Haha, just found this, I like the sound of it.
Haha, just found this, I like the sound of it.
I joined the Facebook group.
Bwhahah. I was member 911. I feel fortuitous.
Meh, I don't think it would.
Manuals are left to us enthusiast and always will be. Never mind manual transmissioned cars tend to get better mileage, be more durable, etc etc etc.
I'll be completely honest though, if I had the cash to go buy a new M3, I'd buy the DCT trans car. I got to drive one a few months back and it's just simply brilliant.
If anything, I think C&D is doing this as a joke. They know manuals are on their way out the door. They will stay in market all around the world, except the US. I imagine it will be down to super econoboxes and certain enthusiast cars.
5 cars in the driveway and only one of them is an automatic. I dont know why the young kids wont drive manuals but neither my nephew or neice can drive a manual and werent interested in learning. We've got to do something to preserve the future.
Anymore, I buy a manual transmissioned car, when I can, because I know it will be harder to steal.
It will be hard to "save the manuals" when fewer and fewer cars AND trucks have an available manual transmission. Up until 2002 you could still get an Explorer (THE best selling SUV at that time) or Sport Trac with a manual....not anymore. I doubt any car company sells an SUV with a manual transmission, unless you count oddballs like the smaller Korean crossovers and the Ford Escape.
guy I work with.. at age 23.. sold his Civic Si manual for an accord auto.... he was "done with that" when it came to shifting the car manually
I learned to drive on an automatic, since I wanted to get used to the whole rules of the road with two pedals before I graduated to three pedals, but now that I drive a manual I won't go back to an automatic except for maybe a CVT in a gokart or a small autocross car or a UTV. even if I drive a car with only two pedals, I'll be making the executive decision as to when to change gears, not the car. sadly, a lot of kids at my school act like a manual is a bad thing and won't drive anything but slushbox cars, and a lot of them aren't good drivers at all and don't seem to have any feel for car control, but drive like idiots anyway. when I have kids, they're learning to operate a standard gearbox as soon as their feet will reach the pedals (and given that I'm 6'0" and my girlfriend is 6'0", genetics says that won't take a very long time...) and if I can at all help it, they won't drive automatics. there will be one in the driveway, but it will likely be my spouse's car so there's one vehicle in the driveway that everyone can drive in the event that there's an accident and we need to get to the hospital without having to worry about shifting AND freaking out at whatever the emergency was
I've had about 10 cars in my 5 years of driving and only 2 of them were autos. One because Mercedes 300tds weren't made in manuals here and one because I bought a VW from my friend for a good deal and it had and auto. If manuals go away I will just buy older cars and maintain them.
Love the idea, but seriously? This coming from a mainstream car rag, it's a bit ironic. How many issues do they sell full of top SUV tests, minivan face-offs and other boring vanilla comparos?
Dunno, but for me all of the mainstream auto mags have lost credibility. Maybe I'm just cynical though.
I found this interesting. I had the occasion to take a short ride with a lovely 19 yr old. She drives a VW Cabriolet with a 5 spd and does it very well. I mentioned that it was rare for girls to drive manual trnasmissions. Her answer was that she hated automatics and would never own one. btw; her mother was with us.
SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: If anything, I think C&D is a joke.
FYP.
With all the biased blowhards that write for that toilet paper wrag, I tend to find everything they say lacks credibility.
This is another way for them to get some kind of attention, as opposed to actually writing well, and writing balanced and interesting articles.
Instead, they do garabage like this, and beg you to get a subscription for <$1/issue.
I just canceled my subscription, and let R&T and AW end. Their "lifestyle" resembles nothing I know of.
My wife owned a Z24 cavalier for about 5 years and loved it. I did too. It was fun, the clutch stroke was quick, the engine pulled pretty hard, the shifter was tight and ratios were close. it really was a very sporty car...and after 5 years she was done with it. Now she wants apliancemobiles. She replaced that Z24 with a saturn Ion sedan, and replaced the Ion with our new Terrain. The SUV is nice, lots of features, good looking etc, but its no where near as fun as the coupe (duh). But still, her response is that she had her fun, and that is over now, and shes moved on.
