I made the mistake of buying an automatic once and i still regret it to this day because I’m still stuck with it.
Manuals only for me since then
I don’t give a shit that autos are faster, i don’t give a shit if they’re more efficient. Manuals are simply more satisfying and enjoyable—and that’s what driving is about.
Driving is about butt-chuggig 50 years of american propaganda to the point you can’t even differentiate you own opinion from a Facebook minions meme.
But yeah have fun filling yours and the rest of our bloodstreams with micro plastics cause vroom is more important
Is that what driving is about? For me driving is about that I don’t live in the supermarket and I need the shit they have in there.
Different people enjoy cars different ways. For many it’s just a tool to get from point A to point B. These are the majority, and tend to be a crowd who is now trending towards EVs and Self Driving Vehicles.
For others, driving is about the experience of how the car meets the road and is much less about the destination. I just planned a 10 hour drive with a group of my car friends with no destination, we’re just doing it to get out on some fun roads with our cars. These type of people love our manual transmissions, ICE cars and the experience of driving and see the car as less of a tool and more of a hobby and something to bring groups together.
Exactly. That’s why I didn’t define what driving is in general, but for me. And according to statistics, most people. Petrolheads and hobbyists are not a big enough market segment to make decisions on, apparently even for Ferrari and Lamborghini.
I am also 100% on the EV hype, 3.5 years and counting. Super uncomplicated, silent and zoomy.
keeping the Saudi wealth faucet working.
ha ha ha. When you go back to 1980, take some new jokes, K? :-P We have electric cars now.
I wish it were easier to find a manual here. Most people in the States couldn’t drive them if their lives depended on it, so if they’re manufactured at all it’s in very small quantities.
I am so annoyed at Honda for discontinuing the Accord Sport 6 speed. I have one from about 10 years back and it is without question the best balance between efficiency, space, utility and fun. It is my “mom car” that can get the kids to school (now they even drive themselves, college daughter drops off high school kid on her way to school) and drives like a dream. I thought the Sport thing was just trim but apparently not, it handles better than my husband’s Mazda.
It’s not like I need a new one right now, or maybe even for ten more years. But God I miss being able to get manual shift at a discount instead of a premium. Honestly this is probably my last gas car and maybe last car, but dammit I am just sad.
I’ve been driving used BMW Z3s for the last 15+ years. These days they’re way cheaper than even the crappiest normal used cars because nobody can drive a stick any more and nobody wants to have a two-seater as their daily driver. They cost less than a new bicycle (although that’s because modern bicycles have absolutely insane price tags attached to them).
Yeah, but any used BMW is ridiculously expensive to repair. I had a '95 540i for a few years, and while it was fantastic to drive, even very small things cost tons to fix. Like, the windshield wiper motor transmission failed, and the repair was nearly $500 for just the part, and that was from a junkyard.
Exactly, is just straight up for fun. I’d argue they’re safer too. You pay way more attention in a stick shift, looking ahead timing shifts with traffic flow, leaving space and coasting to red lights, and the extra speed control on steep windy mountain roads is amazing especially in the winter.
Was lucky to get a 2021 Crosstrek in a manual, which I guess Subaru doesn’t do in Canada anymore, so it’ll likely be the last ICE car I have. If I’m joining the zombie horde of alternating mashing gas or brake depending what’s happening 10m in front of me I better at least get some torque out of it.
I bought a automatic bmw for the first time and was like: wow this is great. Being in traffic is way more relaxing and so on. I thought to myself: wow my last car was the last manual car i ever owned. Now i went back to manual and i couldn’t be happier. A lot of people tell me that aktually automatic is so much faster and you can’t shift as fast and so on. Yeah. I know. But i’m not racing anyone. I just drive on the weekends with a car that i lke.
I mean, the reality is that manual/standard transmissions are just fuel and effort inefficient at this point. There was a window where automatics were inefficient enough to make learning stick worth it but that is LONG gone. And CVTs, in apples for apples comparisons, kind of are the best of both worlds.
Still pretty shocked since I don’t think anyone buys a ferrari or a lambo because they want a reasonable high quality car and nothing screams “I am compensating” like wrapping your hands around that shaft while you drive but… if the goal is performance?
