Manual or Automatic? Why?
 

For any and all you guys and girls who got their 86s and chose manual or automatic transmissions, why did you choose it?

I prefer the 3 pedals (true manual) just because it's more fun to drive, plus my last 13 cars I've owned have all been stick.


Sadly, manuals are going extinct (my mom passed on the new Z4 because they dropped the manual trans option so she went with a Boxster). I know the new autos can shift faster/better/funnier but it just isn't the same driving experience.

Test drove all manuals, bought the Auto, sight unseen because I got tired of waiting for the Hot Lava manual I ordered (Dealer kept stringing me along). Both had pros and cons so it really didn't matter to me.

I have an auto as a daily driver. BRZ had to be back to the basics. Manual!

Auto because I didn't care for modding the car. Just needed to get me from point A to point B.






But then I went into this terrible rabbit hole of modding everything.

Truthfully, I knew very little about cars prior to owing a FR-S - I always drove an automatic so picking up an automatic was natural for me... It took some time to get over the auto-1337-manual-or-die comments, but I'm happy with my purchase.

Although having become more interested in cars because of the FR-S I am tempted to trade in the auto and get a manual... Wife permitting :lol:

(Just seems like a good way to test the manual-driving waters as I already know I love this car)

https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/...40/658/5e8.jpg

I feel like this question has been asked here as well as almost every person I've talked to about cars.

But to tickle your loins, I drive stick because of preference. I have a DSG car if I wanted lightning fast upshifts *most of the time* and piss poor downshifts some of the time. Anyone ever drive an Audi and downshift on a DSG to have it lug, jerk then finally do it's thing so you can floor it?

#audiproblems.

I'm thinking of dumping the S7 for a camry and a GT3RS. Srs. S7 has been the biggest let down going 3 years in.

Old reliable FR-S never misses a beat and the only one who can be blamed for bad downshifts is myself and possibly my wife touching me inappropriately while i'm driving.

I chose AT because I read threads after searching.

Like this one.

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6485

That is truly the only thread that matters on the subject.

It really should be a sticky

..... .... oh balls, sorry about that

An easy way for me to decide (just traded in manual for auto) Do you have a daily commute with Stop-and-Go traffic that last more than 30 minutes straight? I commute in a large city where I was getting into stop and go traffic for hours at a time and got fed up. Otherwise if you just have light traffic or very short jams but the rest is free flowing then manual is ACTUALLY faster in these vehicles and most likely more "fun".

Finch, Tcoat, and others are right, this subject has been talked about many times before, but I don't think I've really been here long enough to criticize you lol.

I drive a manual because I think it's more engaging to drive. I also feel like it helps me keep focus when driving, since I have less time to get distracted.

Me? I just like to work the gears and dance on the pedals

Maybe it's a Walter Mitty thing.

I picked MT because they're a dying breed.
Should I have interest in selling off my FR-S, manual will be easier to sell because it's an enthusiast/sports car.

MT! as already said it's a dying breed and I want to enjoy it for as long as possible. I also updated the main thread for my current reason.

I picked manual because it's much less tedious and exhausting in heavy stop-and-go traffic than auto.

I bought my car in 07/02/12. In, the previous month: I had been on my way to purchase three different FR-S/BRZ, when the salesman called me and told me "they just sold it sorry".


So eventually a month later when I got to the dealership, and they had an AT, I decided to test drive it.


I went home that night to think about if I could be happy with an AT. The next morning after thinking about it, I went and purchased my car. I am still happy with my AT.

Not so much the frequency of the request but the passions it seems to bring out. It is the FT86club equivalent of extremist politics.


After 42 years of driving MT I don't find it any more engaging than pushing the brake pedal or turning the steering wheel. All shifts just sort of happen and I don't put even a microsecond of thought into it. It impacts my focus and distractions in no way whatsoever.

Oh, i thought it was the opposite no?

It is the opposite. Shaky has a thing where he believes all ATs are actively trying to pull the car forward at full speed all the time so you have to maintain constant full pressure on the pedal. They don't and you don't.

All the questions about this car have already been discussed and answered.

If new members are supposed to just read old threads and not ask questions, there's no point in any further discussion at all.

Mods, please lock all threads and direct any new visitors to search for their answers.

Shut it down, Mr. Hand. Shut it down forever.

