Save the manuals!

[Frost]

Originally Posted by Rampage

I taught all my kids to drive manual and most of them prefer shifting to automatic. Unfortunately, it is just a matter of time before they are a thing of the past. Automatic and dual clutch transmissions can already match manual in gas mileage and now many performance cars are faster with clutchless transmissions than they are with traditional manuals. If most of the supercars are coming with paddles these days then how long before the affordable sporty cars all follow suit?

It's already here. Heck, you can find CVTs in almost every manufacturer's lineup and the part that makes it have staying power? It's available in most of the daily driver stuff - Corollas, Versas, Civics. Next thing you know, kids won't even know how gears even work!

My nephew already looks at me weird when I ask him: "Want to learn to drive stick?" and he says "Why do it that way and get LESS fuel economy?".

Yeesh.

[Jertronic]

This may sound foolish but I am kicking myself for not giving my 3 consecutive BMW 3 series a fighting chance. I got all 3 cars with AT. What the bloody hell was I thinking. After 6 months driving my FR-S w/manual I'm afraid I might never have sold my 1st, a 1999 328i.

Loving my FR-S manual 10 series so so much.


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[serialk11r]

Originally Posted by Frost

My nephew already looks at me weird when I ask him: "Want to learn to drive stick?" and he says "Why do it that way and get LESS fuel economy?".

Yeesh.

It's still the choice of hypermilers though, since you can control coasting. Okay, but I guess now Porsche is adding auto coast feature to its PDKs so I guess that advantage is disappearing too..

[Traveltheworld]

With the steering going from manual to hydraulic to electronic/electrical maybe this will be the route for the transmission. Manual to auto to CVT/DCT. Porsche with their GT3 already did. That car shouldn't be offered without a manual as a no cost option atleast imo.

[dnieves]

Originally Posted by dtrop

Besides a semi-minor cost difference, the manual gearbox is kind of an obsolete technology in the practical world.

I think it will exist for a long time, but I don't think it will be relevant 50 years from now.

It may be obsolete compared to today's modern day slush boxes but when you have to perform maintenance or a repair the manual is by far the more inexpensive of the two. Don't forget push/roll starting -it can be a life saver.

[BRZZZZZZZZZZ]

Originally Posted by n8dog11914

I learned by driving my grandfather's truck in the back pasture at age 14 Driving and life in general is just better with the manual trans.

My family is what you would call the poster child for Car and Driver's 'Save the Manuals' campaign' haha.

Mom - 06' Jetta TDI Manual, 95' Honda Civic Manual
Dad - 04' Porsche Boxster Manual, 13' Ford Focus Manual
Brother - 95' BMW Z3 Manual
Me - 13' BRZ Manual

Same here, our family has never owned any automatic, since I was born in 1990 my parents and I have owned a 1990 Honda Civic Si hatch, 1988 Nissan Pathfinder 2 Door, 1996 Nissan Pathfinder, 2000 BMW 323ci, 2002 VW Jetta 1.8T Wagon, 2006 BMW 325i, 2007 BMW Z4M, 1998 Jeep Cherokee 4.0L Sport 2 Door, 2010 BMW 135i, 1998 Ford Escort ZX-2, 1992 Nissan 180SX, 2005 Subaru Legacy 2.5GT Limited, 2008 BMW 135i, 2013 Subaru XV Crosstrek, 2012 Caterham R400, and 2014 Subaru BRZ, and every single one of those vehicles has been a manual tranmission.

[streetwaves]

I taught my girlfriend to drive a manual on my e30. She did just as well as a lot of guys I know did.

I remember a while back I saw some sort of DMV test question that was something like "what are some distractions while driving?" and one of the "correct" answers was "a manual transmission". Screw these idiots who have never driven a stick trying to brainwash the rest of us with that kind of stuff.

I'd rather be "distracted" by something that involves me more in driving than drive along in an auto not needing to do anything but press down on the go button.

[zygrene]

Ever since my dad taught me to drive stick in summer of 2012, I've convinced and taught 4 of my coworker buddies to buy used/new manual sports cars ('91 MR2, '09 Z4, '12 WRX, '13 BRZ) and now we go on cruises all the time just for fun! Trying to do my part here.