The main reasons you wanted a manual back in the day was price - because automatic transmissions were expensive - and fuel economy - because they were less efficient. (To a lesser extent reliability, because automatics were newer and they hadn’t worked out the kinks yet.)
However, the price of automatics fell, and the dual-clutch gearboxes with 7-10 gears are even more efficient because they keep the car in the most efficient rev range. Same goes for CVTs. And the dual-clutches shift faster than you ever could, so they’re better for sports cars, which is why F1 switched to them a long time ago.
So it makes sense that manuals are falling out of favor because they’re objectively worse in all respects compared to the transmissions available today. However, subjectively they’re a lot more fun which is why I have a manual transmission car I plan on keeping on the road well into the 2050s.
Fun and more control. I too am in the I bought a manual club. Twice my truck and my wife’s car are both manual transmissions with a clutch (third pedal).
I guess some of the new dual clutch transmissions are considered manual 🤔
I love manuals but while they do give more control than a basic automatic transmission, I don’t think I could argue that they give more control than an automatic with paddle shifters.
Ferrari does it because they openly disdain their own customers. You will get performance the Ferrari way and you will like it. You’re lucky we even allow you to buy it. We put in the finest dual clutch transmission available because that’s the highest performance.
Lamborghini does it because they’re Audi’s with sharp edges. Audi is a company that advertises that its top trim can fit a set of golf clubs in back. They don’t want to bother their golf customers with a third pedal.
We put in the finest dual clutch transmission available because that’s the highest performance.
Half of them have had hip replacements, and half of them were on the left side, so they can’t work the clutch.
Their target demographic doesn’t care about manuals. Their buyers either are most likely buying a status symbol and the ones who are actually looking to drive them are looking to emulate the F1 / IMSA experience where absolutely none of those cars are manuals
I just find manuals more fun and engaging to drive. Even an 80hp shitbox is better with a manual.
Fair enough. I usually take ten or twenty minutes of “So… let me just crank the radio up so you can’t hear me mangling your transmission” in a parking lot/empty roads to “remember” how to drive stick, but it is a much more active style of driving.
But that has nothing to do with safety. And, arguably, is considerably worse for it since it is less time focused on the road and, more importantly, the sides of the road. It is basically the opposite of the “autopilot” versions of Adaptive Cruise Control where it increases distractions and leads to less attentive drivers for whatever insanity other people are going to do.
If I were buying a super fast fun car to use at the track or whatever? Well, I would want paddle shifters because the real vroom vrooms have those. But a stick shift and a clutch are a close second.
But for something that I am going to drive in rush hour traffic or do a 10 hour drive to my favorite climbing spot every couple weeks?
I think traffic is the cause of a lot of the loss of interest in manuals. Live somewhere to get good salary and a good car, that place usually has bad traffic.
CVTs, in apples for apples comparisons, kind of are the best of both worlds.
In theory they have advantages, but in practice they’re probably the worst kind of transmission you could get right now unless you’re driving a low-horsepower econo-car. (Even then I don’t think I’d want one; I’d rather pay a little more for gas than risk an expensive early transmission failure.)
Subaru WRX with the Performance Transmission
I haven’t tried them myself (I’m not a big WRX fan in general) but I hear a lot of complaining about them and not a lot of praise.
Because nobody wants them. Or rather not enough people want them. Hell, kids these days don’t even want to get their drivers licenses. For them Uber is good enough.
Plenty of brands stopped offering manual variants of plenty of models. IIRC BMW practically begged people to stop asking for manual variants, saying it just does not make any sense to mess with the supply chain and the production line and the car itself just to put an objectively inferior transmission inside it.
On the contrary, it makes no sense to put automatic transmissions into sports cars.
On public roads, you’re not gonna be able to drive them as fast as they can go anyway.
An automatic transmission may offer better performance, but you have 5x as much of that as you can use already.
What a manual transmission offers is the feeling of being in full control.
It’s simply more fun and engaging to drive.
But apparently, cars aren’t made to offer the best experience possible anymore.
