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I want to think and hope that gas powered cars will be around for future generations to enjoy. There is always a new generation of classic/old car enthusiasts, and without their cars, I would think that they would be unable to live a happy life even. I know I wouldn't be able to be happy.
I know exactly how you feel. There will still be classic cars and people who love them but they will eventually go the way of horses, from necessity to hobby and not allowed on the highway.
Automatics are indeed soulless (as per the quoted article) IMHO.
Then you're driving the wrong cars. A '70 Torino 429 Cobra Jet with a built C6 automatic is not soulless as it shifts faster and barks the tires into every gear. I built an autocross racer with a modified AOD behind the modified 302 Ford motor and it had the power to spin race tires in every gear, even overdrive, while pulling 1.2G laterally. HUGE amounts of fun and decidedly not "soulless." I can guarantee that my modified BMW 740i Sport is not "soulless" at all either, and is fast, fun, agile and comfortable. The steptronic transmission perfectly suits it.
As I said, my MINI Cooper is a 6 speed manual and I wouldn't have it any other way. Other than one example, all the cars I've bought new were intentionally bought with manual transmissions over the years. I like good manual transmissions and have 38 years of experience driving them on the street and on the track. But, I won't make stupid statements like "they are soulless" and "no fun" nor will I call people who drive automatics "merely passengers" like these sorts of threads always devolve into.
The (somewhat conspiratorial) goal is to put EVERYONE on the road in a self-driving car under centralized control... that way traffic accidents will be vastly reduced and existing roads will be able to double their capacity while reducing gridlock at the same time.
THAT will be the last nail in the coffin for manuals... and it's only 5 or 10 years away.
I certainly agree and sympathize with you, but 100% self-driving cars under centralized control is far more than five or ten years away.
I have been Shifting Gears for 46 years straight now and will not give them up. Anything that I own and drive only, is a Manual Trans. Our family cars, which my wife also drives, are Automatics only because she does not know how to drive a Manual and once I told her that you can ruin the engine if you don't drive them right, she has no further desire to learn.
Besides my Antique Hotrod car, my Truck has a Manual and I have 2 more waiting for me if I ever wear out the one I'm driving now, lol.
I hated to find out that most of the US Truck Manufacturers do not offer a Manual anymore. If I ever have the cash someday, I plan to plop down the multi-1000's on the table and tell them "I'm here to buy a new truck, but it has to be a Manual"!! And once they say "sorry, none available" I will just pick up my cash and walk out the door!!
I hated to find out that most of the US Truck Manufacturers do not offer a Manual anymore. If I ever have the cash someday, I plan to plop down the multi-1000's on the table and tell them "I'm here to buy a new truck, but it has to be a Manual"!! And once they say "sorry, none available" I will just pick up my cash and walk out the door!!
An empty gesture, as they won't miss you at all.
Modern 8-9 speed automatics are stronger, get better fuel mileage and deliver more power to the ground. Due to the need to be efficient and get better fuel mileage, this will be the norm from here out. You'll notice modern trucks have smaller engines than they ever have, but get better fuel mileage AND tow more at each weight point. That's partly due to the improvements in automatic transmissions.
A story about my mother. She learned on a stick shift. The clutch wasn't working so she had to learn when to shift by listening.
That was somewhere in the midst of the Great Depression. I don't remember the year, and she died in 1981 so I can't ask, but I always get a kick out of the idea of my mother (you had to know her) leaning to drive a stick with no working clutch.
This is the same woman who was a private detective when I was a child. She did live an interesting life.
Modern 8-9 speed automatics are stronger, get better fuel mileage and deliver more power to the ground. Due to the need to be efficient and get better fuel mileage, this will be the norm from here out. You'll notice modern trucks have smaller engines than they ever have, but get better fuel mileage AND tow more at each weight point. That's partly due to the improvements in automatic transmissions.
Autos have yet to convincingly get better MPG than manuals. The small engines are thanks to cafe. Combine that with the complexity and cost of a 9 speed? No thanks.
You maybe see an edge with DSG. But DSGs are terrible.
I certainly agree and sympathize with you, but 100% self-driving cars under centralized control is far more than five or ten years away.
It will be incremental of course, but the technology is already here and only 5-10 years away from being fully polished and implemented on a massive scale.
In the beginning it will be used like cruise control on the open highway... at first a luxury option and fairly soon expected as standard equipment (also like cruise control). After that (probably the second half of the 2020's) you'll see dedicated "auto drive only" lanes popping up in cities all over the country.
Many American cities are already facing buildout and suffer from really lousy traffic, but are also anticipated to double in population over the next 30-40 years. There will be no room for more roads and public transportation just cannot match the convenience of small vehicles ... the solution will be auto drive cars under central computer control, doubling the capacity of every road. By the mid to late 2030's people will be asking for it and eventually it will be made law... conveniently after almost all cars have been selling with the capability already built in for 15+ years. You may have noticed that most cars drive/perform very similar despite coming from different companies... yet another requirement for the "conspiracy" that has been weaseled into the auto world for the last 20 years.
You may not believe it now, but remember, people at the turn of the century could hardly imagine city streets without horses either. It only took 20 years to completely change over to automobiles with no horses in sight and after 50 years it seemed crazy to even think horses the primary way of getting around in the first place.
And like horses, classic (manual drive) cars will stop being useful for day-to-day activities and be relegated to hobby status. Remember, you heard it first here!
Modern 8-9 speed automatics are stronger, get better fuel mileage and deliver more power to the ground. Due to the need to be efficient and get better fuel mileage, this will be the norm from here out. You'll notice modern trucks have smaller engines than they ever have, but get better fuel mileage AND tow more at each weight point. That's partly due to the improvements in automatic transmissions.
I've yet to see an automatic put down more power than a manual and doubt I ever would. Traditional automatics will always have more drivetrain loss just due to the mechanics. A DSG would be about equal to a manual though.
Any better mileage out of the automatic is just due to design choice on the gearing to make the equivalent manual sportier but even then in the same model manual owners usually turn in better numbers.
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