Factually autos are better. I love my manuals.
I find it fascinating that so many people in this thread are so much more interested in the act of driving when they have a stick and an extra pedal to play with.
You've answered your own question in the first line. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you've been reading my posts as well as just the ones aimed at you, but you'll note I have very little against automatic transmissions and have spent quite a lot of time defending them against some of the daft reasons people have given for disliking them.
Yes I'm aware.
However, when I drive an automatic, I personally want it to do things itself. "Eliminating the work you don't want to do" means (for me) changing gears, period.
Why?
Why would you suffer poor automatic transmission logic when the manufacturer has given you a perfectly good tool to avoid it? Again, you don't have to use it when you don't need it, but it's there for you when you want it... and I know you want it.
The manual enthusiasts (and even perhaps yourself) in this thread would drive an underpowered automatic up steep hill and watch the transmission move between gears over and over. Speed up, upshift, slow down, downshift, speed up, upshift, slow down, downshift. There are roads where the speed limits force this to happen unless you're doing 10 under or 10 over. These so-called car enthusiasts would say "Ha! the automatic is so pathetic. I hate these slushboxes, I can't even go the speed I want! If i had a manual transmission, I'd have no problem with this hill."
Meanwhile, I move a lever an inch to the left and never think of it.
Whether or not it has a manual mode is of little consequence to me, but does make gradually more sense the more performance something has and I'd use it accordingly.
On the contrary, I think the manual mode is far more useful in an underpowered car. That's where the gear selection matters most.
I'm well aware how to drive an automatic "properly" but a good auto - and increasingly, they're pretty good these days - is usually good enough to negate the necessity of taking control yourself once in a while.
This is the case with my FX35, which is a 5 speed auto with 275 hp and 270 ft-lbs of torque. It doesn't matter what gear you're in, the engine will do just fine. This was very much not the case for my 4-speed 120 hp or so honda. If you want to pass someone while traveling at 70 mph, you need manual mode to do it elegantly.
What I'm not saying, and I feel you massively jumped to conclusions with my response, is that manual modes should immediately disappear from all autos. I just personally have little use for them.
I understand that you're not saying that you want them to go away. But if nobody learns the system, it will eventually die.
As best I can tell, it is true.
Edit #1: Please tell me I'm not the only person in this thread who can see the merits of both automatic and manual transmissions rather than dismissing one or the other based on nothing more than personal preference and a superiority complex.
I don't see any merits of a manual over a DCT worth discussing.
- You can get it rolling if the battery dies
- You can skip gears if you find yourself wanting to
- You have an extra lever and pedal to keep you entertained while you drive.
- It costs less than a DCT for now
I am not impressed.
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