If you made an electric conversion and used an induction motor it could still be stick! Induction motors have a narrow range of useful rmps so the transmission is still needed!
My issue with automatics is that there’s a lack of control. It’s trying to be smart about changing gears and yet never ends up doing what I want. It’s like the throttle is going over a bad internet connection.
Because there are no gears to switch I don’t have that issue in electric cars, it even feels better than a manual: Smooth torque curve and instant throttle response.
Always highest gear that the engine can take, always engine brake, drive extremely foresighted, anticipate where you’ll likely have to brake and just let your car roll in high gear. There’s more. Some say it slightly wears your engine more, because it has to do more work outside of its optimal RPM but that depends on how far you take this.
I’m one of the weirdos who wouldn’t mind this. I’ve been dailying my '97 Prelude for most of the summer since I bought it. I didn’t think I’d want to drive it in traffic, but honestly, it’s not the stop and go that ruins the experience for me. It’s the fact that if I get hit by just about any of the trucks on the road, I’m getting a faceful of bumper and best I can hope for is to retain the use of my arms. It’s basically a motorcycle that I can’t lowside.
But I totally get that I’m a fringe case. I completely understand why this would just be too much for someone to want to keep up with in stop and go traffic. Besides, all that starting is bad for clutches. Autos with torque converters handle it a million times better.
Most people aren’t car enthusiasts and enthusiasts need to come to terms with it. Manuals are dying. It’s just the way the world is moving. Let’s enjoy what we have now and appreciate we get to be a part of something we love.
Am I like the only one who just got used to traffic in a manual? It became a complete non-issue after a year. I guarantee we are going to go through this in a few years when one pedal driving in electric cars becomes much more commonplace
Manual transmission or not, yes, I would confidently say that moving or changing jobs is the best solution to address a 3 hour commute. Bonus point being that you will better be able to enjoy your manual transmission.
There are correlations sure, but I’m not aware of any studies proving a causal link between cars and traffic.
I could just as plausibly say that 95% of cars in traffic have automatic transmissions. And so, just speculating here, but if they all switched to manual transmissions, we may see a significant reduction in traffic.
Yeah something about induced demand and forcing people to mobilize by car because everything is spread out so much and not having dedicated bike paths or bus lanes or really any reliable public transportation that could reinvest in the community well-being…
It kinda makes everyone both have to drive and have to deal with traffic and poorly maintained infrastructure because the costs of maintenance are not equally shared between rich and poor communities, it really exacerbates the issues.
I’m all for you driving, provided, I can take a train/tram/bus or just walk, because that would be preferable.
It is very difficult to find manual transmission in a passenger car in the US now. I would like one but good luck finding what you want used. Even new, very few models have a manual option. And I think it costs more for a manual transmission now. It used to be cheaper.
Automatic transmissions existed before computers were controlling them. The 3 speed auto in my 68 Ford is entirely hydraulicly operated. No computer control. I can roll-start it no problem in second gear.
I know you’re being funny, but to answer the question I posited: every summer, after people came back from towing their caravans up through the mountains, my dad’s shop would be replacing loads of clutches with people complaining about the weird smells their car started making. Or the sudden trouble they had shifting.
Tell me you are a diesel driver without telling me. By the time you get an average gas car moving the light is red again if you don’t rev it to at least 1500
Ah, you mean that because diesel cars have more torque, you can do things like starting uphill with just the clutch.
I was wondering, because I certainly didn’t opt for a handbrake start for the fun of it. My car’s engine simply died, if I lifted the clutch too far without accelerating and ‘too far’ was far below getting enough torque to not roll downhill.
You let the clutch up until the rims start to drop a tiny bit, at this point you can let off the brake and move your foot to the gas. You shouldn’t move backwards as long as you are slow and feel for the engine to not stall
If you can’t hold the brake with your right foot and roll start with the clutch left foot without touching the gas, you need more practice.
exceptions given for fully loaded old as dirt pickup trucks that don’t like to idle properly, those you can heel toe… not that I’d know anything about that of course.,
I haven’t driven a whole lot of cars and none of them were old as dirt pickup trucks but I’ve seen enough where the idle gas was not enough to get the car rolling on an incline without stalling it. Sometimes you just need a good handbrake start
Well, it’s just a trick you need to get the feeling for. Start one foot on the break, and other on the clutch. Let clutch go halfway, without stalling the car, and quickly move your right foot from brake to gas. Press on gas pedal, while releasing clutch. If you do it right, the car starts driving forward, even on a upwards hill. It takes practice, and every car feels different.
