Mustachian Motoring with a Manual Transmission
Becoming an excellent driver is a truly worthwhile pursuit – for both the added safety and the cash savings it provides. I still remember the the awe I felt towards driving as a young boy when my family went places together. When I was old enough, I’d like to sit up front, next to my Dad, and watch the actual driving take place. Whether we were rolling through the hilly country roads to get down to the beaches of the Great Lakes, or heading home late at night along a big-city freeway, Dad was always there keeping the family save with Excellent Driving, smoothly picking the right lanes, and matching the engine speed to the driving conditions with the Manual Transmission.
It was (and still is) a mystical experience, hearing the sweet mechanical whine of rising RPMs as the fuel hit the engine just as the clutch blended the power out to the wheels, watching the gearshift move back and forth through the slots, magically hitting just the right gear to catch some engine braking down a steep hill, boost the power for a winding ascending curve, or slip into a deep overdrive for an extended traverse through the countryside. From the the 1989 Honda CRX Si in which I learned to drive in 1989 through to the present, my cars (and motorcycles) have always had the Manual.
So you can imagine the way I feel about the current state of affairs, where in the United States less than ten percent of new vehicles are being ordered with the classic 5-or-6-speed. In fact, many of the best-selling US-specific models don’t even offer a manual option, because there aren’t enough drivers who even know how to use them. Instead, vehicles are competing by adding ever-more cup holders, bubbly exterior styling and little automatic features that do everything from closing the doors and trunk for you to managing your collection of strollers and diapers.
These vehicles are like junk food purchased from a convenience store. They are expertly engineered and extremely convenient, but in the long run they are sapping the health from the art of motoring, because they are taking the skill out of it. Because of this trend in the car industry, most people don’t even learn to drive a manual, which in my book means they don’t know how to drive at all.
Even more ridiculous and tragic is when I see my own friends buying automatic transmissions in cars where I know a manual is available. The Honda Civic and Fit, the Subaru Legacy, the Toyota Corolla. These are not cars meant to be outfitted with automatics! Why would you pay more to make the car shittier in every measurable way? There are only two lame excuses – you don’t know how to drive one yet (so learn, by buying a manual and having a friend drive you home in it then teach you) – or you think you drive too much in rush-hour traffic (#1 – manuals are fun in all conditions. #2 – fix your lifestyle immediately so you don’t drive in stop-and-go traffic, addressed by other articles here).
Let’s be clear: I’m a family man, and I’ve got a wife and young boy myself. Like many people, my wife had been raised on automatics, but I helped her break free from this cancerous legacy by teaching her how to drive a real car early on in our relationship. Before committing to marriage. Even back then, I foresaw the difficulties that would arise if we had to share a fleet of vehicles for life, and only one of us could actually drive. An entire lifetime of silly automatics would have to be purchased – just because of one missing skill! So, within a week of that first awkward stuttering start down the road, she was impressively smooth on the manual. Today she has skills like a rally driver. I would advise younger manual drivers to do the same to for their potential mates while they still have the chance.
There are many other benefits to manual transmission expertise besides preserving your motoring expertise. You also get to keep a lot more of your money. An automatic transmission adds about a thousand dollars to the price of a new car. How long does it take you to save up a grand? I’ll bet it’s longer than it would take to become proficient on a manual transmission, which for most people happens with under 8 hours of on-road practice. Over a lifetime of driving, you will save yourself thousands upon thousands of dollars.
Selecting the manual also shaves close to 100 pounds off the weight of your car. Most cars have a power-to-weight ratio of about 20 lbs/horsepower. So you are effectively adding 5 horsepower to your vehicle by unhooking the equivalent of a large bag of concrete mix from the undercarriage. A lighter car also handles better and gets better gas mileage. With an understanding of internal combustion engines, you can keep the engine under higher load and lower RPMs during parts of your drive when an automatic would automatically go into a torque-slipping downshift . You are also liberated from the towtruck or the jumper cables if you ever leave your lights on in the parking lot and return to a dead battery, thanks to the “Bump Start” technique which is possible in manuals but not automatics. I’m not sure how many times I have thankfully bump-started manual cars and motorcycles over the years, but it is surely over a hundred.
