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I’ll only drive automatic. No desire to work harder at driving in the city.
What, you don’t want to shift gears endlessly while stuck moving between 10 mph and a dead stop on the freeway for three hours?
Hear me out for a second…
Maybe, just maybe, it’s spending 3 hours in stop and go traffic that’s the problem, not the transmission.
Agreed, but having lived it myself with a manual transmission, it’s rough with a manual. It’s one of the few scenarios where I don’t prefer it.
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.
I daily a manual. More people complain about manuals in freeway traffic than there are manual drivers left. Lol
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
I think cars may have something to do with traffic but not sure.
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.
Burn the witch!
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’s funny because this is the exact same argument anti-cyclists make. Lol
“Tell someone they should ride a bike and suddenly everyone has to move a fridge”
There’s a winning attitude…
Better hope you never have to drive outside of the USA
I got pulled over a couple of months ago and the cop told me to put it in park. I wiggled the stick back and forth to show it was in neutral and they thought I was fucking with them and kept saying to put it in park. Idiots
“Sorry sir. I was in airplane mode.”
smartest cop
I do, too, and drove one for many years. I’ll be the one to splash cold water on the conversation, though.
Driving a stick arguably requires the use of both hands and legs, which is great and partly the reason why so many enjoy it - that sense of engagement. It’s far less boring.
But here’s the deal. Injure any one of those appendages and driving a manual becomes a whole lot less fun. In some cases, you can get by, but it’s less than ideal. Having your arm closest to the shift in a sling, for example, makes your vehicle undrivable.
It won’t matter to most people… right up until the moment it does.
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Clutch with left foot
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stabilize steering wheel with right knee (if necessary)
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reach over with left hand and engage gear
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grab steering wheel with left hand
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drive normally
Me drinking coffee in the morning, a tutorial.
That’s how they all do it in Britain anyway.
Hey I do that too!! There’s a skill for moving from 1st to Reverse with the left hand while the right looks for the cup holder with the coffee in hand.
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I’m a manual aficionado, but my mother hasn’t driven a stick, despite teaching all her children how to, since I was born due to her arthritis. Apparently her knees don’t like having to clutch constantly. I’d rather have her mobile and active as she is now, than have her stuck at home reliant on my dad to give her rides.
As someone with a manual and bad knees, I feel for your mom. One day I’ll probably have to do the same, thankfully that day hasn’t come yet.
I was a manual purist, until I move to a large city and had to drive in it often.
I still miss my manual cars, but god damn it was a pain in the city.
Having your arm closest to the shift in a sling, for example, makes your vehicle undrivable.
I broke my right shoulder and spent two months driving my stick shift SC2 (in the US) entirely with my left hand. It’s doable, you just have to shift really quickly and get your hand back on the steering wheel. Not having the use of both feet would probably kill the deal.
This happened to me in highschool. I got a bad skiing injury, my leg wasn’t broken but I pulled my ACL, and they put my leg in a brace. My parents had to come pick me up at 10PM and drive my car home for me. Nobody was happy about the situation.
Handbrake start is for noobs. Learn to use your clutch.
Roll backwards into the person behind you to establish manual dominance.
Mine has a brief brake assist, about 1.5 seconds it won’t roll backwards on a hill start.
It’s so subtle and I’ve had the car so long, I completely forget about it.
Any time I drive a car without it freak out when I come off the brake and the car starts moving backwards.
Ever drive in Seattle?
No, but my family hails from the Ozarks.
Tips for a learner? My stompy parking brake won’t play nice right now, so I kind of need to figure this shit out in my new old truck. Lol.
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.
Awesome. Thanks. I’ve down Heel-Toe before in an automatic up a mountain road in the snow, so I’m familiar with that a little.
Heel-toe is used during downshifts to match rpms
Yep. I also used it a lot when starting on a hill on vehicles without handbrakes.
good point
All of these people responding that they prefer auto so they can eat or otherwise not pay attention in the car are the best (only?) argument for why everyone should drive manual.
Whatever your transmission preference is, if you’re not engaged in driving you shouldn’t be on the road!
I assure you, as someone who has been driving a manual for years now, I can definitely eat a burger and drive while my mind wanders heh
You don’t need to assure me of the blatantly obvious. My point wasn’t that you can’t eat and drive manual at the same time, it was that all these people claim automatic is a better transmission on the basis it facilitates their choice to drive distracted shouldn’t be on the road. I didn’t see a single person saying “oh I like driving manual better because it makes it easier for me to be an irresponsible road user”.
Jesus Christ, I’m just goofing around, what the fuck is up with people on this website being so goddamn serious all the time?
You came across as super patronizing so I responded the same. It’s not that big of a thing man, chill out.
But I even put the heh T_T me big American eat cheeseburger and drive car… How could it be patronizing?
