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Manual transmission continues to fade: Here's where it sells best and worst

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temple
#21
All this reminds me of my daughter- years ago She learned to drive on an automatic but then I insisted she learn "the devil's lever" also. Soon after we got started she was having all the usual troubles when she blurted "this is so stupid! Who would ever invent such a thing!?" as if automatics came first. Alright, I guess you had to be there... A few years later, she was shopping for her first car of her own, it had to be stick shift. Success.
 


D1JL

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#22
Although I started driving when the "WHEEL" was new, I guess I had it easy.

My first car was a direct drive, engine to axel, no transmission, no clutch.
There was only one peddle for the gas.
The break was hand operated and only slowed me down.
So learning the controls was easy.

My greatest task was learning how to drift.



Dave
 


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Vero Beach
#23
Initially there was a big reason to go manual.
The automatics were (and sometimes still are) finicky, bulky, unreliable for the duration of the car.
Nowadays, this may not be the case anymore, with CVTs.
CVTs cost little, weigh little, and are easy to repair.
They only have 1 con, and that's low highway mileage.
For CVTs to get decent gas mileage, they have to make the engines rev really low at highway speeds.
I've seen 2.0 liter engines run at 1750RPM on the highway, at 75-80MPH! That's insanely low!
It wears out the CVT belt, these ratios.

Anyway, Manual is still the most reliable transmission to date, with many years of proven technology behind the belt.
Automatics are almost there. Give them another 5 years, and they would basically be just as reliable, if not overtaken by a CVT.

City cars work best with CVT. No reason to get a manual car when you're in start stop traffic.
Manuals are great for suburbs (longer 35+ MPH roads), and highways.
I don't know the trend, but in many states, even highways are starting to look like city, with all those traffic jams.

If I had a hybrid, I would be most happy!
A CVT for the first 2 or 3 gears, and the rest manual.
 


Intuit

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#24
Sad trend

https://www.autoblog.com/2018/10/10/manual-transmission-best-worst-places-lists/
……………… Other cities of note in the top 10 trying to keep the manual flame alive include Reno, Albany and Seattle. The steep hills and crowded roads of Seattle have us scratching our heads a little on that one, but there must be enough enthusiasts to ramp up the percentage. ………………..
Well that's an easy one. Automatic transmission reliability suffers under those conditions. Reliability... or lack there-of is the reason I stay away from them. It's like having a whole 'nother engine to maintain. They have a very finite lifespan (here), spend the last 20% of their lives shifting funny, leaving you in constant fear of "will this be the week of tow$$$ and rental$$$$ and outright rape$$$$"? Did I mention they are stupidly expensive to repair and often don't get done right? Replacements are almost always rebuilt junk. Transmissions aren't just plug & play... they had to be tuned and tweaked post installation. (don't know if that's still the case)

Also, kids, kids' parents, mental/physical laziness and perceived decline in free-will are not the reason for the continued decline of manual transmission sales. The driving factor in the past was pricing. You could save a nice chunk of change by not purchasing an automatic transmission. Now the price difference new is negligible. The lockup torque converter coupled with four+ speed transmissions has greatly narrowed the mileage gap; especially considering that most people shift way to high (cause they just want to hear the engine I guess) anyway.

[deviltail]'s Advocate:

If you really pay closer attention, you'll find that most people who are either driving oddly or are making mistakes aren't holding a phone. Once I paid closer attention, most are simply impaired in some way, just don't care and/or aren't exercising patience. But the ones we're more inclined to notice and remember, and therefore talk about, are holding a phone. If someone is dumb enough to impair their driving with a phone, then the phone isn't the problem... the driver is. If the distraction isn't the phone, it will be something else. (make up, the kids/passenger, the burger, the drink, rubber-necking the wreck on the other side of the road, infotainment system, the driver in their rearview mirror, the back of their eyelids, that chick with the big azz, temperature controls, GPS navigation, the cigarette, etc, etc, etcetera...)

I've always driven manuals. Driving a manual has never stopped me from feeling for and picking up then eventually, glancing at my phone. How do I get away with it? Must be lucky right? No. I simply have the common sense and where-with-all to prioritize driving, over any and every possible distraction; including not rubber-necking wrecks and cop-stops on the sides of the roadways. It goes in my left hand and my left hand is somewhere between the 10 and 2 O'clock positions on the steering wheel. Anything that requires more than an appropriately timed quick glance can wait until parked, or at an expectedly long red light. If I'm on unfamiliar roadways, or the conditions and timing aren't ideal, I don't even bother feeling around for it. It just stays where it's at. It's simple common sense. I used to drive-and-text with ease until phones went all touch-screen. No keys to feel around for now. Ah well. We got a voice-to-text button now. [wiggle]
 




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