You also get longevity. Automatic transmissions, with their incredible mass of gears, fluids, and computers, tend to wear out or malfunction before the rest of the car, and cost thousands to replace. A manual, if driven properly and maintained only very occasionally, can last a lifetime. In 2005, a friend of mine lent me his 1984 Nissan pickup truck. It still worked perfectly and the loan period ended up being almost six years. Last month I returned it to him, still in perfect working order, and shifting just as smoothly as the day it rolled off the line 27 years ago.
So it’s time for us all to celebrate manual transmission cars. If you already drive one, congratulations! If you don’t, be sure that the next car you purchase is manual if at all possible. Electric cars and Priuses don’t come with manuals, and the model of minivan I use for construction was unfortunately never made with one, but luckily the most appropriate cars for YOU out there are mostly available with manuals. Fuel-efficient Honda, Toyota, and Subaru wagons and hatchbacks, bought on the used market, with manual transmissions. Ahh.. proper motoring, done in moderation.
But beyond all of these practical benefits, the Manual Transmission makes me happy because I can already see my own son starting to watch me shift as we drive, and copying the motions as he sits in the driver’s seat shifting himself when the car is parked. Another real driver is in the making.
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Mr. Money Mustache is a family man living in the United States who retired from work, relatively wealthy, at about age 30. After several years of retirement, he noticed that his still-working peers were envious of his lifestyle. They were making more money than he ever had, yet they were somehow still broke. So he decided to write this blog to educate the world on how it is done.
Amen. After driving stick, an automatic is just boring.
I was taught how to drive manual, but physically I CANNOT because of a very bad knee injury to my left leg when I was in high school. I know how to drive one, but to drive one longer than a few minutes makes it so that I cannot walk for 2 days.
Some of us just don’t have the option of Manual. HOWEVER, biking HELPS my knee, so I just bike it wherever I can. I started biking because my DOCTOR it, and it helps a lot. :)
Just throwing this out as a reminder that Manual transmissions are not feasible for everyone.
I was shocked when I took my first fly-drive vacation in the US at the dire fuel consumption of an automatic compact. I know the US gallon is smaller than the Imperial gallons I am used to in the UK, but the frequent need to refuel was very perceptible. The low cost of gas in the States meant it wasn’t a shock to the wallet, but the loss of range on a tank of gas was I ended up having to coast a lot after crossing the Sierra mountain range to eke out the last reserves of fuel, as fuel consumption seemed to be particularly awful on steep grades.
It is news to me that manual transmissions even exist in the US ;) I’d have requested one at the hire place if I had known. I congratulate you on swimming against the tide!
It’s actually pretty rare to find a manual at car rental (hire) places here in the states. About as rare as it is to find an automatic for rent in Europe.
Many men tried to teach me to drive standard in the past (two boyfriends and my dad), but it was never long before the frustration built-up, the shouting erupted, and the lessons came to a halt. But when my fiance and I moved outside the range of public transit, it was either learn standard or never leave the house on my own. Happily my fiance figured out a way to teach me that I responded better to, and it took less than 8 hours of lessons to take me from “Three pedals, two feet, what?!” to zipping around the city on my own.
I love driving standard and I must admit I feel a little superior to every driver I see not rolling back a little at an intersection, and solidarity with those who do. I feel like a slightly better environmentalist too.
If you get fancy with using your foot on both the gas & brake as needed and/or using the e-brake you can actually drive a stick without rolling back on a hill. Granted this is slightly bad for gas usage as you’ll be gassing the car with braking force applied, but sometimes rolling back is a bad idea. People who don’t know how to park behind you on a hill, or vehicles rolling right up behind you on a steep hill for instance.
That is actually bad advice… There are two ways to do this without some foot acrobatics that may lead to your foot slipping off both pedals:
1. On small slopes, gently release clutch until it grips. Release foot from brake, apply gas and further release clutch. Works even better with a Diesel (I’ve only bought diesels in my life)
2. On steeper hills, use the handbrake. Give gas to about 1300rpm, release clutch until you feel pull on car, then release handbrake and off you go. Works on as steep a hill as you want.