Auto transmissions are now cheaper and anyone can drive them, so the potential market is bigger. And that’s what matters, even up to the Lamborghini price bracket.
They quit offering sticks because they use dual clutch transmissions, which do the job better.
What job, though?
When I’m driving a fun car, I want to actually drive it, not hold the steering wheel and push paddle-shaped buttons that ask a computer to shift for me (if it feels like it).
What a manual transmission offers is the feeling of being in full control.
Being able to maintain a gear selection and being able to directly control the clutch are huge advantages in specific conditions like extreme weather or some off road terrain. A surprise shift during a curve in icy conditions makes me nervous every time for example.
If an automatic system allowed for direct control of gears and the ability to disengage and reingage the clutch on demand it would cover those scenarios.
EVs don’t do any shifting and usually have a low center of gravity, even better for suspect road conditions!
The company car I get to use has an automatic transmission that drives me mad.
Its shift points are always right above the speeds I usually drive at.
It shifts into third at 40 km/h which is too fast for a speed limit of 30.
It shifts into fourth at 60 which is too fast for a speed limit of 50.
And it shifts into fifth at 80 which is too fast for a speed limit of 70.
So you’re constantly driving with too high rpm’s, burning more fuel and making more noise than you’d have to.
It has a “manual mode” where you can shift by moving the stick up or down. But it doesn’t actually do anything. If you shift at a different point than the automatic would, you just get a “shift denied” message on the dash, even though the rpm’s wouldn’t even get close to being too low.
And when you push the gas pedal just a bit more than half, it shifts down and the engine roars, but it doesn’t actually achieve much cause the car doesn’t have much power.
Internal combustion engines are most fuel-efficient at low rpm’s (<1500) and full throttle, and that’s impossible to do with this transmission. So it only gets 34mpg (7l/100km), and it’s a Diesel hatchback. My old manual car also had a 34mpg rating, but the way I drive I could get 47 (5l/100km), and it had a gasoline engine.
The systems used in these cars are dual clutch - they always offer (or only have) a manual shift mode, which will hold the gear you’re in until you say when, and only down/upshift if you bang the rev limiter or try to go below minimum RPM.
What is “best experience” though? It’s such a subjective thing. For you it might be pushing a lever back and forth. For every one person like you, I bet there are hundreds who’d rather leave that menial task to the car. Manual transmission can quickly stop being “fun and engaging” and become a chore, especially if you drive through traffic regularly.
I, or rather my left leg, personally do not consider manual transmission as a good experience at all. I also think paying much less for fuel is also a very good experience for my wallet. Though of course I don’t drive a Lamborghini or even a nice M4, so there’s that.
The M series cars still have manual as an option, although IIRC the automatic versions have better performance. They’re a bit outside of my price range, so I’m trying to keep my old manual 328i running as long as I can.
What Ferrari and Lamborghini does doesn’t concern me but I’ll keep buying cars with manual transmission for as long I can get one. I wouldn’t buy a new car anyway so that alone gives me atleast 10 extra years. I still refuse to buy smartphones without a headphone jack either. Why? Mostly because of a principle.
I still refuse to buy smartphones without a headphone jack either.
I’m running out of options and I may have to consider a jackless phone next. What are the options?
If you truly must use your wired headphones with your cell phone? They make some really nice small form factor USB C to audio jack adapters. Hell, saw a few that were cable+adapter+AudiophileApprovedDAC for what that is worth.
Those jacks can’t turn and aren’t strong enough for work. I’m going to turn around quickly, snag a cable and - well, those ports are so dense that I don’t need to really do a lot of damage, do I?
While I’d normally completely approve of the blatant rip-off that is buying a c$20 adapter to make up for the manufacturer omitting a 3c part on the build, their answer “oh we know the startac was a thing but we just cant figure out how to fit a headphone jack on something twice the size” rings a little hollow. It’s like they’re admitting to stupid.
I went with Samsung XCover 6 Pro. Not only has it a headphone jack but a removable battery as well.
But the performance is terrible for the price. The only jack phone I would reccomend is poco f5.
More fun to drive. Id still have a stick shift if we hadn’t decided to switch to EVs.
