What The Automatic Transmission Has Done To Us

[pcosmar]

 

[AFPVet]

A manual isn't hard to drive lol. What I find pretty cool are the dual/wet clutch manual transmissions which don't have a manual clutch... instead, they use two internal clutches to disengage/engage the power. Typically, dual clutch transmissions are found on exotic cars with paddle shifters.

 

[MelissaWV]

That's what made cars such a romantic device and driving, a thrill.

Because they were a quantum leap forward in transportation, something that had not been seen in 30,000 years.

Now, in less than 100 years, they have become passé, items of utilitarian efficiency, with about as much romance and thrill involved as a toaster or washing machine. And no more skill needed to operate either one.

No one will be singing rock and roll songs about their self driving Prius people pod.

I feel the same way about Blu-Ray.

 

[Anti Federalist]

A manual isn't hard to drive lol. What I find pretty cool are the dual/wet clutch manual transmissions which don't have a manual clutch... instead, they use magnets I believe to disengage/engage the clutch. Typically, dual clutch transmissions are found on exotic cars with paddle shifters.

If I'm not mistaken, they don't have a "clutch" at all, but rather a variable "grab" torque converter type of arrangement.

Or maybe both...I have not had the pleasure of poking around underneath or on top of a Bugatti Veyron.

Speaking of VW, they make a "DSG" or Direct Shift Gearbox, which really is nothing more than a computer and solenoid controlled manual transmission.

 

[AFPVet]

If I'm not mistaken, they don't have a "clutch" at all, but rather a variable "grab" torque converter type of arrangement.

Or maybe both...I have not had the pleasure of poking around underneath or on top of a Bugatti Veyron.

Here's a good article on how they work

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/dual-clutch-transmission1.htm

Speaking of VW, they make a "DSG" or Direct Shift Gearbox, which really is nothing more than a computer and solenoid controlled manual transmission.

Yes, that's a dual clutch tranny (or what they call them)... pretty cool!

 

[specsaregood]

//

 

[malkusm]

Well, I agree and I disagree. As a math person I'd liken the automatic transmission to the calculator/computer. You can do most of the math you want to do with a calculator or a computer these days. And in the grand scheme of things, that's fantastic. We're doing things mathematically and computationally that would have been unheard of just a couple decades ago. So I wouldn't classify these things as "evil" which I think this author does a bit too much of.

However, this part rings true:

Now, automatics are not per se evil. In the same way that Ben & Jerry’s is not evil. But if Ben & Jerry’s is all you eat, there might be a problem. Just as it’s a problem if all you’ve ever driven – and all you know how to drive – is an automatic.

You should be able to do arithmetic and even some algebra without the use of a machine. Doesn't make the machine evil, but you're a better person knowing how to do it. (Calculus might be too much although I advocate everyone at least understand what it is conceptually ).

Full disclosure...drove a stick shift from age 15-23. Bought that car with 105,000 miles on it already and put another 85,000 on it...still ran like a dream and sold it for half of what I bought it for 8 years later.

 

[mad cow]

I'll admit I really like having an auto if I'm stuck creeping forward in a construction zone.

Uphill...

 

[amy31416]

Yah, I had to drive one around san fran many times. I taught my wife to drive stick when we were living in the carib, we got an old beater Toyota with no power steering, no power brakes, no power windows and manual transmission (like all the other vehicles down there). So she had to get used to driving stick for the first time as well as doing without all that; plus foreign driving rules and foreigners cursing at her every time she stalled it out. she learned, she hated it; but she learned and she didn't run into any wild donkeys either.

She's a keeper.

 

[Brian4Liberty]

Suck it up! Try driving a stick through Pittsburgh or San Francisco.

I have only owned manual transmission vehicles. Have two of them today. At the same time, San Francisco really does suck with a manual...

 

[Brian4Liberty]

Beginner drivers are a real nightmare.