> A lighter car also handles better and gets better gas mileage.
A true statement in general, but a manual getting better MPG than an automatic is not a certain truth. Consider the Honda Civic: the sticker highway fuel economy is 3MPG better than it’s manual counterpart. In the past, it was common to see a 4-speed auto option on a 5-speed manual base model. But today even 6-speed auto transmissions can be had. I’d think that the larger availability of gears is more of a factor in fuel economy than the type of transmission.
EPA stickers don’t mean much if you really know how to drive.
You can hypermile a stick shift much more than you can an automatic.
I couldn’t find Canadian numbers, but I suspect the same dismal performance up here. Like you, however, Manual Transmission operation was one of the Required Skills for the mate selection process.
I understand that the new CVT automatics are more efficient than the Olde Fashionede ones, but I’m pretty sure they still add mass to the car and – perhaps more importantly – permit people who really don’t know what’s going on to think that they know how drive.
If I had my way, drivers would be forced to take the final step of their graduated licensing in a car with a real gear shift.
Also: you’ve bump started vehicles hundreds of times? You must have a style of driving and car maintenance distinctly different from mine.
Yeah, I estimated more than a hundred times based on this breakdown: Original dirt bike back in 1990 which was often run on steep terrain and was easier to bump start than kick start: 50%. Kawasaki motorcycle 1991-1999 which occasionally had a dead battery: 20%. Honda Motorcycle 2001-2008: 10%. Cars and old pickup trucks:20%.
Well a dirt bike would explain a large number of bump starts. I think I had to do it two or three times with the CBR and once when I had a Sunbird. My cars since have never had that particular problem.
I wonder if I could bump start the riding lawn mower. It’s got a dead battery that I usually boost off the car. I’m pretty sure it won’t start while it’s not in park though.
I can attest to most people not being able to drive.
Most do not even use their turn signal, trusting them to actually shift gears would be catastrophic!
I learned when I was 16 so I could test drive small trucks, but haven’t done it for years. Mostly because the better half in my relationships couldn’t or didn’t want to learn.
I don’t always drive a motor vehicle, but when I do, I prefer a manual.
Stay shifty, my friends.
Modern cars do more than shift and open and close the locks, windows, sliding doors and trunk for you.
Quite a few models, already trickling down from luxury to mid-range cars, will adjust cruise control speed based on the distance to the car ahead of you and automatically correct the steering if you start to drift out of your lane.
Put those two together, and it won’t be long until we start hearing the first cases of people deliberately taking naps on long drives, trusting the car to drive itself.
Given modern drivers’ behavior, I can’t figure out if I think this is a good thing or a bad thing.
Certainly the best possible way to improve auto safety – assuming human drivers – would be to replace the drivers airbag in the steering wheel with a large steel spike pointed directly at the chest of the driver
Because the vast majority of “accidents” were driver error and actually totally avoidable; and if people did not have the illusion of safety that a steel cage, seat belts, and airbags provide, they would be less inclined to speed, drive recklessly, talk on cell phones, etc.
But a fleet of fully automatic robot cars would probably end traffic accidents, increase mileage, and reduce traffic jams, all while getting people where they needed to be slightly faster overall.
Then it will just be us few holdouts who don’t want to spend the money on a robot car and actually enjoy being engaged in the art of driving.
We also prefer manual transmissions! But then we got a Prius, and that is automatic by design, I guess. And sadly, minivans don’t come in manuals, either. :( But, I can tell you, when our kids learn to drive, it will be on a manual!
I learned to drive on an ’84 Jeep with manual transmission. It was fun and I enjoyed it. The skill came in handy when a friend was moving and he was loaned a farm truck with a manual transmission. I was the only one that knew how to drive one. lol
Re: robot cars, I kind of like the idea. For long distance road travel, I would rather have someone else or a “robot” drive and free up my time to read, watch the sights roll by, or work on a project on my laptop. But for in town, I admit that I think I’d prefer to drive by my own hand.
For long distance travel, the most energy efficient methods (bus and train) allow you to use the time to read or nap or however else you want to use your time.
