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I’m a car enthusiast and a fan of manual transmission.
But driving in traffic is such a PITA. And in some places like San Francisco it’s nearly impossible to drive manual without changing a clutch every semester, probably.
While I find manual much more engaging and own one, automatic has its undeniable advantages.
All it took for me was a single drive home during Thanksgiving traffic; a trip that normally takes 10min took an hour, I swore off manual transmissions that day.
Driving was a major part of my job when I lived in Boston and I drove manual. Honestly it isn’t very fun being in traffic, but I wouldn’t say it’s much worse than driving an automatic. It becomes old hat. It probably depends a bit more on how stiff the clutch is and other mechanical variables, but I would agree with another commenter here that it does make people better drivers. I would also say manuals aren’t for everybody and that’s ok, but I also think they should be the norm rather than the complacently comforting automatics that make everyone feel like they are in a golf cart rather than a large metal missile.
With today’s technology, you turn on assisted cruise control and only worry about keeping the car in your lane, while it automatically accelerates/brakes through the traffic.
There is a significant difference in effort of driving manual vs automatic.
Yeah but that’s cutting edge technology. Lane assist and automatic acceleration/braking is a tiny percentage of cars, plus it comes only on fairly high end or well optioned vehicles. Sure if I could afford a 70k robot vehicle that would be easier, but that’s not really what we were talking about or comparing.
https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=which+cars+have+dynamic+radar+cruise+control
Since 2019 models like Honda Accord, Toyota Camry/Prius/Corolla, Subaru Legacy, and many others have had this tech; very far from 70k robots
Once again, that’s not the comparison. The comparison is between generally used transmissions, not manuals vs a small percentage of automatic transmissions that have the expensive add on computer/lidar controlled engine and braking systems.
If only there would be viable alternatives for the mass transit of people. It would free up the road for those who like to or absolutely have to drive.
So often forgotten as an argument. Driving would be great if those who don’t want to are not forced to.
When you’re working construction, jumping site to site and at random hours of the day each day, mass transit flys out the window.
And that is before taking into consideration the unique tools you carry with you.
When people talk about mass transit they never have your scenario in mind. It’s a bullshit argument against doing anything.
You think construction companies enjoy having their men and tools stuck in traffic surrounded by about 50% of cars that shouldn’t and wouldn’t be there if people had valid choices?
It’s an and-and story. No-one in their right mind, except for rabid edgy internet communists wants to ban cars altogether.
Driving sucks ass no matter how empty the roads are.
It’s funny how different people’s experiences can be. I grew up in a big city and didn’t learn to drive until my mid 20’s when I was living somewhere a lot less crowded. Then driving allowed me to experience a feeling of physical power and freedom which I had never felt before. (I think other people might get such a feeling from running or otherwise physically exerting themselves, but I never did.) Now I’m back in a big city and so I can’t actually drive to most places (there would be nowhere to park) but I still own a car - not having a car would feel like having my metaphorical wings clipped.
How?
And what’s with this keyless ignition bullshit? How am I supposed to leave my car running with the doors locked when the damn FOB needs to be inside the car?
I just want to get to work.
This is the way!
Automatic is objectively better. But I still meme about manual being better lol
I thought that was the anti millennial theft device
It’s funny manual is the standard here so there’s no ego boost to driving one, people always tell me it’s because we have more corners which has never made any sense (I e. You need to go into second or third at roundabout which I think older autos would have a little lag with or something, certainly not a problem in cars from this century)
I would love an automatic, i think it would make my driving safer in several ways, for a start not having to focus on gears at key moments like navigating road changes and corners or pulling away in a busy carpark. When I drove in the US it was so nice not having to constantly be doing stuff in traffic that I wasn’t anywhere near as tired which again is a big safety issue
I grew up in the UK, learning on stick, moved to us drive an automatic.
i live in a city, I work in an office, I don’t have any hobbies that require something I can’t lift with two hands (except my piano, but I hardly take that around with me).
I can’t for the life of me think of a reason why I would need a stick. its so pleasant to be able to drink coffee or water while driving, have an arm out the window, or even just being at rest driving.
I dont get the appeal.
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Out of curiosity, how far do you drive on an average day, and what’s considered a long drive for you?
I’m wondering if the popularity of automatics in the US is affected by longer commutes on average, which makes manual driving more exhausting. My personal feeling is, on a 5 hour drive to my parent’s house, I really want to be able to relax and listen to some podcasts without getting too weary to drive, but I’m not sure if it really makes a difference.
I think you’re onto something. U.S citizen here and I actually love driving stick but where I live it’s a few hour drive to anywhere which makes driving a manual seem like more of a hassle, whereas those long trips in an automatic feel leisurely and I’m more well rested when I arrive.
