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No stoplights or traffic in my county that's full of mtns and Twisties.
For trucks, creeper slow while towing very heavy ( bulldozer, logs, hay), and using compression brake
Bump starting and hill holding on frequent occasions. Stuff automatics can't do.
I haven't had to "bump start" a car in, what, 30 years now. And that was a car that was old THEN and in not the greatest mechanical condition. Hill holding is easy with an automatic, as well.
I have a lot of fun in my 6 speed manual MINI Cooper roadster. But adding a manual to the typical commuter car does NOT make it more fun. It just doesn't. Twisty backroads are fun in a manual trans car. Suburban sprawl in traffic? Not so much. You can't have fun in the car and just wiggling a stick, and moving your left foot in and out is NOT "fun" when all you're doing is 35 mph on a straight street with stop signs and traffic lights.
And once you're on the interstate on a longer drive, you get it into top gear and aren't shifting anymore anyhow, so HOW it's shifted really makes no difference.
Also, adaptive cruise control works vastly better in an automatic equipped car than in a manual, especially if you want it to come all the way to a stop and accelerate again to make flowing with traffic easier.
I've looked at several articles that list every single 2024 manual available for sale in the U.S., and the list is somewhat depressing in how limited it is. I wanted a simple, small, European sports car, and I can't find anything other than premium cars with stickers at least $75K, and probably with clutches too heavy for everyday city traffic (my current manual is a wicked little lowered Abarth 500 -- they look way cooler lowered -- and that little pocket rocket only has around a ten pound clutch because the car is so tiny). So, perhaps I'll keep driving her, as well as my auto Mercedes, until I can get just a regular BMW 2 series or something else with a sticker under $50K and that doesn't have a clutch too heavy for city driving, if that will be possible in the next few years due to a greater desire for manuals due to younger generation's interest. Hmmm...
Subaru BRZ/Toyota GR86. They're obviously not European, but I don't know why that makes a difference.
I learned to drive on a manual transmission and drove cars with manual transmissions for 28 years. I still miss manual. A lot. I occasionally find myself attempting to downshift with my right hand as I am slowing down. In my automatic transmission car.
I've looked at several articles that list every single 2024 manual available for sale in the U.S., and the list is somewhat depressing in how limited it is. I wanted a simple, small, European sports car, and I can't find anything other than premium cars with stickers at least $75K, and probably with clutches too heavy for everyday city traffic (my current manual is a wicked little lowered Abarth 500 -- they look way cooler lowered -- and that little pocket rocket only has around a ten pound clutch because the car is so tiny). So, perhaps I'll keep driving her, as well as my auto Mercedes, until I can get just a regular BMW 2 series or something else with a sticker under $50K and that doesn't have a clutch too heavy for city driving, if that will be possible in the next few years due to a greater desire for manuals due to younger generation's interest. Hmmm...
Yes. And if you hold out long enough horses and buggies might come back.
Location: West Los Angeles and Rancho Palos Verdes
13,583 posts, read 15,652,632 times
Reputation: 14049
Quote:
Originally Posted by OutdoorLover
Agreed. If you have a nice, precise 5-speed (or 6) stick combined with a light clutch and a free-revving DOHC engine, it can be a lot of fun in light to moderate traffic in rural and suburban areas. But in heavy traffic, with lonnng periods of stop-and-go and creeping along, it makes an already bad situation far worse.
I've driven my modded Abarth 500 in plenty of stop and go traffic, and it's not bad at all, especially when I'm following a large vehicle and I coast along in first while tailgaters simply change lanes eventually.
Location: West Los Angeles and Rancho Palos Verdes
13,583 posts, read 15,652,632 times
Reputation: 14049
Quote:
Originally Posted by H8PJs
I haven't had to "bump start" a car in, what, 30 years now. And that was a car that was old THEN and in not the greatest mechanical condition. Hill holding is easy with an automatic, as well.
I have a lot of fun in my 6 speed manual MINI Cooper roadster. But adding a manual to the typical commuter car does NOT make it more fun. It just doesn't. Twisty backroads are fun in a manual trans car. Suburban sprawl in traffic? Not so much. You can't have fun in the car and just wiggling a stick, and moving your left foot in and out is NOT "fun" when all you're doing is 35 mph on a straight street with stop signs and traffic lights.
And once you're on the interstate on a longer drive, you get it into top gear and aren't shifting anymore anyhow, so HOW it's shifted really makes no difference.
Also, adaptive cruise control works vastly better in an automatic equipped car than in a manual, especially if you want it to come all the way to a stop and accelerate again to make flowing with traffic easier.
I guess it's just a matter of personality type. I love driving my itsy-bitsy lowered Abarth in the city, but I don't know if I would if I didn't have a light clutch, which is one of the reasons I got that car in the first place.
Agreed. If you have a nice, precise 5-speed (or 6) stick combined with a light clutch and a free-revving DOHC engine, it can be a lot of fun in light to moderate traffic in rural and suburban areas. But in heavy traffic, with lonnng periods of stop-and-go and creeping along, it makes an already bad situation far worse.
I got a built and tuned A8 auto in my modded C7 Vette. Odd that this trans never had the probs like almost all the A8's had in all GM cars- trucks. I had a new 2019 C7 i had to lemon law thanks to shudder at less than 450 miles.
Some never had a prob but many did. My 2015 C7 never any work done on it but normal service stuff so i guess i got a freaky well built C7 with no probs all these years.
With my Mopar Torqueflite, I shifted down to 2nd and even 1st many times. Also upshifted manually. *Never* a problem with the transmission doing that.
The GM Turbo-Hydramatic 400 did not allow manual selection of Low range at inappropriate speeds. However, the Turbo-Hydramatic 350 did not have this feature. This was not a common problem until they started building police Novas. The police would select Low range at inappropriate speeds and cause engine & transmission damage. GM started to produce police Novas that could not be shifted manually into Low range as a result.
Modern electronic transmissions have all kinds of fail-safe features, and modern engines have governors that prevent over-revving.
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