Dude, now how am I gonna be texting if I am trying to drive a dang manual tranny? Not for me.
Haha.. nice. You should only really get into texting once you are up to full interstate speed, thus the car is safely in the highest gear and you don’t need to shift ;-)
Another benefit of driving a “stick”…built in anti-theft system. Since so few of the general population knows how to drive one, I suspect most car thieves would pass on by my Civic Hybrid and keep looking for an automatic. :)
For what it’s worth I did bump start an automatic once. I didn’t think it was possible but this young woman with us said it was a sure thing. (I was the closing manager and everyone was relying on me for a ride.)
It was a 1976 Plymouth Grand Fury. We turned the key to “On”, put it in neutral, started it rolling, got it going a bit and pulled it down to drive and after a couple back and forth jerks it was running. Less jerking than I expected if I remember right…
I learned on a manual and every single car I have personally owned was a manual. I don’t own a car currently, but if I did, it would be manual. When I was teenager with a permit, my parents taught me to drive manual and that’s all I knew. Then, when I was in the required Driver’s Ed class in high school, there were only automatics. No one told me that an automatic transmission will start moving when you simply take your foot off of the brake. You don’t even have to press the gas pedal…if the car is in drive, it will start to slowly move…especially if on a downward incline, however slight. Well, the DE car did this. It freaked me completely out. I panicked and tried to stop the car–by hitting the brake and attempting to downshift. That downshift involved hitting the non-existent clutch, which in this stupid automatic was the GAS PEDAL. I wrecked the driver’s ed car on the road right next to my school, during 6th period, which was when the entire football team was on the field for practice. They saw the whole thing. I got a standing ovation. I hate automatic transmissions.
Excellent story.
I know I’m a bit late to the thread, but did you also mention decreased maintenance costs in general by owning a manual? I can do almost any maintenance on my little Ranger by myself because I can pinpoint any issues based on how it’s acting, which is hard for me in an automatic.
Also, it’s not necessarily cheaper to buy a manual transmission in the US. Where we live, we actually have to pay more for a manual unless you find a great deal. Not sure on the reasoning, however.
When gas prices went up, I started developing many theories about how to use a manual transmission to save gas. This involves timing lights by watching walk signals, left turn arrows, general traffic movement, etc in order to never stop at a light. With a manual transmission, if you realize a light will be red at your current rate of speed, put that baby in neutral and coast the half mile until the light turns green. I am always shocked at people speeding past me just so they can slam on their breaks at a red light.
Second thing to save gas is always coast in neutral down hills.
Lastly, if you do get stuck behind a long suburbia light, shut your car off. That is what the hybrids do. Why can’t we.
Using these techniques, my 2008 Scion XB which is rated at 28 highway MPG can reach 40 MPG with combined city highway driving. That takes a lot of mental work but it keeps me alert to driving rather than talking on my cell phone.
“Second thing to save gas is always coast in neutral down hills.”
Depends on the size of the hill, and the speed you want to be going.
If its a really big long hill, and you are speeding up past the speed limit, you should stay in gear. Most modern cars (and I know this for sure about the Scion) will stop the fuel flow if the car is coasting above a certain RPM and you take your foot off the gas, but it only works in gear.
Its called deceleration fuel cut off
It’s definitely worth learning as much about your car as possible.
In Scandinavia (less traffic and better drivers there) I can get my old 1985 Saab 900 turbo down to 7 liters per 100 km, which is next to impossible here in Germany. Which leads us to two factors that are much more important than the decision whether to coast down a hill in neutral or using deceleration shut-off (which can make a difference, but larger gains can be made elsewhere): traffic conditions and the ability to read them.
If I were to give only a single advice, this would be it: Drive as if you rode a bike. Look ahead, conserve momentum.
(Unlike many other hypermiling techniques, this is fully valid with an automatic transmission or even – God beware! – an electric car.)
Once you reach that stage, move on to the next level of hypermiling. But this is the very foundation.
Next step: Set your car’s board computer to display instant fuel consumption.
On older cars, use your rpm meter and the boost control gauge for feedback and adjust your right foot accordingly.