A good indicator for learning this – especially if you don’t have the feel for your clutch yet – is to watch your RPM counter. If it starts to dip, the clutch is starting to engage. From there on, continue as described.
If you’re on a really steep incline, you’ll have to press both the brake and gas pedal at the same time using your right foot, while feathering the clutch with your left. I’ve heard this called the “heel toe” technique.
If your engine has enough torque or if the hill isn’t steep enough, you can ignore this and just ease off the clutch while transitioning from the brake to gas.
Those piss me off for reasons beyond manual supremacy - they’re bad UI design too. A knob is for controlling something (like volume) which varies continuously over a range. It is not for selecting from a short list of discrete options!
I had to bump start my first car for a period of time. It was a challenge to always find a hill to park on. Another cool trick was shifting gears without using the clutch by rev matching.
I had a fried starter and a girlfriend who didn’t know how to drive a manual, so I had to ask her to push while I sat inside. Not the manliest day of my life…
Drove two vehicles like that. One was a big ass dump truck that didn’t have reverse or 1st gear, and had to roll started. Popping a clutch in second was… A unique experience.
The other was a little dodge raider that didn’t have first gear and had to be roll started. I had to pop the clutch in reverse every day. Lol. I was so happy when we got the clutch repaired. I loved that car so much. A month later it jumped time and we had to sell it. :(
I understand the dump truck won’t do this, but couldn’t you get the dodge going in second or third? That’s a thing I had to do in snow/ice, otherwise you’d just be spinning.
My old man drove wrecks when I was growing up, being the 80s in the UK that meant manuals with electrical problems so I was familiar with both parking on hills and starting dead cars.
Came in handy when I had to bump start the family car just last week. Just finished packing for the return trip from our holiday home only to discover the battery was low and didn’t have enough to crank. Jump leads were buried under all our luggage even if I found a donor, but luckily there was a slight incline on the driveway.
Wifey got a bit flustered but the kids thought it was great fun.
Car won’t start? Push it down a hill, avoid running over my foot, and climb in before it pulls away from you.
This is how I got to nursery school on at least one occasion I can remember.
I love manual transmission, and miss it badly. It was awesome getting out of both mud and snow. Plus, I felt like I was actually driving the car, not guiding it.
Ahhh we had a different method - push it until you get to a decending road (don’t know the right term in english lol) put in 2nd gear and start rolling while trying to start like maniac - worked every time lol
You can ride in a taxi and you won’t be the driver even if the actual driver is patient enough to let you tell him explicitly when to start, stop, etc.
But that’s my point - commanding isn’t the same thing as driving. If you’re the passenger in a taxi, you can be commanding but you’re clearly not driving. If you have a car with an automatic transmission, you’re still driving in most ways (you steer, brake, etc.) but you’re no longer the driver of the transmission; you’re just the commander of it.
If you have a car with manual transmission then you have additional control over modes of the engine. But it’s not the essence of driving, because you can have control over mode of the engine of washing machine, for example.
Key component of driving is control over route and speed of a car. And you still have it with automatic transmission.
True, but controlling the transmission gave me an extra layer of sensation, a more direct involvement in the process. It’s a matter of degrees. Plus, there are levels of finesse one gains.
automatic vs manual transmission is an odd debate to have. Why argue only about the transmission? Why not have cars with manual ignition? If you dislike machines making your life easier, stop driving all together.
Why argue only about the transmission? Why not have cars with manual ignition?
Because on an enjoyment:effort scale a manual transmission ranks a lot higher than stuff like hand starting, manual ignition timing or manual chokes.
If you dislike machines making your life easier, stop driving all together.
Do you also tell photographers to quit photography if they use manual mode to control their camera, or woodworkers to only use powered tools instead of hand tools? Sometimes having that bit more of a connection to or control over what you're doing is just more engaging or more enjoyable - maybe you don't care about that when driving but there's a lot of people who do.
Because the manual transmission changes the entire experience of driving it, whereas a manual choke or ignition only changes starting it.
Some people (including myself) just find it more enjoyable to drive a manual. I feel more connected to the car, like its doing exactly what I want it to, and I feel like I've done something when I've driven home rev matching gears perfectly.
It's just about preference at the end of the day, but I do find manuals more fun.
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