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elfsI came across a report recently that said that the number of cars sold with manual transmissions had dropped from 18% in 2000 to 15% last year, and that driving schools across the country were disposing of their manuals and not giving classes in them anymore. This was true despite the fact that manuals are 5-10% more fuel efficient and, when push comes to shove (literally, in some cases), safer than automatics.
One of the driving school teachers stated that she had driven a manual for many years, but had switched to an automatic recently because "stop and go city driving took the fun out of a manual." I found that bewildering, because driving a stick is so instinctively easy for me that I find myself rarely thinking about what gear I need to be in. My cars for the last fifteen years have been manuals.
An automatic transmission is a computer with hydraulics instead of electronics and is powered by the torque from your engine. It's so inefficient a system that it eats a significant amount of the power your engine puts out-- more than your air conditioner, in some cases. It's also making decisions over a gross range of options-- four or five, in most cases. It doesn't take much brain power to replace that, which is why I've always been puzzled by the prevalence of automatics beyond, say, people missing their right arm.
The article went on to surmise that the reason so few people drove a manual was because in our high-tech, multitasking age, people wanted their right hand free to fiddle with their cell phones, the radio, their GPS, and their lunch. I suppose that makes sense. Not safety sense, but human sense.
I wonder, though, if you'd find a higher acceptance of manual transmissions among Linux users. Both, after all, have similar profiles: they offer more power, but to be capable of doing so you have to have a slightly higher skill level than the average user. I would think they'd have a similar amount of attraction.
One of the driving school teachers stated that she had driven a manual for many years, but had switched to an automatic recently because "stop and go city driving took the fun out of a manual." I found that bewildering, because driving a stick is so instinctively easy for me that I find myself rarely thinking about what gear I need to be in. My cars for the last fifteen years have been manuals.
An automatic transmission is a computer with hydraulics instead of electronics and is powered by the torque from your engine. It's so inefficient a system that it eats a significant amount of the power your engine puts out-- more than your air conditioner, in some cases. It's also making decisions over a gross range of options-- four or five, in most cases. It doesn't take much brain power to replace that, which is why I've always been puzzled by the prevalence of automatics beyond, say, people missing their right arm.
The article went on to surmise that the reason so few people drove a manual was because in our high-tech, multitasking age, people wanted their right hand free to fiddle with their cell phones, the radio, their GPS, and their lunch. I suppose that makes sense. Not safety sense, but human sense.
I wonder, though, if you'd find a higher acceptance of manual transmissions among Linux users. Both, after all, have similar profiles: they offer more power, but to be capable of doing so you have to have a slightly higher skill level than the average user. I would think they'd have a similar amount of attraction.
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Date: 2006-06-26 04:19 am (UTC)So they didn't understand when I bought a stick for the first car I picked for myself, and then for my second. I just liked driving the stick. I admit that sometimes getting caught in stop and go traffic was a drag - no real brain power needed, but constantly shifting and working the clutch gets old when you're in a traffic jam for an hour. But I still liked it and figured I'd always buy stick...
My new car is an automatic.
It came down to overwhelming lust for the car - and there not being a manual transmission option. The Dodge Charger is auto-only. Yeah, it has one of those manumatic things where you can manually shift, but I've tried it and it isn't the same. The car is really designed to shift itself, and I find it hard to pick up the shifting cues to do it right manually. The sound proofing is so good that I don't pick up on the engine sounds like I did in my old cars.
Increasingly I find there is simply no manual option. Back before I bought my PT Cruiser (my last car) I wanted to buy a Dodge Durango. But when I went looking I found there was no manual option, and at the time I was still set on driving a stick.
If the Charger offered a manual I would've taken it, but I was dead set on getting a Charger so I took what was available. And I really don't regret it, I love driving it.