Keep in mind that higher loads at lower rpm are more fuel efficient than lighter loads at higher rpm – until a certain threshold: than your fuel injection starts to enrich the mixture.
On turbos, try to walk the small edge between vacuum and boost. On naturally aspirated engines, stay clear of full throttle. On older cars without electronic throttle body, open the bonnet/hood and, with engine off and open windows, depress the accelerator pedal. Somewhere around 62 degrees you will hear a very faint “click”, which is a micro switch telling your ecu to ignore the lambda sond and just fucking throw in all gasoline available.
That’s what you don’t want to happen. On a more modern car, your board computer will show a rapid jump in instant fuel consumption at this point.
One small caveat: because a gasoline engine regulates throttle by restricting air flow, part of the engine’s force goes to sucking in air. This is referred to as pumping losses. The one time this doesn’t occur is under full throttle.
Therefor – assuming you have a gas engine – it actually is efficient to put the pedal to the floor.
Of course, this doesn’t work with an automatic, because the transmission will shift down, and increasing RPMs takes away any efficiency gains.
And most important of all, this trick is ONLY helpful if you actually need to accelerate in the first place. In other words, its a good idea if you are getting onto a freeway on ramp, but a terrible idea if you are going from one stop light to another red light a few blocks away.
Thanks Bakari. That is great to know.
I’m not new to driving, but I must admit I have no clue what a bump start is. Plus, the only manual transmission vehicle I ever owned was a 1979 Chevrolet 1 ton. It wasn’t bad to drive, but I found it horrible for stalling when trying to drive from parked after sitting through a snowstorm. Having the snow freeze to ice or hard snow seemed to create enough of a barrier that the truck kept stalling whenever i wanted to drive away in first gear. An automatic would have had no such trouble. Standard transmissions are outdated for a reason and should be obsolete.
A bump start only works with a manual. Its where you turn the key on, get the car rolling (by physically pushing it), and then push in the clutch, shift into a high gear, and drop the clutch quickly, there-by turning the engine over without using the starter. Its a nice option to have when your battery is dead or your starter solenoid is broken.
Not to insult you personally – there is definitely a steep learning curve to driving a stick perfectly – but stalling is at least 95% caused by user error. If the wheels were frozen, you need to let the clutch out much more slowly. If they are spinning, you should start in 2nd gear.
A manual is cheaper up front, requires less maintenance, lasts longer, is cheaper to repair, gets better fuel mileage, forces you to pass attention to your driving, gives you more control over the vehicle (have you ever tried drifting, racing, or stunt driving in an automatic? it sucks).
Standard transmissions are only outdated in the US, and the reason is because Americans are lazy and think everything should be easy. Its nearly impossible to find manual steering on a new car anymore, even though power steering is the 2nd most pointless use of energy to facilitate laziness (after the escalator) ever devised.
Wow, I couldn’t agree more!
I’ve had nothing but manuals all my life and I think it is one reason my husband fell in love with me, he’d never known a woman to drive a manual before. My previous manual had an electrical problem which caused it to not start periodically – I just made sure I parked on a hill if possible – and always with the nose pointed out :) My current manual is a 2000 Toyota Corolla I got for a very decent price in 2002 because few people wanted it! Corollas are the best ever – but I’ve never tried a Scion hatchback, so I may be wrong.
All of my husband’s guy friends are jealous because I like driving a manual. We have a Honda Civic and a Kia Forte right now. We are on the market for a reliable manual family car that will fit three kids under 4 years old in the back. Any suggestions – since it seems like minivans are all automatic?
You’ve probably bought your car by now, but a wagon is probably your best bet. They have more cargo space than most mini vans, plenty of rear-seat room (although, really, it’s hard to find a car that won’t fit three 4-year-olds in the back), and they’re pretty much all available in manual. I drive a standard transmission 1999 Subaru Outback with 200,200 miles on it. Runs great. Doesn’t get great fuel mileage (~20mpg) unless you’re using the hypermiling techniques mentioned in the comments here and in the MMM article written on the subject (~30mpg), but that doesn’t matter as much when you do most of your getting around on foot and by bicycle.
