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Once you get a little experience, you shift without having to think about it. Before auto transmissions got better, people cold shift faster and better (because we can adapt for conditions). Now Auto transmissons are better than humans except in some conditions.
Once you get a little experience, you shift without having to think about it. Before auto transmissions got better, people cold shift faster and better (because we can adapt for conditions). Now Auto transmissons are better than humans except in some conditions.
I always disagree with that,
when I'm going to pass, I can downshift 1-2 seconds before an automatic transmission would downshift
because the automatic transmission doesn't know it has to downshift until you press the accelerator and it realizes that it lacks power.
Once you get a little experience, you shift without having to think about it. Before auto transmissions got better, people cold shift faster and better (because we can adapt for conditions). Now Auto transmissons are better than humans except in some conditions.
I completely disagree.
Automatic transmissions can't read my mind nor intentions. It is reactionary not proactive.
Once you get a little experience, you shift without having to think about it. Before auto transmissions got better, people cold shift faster and better (because we can adapt for conditions). Now Auto transmissons are better than humans except in some conditions.
All my cars are manuals, but I have had autos as well. I am in my 50's and have had a TON of cars as I am an enthusiast.
Here are a few things about auto vs. manual.
1. If you have a manual you can save on brakes and drive easier on your car as you have control of the break between motor and wheels. Autos can't see the traffic, stop signs, hills and the road ahead.
2. Manuals don't shift unnecessarily. For example if you are going up a hill and reach the crest, then going to now descend your auto is going to shift up and you will coast, but if you have a stop sign coming up and you have a manual, you will leave it in its current gear to keep the car going slow.
3. Manuals are faster than standard shifting, but does that matter? Cars are pretty fast now, so what are you really going to do with a 0-60 time a fraction faster than a manual? Seems silly.
I honestly don't care what people drive and to each their own. I like to shift as it is fun for me, even though I don't think about it much at this point. I feel manuals if driven by a very experienced driver are easier on the car. How could they not be, so long as the driver is very good at driving. I can disengage the motor from the wheels by depressing a clutch that is meant to disengage them. An auto isn't really meant to do that. I can save on fuel by coasting more at idle. I do live in a very hilly area however, so that is a consideration.
Manuals are about impossible to get now on higher end cars. The new Corvette, most Audis, all Mercedes and the list grows. PDK is boring for a guy that likes manuals.
It looks really hard and unsafe to drive a manual. How do you know which gears to shift while driving and how do you make sure you shift correctly while keeping your eyes on the road and hands on steering wheel? It looks like driving manuals is hard work, do people actually enjoy driving a manual?
I learned the basics by watching my dad drive a 10 ton flatbed truck, I could see that the gear shift knob had 1,2,3,4,5, and R on it, and could hear and feel the engine noise as he increased speed and moved through the gears.
When I was 10 or 11 he’d let me drive it around the parking lot of the depot where he worked, shifting gears was a walk in the park, you didn’t have to take your eyes off where you were headed, you just judged when to shift by the engine noise.
By the age of 13 I was reversing his 18 wheeler correctly between parallel lines painted on the ground.
I passed my driving test at 17 on a 3 ton baker company truck, where I worked as a driver’s assistant, they immediately promoted me to driving my own truck.
My first couple of cars, late fifties, early sixties were manual, but once I got behind the wheel of an automatic I never looked back, it’s been two pedal auto all the way.
My wife had a manual Fiat 130, a large, (for U.K.), saloon car, but when she accepted that I was reluctant to drive it, e.g. when she’d had a couple of glasses of wine, she bought, (actually I bought for her), an automatic mid sized Peugeot.
I still demur at driving it, or any vehicle come to that, a lifetime of earning my living with a steering wheel in my hands and I’d had enough of driving.
Manual or auto, as my dad said to my mother, the first time that he let me drive in France when visiting family, “Relax Sylvie, he has French blood, there are two things he’ll be good at, and the other one is driving!”
All my cars are manuals, but I have had autos as well. I am in my 50's and have had a TON of cars as I am an enthusiast.
Here are a few things about auto vs. manual.
1. If you have a manual you can save on brakes and drive easier on your car as you have control of the break between motor and wheels. Autos can't see the traffic, stop signs, hills and the road ahead.
2. Manuals don't shift unnecessarily. For example if you are going up a hill and reach the crest, then going to now descend your auto is going to shift up and you will coast, but if you have a stop sign coming up and you have a manual, you will leave it in its current gear to keep the car going slow.
3. Manuals are faster than standard shifting, but does that matter? Cars are pretty fast now, so what are you really going to do with a 0-60 time a fraction faster than a manual? Seems silly.
I honestly don't care what people drive and to each their own. I like to shift as it is fun for me, even though I don't think about it much at this point. I feel manuals if driven by a very experienced driver are easier on the car. How could they not be, so long as the driver is very good at driving. I can disengage the motor from the wheels by depressing a clutch that is meant to disengage them. An auto isn't really meant to do that. I can save on fuel by coasting more at idle. I do live in a very hilly area however, so that is a consideration.
Manuals are about impossible to get now on higher end cars. The new Corvette, most Audis, all Mercedes and the list grows. PDK is boring for a guy that likes manuals.
Actually, some of what you listed can also apply to automatics. For example, I coast up to a red light or stop sign in my cars (all with automatics); engine braking slows the cars down.
I had shifts kits in several cars I've owned (with automatics). They shifted instantly and firmly, faster than a manual can. And some modern cars are faster with an automatic than with a manual.
First you turn the key to start the car. Then you push in the clutch, then you snick the shifter into first gear. Then you...
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