A few weeks ago, the guys told a caller that a manual tranny has no advantage, and that when her daughter wanted one, it would not get better mileage. That is not the point of a stick. The point is it is fun to drive. Please let me know if you are also angry that they left this out of their advice.
Fun to drive to a point…
After 30+ years of driving a manual…it’s so second nature…it barely know that I shift.
I enjoy the manual transmission on our Subaru Legacy, however it is coupled to a 250HP turbocharged motor which enhances the fun.
A regular family car its a toss up on which is better.
Oh, uh, yeah. Angry. I’m angry alright! I’m gonna go write a threatening letter right now!
I think being angry over something that 2 people say on a for-fun radio show is fairly silly unless it was patently offensive. Unless they disparaged a minority or told the caller that her daughter should stay home and get pregnant instead of drivin’ around like a cheap floozy, I’d find it difficult to get angry at the response.
And they’re right - modern automatics are good enough that the mileage advantage, if there is one, is within 1 or 2 mpg. Gone are the days of the power-sucking crapfest slushbox.
As for fun to drive, I agree with you, which is why 2/3rds of my cars are manuals. But there are people who don’t view driving as fun, and only want to drive so that they can get from one place to another without having to walk. For those people, there is no advantage to a manual transmission until the car gets old enough to require transmission repair.
I have much more important things to get angry about.
Our actions in Iraq anger me. Our president acting as an agent of the UN and thus committing our troops to an act of war on an autonomous country that has neither threatened or attacked us, rather than acting as our president and representing our best interests at the the UN table, angers me. The economy angers me. The federal budget angers me. The fact that the same people who support nuclear power as being safe believe incandescent lightbulbs should be banned angers me. Porkbarrel earmarks and agricultural subsidies anger me.
I figure I might as well save my anger for important things.
Please let me know if you are also angry that they left this out of their advice.
Like MB, I try to reserve my anger for things that matter.
beemerguy96, try switching to decaf.
I think that you missed the fact that they really don’t like people out on the roads having fun, so anyone driving a manual shift and enjoying themselves isn’t driving in a lame, cautious manner.
They probably also believe that having to concentrate on shifting the manual for a new driver is one extra piece of data they have to concentrate on, when their full concentration should be on the road and conditions around them.
I never heard the call in question, so I can’t truly get angry with you.
I will support your desire to be angry that people aren’t driving more manuals, and actually drive for the pleasure of driving.
BC.
I have better things to do than shift gears all day.
I own a stick shift, but I have better things to do than shift gears too… So I take the bus to campus. I can even read for class instead of worrying about al those pesky gears…
On the weekends and evenings though… It’s on.
You can still push start a manual if the electric starter fails or the battery is too dead to spin the starter but has enough juice to power the EFI and ignition.
So it’s not like manuals have no advantages at all.
Also, I recall a news story where a carjacker took someone’s car at gunpoint but couldn’t drive off with it because it was a manual so he ran off looking for another car to steal.
And that brings up another advantage, if you own a pickup truck, everybody who needs to move something suddenly becomes your long lost friend. If that truck has a manual transmission, it kind of pares down that list of long lost friends. Now, if I can only figure out a way to convert a modern truck to manual starting, it will pare down the rest of the list of long lost friends.
It is those darn Quickie Lubes I am angry about,wait I hate them, I am angy at something eles but I forget what it is.
WHOOOOAAAH. tons of replies. Thanks guys. No need to get pissed at me. Im only 15, and got a bmw 325 (manual) for my birthday. I guess it’s just hard for me to not have fun driving.
I have large and clumsy feet. The large may not be a problem, but the clumsy is. I drove a manual, including straight trucks, from 1960 to 1973 when circumstances pushed me into a car with an automatic.
Suddenly, the unpleasantness of driving in town and heavy traffic went away. I have not driven a manual transmission in years.
I have driven, a little, in Mexico City, and in La Paz, outside Mexico City, which is much worse, with little stress. There isn’t enough money in the world to convince me to drive manual in either place.
Obviously, most people in Mexico drive manual, except few older people drive in those places with manual.
I’m not angry about anything like this at all but being wrong is not a rare thing for T and R. A manual will get better mileage but there’s not nearly the gap in MPG as there used to be. The difference is often near undetectable. The same holds true for A/C use which was much more noticeable on older cars but not nearly so on newer models.
For sheer driving fun I’ll take a manual every day of the week. If it wasn’t such a pain in the axx job (and a disagreeable wife) I’d convert my Lincoln Mark to a manual. After some time spent going through the gears it becomes so second nature you do it without even thinking about it. (Unless a clutch cable or clutch hydraulic part decides to go belly-up.)
I feel the same way, Elly, and why waste energy all day blinking my eyes? I HATE having to think about blinking my eyes, and then there’s the constant breathing! Why in God’s name do I constantly have to concentrate on not forgetting to breathe? There I go again! I forgot to breathe!
blink blink … breathe … blink … breathe … breathe … MAN, THIS IS EXHAUSTING!
That changes everything. Speaking with a lack of experience is forgivable. 10-15 years from now, when you are driving a minivan full of kids and their stuff, you will appreciate not having to shift while you yell, “Don’t you dare make me have to pull over!” or “I will turn this car around right now!”
At least if you are shifting gears, you will have one less hand available to mess with the radio or send text messages.
The only thing I’m upset (a little angry) about is the fact that my wife keeps taking my 5 speed truck and leaving me with an automatic to drive. I love driving a stick shift. I know automatics are easier but my wife’s next vehicle will be a manual shift if I have anything to say about it. Congratulations on the 325.
“committing our troops to an act of war on an autonomous country that has neither threatened or attacked us, rather than acting as our president and representing our best interests”
So were you angry at G.W. Bush about Iraq too?
Good for you!
You go do those things, and leave the rest of us to have a great conversation about that very thing you don’t want to do all day.
I don’t shift gears all day long.
Usually a couple dozen times during a couple hour period in a day.
The ONLY time I ever wish I had an automatic transmission is when I’m stuck in bumper to bumper traffic, creeping along the road, going up a hill, when there’s a massive snowstorm taking place. That’s the ONLY time. Twice this past winter. About 3 times the previous winter.
So good for you that you have better things to do.
I just wish it wasn’t people like you that have caused the car companies to stop offering the manual transmissions in the vehicles that I would like to own.
BC.
Manual transmission equipped cars generally have better low speed acceleration than those with torque converters.
That’s useful in city driving with an engine of modest power (think base Corolla).
These days I think the manual trans is at its best in small cars (for fun and extra control) and big trucks (necessity).
Modern automatics make sense for everything in between.
p.s. Yes, I’d put the 3 series Beemer in the “small car” category in this case.