Manuals are infinitely more fun to drive and I like to manipulate the performance characteristics of the car myself but they’re probably going extinct to EV which is fine.
Not just EVs, modern beltless CVTs and automatic transmissions make manual transmissions practically obsolete. With a wider set of gear ranges and way better performance and reliability they’re better in almost every way than a stick shift. That said, doesn’t matter how good a transmission is if it’s undersized for the engine, so I’m not say the transmission in any particular vehicle is good, just the tech has developed in recent years
those transmissions are only better on paper. sure they could be theoretically better but in practice the transmission programming is to way over aggressively upshift in order to miser out a little more fuel economy on paper (but in practice they waste fuel)
Waste fuel, and they don’t always do what you want them to do, or sometimes lag before they do it.
True, and as someone who’s been driving the same stick shift for almost 15 years now, you can take it from my cold dead hands. I haven’t seen anything with a beltless cvt, and I haven’t seen an automatic transmission I like more than my five speed, except in traffic. The tech exists, although it’s not available.
Daddy needs his coffee.
Seriously, the automatic is so much better for using a truck as a tool. I still drive a stick right now and I’m lucky I miss rush hour most days because we start and end early, one job site.
I’d never choose a manual for dealing with taking tools and materials around the Metro while the assholes I’m trying to service cut me off in stop and go traffic.
And IMO we need to start racing EVs, leave combustion for the 20th century old timer events
I love my automatic transmission and cruise control, but I do think that I may have been a better driver when I drove stick. By necessity, I had to pay closer attention to the road than I have to today.
Bought a new car last fall and looked everywhere for a manual, they are indeed getting rare in the US. Ended up with a Jeep Gladiator sport because it’s a convertible 4x4 with a stick shift and so far the driving experience has been nice. You can tell Stellantis cheaps out on some of the plastic trim stuff and we’ll see just how reliable it is after a few years. Would be sweet if Toyota would make a convertible or T-top 4runner with a stick shift in the US.
Manuals are definitely niche now and mainly in sporty cars (Civic SI, Type R, BRZ, Supra, etc).
Jeeps are the bottom of the barrel for reliability and build quality, so godspeed on your journeys.
deleted by creator
I’m suddenly reminded of some ai-death clock site I saw recently. It predicted my death on May 13st.
You’ll die of 3st
The perfect transmission UI was the Teletouch on the Ford Edsel. And if anyone tries to argue I’ll say “nuh uh,” run away, and cry.
Agreed
i miss my stick
There must be a trans joke in here somewhere.
don’t eat the crab dip!
Happens at higher age
Oh good I got here before the lemmy fuck cars brigade showed up
LET’S FUCKING TAKE THE BUS
Seriously the funniest thing talking to immigrants in the US is them reminiscing about being able to buy high quality produce, food, tools, clothing, gifts, books, etc by walking down the street or taking a bike a few blocks away. Also people daily taking vans, busses, and trains to get to work or school.
Meanwhile our transport setup is so bad, people have successfully marketed ship to your house meal prep boxes which is actually such an insane first world problem when you think about it.
Hi, !fuckcars mod here. I absolutely love my manual transmissions and unironically fully endorse this meme.
I think you might be surprised at just how much crossover there is between car enthusiasts and people who hate car dependency. Cars ought to be like horses: they should be available for enthusiasts to play with, but it should be wholly unnecessary and considered kinda ridiculous to use them as routine transportation, especially in cities.
Frankly, I would prefer it if all transmissions were manual, as it would help encourage people who see driving as a chore to use other transportation modes instead.
Yeah I honestly love driving, but I love walking and biking too. Just because I’m a car enthusiast doesn’t mean that I don’t wish that my city was more walkable or had actual public transport.
I still hate to this day one of my parents cars. The gear shift is on the side of the radio and the radio controls(what isn’t touch screen) are underneath.
Bruh, that’s almost worse than Tesla
What the hell is this design.
Bringing back the classics! Great-grandad had one, he’d be right at home.
I actually like the volume knob shifter. The buttons ones I can live without.
Joke is that it is an automatic
If an automatic is good enough for the 70 Series Land Cruiser, it is good enough for me.
Electric cars have no transmission. If you buy electric, there are no stick shifts because electric cars only have one gear (with very few exceptions, and even then you’d just have 2 gears.)
Idk how this plays into the joke, but it’s a neat fact.
Technically they have at least 2 “gears”, forward and reverse. But does it really count if all you do is shout at the angry pixies to run the other way?
Wife owns an automatic, it’s fantastic for when you’re stuck in traffic, but GOD does it make shitty decisions. Of course it cannot anticipate whether or not you’re going to be climbing a slope, so it goes up a gear, but then when it struggles to climb it has to immediately go back down a gear, but you lost all speed already and it’s raining and you can’t pick up traction again so you slide back down the slope and try again. It’s also only really effective for the most tranquil driving, and it has a huuuuuuge inertia when accelerating, like a good half second of not obeying your pedaling, which is 1.frustrating and 2.dangerous in situations where you have to get out of the way urgently. So, would only recommend for old people or people frequently stuck in traffic. The technology has ways to go still
Damn. Ours doesn’t behave that way.
Maybe it’s the brand. It’s a Hyundai
Check your owners manual to see if you have a button to disable “overdrive”, it’s for adverse conditions such as uphill or downhill, off-road or rainy, etc. It prevents the shifting up too early and gives each gear more range to operate in. By default it’s on because it saves fuel, and they make the button hard to find sometimes.
There is in fact something like this, never tried it. Thanks for the tip
I drove one of the first semi trucks with an automatic transmission, and that thing was dangerous. It would pop me out of gear going down hill, thank fuck the brakes held out. The reverse gear could either roll the rig back at 10 inches per hour, or 10mph, and not much in-between.
