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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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Replying to: ny540i6 (Oct 23, 2008 3:36 pm) 
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Replying to: nippononly (Oct 22, 2008 9:27 am) Thanks for not assuming what I might say but I agree pretty much with your estimate. And you know me pretty well by now. Like I said many posts ago I believe MB will be the first in the US to stop offering manuals. . You said you thought Toyota. But if the economy doesn't recover or if fuel goes back towards 5 bucks a gallon the ball game could change. If the US moves hard towards hybrids or something like them then the manual could pass from our shores even sooner. If fuel stays low or under 4 bucks then maybe hybrids will slow down. I have also said the manual has a better chance of holding on if we turn clutch control over the the car computer. With a sequencial computer clutched manual then 7 or more speeds would not be anymore of a problem than it is with a automatic. The idea you had about having to be certified in a manual is cute. You know there are more new drivers getting a license a year than there are manual drivers in our county? So who would buy the manuals to certify the new drivers on? With our state budget it sure will not be the state. With so few families owning a manual the only other choice would be to rent a manual. But here in southern California they don't even offer drivers ED so who would teach the kids to drive? Do I agree that sports cars will be the last niche of the three pedal H pattern manual? Yes, it sounds like they might be.
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Replying to: boaz47 (Oct 23, 2008 7:33 pm) That's a great sound bite... too bad it isn't true 
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Replying to: p0926 (Oct 23, 2008 8:39 pm) How could it not be true? More than Nine out of every ten families in my county drive automatics. That equates to nine out of ten households that have kids having automatics. If that ratio holds up then nine out of ten families with teenage drivers getting a license would have automatics. More than the number of manuals available. Where would the manuals come from to certify the nine out of ten drivers? Or are you telling us that there are more manual drivers than we believe? I didn't look up registered drivers in our county but I am willing to bet there aren't enough manuals in our neighborhoods to train all the teenagers in the City of Riverside alone.
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Replying to: boaz47 (Oct 23, 2008 10:38 pm)
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Tried to find a manual Fit but there aren't any in town. The automatic was gutless. We drove a 2.4l Matrix Friday. Nippononly called his Matrix shifter "TOTALLY uninspiring" last month, but we were impressed. The shifter position looked odd since it seems to hang off the dash instead of living on the floor, but it felt very natural. Today we drove a 5 speed Scion xD and a 6 speed Nissan Versa. The 6 speed almost felt like overkill. Next up would be a 1.8l Matrix or Vibe. The MAZDA3 isn't on the list because of the poor crash test results unless my wife rethinks that. I drove a friend's manual ECHO for an hour a year ago, and tooled around in a Miata for 10 minutes one day last summer so shifting drive time has been very limited since we owned a stick ten years ago. It took about a minute to readjust. 
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Replying to: steve_ (Oct 26, 2008 1:43 pm)
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Replying to: isellhondas (Oct 26, 2008 2:10 pm)  We were both surprised that the test drive route took us on the interstate. The other interesting thing about hitting three dealers this weekend (for literally the first time since 1999), was how good every sales guy we had was. All of them knew their product, none of them was pushy, and only one guy bothered to write down driver's license info. The Honda guy didn't even ask to see our licenses.
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Replying to: steve_ (Oct 26, 2008 5:15 pm) Seniors are considered a very low liability risk
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Replying to: p0926 (Oct 28, 2008 8:01 am) (American Automotive Racing Party) |
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