Auto to Manual conversion

[Luis_GT]

I say, if you can't live with the A/T I say get rid of it, but don't ask for a new replacement.

I was in a somewhat similar situation (I think worse) when I was 17, my parents gave me a 2006 Mustang GT as a gift for graduating high school and becoming an eagle scout. It was manual, it had the V8... but it car was the biggest POS I had ever driven, I liked it the first year (of course 17, 300hp, manual, who isn't) but year 2, and year 3 I grew to hate the car with a passion enough to consider totaling the car on purpose, and often had vivid day dreams of smashing it to pieces with a sledge hammer and throwing a molotov cocktail at it. Maybe it was all the issues the car was plagued with, or the fact that I didn't fit in it and had to drive with my knees hitting the dashboard (ok, both where the reasons, but let me get to the point)



I ended up switching to a used 2002 530i BMW which was my mothers old car and I've had for the past 5 years. Sure its slower, it's autotragic, its a sedan and not a coupe so it wasn't a panty-dropper like the mustang, but I was finally happy, and love the car so much I haven't been able to sell it.

Granted, my hate was somewhat valid due to the car being a lemon, and there's only so much a person can endure as far as driving in a cramped car... but so far every person I know who is unhappy with their car end up neglecting it and eventually selling it.

[DMDominator]

Originally Posted by Shagaliscious

You're in luck. There's one on ebay, and it happens to be located in Florida.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2013-SCION-F...84e538&vxp=mtr

I'm sure it took minimal damage in the crash...

[Ocala FR-S]

Quote:
Originally Posted by dem00n
Proper driving of the auto.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gBM3RCzU3I"]Scion FR-S Automatic Paddle Shift speed - YouTube[/ame]

Originally Posted by jarviz

what's the point of this video?

There is no point, the downshifts are way too aggressive and make ridiculous use of engine braking. This is unecessarily abusive on the drive train in a straight line and would result in massive trail throttle understeer when entering a curve. It sounds cool if that does anything for you.

[Luis_GT]

Originally Posted by dem00n

Proper driving of the auto.

I think I shift my manual faster than that auto...

[tacoss23]

If you really want it, it would probably make more sense to trade-in the car for a manual.

But honestly man, you are going to college, you won't really care too much. It looks like you are doing the right things, therefore are you going to a good university?

If so, I'm telling you from experience, you won't have time to really appreciate a manual. I mean sure, yeah...it's more fun and what not, but you are going to be so busy with studying, college life, party, etc, and the car will really become a side-dish.

The only people that really have time to appreciate cars during college are the ones that go to community colleges or B class universities where they have free time. If you are going to a good one (which seems you are ) then don't trade it in, just hold off to it, believe me, you won't care about your car as much as you do right now.

[dem00n]

Originally Posted by Ocala FR-S

Quote:
Originally Posted by dem00n
Proper driving of the auto.

There is no point, the downshifts are way too aggressive and make ridiculous use of engine braking. This is unecessarily abusive on the drive train in a straight line and would result in massive trail throttle understeer when entering a curve. It sounds cool if that does anything for you.

What?

[Luis_GT]

Originally Posted by tacoss23

If you really want it, it would probably make more sense to trade-in the car for a manual.

But honestly man, you are going to college, you won't really care too much. It looks like you are doing the right things, therefore are you going to a good university?

If so, I'm telling you from experience, you won't have time to really appreciate a manual. I mean sure, yeah...it's more fun and what not, but you are going to be so busy with studying, college life, party, etc, and the car will really become a side-dish.

The only people that really have time to appreciate cars during college are the ones that go to community colleges or B class universities where they have free time. If you are going to a good one (which seems you are ) then don't trade it in, just hold off to it, believe me, you won't care about your car as much as you do right now.

I graduated with a bachelors in civil engineering, and I had time to party and enjoy college, fix or modify my car every other weekend, participate on pc overclocking competitions, watch 50 different anime series to completion, and managed to waste 10 days of my life playing black ops 2 online...

[Frs123]

Congrats on the car, my parents also got me a frs they got tired seeing me working on my civic when it kept braking down on me so they got it on my birthday and I love it I wouldn't mind a auto to cruise around town and the switch to Manuel when I'm bored.