Was nice being able to sip a coffee through traffic tho
That must have been a while ago, I assume trucks got auto transmissions before consumer cars ?
Automatic transmissions have been around since the 60’s or 50’s, IIRC.
No, much later. Transmissions in trucks work differently and have to withstand so much more stress. Wasn’t till the early 00’s that anyone got serious about them.
They’ve been around since the 50’s, but only became widespread in 2010ish. I think Volvo started offering the first production model auto trucks in 06.
I own a 2020 Subaru WRXSTI manual and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.
We should also get rid of starter motors. Who needs them? We can just hand crank the car to start it, like real men did back in the day.
I love when it backfires and accidentally breaks your arm! So manly!!!
Laughs in Allison 18 spd
It’s been difficult to find manual transmisssions for a couple of decades here in the US. That ship has sailed.
While most of my life I vowed my kids would learn manual, I gave up on that idea because
- manual transmission cars are rare and disappearing
- automatics now are more fuel efficient
- CVT are reliable and even more efficient
- EVs don’t shift
My kids started driving in a world of automatics and will soon be in a world with no transmissions
When I learned how to drive, manual transmissions were higher performance and better fuel efficiency: side by side comparisons of the exact same model of car would show better 0-60 and quarter mile times, while having slightly better EPA fuel efficiency ratings, for the manual transmission.
At some point, though, the sheer number of gears in an automatic transmission surpassed those in the typical manual gearbox, and the average automatic today has 6 gears, up to 9 in some Mercedes and 10 in certain Ford and GM models. So they could start selecting gear ratios for better fuel efficiency, without “wasting” a valuable gear slot. There was a generation of Corvettes that was notorious for having a 6th gear that was worthless for actual performance but helped the car sneak by with a better highway fuel mileage rating.
And the automatics became much faster at shifting gears, with even the ultra high performance supercars shifting to paddle shifters where the driver could still control the gear, but with the shifting mechanism automated. Ferrari’s paddle shifter models started outperforming the traditional stick shift models in the early 2000’s, if I remember correctly. As those gear shifting technologies migrated over to regular automatics, the performance gap shrunk and then ended up going the other way.
At this point there’s not enough reason for a true manual stickshift transmission. It’s no longer faster or more economic, so it’s just a pure fun. Which is fine, but does make it hard to actually design one for any given model of car.
In the US it’s not really even cheaper - as in maybe you could save a couple hundred on a few models but most won’t offer a choice and it’s nothing in proportion to the cost of the car and the chances of finding one are so small it’s not even worth trying for most cars. There may be a few - are jeeps still available?
My favorite car was a Miata with a stick (even though I’m too tall to fit) - maybe I need to track down an older one before they’re gone forever
cvts are reliable
Now THAT’S a statement made by the utterly deranged
I think he is confusing CVT with the toyota eCVT which is quite different and is actually reliable
The Prius system is a modern marvel and deserves a better name than eCVT.
Belt type CVTs are trash. I don’t care that your Subaru has 57,000 trouble free miles, it’s going to die.
CVTs are good for tractors that need a wide range of torque ratios but still stay automated.
I’ve had a Subaru CVT for 10+ years with over 200k miles no issues. Anecdotal yes, but I’ve grown fond of the CVT feel, it’s smooth, I like it.
If they aren’t made by Nissan, they are.
Belt CVTs - I’m right there with you, but take a look into the more modern geared CVTs such as Toyota e-CVT in their hybrids - I think Honda have a similar tech. It’s a planetary gear system that provides infinite gears without the rubber band feel that plagued belt CVTs and hella-reliable.
I’m a petrolhead at heart and would love more options for manuals but in lieu of that, a geared CVT is by far the next best transmission and 100x better than a traditional auto.
Even better, jump in one and take it for a drive - because there are gears, it feels more connected to the motor - almost manual-like response and no sluggish delay like a traditional auto.
You literally pick your revs by pushing the throttle more or less, they’re magic for hills or when the car is packed since you’re never waiting for revs to climb up into the power nor holding a speed because any faster and you have to change again which takes you out of the power again. If you want more power, you simply modulate that with the throttle and the revs rise instantly to accommodate.
EVs don’t shift
I know there’s no reason for them to, but a small part of me wishes there was. Something so satisfying about being good at managing gears
There are simulated transmissions for the weirdos.
I’m not that into the idea, and the simulation kind of ruins what I’m after anyway. I want to feel it when I get a good/bad shift and I want it to matter.
Sure, you can simulate the engine rumbling and the gears grinding. You can even rock the boat a bit with some hydraulics. When I shift “wrong” you can make me feel it for sure. But when I shift right, it’s not just smooth so that you can’t feel it. It’s smooth so that you can feel it ya know? (Okay maybe it wasn’t that smooth and what you’re really feeling is a slight clutch dump but wasn’t it fun)
I feel this post in my old bones.
So true. I’ve never been more tempted to keep a classic car, even if it’s just an old shit box with manual transmission.
Had a manual 2016 Mazda 3. Took a bit to find it with all the options I wanted but it was available at the time.
Isn’t the civic si series all manual?
The Si and the R! They both sell like hotcakes, waited 8 months for my 2024 Si. I’m not sure why Honda doesn’t increase the volume, there’s still a lot of demand - maybe the margins aren’t as good as their SUVs :(
Wow I had no idea, that’s crazy. I went with the 2024 sport touring because I do city driving 90% of the time, but that Si looked NICE
I bought a civic in 2006 and it took 6 weeks to get one. A manual would have taken much longer
