A manual transmission does have one upside. It creates engagement around the experience of driving, which I believe is something many vehicles lack. I sound like [old man yells at cloud], but people just do not seem to be paying attention to what they're doing in their giant metal death machines these days.
There are the fun aspects obviously. I know that when I want to pass another car, go around a corner at speed, and navigate snowy roads I'll be in exactly the right gear without the computer having to guess what I want. But those are secondary to the demand of attention created by it.
I think Malcolm Gladwell talks about this in one of his books, that in general, drivers of manual transmission cars get in fewer accidents because they simply can't do some of the things that those driving automatic transmission cars take for granted.
e.g. eating and drinking, putting on makeup, etc.
wrt "the feel of the road", I think much of that is already lost with drive-by-wire technology. I haven't really had that feeling since I sat in a friend's old 90's civic and stepped on the throttle. You can get a little closer with Mazda tiptronic, but it's basically like "playing cars" instead of driving a car.
i've been driving manual for the last seven years pretty much exclusively and i used to think that, but ive certainly found myself in all sorts of unsafe driving predicaments where i end up revving out the car, shifting with my left hand, shifting with food in my hand, etc.
In the last few years ive made a point to reduce distractions while driving and no longer do this stuff, but the point being, once you get used to manual - you find a way to be dangerous driving it haha
Not a general occurence but this reminds me of a taxi driver I had in Wuhan. While driving 50 mph on the shoulder of the highway due to traffic, he was steering with one hand, shifting with his other hand and continuing to smoke a cigarette. Then his phone rang and he held it up to his ear to take the call. I didn't know whether to be afraid or impressed...
> they simply can't do some of the things that those driving automatic transmission cars take for granted.
They sure can, though it may be more inconvenient. In addition to the examples given by a sibling comment, I’ve seen a guy on a car with manual transmission steering with his knee while using both hands to eat ice cream from a cup.
This makes sense and hadn’t really thought about it that way. My mom had her right (shifting side) arm amputated when I was younger and there were a few times we were driving and I’d do the shifting for her.
Don’t remember why I didn’t drive in the first place (and for the record her personal vehicle was automatic, though she was a firm advocate of manuals).
I think it’s funny looking back on it but can’t say it’s particularly safe
If he wrote that, Gladwell seriously underestimates the adaptability of humans. We manage to do unsafe stuff just fine as the shifting becomes second nature.
And how are you supposed to replicate the thrill of an inclined start when at a red light and the guy behind you inches closer to your bumper! Or the excitement of transforming stop-and-go traffic from mindless time waster to mentally taxing gear shifting exam!
I kid somewhat. I drove stick for years and it was a neat experience that is definitely more engaging, and I'm glad I have the skill now, but I really despised it sometimes.
(EDIT: or the game of "how good are you _actually_ at shifting" when trying to turn onto a busy road between two passing cars!)
Hill start assist is a thing in "modern" manual transmissions. It automatically holds the brake for you as you engage the clutch so you don't roll back. After burning the clutch in my previous car when I was stuck climbing a packed parking ramp, it felt like magic the first time it kicked in.
Stop and go traffic can still be brutal. At least one of your legs gets a free workout.
I've been driving manual for the last 12 years. I enjoy and prefer it simply because it's more fun (to me).
That said, I don't think we should be making a virtue out of necessity. There's nothing objectively better about this set of mechanical constraints compared to another set of mechanical constraints.
I remember EV sceptics using similar arguments half a decade ago. No gears, no engine noise, no rumble - what is there to get excited about? Well, guess what, EVs are some of the most exciting cars to drive these days, and having no gears to shift definitely doesn't take away from engagement.
It's just a different experience - not necessarily better or worse.
Update: the safety/attention argument might only apply if you have to think about shifting gears, like in a first year or two. I live in Europe where many cars still have manual transmissions. Trust me, there are plenty of terrible and distracted drivers over here too :)
One major safety benefit of a manual is that some conscious or at least coordinated action is needed to get the car going.
Compare to an automatic or especially electric car, which will creep forward by itself and can accelerate strongly with an absent-minded prod of the accelerator.
These have much greater risk of unintended acceleration from a stop, which is the cause of a lot of accidents (mixing up the pedals, basically). Ironically in this way the manual car is more 'idiot-proof'.
And a manual is a higher barrier to a incompetent driver. A little kid isn't likely to get the manual to do anything--probably can't even start it. (Many have a safety that won't engage the starter without the clutch being pushed.)
I don't think it's an adequate reason to keep them, though. I exclusively owned manuals until 2013, at that point I found my objections with automatics no longer applied and no suitable manual existed--all were either bare-bones or sporty.
