I LOVE MANUAL TRANSMISSION

Hear me out for a second...

Maybe, just maybe, it's spending 3 hours in stop and go traffic that's the problem, not the transmission.

It's funny because this is the exact same argument anti-cyclists make. Lol

"Tell someone they should ride a bike and suddenly everyone has to move a fridge"

I dunno what kind of car you're driving, but mine will do 10mph in first quite comfortably. I wouldn't be "shifting endlessly" in that scenario...?

Also, just leave a decent gap between you and the car in front and idle along at 2mph without stopping and starting all the time.

And with the rise of EVs auto transmission failures will be a thing of the past. Except for the few sports EVs that for some reason have a multiple gears.

i think the stick makes YOU a better driver.

It doesn't make me a better driver, it's a continual distraction. I recently switched from a manual to an automatic car and I now have far more available headspace to pay attention to the world around me.

i think on average manual trans are less prone to failure.

As far as I'm aware this is still true. They're also significantly cheaper to repair/replace if need be.

This is a very astute answer, I like it

For speed control I wish every car had easy to use cruise control and speed limiting, I hate having to constantly worry I've crept above the limit and will get a ticket especially on long boring roads littered with speed cameras.

Imagine just being able to concentrate on what's around you and where you're going without needing to be endlessly worrying about engine revs, speed enforcement, and the potential cost of getting either wrong.

I dont understand how constantly having to (partially ofc) focus on shifting could get you more focused on actually driving. If anything, it takes away your attention from the road.

How I know?

There’s a nightmare scenario if I ever heard one.

I've been taught to balance between brake and clutch for inclines. Or is that the same thing?

true! although wouldnt manual be walking on ones hands ?

You let the clutch up until the rims start to drop a tiny bit, at this point you can let off the brake and move your foot to the gas. You shouldn't move backwards as long as you are slow and feel for the engine to not stall

You get the car rolling with just the clutch. Quite the pain, not a fan of driving stick myself.

I always stall it with those brake assist features. I'm coming off the clutch and the damn computer still has the brakes on, so it cuts out.

Y'all can keep your computers. I'm keeping my carburettors for now.

Well, it's just a trick you need to get the feeling for. Start one foot on the break, and other on the clutch. Let clutch go halfway, without stalling the car, and quickly move your right foot from brake to gas. Press on gas pedal, while releasing clutch. If you do it right, the car starts driving forward, even on a upwards hill. It takes practice, and every car feels different.

If you're on a really steep incline, you'll have to press both the brake and gas pedal at the same time using your right foot, while feathering the clutch with your left. I've heard this called the "heel toe" technique.

If your engine has enough torque or if the hill isn't steep enough, you can ignore this and just ease off the clutch while transitioning from the brake to gas.

No, but my family hails from the Ozarks.

I haven't driven a whole lot of cars and none of them were old as dirt pickup trucks but I've seen enough where the idle gas was not enough to get the car rolling on an incline without stalling it. Sometimes you just need a good handbrake start

On flat ground, agreed. On a hill, my car just doesnt have the power to do that without some gas.

Reverse is better, it's an even shorter gear than first so the engine has to spin more times per wheel revolution.

Late reply, but no, not unless you are parked on a steep hill without any sidewalks. Leaving it parked in gear puts a great deal of stress on the clutch. Clutches aren't very fun or easy to replace. If you're on a hill with a sidewalk you should turn your front tires away from sidewalk on the incline, and towards the sidewalk on the decline.

I suspect OP still had the engine running. That said, a lot of Americans seem to drive automatics and never use the handbrake, arguing that the tiny little tab in the transmission can hold their fully loaded "truck", so it stands to reason that there are people in the world who leave their cars out of gear and argue that the handbrake could not fail.

That's how they all do it in Britain anyway.

Hey I do that too!! There’s a skill for moving from 1st to Reverse with the left hand while the right looks for the cup holder with the coffee in hand.

This is the way.

• put in first gear with right hand

• activate starter motor with right hand

• accelerate with right foot

• hold wheel with right knee

• Pull stick out of first. Gently slot into second as engine speed drops to the perfect RPM. Feather throttle if necessary.

• accelerate through second

• pull stick out of second, gently slot into third as engine speed drops to perfect RPM as above

• to decelerate, pull stick out of third, raise RPM then release throttle. Drop into second at perfect engine speed. Apply brake. Throw into neutral before stopping. Switch engine off.

Driving manual with one foot, one knee, and one hand (while completely screwing your baulk rings): a tutorial.

As someone with a manual and bad knees, I feel for your mom. One day I’ll probably have to do the same, thankfully that day hasn’t come yet.

