You need to know how long a car with an automatic transmission takes to shift? Why? Maybe I’ve been driving automatic cars wrong for the last thirty-something years, but I never really thought about that.
I mean, say you are stopped. You would not release the brake and instantaneously give it a lot of gas, right? Doesn’t it need a moment to engage? I guess it depends on the transmission.
As I noted earlier in this thread my 2020 Civic, with a traditional 6-speed manual, has both those features and they work great. The adaptive cruise control will take it from freeway speeds down to about ~24mph before it shuts off. This is because, of course, if the car is in 5th or 6th gear going any slower than that risks a stall.
It supposedly has an emergency braking system that will slam on the brakes if an imminent crash is detected. Obviously I have not put this to the test and have no real desire to.
Interestingly enough when I was car shopping in 2019 I had narrowed my choices down to the Civic Sport sedan (one of the lower trim levels) and the Kia Soul LX, both of which were available in a manual transmission. Both 2020 models. Now for 2023 neither is available in a manual option. The Civic has a couple of high-end hatchback trims available with a manual, but not the prole-trim I purchased. The Soul is only available in a CVT across the entire line.
Going to have to say unlikely. There’s a certain thrill in kicking it into gear (so to speak) and hitting the accelerator, but it’s a novelty I’m not willing to pay for. That, and I live in a mountainous area and having a stick would just be silly.
And also, FSM willing, my next ride will be an electric car.
No.
Unless the car is in neutral, the transmission is always engaged. That’s why auto’s will tend to creep forward if your foot is off the brake. Releasing the brake and stepping on the gas results in the car moving almost instantly.
Most EVs have some variation of that. It’s not hard to get used to, and takes advantage of skills you’ve already learned elsewhere. For instance, if you’ve ever coasted to a stop when driving uphill, you pretty much already have the idea. And general low-speed driving is very similar to the engine braking effect you get in a manual in second or third gear. It’s very pleasant and comfortable after a short learning period.
And this is probably obvious, but the cars still have a normal brake pedal. It’s just that you can get away with not touching it unless you need to brake hard for some reason.
I have wanted to buy a new car with a stick for a couple of years. All I want is a compact or subcompact hatchback. I’ve tried to find Mirages, Sparks, Corollas, and Velosters. I don’t want anything German since they still use timing belts on interference engines and they cost too much as well. Cruise control would be nice, but not necessarily a deal breaker if it’s not there. The problem is that there are none on any dealers’ lots within 200 miles or more of me.
Used? All the ones I’ve found on the new car dealers’ lots are priced above the original MSRP!
A friend from church has a son getting ready to go to college, in Europe. He needed to learn how to drive a stick so I offered to take him out in the old Porsche and teach him. I did, and he did great. He’s athletic so he picked it up quickly and caught on well.
My first car, a Dodge Colt, was a stick because it was given to me by my father who was an extreme cheapskate and actually liked sticks. I didn’t hate it, but after that when I bought cars for myself I’ve had over 20 years of driving automatics. I don’t see the point in buying a manual transmission any more than I see the point in driving a car with acetylene headlights and a crank starter out front.
I have a '74 Camaro z28 that I’ve owned for 38 years, with a 4sp trans. Love it. But it’s my “fun” car to take grandchildren for rides on a nice day. However, I’d never in a million years have a manual trans car as a daily driver.
Fromt he UK:
It has never occured to me to buy an automatic. Everyone learns to drive with a manul car.
We don’t call these our cars ‘stickshift’ or ‘manual’, we just call them cars.
It is true that automatic cars are gaining, but nearly everyone learns in an ordinary car, so it is no bother to 99% of drivers.
That’s fine - except that in recent years, automatics have been getting better mileage on average than manual transmission vehicles. So on the basis of fuel conservation, that UK tradition is likely threatened.
I drive a stick myself and enjoy it. I have a feeling it’ll be my last one, though.
Grew up with a stick shift but my last few cars have been autos and I’m just used to it. With the sports auto trans I can drive the car like a manual, but it just isn’t the same as using a clutch and feeling the car change gears.
The SSV Redline has a 6.2L V8, I don’t need to downshift to pass some peanut on a bush highway, just a bit of toe into it and she goes from 80 to 150kmh in an eye blink, all I have to do is steer.
So much more fun than my first car, 1974 HQ Kingswood, 173 straight six, with a 3 on the tree, absolute flat knacker at 150kmh and took 3 km to build up to that.
I very well might buy a stick shift this year. I can get a deal on a new Subaru WRX and it’s tempting since my current fun car has been something of a disappointment.
That happens because you are applying too much force to the brake pedal. It’s not a function of the automatic transmission. It might be the result of you being acclimated to manual transmission cars that also lack power brakes, and thus habitually using a lot of pedal force to stop the car. Almost any automatic car built in the last 30 years or so will have power brakes and require much less force to stop.
The automatic doesn’t grind to a halt. In fact, the automatic will go indefinitely far because the idle speed of the engine driving the automatic transmission will keep the car creeping along for possibly miles until it reaches an uphill slope. What will happen in an automatic when you release the gas pedal is that it will begin to slow at a predictable rate based mostly on the speed you care currently traveling. The deceleration is a function largely of engine braking, that is, the drag that spinning the engine applies to the wheels, which slows the car. The exact same thing happens when you lift off the gas in a manual. The biggest difference is that in the manual, you might let off the gas while either stepping on the clutch or shifting into neutral, which decouples the engine from the drive wheels and eliminates engine braking. This reduces the rate of deceleration in a manual versus an automatic, which you seem to perceive as the automatic “grinding to a halt.” If you want to simulate the coasting behavior of a manual in an automatic, you could shift it into neutral while coasting but there is no need to bother. It’s easier to just modulate the accelerator a bit to get the exact rate of deceleration you want – automatically.
Yes, I love driving my stickshift. It is unfortunate that most economy models have stopped offering them. It’s really just a feature in sports cars these days – and not even all sports cars. New Corvettes don’t offer it. Porsches stopped offering them in the 911 for a couple years, but then after public outcry they brought them back and they’re extremely popular now. Like 70% of new 911’s sold are manuals.
Sadly, probably not…
Generally, Porsche sees about 25% manual take-rates on its 718 and 911 models… While those two models total just 6919 of 32,529 Porsches, including automatic-only SUVs and sedans in the first half, that comes to roughly 1730 stick-shifts, or 5.3% of the whole line.
I think the stat I heard was specific to GT3 models, now that I think of it
That I can totally believe! As well as hope for…
it tends to skew toward 50% on higher-powered models such as the 718 GT4 and Spyder, or 911 GT3
Our new car (a 2020 CRV) has a “brake lock” (I may be misremembering the name) function. If I push that button, then when I’m stopped, the car will NOT move forward unless I give it gas.
I remembered this question and the answer is yes. I just made my deposit on a 2023 Subaru WRX. Technically, I’ll be buying it in March but I think it counts for purposes of the OP. It will almost certainly be the last new manual transmission car I buy. I think it will be one of roughly 0.5% of new cars sold next year with a manual transmission.