Does that mean we are all old stuck-in-the-mud's who cant move on? (says the guy with aviators, a car from the 90s, and a cassette tape deck in his dash)
I was out in my yard close to where my "For Sale" Crx Si was sitting. A guy stopped his car with his younger son and asked if was a stick, I said "yup". The look on his face was a cross between anger and dang it. He drove off. Sad.
Guess it is no news to anyone that manuals are disappearing. We bought a new Subaru Forester for the wife last year, not because it was the best small SUV, but because it was the only one we could get with a manual.
-Chris R.
Typically the only thing that is auto in my driveway is whatever tow vehicle we own at the time. Big truck manuals are a PITA but most cars with a manual are worth the effort to locate. I am quite sure that the MS6 that my wife drives was at such a bargain basement price was no one wanted 4dr sedan with 6spd manual in this area. She wouldnt drive a manual when we first got married but in order to get her RX7 she learned and now wont drive anything else.
Intrepid,
It's not in the same class, but the Ford Escape also comes with a manual transmission. Supposedly, it's "twin" the Mazda Tribute also has a manual....but try finding a dealer that has one, and good luck EVER finding one with cruise (which Ford has as a standard feature on every Escape).
fastmiata wrote: Typically the only thing that is auto in my driveway is whatever tow vehicle we own at the time. Big truck manuals are a PITA but most cars with a manual are worth the effort to locate. I am quite sure that the MS6 that my wife drives was at such a bargain basement price was no one wanted 4dr sedan with 6spd manual in this area. She wouldnt drive a manual when we first got married but in order to get her RX7 she learned and now wont drive anything else.
Similar story with my wife. She drove a POS corolla when we met, I was on a DSM and my first Mazda 3. Neither were autos. She hated that. She decided she wanted a new car. She decided that new car was to be a MINI. I told her that the ONLY way she was allowed to have one is if it was a manual. It took her about an hour to learn after that.
Everything in my driveway except the Lincoln is a manual.
I never learned to drive an automatic.
Shawn
I e-mailed, haven't heard anything. Once it was posted on AutoBlog I'm sure the 500 spots filled quickly. I kinda want a sticker anyway...
I’ve been checking out the Toyota FJ and I was really surprised to find that the five speed automatic 4X4 gets 17/21 and the six speed manual 4X4 gets 15/19.
Also, the locking rear differential option is only available on the automatic and the manual is only $410 less which I figured out you’ll blow through in extra gas at the 22,000 mile mark.
I was driving almost the whole time from 9:15 am to 9:00 pm today. Two thirds of that was in my Bimmer, which was a stick, and mental fatigue just doesn't happen as quickly when you're using the transmission
integraguy wrote: Anymore, I buy a manual transmissioned car, when I can, because I know it will be harder to steal. It will be hard to "save the manuals" when fewer and fewer cars AND trucks have an available manual transmission. Up until 2002 you could still get an Explorer (THE best selling SUV at that time) or Sport Trac with a manual....not anymore. I doubt any car company sells an SUV with a manual transmission, unless you count oddballs like the smaller Korean crossovers and the Ford Escape.
Xterra is available with a manual. So is the FJ Cruiser and I suspect the Wrangler as well.
Bottom line is, the manufacturer has more control over HOW the bloody car is driven, if the tranny's an auto. If he has that control, he can guaran-dam-tee what sort of mileage the thing will get, when the Feds coming scratching at the door about CAFE average mileages. And now that the Feds have given actual money to some of the manufacturers, they certainly have more say in what will be put on the dealer's lots. And you can be damn sure they'll use it every chance they get.
If there's one thing that makes me crazy, it's the blinki' bailouts...
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