stick/auto

[nirvana]

Stick.

The only time automatic is good is when I'm driving it onto the lift at work.  And even then manuals aren't a big deal anymore.

[cpxxx]

Most people here drive manual. Autos are more expensive and supposedly less fuel efficient and slower. I remember driving a 2 litre Mazda 626 in the US and was astounded when it would only do about 90 MPH. My little Fiat Punto with a 1.3 engine could do 99 mph. I suppose rental cars are probably restricted in some way.

I remember reading about a gang of robbers somewhere in the US. Their getaway car wouldn't start so they hijacked a passing car only to find it was stick shift and they were caught!

I had the opposite problem once.  I was an extra in a TV programme. I had to drive a Range Rover. It was auto. The scene had me reverse around a corner then accelerate away at speed. Well I ruined several takes because I couldn't get it back into forward drive quickly enough. In a manual. I would have just clutched as it was moving backwards, stuck it in first and booting in the power. But in an auto it wouldn't go into forward until it stopped. The director was fit to burst:furious  Well they should have hired a stuntman! To make it worse, when I did get it going forward. I changed my mind about which side a parked Jeep I was going to pass, very late. You should have seen the crew diving for cover.  ah happy days.

[lazs2]

If I am driving a really boring car then it may as well be an automatic.   I have noticed also that unless the car is really boring I have little or no use for a stereo.

lazs

[Samiam]

Most of us older fellows, I'm sure, have nostalgia around manual transmissions. I learned on a stick and drove nothing but for most of my life.

Then I got a fullsize Bronco with the 5.8L engine and it ONLY came as an auto (don't know who claimed requiring stick for towing applications, but most trucks for the past ten years insist on auto for towing). I thought offroading with an auto would be horrid, but I have to confess it was nice.

Then one day my Audi A-4 manual turned into a minivan (I hate it when that happens), and, of course, that was auto.

My most recent purchase was a standard only because it is the vehicle both my kids will learn to drive.

But I don't know who I'm kidding. It's not likely that they, or myself, will ever own another standard. Even the vehicle I bought with a 6-speed is better as an auto because of electronic controls.

If you want a standard in order to select the appropriate gear for the situation, most autos today have that and the paddle shifters in enthusiast cars are far superior to sticks in terms of control, precision and efficiency (would love to be able to afford an F1-style seamless shifting transmission).

If you want a standard because you like working a clutch and pushing the stick back and forth, like me you are a relic and probably call what you take pictures with a  "digital" camera, as if there were ever any other kind.

[lasersailor184]

Originally posted by Airscrew
Never really drove anything bigger than a bus and duece in a half in the military.   My grandfather used to let us drive the tractors out to the fields or when ever they needed to be moved out of the way.  He used it more as a reward for working hard, the prize would be to get to drive the tractor.

Learning to drive a manual wasnt so bad once I got the clutch and gas coordinated.   Hardest thing for me was teaching others, like my brother and my sisters.  Coolest was when I found out my dad knew how to double clutch.   I was 19 and my brother had a 67 Mustang with a 4 speed.  I cant remember if it was a problem with the clutch or the transmission but when ever you shifted it would get stuck between gears.  He took us out and taught us how to double clutch, the look on his face was great and we just had a ball running up and down the back roads practicing.

For me, once I understood how and why a manual transmission worked, it was easy to do it.



And driving a stick is more satisfying then an auto.

[wooley]

Originally posted by lasersailor184
And driving a stick is more satisfying then an auto.

True, but only on a worthwhile road.

In heavy stop-start traffic, its auto for the win.

By the way, I'm on vacation in Barbados right now. We've a rental and its hilariious. An 800cc, 3 cylinder Diahatsu Chirade - with an auto...

[gunnss]

Well I learned on an "International Scout" 2 and a half sticks... Bu I am going to teach my youngest on a Steam conversion of my Dodge D-50 (pull the heads and most of the foolish junk, replace the heads with bash valves, lock the stick to forward and reverse in 1:1 Junk the exhaust system, and put a flash boiler in the truck bed)

Link;
http://www.steamcar.net/z-kimmel.html

If Abner Doble had been a better businessman we would all be driving steam cars now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doble_Steam_Car

Regards,
Kevin or Gunns or whoever I am right now......

[JTs]

learned on a 52 chevy 3 on the tree. current setup main trans eaton 18 spd aux trans brownie 4 spd

[64kills]

west14 will you make me an avatar like thta one you have?

[texasmom]

Originally posted by cpxxx
Most people here drive manual. Autos are more expensive and supposedly less fuel efficient and slower. I remember driving a 2 litre Mazda 626 in the US and was astounded when it would only do about 90 MPH. My little Fiat Punto with a 1.3 engine could do 99 mph. I suppose rental cars are probably restricted in some way.
 

cpxxx ~ that sounds completttely dangerous