Are manual cars still a thing? Is there even a future for the old gear stick?

[rustypup]

It's a security feature....

Now why does subby want the stick shift to vanish, I wonder?

 

[SoldierMan]

I like to drive my car and not be driven, manual all the way.

 

[SlinkyMike]

I was looking at a 2020 C class shortly before COVID, they do not make a manual C class anymore.

 

[Dairyfarmer]

Ford claim identical fuel consumption in both, you may have had a lemon last time around.

Claimed and actual are two different things. Remember that they are testing under specific conditions so that results can be repeatable within certain margins of error.

I have noticed that my wife and I both use a more relaxed driving style with the automatic.

 

[Willie Trombone]

Claimed and actual are two different things. Remember that they are testing under specific conditions so that results can be repeatable within certain margins of error.

I have noticed that my wife and I both use a more relaxed driving style with the automatic.

Aah so it was the driver then
Though I will concede that 10 gears are better than 4-6 so it makes sense that higher end modern autos would be more fuel efficient

 

[Dairyfarmer]

Aah so it was the driver then
Though I will concede that 10 gears are better than 4-6 so it makes sense that higher end modern autos would be more fuel efficient

You would be surprised how much difference those extra gears make.

 

[Claymore]

Diesel has torque all the time, and the ZF 8-Speed is really good at what it does

It's all about the torque. I used to have a Jag with a flat torque curve from 1500 to 5000rpm. The 3-speed auto gearbox was more than capable of delivering power all the way from a crawl up to the car's top end, apart from a gentle flat spot between 2nd and 3rd around 80-90kph.

 

[SlinkyMike]

It's all about the torque. I used to have a Jag with a flat torque curve from 1500 to 5000rpm. The 3-speed auto gearbox was more than capable of delivering power all the way from a crawl up to the car's top end, apart from a gentle flat spot between 2nd and 3rd around 80-90kph.

Same with motorcycles incidentally. Acceleration is more fun than top speed. Getting fast is more fun than going fast.

 

[SykomantiS]

Same with motorcycles incidentally. Acceleration is more fun than top speed. Getting fast is more fun than going fast.

Which is why a 1000cc sport bike is better for the road than a 600cc, despite what most people think (my opinion anyway). Nowadays both of those will do twice the national speed limit or faster, but it's how you get there. The torque also means you can plonk along in a higher gear without labouring the engine. Speaking of bikes, someone mentioned sequential (manual) gearboxes, I've often thought I would like a sequential manual on a sport(y) car. However, I think such a setup would be less than ideal on a daily driver. Today is one of those days where I like manual gearboxes.

 

[Brieuse]

It's all about the torque. I used to have a Jag with a flat torque curve from 1500 to 5000rpm. The 3-speed auto gearbox was more than capable of delivering power all the way from a crawl up to the car's top end, apart from a gentle flat spot between 2nd and 3rd around 80-90kph.

bad handling though, tended to drift off the road...

 

[Geoff.D]

Claimed and actual are two different things. Remember that they are testing under specific conditions so that results can be repeatable within certain margins of error.

I have noticed that my wife and I both use a more relaxed driving style with the automatic.

Boredom is the right word. When driving becomes relaxed, boredom set in, which leads to complacency and lack of concentration on the task at hand.
A very dangerous thing on our roads, given the general conditions and behaviour of our fellow road users.

 

[Brieuse]

Boredom is the right word. When driving becomes relaxed, boredom set in, which leads to complacency and lack of concentration on the task at hand.
A very dangerous thing on our roads, given the general conditions and behaviour of our fellow road users.

There's more than enough to do still without changing gears, like eating that garage pie.

 

[LCBXX]

I'm actually embarrassed that I was such a advocate for manuals when I was younger. I cannot imagine driving anything other than an auto these days.

I blame VAG though: they made made auto's fashionable with DSG, just as they made diesel fashionable with TDI.

 

[Willie Trombone]

Boredom is the right word. When driving becomes relaxed, boredom set in, which leads to complacency and lack of concentration on the task at hand.
A very dangerous thing on our roads, given the general conditions and behaviour of our fellow road users.

A friend wrote his car off on a long drive using cruise control and now swears by his Subaru that he replaced it with. He reckons you have to drive it rather than it driving itself. Not that it doesn't have cruise control. But it's more dynamic and you get more feedback on the road.

 

[Sepeng]

I'm actually embarrassed that I was such a advocate for manuals when I was younger. I cannot imagine driving anything other than an auto these days.

I blame VAG though: they made made auto's fashionable with DSG, just as they made diesel fashionable with TDI.

I used to be as well, when I had a manual. I'm sure there's a fancy term for what it's called but pretty sure it was to do with trying to convince myself what I had was better than what other folk had, rather than convince other folk.
Or it was simple jealousy.

Anywho, most (not all, but most) folk that get an automatic swear they're never going back to manual, that's gotta tell you something.

I'm not that bad - I don't find driving a manual in traffic that much of a chore and would happily commute in one but ja, current and next car will most likely be automatic.

 

[Geoff.D]

A friend wrote his car off on a long drive using cruise control and now swears by his Subaru that he replaced it with. He reckons you have to drive it rather than it driving itself. Not that it doesn't have cruise control. But it's more dynamic and you get more feedback on the road.

Agree. My 4x4 on cruise control is the same. Still plenty of dynamism and feedback from road conditions even on cruise control.

 

[Craig_]

Yup autos turn competent drivers into mindless automatons.

I don't see how this can be true. My wife has a manual 3 cylinder, and I have an auto diesel. I drive both regularly. Auto doesn't turn competent drivers incompetent fools at all, if you are a fool in an auto you'd probably be a fool in a manual as well.

 

[Dairyfarmer]

Boredom is the right word. When driving becomes relaxed, boredom set in, which leads to complacency and lack of concentration on the task at hand.
A very dangerous thing on our roads, given the general conditions and behaviour of our fellow road users.

I'm always in Jeff Cooper's Condition 2 and often Condition 1 when driving, so am fully aware of my surroundings. I have never had an accident with another vehicle and only once did I have a single vehicle accident while on a private road. I got my license 35 years ago.

 

[LCBXX]

I used to be as well, when I had a manual. I'm sure there's a fancy term for what it's called but pretty sure it was to do with trying to convince myself what I had was better than what other folk had, rather than convince other folk.
Or it was simple jealousy.

Anywho, most (not all, but most) folk that get an automatic swear they're never going back to manual, that's gotta tell you something.

I'm not that bad - I don't find driving a manual in traffic that much of a chore and would happily commute in one but ja, current and next car will most likely be automatic.

I drive a car with a CVT now, some would say the absolute worst type of automatic. I'm never going back to manual. It gives the best real-world fuel economy.

 

[pinball wizard]

I drive a car with a CVT now, some would say the absolute worst type of automatic.

Some of us know it's the best kind of automatic.