I prefer the manual transmission for the same reasons I use manual exposure on my modern cameras:
I can anticipate changes and make better choices than the machine.
Can’t say that for chess though.
gdawgs My car pretty well does all that you mentioned, without me thinking about it, while drinking a cappichino, except start by rolling downhill. That might be handy every 4 or 5 years.
@EllyEllis,
I don’t have a preference about transmission type, but the vast majority of big rigs and many other large commercial trucks have manual transmissions.
So perhaps they’re not yet totally antiquated.
NO, but I think greyhound buses are automatic.
I appologize for missing the line about the original owner. I guess I am too litteral minded to figure out what response someone wants when they don’t post a question
Just curious, but there is some free play on the pedal when you first depress it I hope?
Just my couple of cents,while most people prefer automatics it seems but I like manuals better.
That’s too bad, It looks like they are becoming a “thing of the past” like the hand crank, mechanical brakes, AM radios, vacuum wipers
@ok4550, I posted earlier that I checked the free play before I took it to the shop.
I also checked that the slave cylinder retracted easily and when at rest wasn’t applying excessive pressure to the throwout fork.
Sounds like someone either dogged it or constantly rode the clutch. I too prefer a straight shift. The last clutch in my '88 Ford Escort lasted about 260K miles. The current clutch has around 208K miles and still good. The only clutch that’s worn out prematurely was the original clutch. I suspect the reason for it’s early failure, 50K miles, being that my brother let his step daughter drive the car a few times while he owned it, she didn’t know how to drive a straight shift. I’ve driven the car over 372K miles since I bought it from my brother in 1993 with 146K miles and replaced the clutch once. My wife has an '88 Escort with an automatic, mine with the manual transmission gets about 40mpg, hers with the automatic gets about 30 mpg, both are 1.9L TBI. I’m more than happy to shift my own gears for an extra 10 mpg. I have gotten as high as 54 mpg on the highway with the straight shift, the best I’ve ever done on the automatic is about 35 mpg.
@FordMan1959, I’ve never heard the term straight shift.
That’s all I ever heard them called as a child in the 60’s. I still use the term regularly.