I live in the greater New York area and I walk a lot, or use my kick scooter (Xootr), so this is my perspective.
Comfy seats, phone, music, beverage holder—all the comforts of the living room—drivers are oblivious to everyone and everything around them. How many times is a driver ‘surprised’ when they realize you’re sharing the road with them. How entitled are drivers who flip out when anyone slows their forward progress. People wrapped in their personal auto-cocoon, and completely distracted and emotionally disconnected from people outside. Leave their air conditioned homes, and button up in their air conditioned cars. From isolation to insulated.
My family always had manual cars, and when someone dropped out, they would say, I’m too old, and too tired to drive the clutch. Automatic was for old people. Haha
Speaking of snowy roads, it's also easier (in my experience) to get a car with a manual transmission unstuck in the snow because you can quickly alternate between first gear and reverse and rock the car.
Obviously wouldn't be an issue for people who live in warmer climates, though.
It is also sometimes possible to get going on a slick or icy surface by directly using a lower (numerically higher on the shift knob) gear rather than having the wheel(s) spinning in first gear, the tallest of the forward gears. A car with a manual transmission can possibly be made to crawl out of the predicament by using third or fourth gear as the driver lets out the clutch with extra throttle to overcome stalling. This goes for 4x4s too, which seems lost on some of the folks I know today who don't have the background experience that earlier generations of drivers have had.
Some vehicles not supposed for being used on roads like ЗиЛ-131 have first and reverse gears settled on a line against each other for making rock the car as easy as possible.
When I first left college I was living with my grandfather and commuting 30 miles to my job. I had to leave early in the morning, and had to borrow his automatic car to make the trip until I could save the money for one of my own. I almost fell asleep on a few occasions, which convinced me that getting a manual for the trip would be safer.
When I could finally afford my own car, I purchased, as planned, a car with a manual transmission. It was engaging enough on the drive that falling asleep wasn't a risk.
It has many, many upsides. With the only true downside being the skill needed to operate.
Manual transmissions aren't going anywhere. Yes, the latest greatest $35,000 car that average Americans are buying will always be an automatic. But for trucks and cheaper cars they will always be the best choice.
I generally prefer manual for on-road driving but auto is a far better choice for 4wd technical trails and rock crawling. Trust me when I say you don't want to stall when navigating a tricky obstacle while hanging off the edge of a cliff.
I'm somewhat sure that unsychronized 12+ gear truck manuals and float shifting are somewhat of an Americanism, because Eurotrucks seem to basically all use automated manuals (AMTs).
As far as I can tell, the manual is no longer the cheap option in the US. I assume that's because it uses exotic equipment put into thousands of cars rather than the standard stuff put into millions of cars:
A manual transmission means your gear shift points are beholden to you and not to some corporate bean counter who's going to lean on the engineer to re-tune the shift points so he can get a bonus for squeezing out an extra .01mpg.
It's about corporate interests (cram a small engine in a big car and don't ever let the thing rev if you can help it) being directly contradictory to what makes for pleasant merging or hell climbing experience (let the thing rev and don't up-shift until it's time). This is a large part of why manuals stuck around so long in Europe.
I always hated automatics because I had only driven cheap rental cars with automatics. My family got a Mazda 3 with automatic a few years back, and it's so much better. I still prefer a stick in some situations, but it's not constant misery the way an Aveo or a Versa or a Yaris were.
That's not been my experience. Automatics will upshift given half an opportunity but mine behaves reasonably when you step on the gas. It can even very smoothly downshift if needed to deliver the power.
I will give up my manual transmission, if you will bring back pull-knobs, twist knobs and other tactile switches for the main controls of my vehicle, with the appropriate tactile feedback at set points so I can set them without looking.
More seriously - I recently cross-shopped the major low/mid-tier brands (Toyota, Subaru, etc.) and the quality of these touch screens vs physical controls is shockingly bad for the sticker price. I, perhaps naively, expected the responsiveness to be at least as good as a recent iPhone... it was not.
In addition, bring back smallish cars and 4x4s that can truly, safely freewheel for towing. A two-wheel drive car with a manual transmission is fine for this, but the options today are few and dwindling. A 4x4 with a transfer case with a neutral gear is fine for this task, but a new Jeep Wrangler is hardly small anymore in the way CJ5s and Suzuki Samurais were.
Audi A1, Audi A3 since ~2020 (no idea about the other ones) is for you then I guess :)
They have a very fast and responsive touchscreen, but all the critical controls (AC, volume, seat heating, you name it) are physical. I rarely if ever touch the screen even on very long trips.