Couple that with manuals more commonly found in larger trucks around here. I work on vehicles, see many and can’t remember the last small car or truck that was manual. It’s all semi’s, dump trucks, dualies, you know? Big trucks which adds another barrier to people.
I feel like if there were smaller manuals in my area then perception would change. As it is they’re reserved for work, big work at that.
It’s sad to lose manuals in society but I’m seeing them less and less, everything seems to be going electric now, even companies known for diesel manuals.
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Spent all my life driving manual cars and I am completely comfortable and at ease with their pending demise due to hybrids and full BEVs. I wouldn’t be surprised if some EVs get phony gears and broom broom noises for people who can’t cope with just having to set a direction and push a pedal to make things happen.
I used to enjoy manual but now I just kind of hate driving in general so I am happier with auto where I can eat chips or something while driving to make the traffic feel less hellish. Looking forward to self driving cars so I can just take a nap while getting from A to B.
its just as easy to booze cruise in a manual
Wow. #1 ‘get off my lawn’ post of the day. There is nothing wrong with auto… It’s the drivers.
Just get with the times, dumbass
Come at me bro - I TEACH people to ONLY drive automatic cars. Muahaha! I get paid more to do it than manual instructors AND I don’t have to worry about learners constantly making bad gear changes, bunny hopping and stalling my car all the time!
im under the impression that your average learner would bunny hop once before learning not to.
This only proves your coordination an timing are bad. … don’t teach while drunk!
bunny hopping
Hol’ up, you mean to tell me we could have hoppin’ cars all this time? And you’ve been helping hold us back? Forget bumper cars, I want the hoppin’ cars!
For me the only reason to drive manual was becase automats used to be less effective. With current generation, the computer with its 12 gears is much more ecological then my macho hand lovingly stroking my cars stick can ever be…
My biggest thing is that they make people pay more attention. I dont think better drivers drive stick, i think the stick makes YOU a better driver.
Less eating, drinking, phone holding, texting etc. You have to know speeds and rpms for which gears. It keeps me from speeding knowing this street is a 4th gear street. When i end up driving a auto car, i will often loook down and wonder how i got to the speed i am at, though that may also be due to the fact its not my car and im just not used to the sensation of speed.
On another note, i think on average manual trans are less prone to failure. I know alot of cars that have essentially been junked due to an auto trans problem, but a manual just needs a new clutch every one and a while. Though this might be less common on newer cars compared to 90’s and early 2000’s cars.
i think the stick makes YOU a better driver.
It doesn’t make me a better driver, it’s a continual distraction. I recently switched from a manual to an automatic car and I now have far more available headspace to pay attention to the world around me.
You just never properly learned it then.
Oh so if you are a professional juggler it would be completely valid if you keep juggling all the time while driving? Dont think the police will see ‘you just dont know how to juggle as well as I do’ as an excuse if they stop you.
Also what about eating, drinking, talking on the phone while driving? Obviously those are only distractions if you havent properly learned to eat or talk, right? Shifting is a distraction, period. It gets less distracting the more you are used to it but it is never zero. There is absolutely no reason to shift manually nowadays (except for racing obviously).
What an incredibly stupid take, none of these things have anything to do with the behavior of your car. You sound like somebody that can’t accept their own shortcomings and instead wants the world to change according to them. Or you’re mentally challenged. Either way, there’s no point in talking to you.
And with the rise of EVs auto transmission failures will be a thing of the past. Except for the few sports EVs that for some reason have a multiple gears.
Do you not know how gears work? For some reason? Do you really not understand why they have more gears?
We do
EVs have a single reduction gear and no transmission or gear change. Most are rated for around a million miles and only require a gear oil change every few years or so.
Electric motors have so much torque even at low revs that a gearbox is unnecessary for most people. If you can get enough torque for a fast start in 5th, there’s no reason for the gearbox, you might as well save the extra complexity and keep the car permanently in 5th.
Combustion cars have gearboxes because they only work well at a narrow range of revs. Bicycles have more gears than cars because humans have an even narrower range of revs where they work best at.
EVs still have peak operational variables, things like heat. Having 2 gears solves the heat problems. Quicker acceleration and better efficiency. Just because it’s expensive right now doesn’t mean you won’t continue to see them on high end vehicle and start to trickle into the mid range stuff.
Why is a electric motor overheating dangerous? Surely any electric car is going to have a system to throttle itself if overheating is an issue, and it will need that with or without gears.
The fastest accelerating electric cars are single speed, presumably because it’s not worth changing gear when you only have 2 seconds.