[strat61caster]

Seriously, go trade it in for a non-10 series and give the extra money back to your parents. Nobody would complain about that arrangement, it was a gift, you didn't get a say in it and it doesn't quite fit, it reminds me of going to the store to trade in a sweater that's too small.

By the way, there was zero way to make this NOT sound like you're spoiled, I don't care if it's from your parents, grandparents, spouse, employer, bonus, game show prize, 99% of the population is not fortunate enough to receive a >$29k gift.

[Ocala FR-S]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ocala FR-S
Quote:
Originally Posted by dem00n
Proper driving of the auto.


There is no point, the downshifts are way too aggressive and make ridiculous use of engine braking. This is unecessarily abusive on the drive train in a straight line and would result in massive trail throttle understeer when entering a curve. It sounds cool if that does anything for you.

Originally Posted by dem00n

What?

The car comes with brakes. That is a video of someone clowning around with their A/T. The beeping noise at 41 seconds is the sound of attempting to downshift before the next lowest gear is even in the rev limiter range. The way the driver lets go of the steering wheel to shift is just more foolishness. This is no way to use the A/T. It's just sad.......

[dem00n]

Originally Posted by Ocala FR-S

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ocala FR-S
Quote:
Originally Posted by dem00n
Proper driving of the auto.


There is no point, the downshifts are way too aggressive and make ridiculous use of engine braking. This is unecessarily abusive on the drive train in a straight line and would result in massive trail throttle understeer when entering a curve. It sounds cool if that does anything for you.

The car comes with brakes. That is a video of someone clowning around with their A/T.

Oh boy, here comes the classic argument of downshifting.

You confuse the video, that just shows the automatic shifting and downshifting, i'm not saying anyone should drive like that. But if i'm assuming you wanna be a little racecar driver, you'll be doing a few little downshifts here and there in your spirited drive.

Town driving? Nah, you don't need to downshift. I mean, if you are approaching a tunnel and you wanna make some noise, sure.


But this is a sports car, drive it hard and drive it with no regrets. We can stand here all day arguing how we can make this car last to 200K miles with no need of an engine rebuild but whats the point? Enjoy the car.

[Ocala FR-S]

Originally Posted by dem00n

Oh boy, here comes the classic argument of downshifting.

You confuse the video, that just shows the automatic shifting and downshifting, i'm not saying anyone should drive like that. But if i'm assuming you wanna be a little racecar driver, you'll be doing a few little downshifts here and there in your spirited drive.

Town driving? Nah, you don't need to downshift. I mean, if you are approaching a tunnel and you wanna make some noise, sure.


But this is a sports car, drive it hard and drive it with no regrets. We can stand here all day arguing how we can make this car last to 200K miles with no need of an engine rebuild but whats the point? Enjoy the car.

I'm not confused. You referred to it as "Proper driving of the auto." It is in actuality a very poor example of the use of the auto. As my previous edit also pointed out. The beeping noise at 41 seconds is the sound of attempting to downshift before the next lowest gear is even in the rev limiter range. The way the driver lets go of the steering wheel to shift is just more foolishness. The person in this video does not know how or when to shift. Nothing to be learned here.

I typically drive in full auto but will do overide downshifts near the end of braking upon entering a curve or turn and typically exit in second gear. All of this is done (and should be done) without excessive engine braking as demonstrated in this comical video.

[tacoss23]

Originally Posted by Luis_GT

I graduated with a bachelors in civil engineering, and I had time to party and enjoy college, fix or modify my car every other weekend, participate on pc overclocking competitions, watch 50 different anime series to completion, and managed to waste 10 days of my life playing black ops 2 online...

Shit man, I don't know how you did it...

My days were class, eat, class, hangout, eat, gym, eat, play games, study.

Weekends you add party and hang out, plus more study and random activity and that's all.

During college I could've cared less about car, even though I love cars, and driving, that 4 year period was gone for me in terms caring about my car.

[Luis_GT]

Originally Posted by tacoss23

Shit man, I don't know how you did it...

My days were class, eat, class, hangout, eat, gym, eat, play games, study.

Weekends you add party and hang out, plus more study and random activity and that's all.

During college I could've cared less about car, even though I love cars, and driving, that 4 year period was gone for me in terms caring about my car.

It did take me 6 years to graduate (Civil engineer is a 5 year program here consisting of 179 credit hours) I took it rather mellow and stayed an extra year. It helps that a semester here costs about 1000 bucks...