When I started driving I couldn't understand why you would want an automatic transmission. It's so simple, muscle memory. You feel the car. But then, after spending a couple of years with a car with a somewhat good automatic transmission that idea sort of faded away. It was both smoother and more reactive than I could ever dream of becoming.
Recently I switched to an EV, and now I don't understand why people would want a combustion car, let alone a manual transmission anymore. All that power, available instantaneously. You feel the car, sort of like your old manual transmission. I wonder if autonomous driving will have the same trajectory.
>Try driving 3 hours in a wooded forest without roads or lane markers and see how you feel.
>With my horse, I can trot around through trees and streams, and even let it graze on grass
That's sincerely how irrelevant your example is to people like myself who don't drive 3 hours outside of cell reception or electricity, or ride horses through forests
For most people that is a non-issue. Modern EVs (especially Tesla) are exceptionally good at estimating remaining range. I know EV adoption in Norway might be a bit of an exception as of now, but as things are right now, in Norway, it's not something you think or worry about.
After learning on a manual, and living with automatics for a good couple of decades, I intentionally got a manual again (a subaru).
It's not super smooth.
It's not the height of efficiency (yet still 5mpg better than the best of my automatics).
But that's on me, not the car. It's a skill I can develop, and it's a skill I'm proud of developing. If I want to drive smoothly, I can. If I want to drive like a bat out of hell, I can do that too.
And no, I can't really do the latter in my automatic CVT, at least not comfortably. Stepping on the gas to overtake causes it to downshift erratically (yes, a modern CVT emulates a manual transmission and downshifts), bringing me close to a redline before it shifts (again, WTF CVT?) back up to avoid the redline.
Depends on your location, I guess. I have not had any issues, and seeing as I don't use my car for commuting, but still have managed to do 25k kilometers this year I would say my data supports that idea.
Europe has never had much love for automatic gearshifts, and pretty much everyone learns to drive with a manual transmission. With hybrid cars, however, manual transmission is simply not an option.
Unfortunately, not all automatics are equally comfortable, and a quick test drive is often not enough to find out.
yeah the article has a very US-centric take, stick shift is still very much alive in Europe. it's a lot of the times the more affordable option, and plenty of places in Europe dont have bumper to bumper traffic that makes stick a pain
The point is the same here though - electric cars don't have them, so it'll die out just as quickly (the fall off being even more precipitous). It'll be more missed here than in the states, where it sounds like it is already nearly gone.
Hmm, the EU also has stricter emission requirements from ICE cars, so above some displacement (roughly 1500cc or so I think), manuals are becoming rare, as better emissions means turbos, which means higher revs, which means more gears (7-8) at which point a manual becomes a pain in the ass.
Manuals are not long for this world (unfortunately): the low end (smaller engines, city cars) are likely to go EV or auto for comfort in traffic and the high end is likely to go auto for performance/emissions.
I have driven manual since I could. In italy it is still the norm to have a manual. Automatic transmission are becoming more and more popular with hybrid/EVs.
I also feel, for some reason, that there is also a stigma around automatic transmissions being less reliable (when I actually think it's the opposite).
I would change my manual for an automatic in a nano second if I could.
With the centrally heated house rising, so we forgot the skill (and pleasure) to heat your house with a fire (coal, wood). We buy fully-prepared meals in the supermarket - no longer willing to go to three or four separate shops to buy the ingredients and spend time at home putting them together. Even bread-making at home has been replaced by a machine that does it for you.
Technology takes over, and there are always people that think this is a bad thing. But it's of all times and started before our ancestors decided to walk upright...
The skill and pleasure of heating your house with coal? The house my mother grew up in had a coal furnace in it through sometime in the 1960s, and on cold mornings somebody had to be the first out of bed to get the furnace going. I don't know who that person was--probably an uncle--but I doubt he missed the chance to exercise the skill.
I was more of a fan of manuals for reasons of efficiency before double-clutch automaticss were widely available, and when CVTs were not very reliable. Of course none of that matters much for many electric vehicles either. My first and only MT car is a 2000 Honda Insight, though I'd like a 2016 MT Honda CR-Z to go with it eventually, to complete my collection of quirky MT Honda hybrids. Manual transmissions were historically much lighter weight and more efficient than torque-converter or CVT automatic transmissions, and usually more robust.
