Manual Shifting, A Dying Technology

[tomato]

Originally Posted by Altitude

It does. How many of us have reached for the non-existent stick or tried to stomp on the non-existent clutch pedal when entering an automatic?

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[silver_echo]

Originally Posted by Altitude

It does. How many of us have reached for the non-existent stick or tried to stomp on the non-existent clutch pedal when entering an automatic?

how about trying to downshift coming off the freeway... do that just about every time i drive an auto nowadays...

[STC]

Originally Posted by silver_echo

how about trying to downshift coming off the freeway... do that just about every time i drive an auto nowadays...

LOL! Oh Yeah!!! In a rental... in Chicago... Labor Day Weekend... when everyone is leaving the city and your entering! Craaazy... Not fun if you don't regularly drive an auto!

[1stToyota]

Originally Posted by tomato

(not that I have anything against ppl in India )

Especially if they look like Shilpa

[Kongo-Otto]

Originally Posted by severous01

you all need to drive a bmw M car. i drove a M3 and that changed my mind. it is a manual transmission with automatic double clutch and automatic gear selection via solenoids. thing is awesome. can pull out of one gear and put into another at the same time. not like moving the shifter from 4-5 or from 1-3 or whatever. if you want to go from 4-7, it's immediate and quicker than you can think.

you have an option for full auto or steering controls, or shifter controls. if you hit the button on the wheel and it's in auto, it'll still downshift. and it wont upshift unless you hit it...but if you screw it up it'll know and you'll pay for it. if you bust redline it records it in the flight data for next shop visit...

No BMW needed. Maybe its, again, different in the US but in Europe you can get these transmissions from various car brands, like:

Fiat
Alfa Romeo
Chrysler
Ferrari
Ford
Mercedes-Benz
Mitsubishi
Peugeot
Volvo
Porsche
Bugatti
Volkswagen
Artega
Audi
Seat
Škoda
Nissan GT-R

But for now i don't want to have one. If you are out of warranty and suffer from a transmission failure it is getting expensive since they usually just change the whole thing at your cost. Only very few companies can repair these transmissions.

[jpmck03]

Originally Posted by Altitude

It does. How many of us have reached for the non-existent stick or tried to stomp on the non-existent clutch pedal when entering an automatic?

Happens anytime I have to use my wife's Jetta.

[IllusionX]

Originally Posted by Altitude

It does. How many of us have reached for the non-existent stick or tried to stomp on the non-existent clutch pedal when entering an automatic?

always...!!

[RedHatch08]

Originally Posted by Altitude

It does. How many of us have reached for the non-existent stick or tried to stomp on the non-existent clutch pedal when entering an automatic?

Yup. Done that.

[talnlnky]

When you can push start an automatic.... and you can shift it just like a manual, without any lag... then i'll consider an automatic.

My first car was an 86jeep, I decided my 2nd would be an auto (mazda 626), and after driving the mazda for a year I decided I would never buy a manual again because it's annoying on hills, and when you want to drive sporty, and more importantly, it was too easy to fall asleep at the wheel. It was hard for me to stay awake in that car. Something about having to moving two feet and the stick keeps a driver awake.

[CtrlAltDefeat]

Originally Posted by talnlnky

When you can push start an automatic.... and you can shift it just like a manual, without any lag... then i'll consider an automatic.

My first car was an 86jeep, I decided my 2nd would be an auto (mazda 626), and after driving the mazda for a year I decided I would never buy a manual again because it's annoying on hills, and when you want to drive sporty, and more importantly, it was too easy to fall asleep at the wheel. It was hard for me to stay awake in that car. Something about having to moving two feet and the stick keeps a driver awake.

I push started my automatic geo metro once... put it in N then slammed it into L once it got a little speed. Worked pretty great, except for the issues getting it up to speed in the parking lot I was in...

As far as MT keeping me awake, I'm not sure there is much of a difference... on the highway, you don't have to shift and in stop and go traffic, if having to stop and accelerate isn't enough to keep you awake, I don't think adding the shifting into it helps much.