Manual Transmission Cars

[Lord Monocle Von Banworthy]

admittedly i'm still only learning to drive...

And then you go on to voice strongly-held, minimally informed opinions. Do you see the problem with that?

 

[Treblaine]

So, who's got em? My friend got a new Pontiac Solstice and it's a manual. He drives me to school every day so naturally we talked about it and I started to take an interest in it. It looks like a lot of fun, and he's told me enough so that I know how to drive one, I just haven't actually done it lol. Both of my parents drove them when they were a lot younger, but they suggest not getting one here in New Jersey because of so much congestion.

So what do you guys think of them? Would you like one, do you have one, are they a waste of money, would you only buy it in certain places, etc.

God tier: Manual transmission

Seriously, I pity for Americans that Manual transmission is a novelty and rarity. There are so many advantages:
-Usually quicker 0-60mph
-Better fuel economy
-more control of vehicle
-Clutch starts ARE quicker and easier if you know what you're doing
-(Theoretically) Cheaper
-Cooler (man when you shift it into top gear)
-Favoured by professional rally racers, etc

 

[x EvilErmine x]

Manual transmission for the win. Manual + Rear Wheel Drive + LSD = Epic win.

...snip...

By the way, that's 'Limited Slip Differential', not 'LySergic acid Diethylamide'.
If you're driving while tripping, You're Doing Both Wrong.

LOL, glad you cleared that up dude for a moment i was thinking 'How is this fella still alive and not upside down in a tree somewhere?'

Also I'd like to add

Manual + Rear Wheel Drive + Diff welded shut = Epic Drift car

OT

Manual FTW, if you're driving automatic then even if you have a Bugatti Veyron then it's still basically an advanced go cart. p

Oh and have you seen how complicated a planetary gear box is!? (that's what an auto gear box is)...manual all the way, relatively simple and elegant any day baby )

 

[Private Custard]

When I was a university student my car was broken for a while and I had to sit in bumper to bumper traffic on a motorcycle for hours at a time in the summer squeezing a clutch while actually SITTING ON the engine. That experience informs a lot of my opinion of manuals.

What, what, you sat in traffic on a motorcycle??

Congratulations, you rendered a bikes handiest city trait totally worthless!

Spoiler: Not saying I'm like this guy, but filtering is brilliant!

 

[Lord Monocle Von Banworthy]

What, what, you sat in traffic on a motorcycle??

Congratulations, you rendered a bikes handiest city trait totally worthless!

I'm not like either of you in that I don't enjoy traffic citations or arrest. Splitting lanes isn't going to work out well for you in the long run where I'm from.

 

[x EvilErmine x]

No i'm sorr but the guy in that vid is being a dick, and it stuff like this that's the reason lots of drivers hate people on bikes. I dont mean to be a douch but there were like alot times that fella (or girl maybe) nearly caused a crash. What an arse hole.

 

[Chechosaurus]

I wouldn't drive anything else. I live in Britain and we have some of the most fantastic roads that, when driven in a manual, are just the best fun you can have. Dropping it in the 3rd to hit a corner and then flooring it up 6k revs.... I love it. You have more control in a manual car and you can regulate your fuel consumption more if you wish as well as being able to use effective engine breaking. Also, the feeling you get when you knock it down a gear or two to overtake some retard doing 45mph... It's just so satisfying.

I don't know much about American roads but from what I've heard, they're straight, wide and congested. On those grounds, I would probably recomend an automatic because you don't get any of the fun benifts of a manual on roads like that.

 

[Cazza]

Manual is the way to go. Automatic's feel to wierd to me. I always feel like im forgeting something in an automatic car. It's best to know how to drive any kind of car. Nothing would be worst then being in an akward situation because you can't drive a manual. Im currently looking at cars and some of the nice ones are automatic with no manual option and I get disappointed.

 

[Private Custard]

No i'm sorr but the guy in that vid is being a dick, and it stuff like this that's the reason lots of drivers hate people on bikes. I dont mean to be a douch but there were like alot times that fella (or girl maybe) nearly caused a crash. What an arse hole.

Most drivers hate bikes without having good reason. Fuck 'em, they can have a reason if they really want it! I'm not anywhere close to that insane though, but filtering is a brilliant thing when done right.

And back on topic, There's no way in hell I could ride a bike without a manual box. That'd be virtual suicide as gears are very important for balance and maintaining lean angles through corners. Autos are just too unpredictable, it'd be a bad thing for a bike to change gear on its own when mid-corner!

 

[Treblaine]

This is the car I drive:

It is a Citroen Berlingo. It is a real car that you control properly (it's a manual).

What do automatics do? Don't they go in the direction you want at the velocity you want? What additional control do you require?

Also, my wife who drove a manual for ten years adds that in a real emergency she'd want both hands on the wheel.

Huh? What kind of emergency would you need both hands on the wheel ALL the time?

You mean like an accident? I don't see how both hands on the wheel helps, you'd only take your hand off the wheel for a fraction of a second changing gears.

