This is why the world's going to ****. Manuals are going to be extinct soon, and nobody seems to give a damn. That's just sad.
And to the other guy who says that operating a transmission isn't an integral part of driving, okay buddy, you can't even start the car without disengaging the clutch unless you install a clutch interlock switch. Even then, to get moving you have to shift to 1st. I'd consider operating a transmission to be the most important part of driving. If you don't shift, you're not going anywhere. Steering comes second.
I suppose you think this is an integral part of driving. Can't go anywhere until you take it off.
I'm going to start a poll soon to see how many people with automatics in real life drive manual in GT and vice versa. That should be interesting.
Unless you have an expensive setup, GT offers a paddle-shifted automatic at best.
Auto is NOT an OPTION if you call yourself a car guy. That is only a stupid invention by lazy americans. If you want to drive a car you have to do it the right way. I'm not talking about today's cars where in some the 🤬 steering wheel is not even connected to the 🤬 wheels. When you drive, you have to drive, not push colorful buttons and let a computer do everything for you - that's the worst thing about today's cars - TOO COMPLICATED devices. All the electronics just take the pure driving away from the driver.
OMG I'm so stupid and from stone age - Engine ECU that controls the injection doesn't interrupt the driving process.
But from what it all begins? Today people are much more stupid and more relied on aiPods aiFaces than 20 years ago. Today it's hard to find a kid that would know which way a screwdriver works. I'm angry at that - average (not a sciencist and not a cashier) person is usually limited to what app he has on his iiiiiiiiiiiiiIIIIIIIIIiiiiiiiiiGadget and not his head - they're controlled by all those crappy 3D movies and transgender pop singers. I'd rather live with a serial killer than with a shallow materialistic person.
I didn't want to insult anyone and this wasn't adressed to anyone personally, but a manual transmission gives the feeling that you are making decisions to the machine and not the other way around.
You ran into the AUP there with your "stupid lazy americans" comment. The biggest car enthusiast I know owns ~30 cars, restored most of them from the chassis up, many of which had been in serious accidents. He owns a C1, a ton of old porsches, a 1960s mustang fastback, and a '50s Gulwing. He basically has his own car shop/museam.
Every single time I've ridden with him it was in one of his automatics. Does he know how to drive stick? Absolutely. Double-clutch? You bet. Heel toe? Definitely. Is he a car enthusiast? More than you'll ever be, and probably more than anyone I'll ever know.... but he drives an automatic.
Oh I'm not against technology. I'm against commending everything in your life to it.
Automatically changing gears = commanding everything in your life... go it.
I remember shopping for a 2008 Honda Fit after I got home from deployment. It was a bitch and a half to get one in stick. The dealer had a ton of Fits on the lot, ALL OF THEM AUTOMATIC. Salesman had to call up a dealer 100 miles away to get one for me.
Sorry, if you were shopping for a Fit you're not a car guy. [/troll]
This thread needs to be put to bed. Manuals are for people who truly 100% love cars, and that's simply the bottom line. If you choose manual over automatic for a daily driver, that's saying you're willing to put up with a little bit of annoying traffic every now and then while the other 90% of the time you drive the car is pure bliss.
Simply put, you can't get the feeling of satisfaction of a perfectly-timed downshift while braking on corner entry, slam into the apex, power out and upshift gloriously....with a god damn automatic. You just can't.
That's hard to argue with. No you can't get the feeling of operating a manual transmission from an automatic. What does this have to do with driving? I know what you're talking about, I've done it many times. You're talking about enjoying manipulating a gearbox and pretending that it's the only way to enjoy driving. It makes no sense.
Please end this thread. Too many people with slushboxes thinking they're as much of a car enthusiast as manual drivers.
...and that could never be the case....
I do, and yes it does. Or else you're just like my roommate who drives an automatic and doesn't care about cars...
Summarizes your opinion nicely. If you're not me, you're an idiot. Got it.
If all cars in America were stick, you wouldn't see girls fiddling on cell phones, doing makeup, people eating and drinking full goddamn meals, reading the newspaper etc. Less accidents, more AWARE.
This is also true if all cars had handcuffs on the wheels. Should we do that? It would be true if cars had fingerprint sensors at 10 and 2 on the wheels that shut the car off if you let go. Should we do that? It would be true if cars administered an electric shock every time your eyes went off the road? Sound like a good idea?
I've eaten a meal while driving stick before and I was more dangerous than eating a meal while driving an auto. Which do you prefer? Whether you're eating in the car or talking on the cell phone is unrelated to the transmission, and not worth discussing in this thread.
Here's my thing about manual transmissions. Most people that have them don't know how to drive them. I've ridden with a lot of piss poor manual drivers, and many of them think they're quite good at it despite very early transmission failures and frequent clutch replacements. When I'm in the car with someone driving stick, I almost always want to tell them what they're doing wrong. It is very difficult not to, but people with stick shifts seem to often think they're better than most people at driving. On my list of worst drivers I know, almost all of them drive stick.
My buddy's wife who can't seem to focus on the road for 5 seconds, scares him when she drives, scares me when she drives, and simply cannot look more than 1 car ahead drives stick.... horribly.
Another buddy of mine drives stick in the most ham-fisted manner I have ever seen. He'll jam it into 1st gear when he's doing 30 mph because there's a red light coming up and he knows he's going to stop eventually, why not put it into gear now?
All my life my sister has been one of the worst drivers I have ever known. She scares me when we're in the car and I refused to ride with her. She backs it up with a laundry list of car accidents. She drives a stick, and as best I can tell she's never heard of rev-matching.
You need to know what you're doing when you drive a stick, and the reality is that many many people who do don't know what they're doing. They're not car enthusiasts, and they couldn't care less about what a heel-toe downshift is. All they care about is that the car cost $1000 less with the stick, and so they drive stick... and spend $2000 in transmission repairs. You don't want everyone driving stick. I've facepalmed too many times while watching others destroy their transmissions.
Now, contrast the above with my wife - who is one of the safest drivers I know. Far safer than myself. She has a better track record of staying out of accidents than I do, gets in trouble with the law less often, focuses well, looks far ahead in traffic, and drives very defensively. I can go to sleep while she's driving and know that I'll wake up. I can't think of anyone I'd feel safer in the car with. She drives an automatic, has no interest in manuals. She's no a car enthusiast by any stretch, but she's a good driver.
Now which of these pictures is making the world "go to ****"?