Trying living in a place where a high percentage of the drivers are brand new adult drivers from another country where they never learned to drive, and/or were used to very different driving practices. Things like coming to a near stop in the fast lane of a 5 lane freeway because they are missing their exit, and crossing all of the lanes of traffic at a crawl, with cars whizzing by at 75 mph (same thing at any speed on any multi-lane roadway). Or coming to a complete stop at the end of a long freeway on-ramp, and turning on their blinker to wait for a "break" in the freeway traffic so they can merge from a dead stop. Many of them take that Maximum Speed limit seriously, so seriously they often go 10 mph under the posted speed.

 

[eduardo89]

lol, why do Americans make such a big deal out of manual transmissions? You guys realize you're the only country in the world where they aren't the norm? Well and Canada, but that hardly counts as a country.

And calling it an art? That's just pathetic...17 year old girls can drive manual cars...its not like its something difficult.

 

[Carson]

A manual isn't hard to drive lol. What I find pretty cool are the dual/wet clutch manual transmissions which don't have a manual clutch... instead, they use two internal clutches to disengage/engage the power. Typically, dual clutch transmissions are found on exotic cars with paddle shifters.

If I'm not mistaken, they don't have a "clutch" at all, but rather a variable "grab" torque converter type of arrangement.

Or maybe both...I have not had the pleasure of poking around underneath or on top of a Bugatti Veyron.

Speaking of VW, they make a "DSG" or Direct Shift Gearbox, which really is nothing more than a computer and solenoid controlled manual transmission.

Paddle shifters could bring back some of the fun in driving.

Remember when we could push our cars to start them?

 

[HVACTech]

lol, why do Americans make such a big deal out of manual transmissions? You guys realize you're the only country in the world where they aren't the norm? Well and Canada, but that hardly counts as a country.

And calling it an art? That's just pathetic...17 year old girls can drive manual cars...its not like its something difficult.

that sounds like your torque converter is locked up. insert two anti-azzhat pills, up the tailpipe and call... someone in the morning.

 

[heavenlyboy34]

lol, why do Americans make such a big deal out of manual transmissions? You guys realize you're the only country in the world where they aren't the norm? Well and Canada, but that hardly counts as a country.

And calling it an art? That's just pathetic...17 year old girls can drive manual cars...its not like its something difficult.

Why do you think all Americans make a big deal of manual transmissions?

 

[fisharmor]

This skill was eliminated from license requirements quite a while before my time. I've never driven a manual or even had reason to study one.

Oh... for.... where are you? If you were anywhere close to Virginia I'd hunt you down and make you learn it. It irritates the shit out of me when smart people I know don't know how to drive a stick.

Well, I agree and I disagree. As a math person I'd liken the automatic transmission to the calculator/computer.

...But the stark difference is that the number of times I've rolled my self out of a snowbank with a stick positively dwarfs the number of times I've had to deal with floating point arithmetic discrepancies. By like a factor of 100. (Plus or minus 0.00000004.)

lol, why do Americans make such a big deal out of manual transmissions? You guys realize you're the only country in the world where they aren't the norm? Well and Canada, but that hardly counts as a country.

And calling it an art? That's just pathetic...17 year old girls can drive manual cars...its not like its something difficult.

I make a big deal out of it because I know how to drive and so few other people here do. I had it down before I was 16, and that was with mostly instruction from my mother in the form of "Gas. GAS. GAAAAAS!!!!!!!! Dammit, CLUTCH!!! GAS!!!!!"

I own two sticks and one auto and the only reason I don't own three sticks is because no company sells anything in stick in the US that I can lay a 4x8 sheet of material down flat in.

 

[VIDEODROME]

Noobs

 

[Henry Rogue]

Noobs

Isn't the green handled stick just a high and low range, like on a tractor?

 

[Natural Citizen]

Remember when we could push our cars to start them?

Heh. Yep.

 

[mosquitobite]

Why do you think all Americans make a big deal of manual transmissions?

Probably because he's watched The Amazing Race.