top end cars at the moment. I’d wager that your average suburban econobox runabout is still going to give better performance and fuel economy in the manual version - although yes, autos are closing the gap fast. I’m not sure though - without some wonderful new advances we haven’t discovered yet - that an auto box will ever be able to anticipate in the way a human can (downshifting for a corner, etc). Automatics still give me that lightly unpleasant “houseboat” 1970s Detroit feel when I corner sharply in one - until it works out what it is I’m doing, and there’s always a delay.
Just a thought and it goes to the regional differences. I live in the Washington DC area. Driving in the city traffic and the bumper to bumper highway gridlock in my old stick shift took its toll on my clutch leg.
When it came time to buy a new car I was dead set on an automatic. My knee just could not take the constant riding of the clutch anymore. I bet this is not such an issue for someone living in an area without so much traffic. If there are any left in the US.
The other thing is I’m not sure if the testing of the two is entirely fair. Put me in the driver’s seat of a new model Whatever with an auto and then in the same model with a manual, and never having driven that one before, and not knowing the clutch and ratios, I’d almost certainly turn in better results in the automatic. But put me behind the wheel of my own car, then give me an automatic version, and my manual results will be much, much better.
Sure, I can drive pretty much any manual the first time and not do something silly like stall it, but it takes a few days (or longer) to really get to know the car to the point where I can tweak every last little bit of power out of it.
The choke button? Are you serious? I learned to drive in 1976, and I’ve never seen a car with a choke button.
Australian cars had choke buttons well into the 1980s. I’ve driven an '81 Ford Cortina with one, and '81 Ford Falcon with one, an '83 Mazda 626 with one, and a couple of others I forget. I remember at the time, there was consumer distrust of automatic chokes - and frankly, the earlier ones weren’t very good.
raises hand
Drove one for 5 years. And I’m 22.
Cuz it’s easier. I prefer a manual, though.
~Tasha
CurtC, bear in mind that the apocryphal story was set in the 1960s, when every British car had a choke.
That said, British cars did have them right up until the 80s, as did Australian ones, as confirmed by TLD. I learned to drive in the late 80s in a 1976 Ford Cortina Mark III and that had a choke; so did the 1981 Peugeot 504 and the 1980 Mini Clubman (both of which I crashed into stationery objects). The first auto-choke car I had was a 1982 Citroen BX, which was a lovely car, but then I reverted to a shitty 1978 Morris Marina and that had a choke too.
Whats the point lazy Americans drive automatics because they are shiftless.
I drove a 4 speed for years. After a while it becomes automatic.
Choke button? In the 90’s sometime, we went down to Curacao and rented some sorta Suzuki (Samurai?) Jeep-like vehicle that had a choke knob. Couldn’t believe it, thought that went out with starter buttons on the floorboards. FWIW, the Suzuki wasn’t a well-maintained relic, it was relatively new AFAIK.
And how long has it been since this became an option? If automatic-only licenses were nonexistent or uncommon until recently, that would explain the prevalence of manual transmission cars in the UK.
Iswydt
Yeah, you’re right. It’s really a knob that you hook to fingers behind and yank it out to activate, and push back in to deactivate.
Although it doesn’t happen very often, if for some reason the battery dies, I like being able to “push start” my truck rather than have to sit there and wait for help.
The handbag-on-the-choke story is definitely a UL, going back to 1948 at least. I remember reading it in Reader’s Digest in the 60s. As Snopes points out, it’s invariably used to reinforce the prejudice that women are not technically minded enough to drive properly.
I much prefer a manual for that exact reason-gives me more control, pure & simple.
Definitely in the minority-darn few folks know what they are, much less how to operate them.
I’ve only ever seen choke buttons in old Bugs Bunny cartoons. They’re right up there with gas rationing stickers and War Bonds in the pantheon of Things From Another Age.
Around here, manual transmissions are mainly seen in pickup trucks and high-end sports cars. For this reason, there’s a certain macho appeal to being able to drive stick. Even still, the pickup truck market is increasingly going automatic.
As for accidents, people who can’t drive stick (like me) just don’t drive them. Probably the majority of the population can’t drive stick, and for people in my generation or younger it’s a vast majority. The number of people who actually own a manual-transmission vehicle is probably in the single digits.
One of the best cars I’ve ever owned, at least from the standpoint of durability (you couldn’t kill that sucker with a bazooka) was a 1965 Rambler Ambassador with “three on the tree” and overdrive.
It also had a manual choke which I installed after repeated attempts to fix the automatic choke heater failed. And a car with an inoperative choke wasn’t practical in a Montana winter.