I don't have my MT Insight because I'm a gear-shifting control freak, but rather because it was the most efficient non-full-electric vehicle on the road until the Prius Prime. Being in graduate school still, I also don't have funds for anything fancy like a modern-ish Prius :)
In terms of technological advances, the automatic transmission is a tenuous improvement over the manual transmission. It costs more to manufacture and service and it performs less well (transfers engine torque less efficiently to wheels and cannot anticipate the need to upshift or downshift) in exchange for requiring less skill from drivers. The newer sequential manual transmissions (SMGs) blend the benefits of both with the mechanics of a manual transmission but shifts performed electronically. They're great except that they cost even more. I, for one, am happy with my old, reliable manual transmission.
My understanding is that while it used to be true that manual transmissions were more efficient due to humans keeping the engine in the torque sweet spot, it's no longer true since automatics can have so many more gears than manuals. And that's not even considering something like a CVT, which I understand can be even more efficient.
You're right about more gears in auto transmissions helping to keep the engine at its ideal RPM for torque. There are still more mechanical losses in an auto transmissions since the auto transmission's fluid-based torque converter does not transfer engine rotation as efficiently as a manual transmission's friction-based clutch when the latter is fully engaged.
> cannot anticipate the need to upshift or downshift
I feel like this is a red herring. How often does the computer fail to correctly upshift or downshift in such a way that it affects, say... mileage?
I find that when I drive my vehicle (an automatic transmission Mazda CX5), if I am using the "fake manual" (tiptronic), I tend to drive at a slightly higher rpm. I will sit at 2¼k rpms instead of the computer's preferable 1¾k rpms. I can assume from that that I am indeed burning more fuel (if only marginally)
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There are the fun aspects obviously. I know that when I want to pass another car, go around a corner at speed, and navigate snowy roads I'll be in exactly the right gear without the computer having to guess what I want. But those are secondary to the demand of attention created by it.
e.g. eating and drinking, putting on makeup, etc.
wrt "the feel of the road", I think much of that is already lost with drive-by-wire technology. I haven't really had that feeling since I sat in a friend's old 90's civic and stepped on the throttle. You can get a little closer with Mazda tiptronic, but it's basically like "playing cars" instead of driving a car.
In the last few years ive made a point to reduce distractions while driving and no longer do this stuff, but the point being, once you get used to manual - you find a way to be dangerous driving it haha
They sure can, though it may be more inconvenient. In addition to the examples given by a sibling comment, I’ve seen a guy on a car with manual transmission steering with his knee while using both hands to eat ice cream from a cup.
I kid somewhat. I drove stick for years and it was a neat experience that is definitely more engaging, and I'm glad I have the skill now, but I really despised it sometimes.
(EDIT: or the game of "how good are you _actually_ at shifting" when trying to turn onto a busy road between two passing cars!)
Stop and go traffic can still be brutal. At least one of your legs gets a free workout.
Regardless of transmission... If someone finds themselves in this kind of traffic on daily basis - they should reconsider the mode of transport.
That said, I don't think we should be making a virtue out of necessity. There's nothing objectively better about this set of mechanical constraints compared to another set of mechanical constraints.
I remember EV sceptics using similar arguments half a decade ago. No gears, no engine noise, no rumble - what is there to get excited about? Well, guess what, EVs are some of the most exciting cars to drive these days, and having no gears to shift definitely doesn't take away from engagement.
It's just a different experience - not necessarily better or worse.
Update: the safety/attention argument might only apply if you have to think about shifting gears, like in a first year or two. I live in Europe where many cars still have manual transmissions. Trust me, there are plenty of terrible and distracted drivers over here too :)
Compare to an automatic or especially electric car, which will creep forward by itself and can accelerate strongly with an absent-minded prod of the accelerator.
These have much greater risk of unintended acceleration from a stop, which is the cause of a lot of accidents (mixing up the pedals, basically). Ironically in this way the manual car is more 'idiot-proof'.
I don't think it's an adequate reason to keep them, though. I exclusively owned manuals until 2013, at that point I found my objections with automatics no longer applied and no suitable manual existed--all were either bare-bones or sporty.
I live in the greater New York area and I walk a lot, or use my kick scooter (Xootr), so this is my perspective.
Comfy seats, phone, music, beverage holder—all the comforts of the living room—drivers are oblivious to everyone and everything around them. How many times is a driver ‘surprised’ when they realize you’re sharing the road with them. How entitled are drivers who flip out when anyone slows their forward progress. People wrapped in their personal auto-cocoon, and completely distracted and emotionally disconnected from people outside. Leave their air conditioned homes, and button up in their air conditioned cars. From isolation to insulated.
My family always had manual cars, and when someone dropped out, they would say, I’m too old, and too tired to drive the clutch. Automatic was for old people. Haha
The DSG version of my VW requires transmission fluid flushes every 40k! These dual clutch systems are incredibly complex.