I can see why it might be useful in specific product categories, but when it’s not helpful for price or performance or reliability, that’s going to continue to be niche. The real problem electric cars need to solve right now is cost and a gearbox isn’t helping with that.
Nobody buys a 600bhp car to have itself throttle its performance. Well nobody with half a brain which says a lot about Tesla sales.
As far as acceleration is concerned most drivers who care about performance don’t really care about 0-60 these days. It’s about 70-120 and how they perform at the upper end. Single gear EVe suck at anything above those speeds. Only the high end models are fast enough to hide it.
Also acceleration isn’t power limited. It’s traction. It’s not gear shift or power that keeps everything with normal sized tires at about 2.5.
A second or third gear in sport cars will be a thing. There are plenty of valid use cases once you make it past, “this is a boring commute appliance”.
For speed control I wish every car had easy to use cruise control and speed limiting, I hate having to constantly worry I’ve crept above the limit and will get a ticket especially on long boring roads littered with speed cameras.
Imagine just being able to concentrate on what’s around you and where you’re going without needing to be endlessly worrying about engine revs, speed enforcement, and the potential cost of getting either wrong.
i think on average manual trans are less prone to failure.
As far as I’m aware this is still true. They’re also significantly cheaper to repair/replace if need be.
This is a very astute answer, I like it
I dont understand how constantly having to (partially ofc) focus on shifting could get you more focused on actually driving. If anything, it takes away your attention from the road.
Shifting is just part of driving. It means you have to pay attention to speed, Rpm, and braking points. It just makes driving more engaging, which reduces distraction. It doesnt make driving easier. If anything it makes it harder. But the benefit is that it reduces complacency.
When i am driving. I am driving. Im not doing makeup, eating, messing with the radio, texting etc. Part of that is driving stick. It keeps you engaged in driving. Thats not to say its impossible to be a distracted driver in a manual, just that its easier to get distracted in an auto.
It is definitely NOT part of driving as it is not required, obviously. Dont confuse ‘a method used for driving’ with driving itself. If in the past cars were made so that you are driving upside down, people like you would argue using the exact same words. ‘its part of it’, ‘its harder so you focus more’, etc. It makes zero sense to keep an outdated distraction for the fictional benefit of reducing other distractions. The missing stick doesnt make people eat or use their phones while driving, thats what bad drivers have been doing for decades. People that care about safety try to minimize distractions, which includes shifting without doubt. You are free to use the stick, it is not banned yet and is not as big of a distration as others (mainly because of hundreds of hours of practice), but you cannot argue that it is not a distraction at all.
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You said its a part of driving and makes people better drivers and it makes me angry ever time people make arguments like these. It makes no sense that adding artificial distractions to driving would give a benefit. Youre saying it can make other distractions hard enough not to be attempted but thats just because youre already partly distracted, youre even using the words ‘forced attention’. What is a distraction if not something that takes your attention? Thats like making people drive with an eyepatch so theyll look at their phones less. Maybe it would even work, I dont know, but that would make me even angrier at how stupid humans are.
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Its not an artificial distraction. It has real implications on how your car works. Just because you are not shifting, doesnt mean the car does not shift. The extra control allows a user more control of the vehicle. It does require more skill and practice, but has a higher performance ceiling. There is a reason race cars dont use automatic transmissions. The best race cars dont have a clutch, but the driver is still in control of every shift.
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Forced attention and distractions are different. Driving stick is more attention on the act of driving itself. Look at the research for self driving cars and expecting the drivers to pay attention. Its nearly impossible to pay attention to something that takes less interaction. Honestly, if you lack the hand eye coordination and multitasking ability to drive stick, i pray you never try to change a radio station or turn up or down the heater in your car.
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i very recently learned how to drive. Learned manual because it is still the majority of cars on the roads here… Looking forward to the majority of the vehicles being automatic! It makes a lot more sense
8+ auto with paddles. Perfect
Do you love cars stick? Are you a gay car?
I drive a manual because all through the 90s a manual was a lot more reliable and cheaper to fix than an automatic. I also hated the automatic gear selection. It was always in a gear I didn’t want. I recently had a rental car which was a Ford with a 10-speed automatic and yeah they have come a long way. I’ve only ever owned manuals but I think my next car will be an auto. I hear reliability is good now.
There aren’t any BEVs with this kind of manual transmissions. They just have 1 gear and are operated like automatics. And I am definitely not going back to DDD fuels (detonating dino diarrhea).
Taycan and likely the 718 both have 2 gears.
I don’t think you get to specify the gears in those, it’s fully automatic. Plus those cars cost $150k.