My favorite are the fancy sport cars with automatic transmissions. What’s the point of a fancy car if you can’t even drive it correctly?
Amen.
At 24, I’m still on my first car–a ’98 Honda Civic EX 2-door, 5-speed manual.
When you’re 16 and you want to go meet your friends at the movies, and your options are to a) learn to drive your stick-shift car and show up looking cool or b) borrow your mom’s minivan, you learn to drive stick REAL fast.
8 years later I still love that car, and I’ve put about 75k miles on it. It has quite a few nicks and dents it didn’t have when I got it, and even a nice gang tag scratched into a rear window from when I lived near the University as well as a lovely key mark down the driver’s side. I don’t care a whit. I will drive it until the doors fall off and then I’ll get another small, used, 5-speed Honda. :-)
Even though I probably paid a little too much for the car at the time ($8k), I have owned it for so long the purchase price is hardly even relevant at this point. More relevant is that it still gets roughly 30 mpg even in the summer with the AC cranked to max and not driving very conservatively. If I drive carefully I can get ~35 mpg.
I feel the same way. My very first car was an automatic, but I got a really old Corolla (it was carbureted!) and learned to drive manual on that car. 20 year old car and could still peel out with ease. ;)
Thing is, in 20 more years or so once the fleet starts moving over to electric en masse, both manuals and automatics as we know them will be part of history.
I personally love manual transmissions in numerous ways, and I love what I have learned to make them do.
However, I’m getting the point where I’m likely to end up purchasing a vehicle, and at the moment I lean heavily towards a plug-in hybrid. Unfortunately, to the best of my knowledge, that limits my choices to automatic transmissions only.
Actually, check out the Honda CR-Z. To my knowledge it’s the only hybrid that currently has a manual transmission option. When I achieve FI I am getting one!
Interesting, but not the same thing. Specifically looking for a plug-in hybrid, or in other words, an electric vehicle that happens to have a gas motor available for long-distance plugless travel.
Not sure if it’s worth the effort and overhead costs. But just thought that I’d mention plug-in conversion kits for hybrids which exist and I believe cost a couple thousand dollars.
My first car was/is a red 90 crx HF. I still drive it.(16 ,years now) It has an si engine now. The original lasted 305,xxx miles. I have fixed everything on it myself, and my wifes 98 accord is very similar I can fix Everything on that one as well. Accord is a stick too. older hondas are so easy to work on.
Not sure if I agree with your assessment of automatics making cars shittier in every measurable way — at least not the most recent “automatic” transmissions. I.E. a CVT in a Nissan Versa or a dry clutch transmission like the six-speed in my Ford Fiesta. It’s essentially a computer monitored, clutched and shifted manual. To me they’re a better solution because they eliminate human error — and this is coming from a guy that learned to drive in a five speed, two range grain truck in rural Saskatchewan. Thoughts?
Right on MMM! Another huge plus with a standard transmission is more options when driving in poor snowy or icy conditions. By shoving the clutch in you immediately disconnect power to the drive wheels thus rolling over the icy surface with much more grip and control. With an automatically power is still being applied to the drive wheels while you’re applying the brakes to slow down resulting in the car trying to go forward while you’re trying to stop it the same time and this does not go well on ice.
We have a manual 2010 Outback and a 2012 Legacy CVT–the CVT gets better gas mileage than the manual option, although the CVT costs 1000 more than the manual. We’ve always had one auto and one manual–both kids learned to drive manuals and now drive them, so your point is well taken.
However, a good CVT now is more efficient than the manual option, although we’re getting in the Outback close to what it was rated for with the CVT. Maybe a good engine or the fact that it’s mostly driven on the highway where the overdrive 5th gear is close to or as efficient as the CVT.
To the Mom query above, a lowend Outback manual is a viable option; lots of room in the back.
Yeah, I can’t argue that the CVT is in theory a little better, especially if it is programmed to take the RPMs really low on the highway, and maybe even coast when the power is off at low speed instead of engine braking. I wonder what a direct back-to-back with an experienced hypermiler would yield? $1000 is a big price premium though!