I used to be an adv stick driver like you, but then I took an arrow to the knee

If you get the RPM just right, you can absolutely shift gear without a left leg. I used to drive the paddock bomb around the farm as a kid with my left foot on the dashboard. This is not advisable on the freeway.

You don't need to assure me of the blatantly obvious. My point wasn't that you can't eat and drive manual at the same time, it was that all these people claim automatic is a better transmission on the basis it facilitates their choice to drive distracted shouldn't be on the road. I didn't see a single person saying "oh I like driving manual better because it makes it easier for me to be an irresponsible road user".

Ah yes those trustworthy cyclists going 30mph above the speed limit while weaving through traffic

You can eat and not pay attention with a manual transmission, I don't know why we'd pretend you can't. If you're just on the highway cruising both are just going to be in one gear all the time.

I never claimed you couldn't eat and drive a manual. I said that people who claim autos are better because they make it easier to choose to drive distracted (alternative phrasing - who choose to drive like a reckless asshole) shouldn't be on the road.

Either way, the problem is that people have to drive even if they don't want to engage. The popularity of automatic transmissions proves that (to most Americans at least) cars are an appliance and something people do because they have to. Fuck cars.

Well, yeah, that's always been the case. There are some enthusiasts sure, but for the most part a car is seen as a more convenient bus. But people riding the bus seldom choose to behave dangerously while commuting, there's something about the mentality of these people (choosing to drive distracted) that is at odds with normal, acceptable behavior

There's a game that is called "Hell is others" I got it for free, but haven't installed it. It seems to be some sort of survival horror game where you attempt to avoid everyone else and escape the city

That's fair.

My main point was that electric vehicles are redefining the driving experience. Automatic transmissions are now also obsolete, along with internal combustion engines, period. Driving a single electric vehicle for a day: life changing. They are the future.

No God damn please, dont ruin my Utopia of everyone in 2040 running almost silent cars :(

Interesting to see if that makes it to production. To me it seems as dumb as someone buying an MP3 player that has a fake turntable, record and needle you need to set down for the music to play.

Hell even automatic ICE vehicles have this. Toyota deliberately makes the transmission less responsive in their vehicles because they found that drivers prefer to feel a bit of lurching.

Nissan Versa?

Does the base MSRP of $15,980 have the manual transmission?

Imma have to test drive that, I think.

Can confirm: I drive a Nissan and the CVT is feckin awful.

Your luck may change... Way back when I was car shopping I found a used BMW 328i with the sport package discounted because they couldn't find a buyer who knew how to drive a manual. I have been driving that car for 12 years now.

I do like manual transmissions but I will happily drive my electric car with no transmission.

If I want to go faster it just goes faster, and faster, and faster. No lag, just faster.

What do you mean electric motors have no transmissions?

They do though, it's just that most are single speed reduction boxes (unless you've got a Taycan).

Electric motion makes an electric trial motorcycle with a clutch!

Best I can do 🤷

Descending works, but “a downhill road” would be the more conversational way to say it

That's basically what I described: down a hill. Although in my experience described above, it was not on a road.

True, but controlling the transmission gave me an extra layer of sensation, a more direct involvement in the process. It's a matter of degrees. Plus, there are levels of finesse one gains.

You can ride in a taxi and you won't be the driver even if the actual driver is patient enough to let you tell him explicitly when to start, stop, etc.

Ah, gotcha! We need a menu inside the entertainment system where you can select a gear via touch-screen... /s

yep.

Does that count as a transmission if it doesn't change gears?

Would rather drive a computer than a smog box that runs on vintage phytoplankton wine

Any modern car, even a manual transmission combustion engine, is a computer. The chip shortage hit the car industry hard.

Our Mazda has "manual" control of the automatic where you can tell it to shift by clicking a button or moving the gear selector. But like yours it won't do anything stupid. I've played with a few times, but I just can't get into it.

For towing (or hauling heavy loads in general) - you definitely need to be able to lock out higher gears sometimes in the mountains. If your transmission is hunting between gears, then lock it to a lower one. Our pickup has a tow/haul mode that handles this automatically; the motorhome I had before just had an "overdrive" button that locked out the overdrive gear for the same reason.

Your shoes still do the heavy lifting. Want real manual? Use telekinesis to just float forward.

I've never heard of anyone's automatic transmission failing in a truly harmful way. Barely heard of any failing period, heard of plenty blown clutches though. Humans make way more mistakes than a well engineered machine

Then you'll have to buy only old cars as everything in the last few decades had its engine controlled by a computer or at least microcontrollers which are mini computers. You're looking at mostly pre-1990 cars. These were the cars you could easily hot-wire as they didn't have electronic security.