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Automotive News & Views The Future Of The Manual Transmission
5809 messages, Last post on Dec 03, 2009 at 12:30 PM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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| I come from the old school and have had manual transmissions in most of my cars and as a collector have owned more than I can remember, With a manual transmission I feel like part of the car but cars with an automatic just feels mushy and I have to use my brakes more in traffic. I think the reason most cars in the US have automatics is that a lot of people just can't drive a standard shift. One of my reasons for wanting manuals in my cars is when its to either replace clutch&p/p or rebuild a manual transmission,synchro's,bearings and gaskets can be done cheap and by most any mechanic BUT when its time to rebuild an automatic things are much different, My wife had a Nissan Pulsar Turbo that the automatic was needing help so I called a really good friend that ran a transmission shop to rebuild it.After trying to send me somewhere else I ask why he didn't want my business he said he didn't want to make me mad -long story short he said it would be 3k or more and then I understood.The car went away... | |
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Replying to: plekto (Oct 14, 2008 3:17 pm) Regards, OW |
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Replying to: plekto (Oct 14, 2008 3:17 pm) |
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Replying to: nippononly (Oct 13, 2008 8:37 pm) Well. . .I'm not so sure. The Toyoda system says that there's no point in doing anything that the customer doesn't notice or care about. Many corporations put stuff in their products because they think it's best, without regard to whether the ultimate user notices or gives a rip, often at considerable expense. Elsewhere it's called the least (or lowest) common denominator. Join the masses! Or not.
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Replying to: cdnpinhead (Oct 14, 2008 6:36 pm) In Europe, it's about technological advancement and improvement. Witness Volkswagen/Audi's ingenious DSG which features twin clutch packs; one for odd numbered gears, and one for even gears. I believe that most automobiles in the U.S. are equipped with automatic transmissions because are Americans are too lazy to be bothered with the art of shifting themselves or are just unable to. The vast majority of the U.S. is not composed of dense urban areas. An exceptional number of automobiles in Europe are equipped with manual transmissions. has anyone noticed that European automakers outsource their automatic transmissions in several instances (BMW using a GM-built 5-speed HydraMatic in some models) while American automakers generally outsource their manuals due to lower popularity of this transmission type (the Chevrolet Cobalt features a Getrag manual for instance). And, some brands most certainly wouldn't feature manual transmissions if the principal clientele choose automatics instead. Frankly, I'm shocked that Toyota continues to offer a manual in the Camry while Dodge and Chevrolet have none at all in their midsizers. A Honda or Volkswagen with a manual seems quite natural due to the driver oriented natures of the cars versus a squishy commuter.
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Replying to: stickguy (Oct 14, 2008 12:08 pm) That is one of the things that REALLY annoys me about automatics.
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Replying to: nippononly (Oct 14, 2008 9:03 pm) also i don't believe the dude that says he prefers a manual transmission in 'traffic', if the dude is meaning a traffic jam... like for the entire length of the NJ turnpike. I bet anyone who says they prefer manual trans in a traffic jam hasn't driven in a real traffic jam with a real manual transmission!
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Replying to: elias (Oct 15, 2008 2:57 am)  I've owned manual transmissioned vehicles all of my driving life, and during those years, I've lived in San Diego, Los Angeles, Cupertino, Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, New York, and Boston, and I've driven through literally thousands of traffic jams. Believe it or not, I've never once wished I had an automatic transmission in whatever car I was driving. In fact, the only two times in my driving life that I was forced by circumstances (once economic and once due to a badly broken leg) to drive a car with an automatic transmission, I found myself counting the days until I could get back into a car with a stick. Best regards, Shipo |
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Replying to: myershift (Oct 14, 2008 8:51 pm) The vast majority of the U.S. is not composed of dense urban areas." Do you think that generalization is true? Could the reverse be true if we said Europeans were too cheap to buy automatics? I think it is simply personal preference. Americans see vehicles as they are, tools, nothing more. Much like using a browser to surf the web we don't type in addresses we click with the mouse. Shoot I don't know many people who know what Hyper text transfer protocall is yet they see it every time the get on the web. It seems to me that generally Americans are looking for ease of use in a tool. We can buy hand tools with laser levelers and line projectors even from Sears. Somehow it is viewed as an improvement over drawing a line and following it with a groove in front of the blade of a circular saw. It seems as if there is a minority of us, American consumers, that are willing to ascribe some form of anthropomorphic qualities to Cars, motorcycles, boats and sometimes planes. To those few enthusiasts ease of use is far less important than tradition. I often hear words like, feeling at one with the vehicle or road when in truth that isn't possible because one is a machine and the other is an inanimate object. It all breaks down into simple preferences. Once that is realized the reasons for a manufacturer offering any option becomes purely business. If 91 percent of your customers are buying one option you should put 91 percent of your effort into supporting their ability to get that option. You don't need to pay much attention to the 8 or 9 percent that prefer the old technology because their loyalty will keep them and if you lose them they will simply buy the option that you are placing most of your effort. It has never been a debate on what we like better personally. It is on the future of manuals verses whatever other challenge it faces. It is a little like animal management. Once an animals population falls below a set point we move to declare it an endangered species. Sometimes that effort can save the animal and sometimes it can't. Right now with the direction the US is going the manual driver is an endangered species. That to me is the future of the manual in the US.
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Replying to: nippononly (Oct 14, 2008 9:03 pm) I've noticed that the newer autos have *much* less creep built-in, probably to save gas, I imagine. In some cases, going uphill, you let off the brake and an automatic will actually roll backwards a little. My Sienna does that. It will only creep forward a tiny bit, if it's flat or down hill. Let's remember than a manual trans will basically roll with any hills, too. Only BMW, Mini, and Subaru offer hill holder features to prevent roll back.
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