My mustache is quite small and I cannot even compare to your level, but I must say I completely fucking agree with the manual transmission. I will only buy a manual car, so simple. Think of the savings over the life of the car in terms of maintenance and fuel savings. OMG why would you honestly buy an automatic. it is so silly
it’s worth noting that you can buy a Honda Metropolitan for $2,000 new, and that includes a CVT. I get 117 mpg. Not an option for everyone, but it’s certainly hard to argue that it’s an extravagance. :) Anyway, given that you need to be hyper-vigilant on two wheels, I personally feel much safer knowing that I don’t have to devote mental energy towards shifting as well.
(FWIW, you can of course get a much better deal buying used, but this was my first ever motor vehicle and I didn’t know what to look for. My next one will be used. Hopefully that won’t be for 10+ years!)
CRX = super bad ass car. why’d Honda stop making it?
Sticks are fun to drive but get really lame really fast in urban traffic. Pain in the left knee prompted me to learn “speed shifting” (not using the clutch). I’ve seen some comments above about not being a real driver if you can’t drive a ‘manual’: can you shift w/out the clutch?
Few things are more satisfying than smoothly starting the car on a slope by popping the clutch in 2nd gear. Used to do that whether it was needed or not :)
The newer cvt transmissions are getting pretty damn good…
Google is perfecting a car that has successfully driven itself all over the country, I suspect self piloted cars will be long gone in our lifetime. 5 years of observing Seattle drivers has me thinking this will be an improvement :/
Hi Mustachian pals!
I just found this at Neatorama, and it made me remember this post.
I hope that you enjoy it!
http://www.king5.com/news/stick-shift-cars-to-keep-teens-off-phone-206533451.html
Want to hear something crazy? I’m a dairy farmer so I drive tractors near daily. What kind of transmission is in my 2WD pickup? Automatic. You’d think a farmer would be driving nothing but a stick but for some reason by the time I learned to drive all the vehicles around the farm were automatic. I’ve had the itch to get a manual for years but never made the plunge. Thanks to the words of this site and forums I’ll upgrade (yes, I consider “downsizing” upgrading) to a nice, small used car.
I used to drive manual. Loved it. Now I have a fully paid for Nissan Leaf EV and I haven’t been to a gas station since June 2011!!!! :)
EVs don’t have shifters but the Leaf has a little paddle shifter to go from ECO to normal and you can rocket off by going into normal and it feels like driving a manual in that respect (the motion of you arm and hand)
An EV is a mustachian way to go – just buy a used one not new like I did… but it’s all paid for and I intend to drive it until its wheels fall off.
Zero maintenance too! :) (no oil – a lot of the braking is done with regen on the motor so less wear on brakes)
The only unknown is how long the battery lasts – I’ll be sure to let you know. Still going strong with 99% capacity after 2 years. :)
Hello there from overseas.
It´s always great fun reading about americans and the inability to drive a floor-shift (like the lady commenting about being “just unable”). Unimaginable that something that simple drives a grown up to give up on trying!…
Besides that I wondered if MMM was really right with the maths here. I think he is, but not because of the arguments given, but because of the fact that newer cars are that much more expensive, that you´d have to drive it eternally to compensate for the money spent.
From an european point of view, it´s much more simple. Our most modern six gear-automatics which have to gears engaged all times shift more econonomic than any human ever could. And one can choose the type of riding wanted: sportive, ecological, comfortable.
Besides that there ist a point with bump starting. With state of the art batteries I did not have to do that for about ten years, so i find that neglectible.
Modern cars furthermore come with start-stop-automatic, savin fuel at every traffic light. And, in Europe, where there´s so much communting-traffic, a floor-shift is annoying while going stop-n-go to or fro work. Plus it gets ruined faster than 120.000 km because it simply wears faster.
So it boils – for me – down to: Better is a new automatic: Newer, more efficient though heavier than floor-shift, more comfortable. But: It probably won´t compete – because you´d have to invest first – with your old car. Check your tire pressure, learn, when to shift properly and drive your old car into sundown! Unless its an old american 4-gear automatic. That you can good hearted dump or better – change for an floor-shift of equal age.