My g/f's Acura has a 9-speed Automatic transmission. Can't imagine what it's like to work on one of those.
Obviously wouldn't be an issue for people who live in warmer climates, though.
When I could finally afford my own car, I purchased, as planned, a car with a manual transmission. It was engaging enough on the drive that falling asleep wasn't a risk.
It has many, many upsides. With the only true downside being the skill needed to operate.
Manual transmissions aren't going anywhere. Yes, the latest greatest $35,000 car that average Americans are buying will always be an automatic. But for trucks and cheaper cars they will always be the best choice.
Its main downside is an additional cognitive load that it imposes. You need to do one more unnecessary thing to drive your car.
There's basically nothing left but automatic anywhere on the market here :(
Fewer manual cars produced => lower scale efficiencies => higher delivered costs
It could also reflect the willingness of enthusiasts to pay more for a manual transmission (or to avoid the automatic).
BTW, the average new car price is nearly $50k. RIP to the $35k latest/greatest.
I have not come across any manual EVs
* Made up number
It's about corporate interests (cram a small engine in a big car and don't ever let the thing rev if you can help it) being directly contradictory to what makes for pleasant merging or hell climbing experience (let the thing rev and don't up-shift until it's time). This is a large part of why manuals stuck around so long in Europe.
I will give up my manual transmission, if you will bring back pull-knobs, twist knobs and other tactile switches for the main controls of my vehicle, with the appropriate tactile feedback at set points so I can set them without looking.
I think we can all walk away winners here.
More seriously - I recently cross-shopped the major low/mid-tier brands (Toyota, Subaru, etc.) and the quality of these touch screens vs physical controls is shockingly bad for the sticker price. I, perhaps naively, expected the responsiveness to be at least as good as a recent iPhone... it was not.
the 70 series looks reasonable, maybe someday it will finally come to the US
They have a very fast and responsive touchscreen, but all the critical controls (AC, volume, seat heating, you name it) are physical. I rarely if ever touch the screen even on very long trips.
Recently I switched to an EV, and now I don't understand why people would want a combustion car, let alone a manual transmission anymore. All that power, available instantaneously. You feel the car, sort of like your old manual transmission. I wonder if autonomous driving will have the same trajectory.
With my truck, I can take an extra tank of gas in the bed and get back to civilization.
>With my horse, I can trot around through trees and streams, and even let it graze on grass
That's sincerely how irrelevant your example is to people like myself who don't drive 3 hours outside of cell reception or electricity, or ride horses through forests
It's not super smooth.
It's not the height of efficiency (yet still 5mpg better than the best of my automatics).
But that's on me, not the car. It's a skill I can develop, and it's a skill I'm proud of developing. If I want to drive smoothly, I can. If I want to drive like a bat out of hell, I can do that too.
And no, I can't really do the latter in my automatic CVT, at least not comfortably. Stepping on the gas to overtake causes it to downshift erratically (yes, a modern CVT emulates a manual transmission and downshifts), bringing me close to a redline before it shifts (again, WTF CVT?) back up to avoid the redline.
Unfortunately, not all automatics are equally comfortable, and a quick test drive is often not enough to find out.
Manuals are not long for this world (unfortunately): the low end (smaller engines, city cars) are likely to go EV or auto for comfort in traffic and the high end is likely to go auto for performance/emissions.
I also feel, for some reason, that there is also a stigma around automatic transmissions being less reliable (when I actually think it's the opposite).
I would change my manual for an automatic in a nano second if I could.
With the centrally heated house rising, so we forgot the skill (and pleasure) to heat your house with a fire (coal, wood). We buy fully-prepared meals in the supermarket - no longer willing to go to three or four separate shops to buy the ingredients and spend time at home putting them together. Even bread-making at home has been replaced by a machine that does it for you.
Technology takes over, and there are always people that think this is a bad thing. But it's of all times and started before our ancestors decided to walk upright...
I don't have my MT Insight because I'm a gear-shifting control freak, but rather because it was the most efficient non-full-electric vehicle on the road until the Prius Prime. Being in graduate school still, I also don't have funds for anything fancy like a modern-ish Prius :)
I feel like this is a red herring. How often does the computer fail to correctly upshift or downshift in such a way that it affects, say... mileage?
I find that when I drive my vehicle (an automatic transmission Mazda CX5), if I am using the "fake manual" (tiptronic), I tend to drive at a slightly higher rpm. I will sit at 2¼k rpms instead of the computer's preferable 1¾k rpms. I can assume from that that I am indeed burning more fuel (if only marginally)