I can drive my manual and eat at the same time just fine, thankyouverymuch :) I think I once submitted a pull request while on the road…
git driving: not even once
true. when did the chad drink driving get replaced with soy ‘distracted’ driving
You can eat and not pay attention with a manual transmission, I don’t know why we’d pretend you can’t. If you’re just on the highway cruising both are just going to be in one gear all the time.
Either way, the problem is that people have to drive even if they don’t want to engage. The popularity of automatic transmissions proves that (to most Americans at least) cars are an appliance and something people do because they have to. Fuck cars.
You can eat and not pay attention with a manual transmission, I don’t know why we’d pretend you can’t. If you’re just on the highway cruising both are just going to be in one gear all the time.
I never claimed you couldn’t eat and drive a manual. I said that people who claim autos are better because they make it easier to choose to drive distracted (alternative phrasing - who choose to drive like a reckless asshole) shouldn’t be on the road.
Either way, the problem is that people have to drive even if they don’t want to engage. The popularity of automatic transmissions proves that (to most Americans at least) cars are an appliance and something people do because they have to. Fuck cars.
Well, yeah, that’s always been the case. There are some enthusiasts sure, but for the most part a car is seen as a more convenient bus. But people riding the bus seldom choose to behave dangerously while commuting, there’s something about the mentality of these people (choosing to drive distracted) that is at odds with normal, acceptable behavior
It’s better to be skilled at distractive driving than being unskilled.
I went from a inline 6 BMW diesel manual engine I drive for 10 years to my current Mazda 6 2.5L with automatic. Its easier and more luxurious to drive the automatic, but when I going for drive enjoyment I still have the habit of grabbing the shift lever when downshift is needed, and I often miss the feel and control of the manual when I edging it on curvy roads, even when my automatic has shift paddles, its just not the same.
But in a traffic jam in a city, for sure I will any day take an automatic over manual…
Every car I’ve owned has been manual and I hate my latest decision since 99% of my driving is stop and go. Honestly I’d prefer no cars at all.
I prefer my manual even in stop-and-go traffic. Gives me something to do other than hate the people in front of me.
Hell, in a car, is other drivers.
There’s a game that is called “Hell is others” I got it for free, but haven’t installed it. It seems to be some sort of survival horror game where you attempt to avoid everyone else and escape the city
Nah, dude/dudette, I’m done churning butter. If you have to change gear every two seconds because the bellend infront of you couldn’t navigate a straight road it just gets annoying.
Also handbrake start at a hill is for amateurs who don’t know their transmission (⌐■_■) yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah
Also driving in Seattle or San Francisco
I rented an electric car over the summer and the acceleration damn near pushed my eyeballs back in my head. No gear shifting at all, just continuous acceleration. An electric grocery getter will blow the doors off nearly everything you can throw at it from the previous 50 years. Will not be looking back fondly on my manual transmissions.
Speed has not been the reason to get a manual for a long time.
That’s fair.
My main point was that electric vehicles are redefining the driving experience. Automatic transmissions are now also obsolete, along with internal combustion engines, period. Driving a single electric vehicle for a day: life changing. They are the future.
I miss my MME, but if you are saying ICEs are obsolete then you haven’t explored much of the country. There are huge swatches where it is impossible to charge or far more expensive to change than using gas in a hybrid.
Are you posting from 2015? Range anxiety is also obsolete. Most people charge their EVs at home over night. Way cheaper than gas. There are new charging stations popping up every day as well. I will grant that they are a ripoff, but I expect they will get cheaper.
Might be that the only ev I’ve driven for long was an i3, but I was not impressed by the acceleration
I just read up on that car and, yeah, it’s not known for high performance or range. I was driving a Polestar 2. Nearly double the HP of an i3.
*edit over double the HP.
Yep just got a slow e-2008 looks great and this is a slow one…
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.
Where’s my manual electric car?!
What do you mean electric motors have no transmissions?!
Electric motion makes an electric trial motorcycle with a clutch!
Best I can do 🤷
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
That’s basically what I described: down a hill. Although in my experience described above, it was not on a road.
So I didn’t catch that, sorry I guess it’s universal lol
You tell your car explicitly where to go, when to start, when to stop, when to accelerate and when to slow down.
Sounds like actual driving to me.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.
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.
Wrong analogy. You command your car, not taxi driver.
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.I’d go so far as to say you aren’t the commander of the transmission. The programmer who designed the shifting algorithm controls it.
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.
The the car I drive for work has a volume knob and I hate it with a passion.
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!
yep.
What is this transmission you speak of? I drive an electric vehicle
Removed by mod
I grew up in manual-land and was in the US for a little title road trip from Denver to LA a while ago. Rented a cheap car, got a Kia Rio. When I started crossing the Rockies, the car would never really know what to do with the automatic transmission and keep shifting back and forth on the long inclines.
My luck was, it was a semi-auto if you wanted to. You could nudge the selector to the left and have a bit of a sequential shifter thing, just without a clutch pedal. I thought that was a neat compromise and gotta say I enjoyed my 10 days in that car.