UK driving is OBSESSED about road safety and they have nothing bad to say about manual transmission. The cause of accidents is not physical inability to avoid accidents but mental inability to notice them. As in people fail to notice dangers till it's too late or it has already happened.

If there ever is a danger swerving is the WORST thing you can do.
1. at any dangerous speed you won't turn in time
2. now incread of a nice straight on impact to the crumple zone, now more likely a side impact with lateral deceleration (bad whiplash) and the other car's steel engine slamming through your aluminium door
3. most likely you will just roll the car and fuck yourself up in all sorts of ways.

If a danger is in front of you, just keep straight and BRAKE!

 

[Dana22]

I never driven car with automatic gearbox before.

 

[captain underpants]

That's not really a good analogy. Fact is, some jobs are just better done by hand. I prefer to liken driving a car well to playing a musical instrument well, and you'll never convince me that a machine can do that job better.

Except nobody's life ever depended on your ability to play an instrument with more feeling than a robot.

I'm not sure you quite understand the concept of an analogy. Except, wasn't it you that likened it to changing channel on the tv?

Yes, manual transmissions provide more control, and yes, they can be more fuel efficient, but the real reason they are superior, the sort of precision handling that a manual transmission can provide that an automatic simply can't hope to replicate?

• 99.9% of us will never actually need that, because we're not professional race car drivers.

Never said it was ever about 'need'. If you'd read my other post in this, you'd see I said there's pros and cons to both. At least my perspective is that of someone that has extensive experience with both. I'm also not sure why you're being so antagonistic about something so trivial.

Even proponents of manual transmissions will (and have in this thread at least several times so far) point out that they have definite downsides (hills, stop and go traffic), and those are not exactly uncommon obstacles for a great many drivers. The upside to those very real detractions? It's "more fun" and you'll "feel more in touch with the road". Well that's just great, but since when was operating a very heavy moving death machine supposed to be fun? Lives hang in the balance each and every time you get behind the wheel - why use the system that allows you to completely screw it up when there's one that does it correctly all the time, if slightly less efficiently?

Turn down the melodrama, junior. It's a personal preferance thing, little more. There's more to what makes a car 'fun' to drive than whether it's a manual or not. The relative difficulty of manual over automatic is really quite small if you bother to take time to learn it. Just because you found it too difficult, or gave up too easily, is irrelevant.

And whatever the car, I certainly advise against taking anyone with no driving experience directly into any sort of traffic. You should be on an empty road or car park for at least the first 2 or 3 lessons.

 

[blind_dead_mcjones]

And then you go on to voice strongly-held, minimally informed opinions. Do you see the problem with that?

if you assume that I did not observe the habits of other drivers in cars that i was a passenger in, as well as looked at servicing figures of various family members cars to compare notes, along with simple factfinding, then yes you could consider my opinion minimally informed and there would be a problem

 

[Lord Monocle Von Banworthy]

And then you go on to voice strongly-held, minimally informed opinions. Do you see the problem with that?

if you assume that I did not observe the habits of other drivers in cars that i was a passenger in, as well as looked at servicing figures of various family members cars to compare notes, along with simple factfinding, then yes you could consider my opinion minimally informed and there would be a problem

This is kind of like all the strip mall wing chun people I used to talk to who never fight, but they can totally watch UFC and point out all the openings those clowns leave in their guard. Man, if they ever entered, they'd really clean up.

Basically you're saying that anybody with enough frequent flyer miles might as well be a pilot.

 

[Lord Monocle Von Banworthy]

Huh? What kind of emergency would you need both hands on the wheel ALL the time?

You mean like an accident? I don't see how both hands on the wheel helps, you'd only take your hand off the wheel for a fraction of a second changing gears.

UK driving is OBSESSED about road safety and they have nothing bad to say about manual transmission. The cause of accidents is not physical inability to avoid accidents but mental inability to notice them. As in people fail to notice dangers till it's too late or it has already happened.

If there ever is a danger swerving is the WORST thing you can do.
1. at any dangerous speed you won't turn in time
2. now incread of a nice straight on impact to the crumple zone, now more likely a side impact with lateral deceleration (bad whiplash) and the other car's steel engine slamming through your aluminium door
3. most likely you will just roll the car and fuck yourself up in all sorts of ways.

If a danger is in front of you, just keep straight and BRAKE!

Bolded for wisdom.

I have successfully steered my way out of several potential accidents, and I definitely control my car better with two hands than one. In most of those cases I wasn't the one traveling at a dangerous speed in the first place. If all you need to do is keep straight and brake, how much better does your manual do that than someone else's automatic? Where does the sublime control start benefiting you?

 

[demoman_chaos]

I like manuals, but I hate hills.

 

[Treefingers]

Manual transmission ALL THE WAY.

Auto sucks.

 

[octafish]

I hate slushboxes. Yech. I only drive small cars, you'd be crazy to buy a small car with an auto.

 

[teh_spartan]

i drive a 2010 sautrn aura xe it has a manual mode that lets me shift gears on the stearing wheel its a nice feature and no wear near as complicated as a stick becuase it has an auto cluch