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I grew up on stick shifts, 3 speeds first and then 4 speeds later on. I love the sound and feeling of a car going through the gears and never even minded one in stop and go traffic. My 27 Ford has a very stiff Zoom clutch and it has never been uncomfortable for me to drive, even in the heaviest rush hour traffic.
But I have also had some very good automatics too, although I still drive them with two feet lots of times, a leftover from my drag racing days, I guess. Sometimes I even find myself moving the shifter into low gear and realizing I don't need to do that any more.
I love manual transmission cars. There is just something fun about shifting, not sure what it is. To me, stick shift is driving. With an automatic, you're just along for the ride.
However, I did get rid of my '08 Scion tC that had the 5 speed for a Hyundai Tucson with an automatic. But I still have my '03 Z06 which obviously has the 6 speed.
It's a shame that so many youngsters these days not only don't know how to drive stick but don't seem to want to learn.
Automatics have indeed evolved enormously, to the point where most of our gripes about 1970s 3-speeds would be obviated by one unbiased test-drive. But I say “most”, and not “all”. An automatic still insulates the driver from the visceral mechanics of driving, so even if a mediocre automatic shifts faster than a good driver, the effect is not altogether pleasurable. And I can’t even count all of those times when I push-started a car with a manual transmission when the battery was dead.
I admit that the inexorable pace of new technology, with closed-loop controls and so forth, is not something to be fought successfully. Neither is the advent of novelty a loss from the performance point of view; I bow humbly to the crispness and speed of an automatic. Still, whenever I rent a manual-transmission car in Europe, it seems to me that Americans have been too quick to foreswear the manual transmission as something antiquated and crude. Simplicity has a beauty all of its own, especially in lower-tier cars where a sophisticated automatic is not possible, and the automatics that we do get remind us too closely of the woes of the 1970s.
The Funny part about this is,the used car dealers know the shortage of manual transmissions. Dealers are now charging more for stick shift in certain cars.
As time goes by, we all know it has gotten harder and harder to find a car with a manual transmission (I still find them, even if I make the company ship them in). What I've learned however, is that it means I have to buy better sports cars. Y'know the type, the kind that only come in stick.
When I got my first car at 16 and told my Dad I wanted a stick, he said sure. He told me I'd get sick of it though. 23 years later, still driving stick, still loving it. I did have a 2 year hiatus. Worse 2 years of my life, especially since I was driving an SUV. I think it's helped that clutches went hydrolic (on most cars) so they're light. If the clutches were as heavy as my dad's truck that I learned on (old S-10), yeah, driving in traffic would maybe, just maybe make me quit. Or get a commuter car.
I don't care if an auto can beat me in a drag race, I still love being in control of the car; revving it as high as I want and downshifting when I need more power.
It's a shame that so many youngsters these days not only don't know how to drive stick but don't seem to want to learn.
My wife and I had both a manual and an AT when it was time for our daughter to learn to drive, and she wanted to learn how to drive a stick and for the 9 years since that's all she's owned. Part of the interest was thru us, and i'd say part is she has always been in the "car/tuner group" of friends. But she was one of only a couple girls in her class to have a manual, and in fact most of the parents seemed to only have autos as well.
I think that's part of the problem, many parents only have autos & many vehicles on the lot only have autos.... so it's tough overall for a kid to even see what one can be like. Heck it took a bit of searching for our daughter when she bought her 08 Tc to find one with the stick.
For myself, being 51 after a lot of driving over the yers, there's time i like a stick when i want to play, and there's other days the auto is just fine.
Everything automotive is moving toward automatics - even big rigs. Computer technology has advanced into automotive technology to the point where the computer can do a better job of shifting your car than you can.
Big truck automatic computers and electronics are problematic. They tend to cause more wear on a big truck than a manual and their worthless driving under slick contrition such as ice. They come with a manual mode for better control under such conditions but are worthless if the driver doesn't know how to shift gears. And there starting to offer Automatic or Manual options on CDL and CDL schools...meaning a person can learn only using an automatic which means that person want know how to shift gears. This is also noted on one's CDL license liiting that driver to Automatics only where as a driver tought driving a stick and drive either transmission thu opening them up to more job opertunities.
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