Depends on the driver and the car.

You're ability to detect sarcasm or jokes is proportional to the time you've been on this forum I guess :lol:

Because the AT can hold 350 WHP/WTQ all day, every day.


The glass-based MT cannot.

Well there are some answers that can be hard to gleen from the forum chaff but "Which is better..." is most certainly not one of them. Anybody asking the question usually leaves more baffled than when they started since opinions swing so far in each direction.

The problem is it wasn't sarcasm. Shaky has stated how hard the AT is to use in stop and go traffic many times. I also believed he was joking the fit=rst 5 or 6 times he said it.

I'll bite.


I bought auto because:
1) It was the last 2015 left at the dealership and all they had and I don't like the idea of have a dealership drive a car down from one of there network dealerships rather then putting it on a trailer. The only time I would be O.K. with that is if I ordered it brand new from the factory and would have time to wait for it.
2) The paddles are a lot of fun, not DSG quick, but quick for a torque converter auto in my book


Was planning to mod it from the get go, e85, uels and a tune put it right at or very slightly above a stock manual FR-S at this point, only way to make it demolish a manual is 4.88 gears :( But it also could be a plus that the auto fuel economy is easier to attain?

Not for me.

If you're not accustomed to driving a manual, traffic is more stressful because you're on the wrong side of the higher learning curve. Once it becomes an extension of your body, manual is easier because you have better fine control of the car. I can coast along at 3 MPH if that's how fast traffic is going. I can drive it comfortably in first gear at 6 MPH. At those speeds in an auto, you're having to hold the car back using the brake, and that's tedious.

My Jeep is an auto, and it sits up higher so that I have much better visibility than the BRZ. But it's a chore to drive in traffic by comparison because I'm constantly having to ride the brake. I rarely have to ride the brake in heavy traffic in my BRZ. I've been considering swapping my Jeep over to a manual to make it easier to handle in traffic.

It's not sarcasm. Once you achieve fine control of the car, the manual is much easier to drive in traffic.

That's not true and you know it.

Also not true. I never said it was hard. I said it was tedious. Because it is.

It's not my fault you never completely learned how to drive a manual.

LOL how did this become about me? I have never said I had an issue driving MT slow. I still don't understand what ATs you drive that are trying to move too fast at idle. If they move at all it is easily controlled by light pressure on the brake pedal. Nothing tedious about it.

:popcorn:

Uh of course it is.....

Manual, obviously, because manual is better. Didn't even have to drive the auto, I just know.

But enough of that, what I really want to hear is everyone's opinion of lightweight pullies.



...


:popcorn:

It's more tedious than using the engine to control speed, and it's certainly more tedious than sitting relaxed, touching no pedals at all.

Driving a manual is a skill that 90% of Americans don't have. As a result, the majority of Americans have the mindset that driving a manual is a difficult skill in all scenarios. Driving a manual is difficult, so driving a manual in traffic is also going to be difficult, with the added stress of people all around you judging your skill and watching you screw up.

But the majority of Americans are wrong. Driving a manual is not difficult. They only think it is because they don't know how to do it.

Likewise, driving a manual in traffic is also not difficult. People only think it is because they don't know how to do it, and they're too worried about what other people will think of their skills when on display in front of thousands of other drivers packed around them.

Traffic shouldn't be a reason to avoid a manual unless you're just not willing to put in the effort to learn how to drive it.

Gotcha. Seems like a weird thing to get extremist about, but whatever lol.

As for MT vs AT, when I say engaging, I mean that it makes me feel more connected with the driving process and I like that. As for focus, maybe its just me then, but I feel that driving a manual keeps me more focused since I need to know when to shift and all that. Unless I'm on a road trip or something because driving around on highways for hours staying in 6th doesn't really differ much from doing the same in an AT.

How are you using the engine to control the speed without touching pedals? I guess I don't know how to drive MT after all since I still have to use the gas and clutch in stop and go traffic.


Driving an AT is no more tedious than a MT in stop and go traffic it is just a different set of motions both of which suck equally.


I 100% agree with the rest of what you said there. As you know one of my favorite statements is that the hardest part of learning to drive MT is getting over the fear of learning to drive MT.

I'd love to see a video of you getting a manual transmission car to stop and go in traffic without touching any pedals...