The demise of manual transmissions?

[FPV+fteT3]

If you own a performance car and want to sell it you will have more interest if its a manual and it will sell for more than an equivalent auto model in most cases.

[ebxr8240]

Originally Posted by GT0132

Fast forward a few years mate - you haven't really driven until you've driven an HQ Kingswood or Belmont 202 with 3 speed manual on the column with bench seat and no power steering...Ahhhh them were the days

HHmmm ?? I used to drive them to Holden dealer . Then pre deliver service them... This was before EFI, OHC,IRS OR RTS..
Big upgrade was syncro in first gear !!! Aha...


I must say... I prefer a manual .. BUT the more power you have the auto is a no brainer... I have two WRX's one auto / one manual..
The auto is our fav one to drive.. Its fitted with STI motor.. BUT its a 95 model.. The other is a manual 07 model.. Good car we drive it mainly interstate .. In this case turbo and auto matches VERY well...
The two Falcons ...
One is V8 & twin turbo FUN to drive but 650 rwhp is not easy getting to the ground...
The new XR6T's get the job done nice with power band on the whole time with little rpm on boost....
I would rather drive than steer though...

[GreenR]

Sadly in my opinion here in Australia it seems manuals are mainly found in 1- trades, work utes, trucks etc 2- all the little hatchbacks and smaller engined cars 3- high end expensive V8s and 6's.

The difficulty of finding a manual when buying my BA falcon was annoying.This isn't helped due to the majority of sales of Falcons and Commodores are fleets and business. oh and taxi's! grrr. Only a few manual XR6's were available around the place for me and all more expensive then their auto counterparts. And not everyone can afford GTs F6's etc (one day though)

With development of technology and auto transmissions the purchasing of manual cars in the overall market is declining. sad but true, remembering reading an article ages ago. I agree with what was mentioned ( sorry forgot who) but ability to drive a manual is a valuable life skill and in my eyes will always gain more credibility than driving auto only.

Thankfully I still have my mums 6sp Nissan Tida to drive occasionally

[04redxr8]

I always buy manuals for work utes. would prefer to buy them as family cars too, but the wife isn't as keen.

I drove a 5 spd XR6 in Canberra last year. This auto had no idea what gear to be in, spent the whole time gear hunting. In sport mode it was better but still not great. In manual mode, it drove correctly.

Cars should not know more than their drivers.

2 negatives I find to modern autos, is that each year another manufacturer adds yet another gear. (What are we up to now, 8???). More gears = more gear hunting = poorer fuel economy (if thats your thing).

The other negative is all the extra components, computers, software, etc, that goes with the modern auto. More and more things to go wrong, more expensive to repair, and less and less places who are capable of doing these repairs.

[Legit290]

when my left foot doesn't work i will get an auto
till then i am a boy racer journalist stuck in 1967

do you drive your auto with both feet and ride the brakes downhill too? does your car sound like a speedboat?

[bingoTE50]

Happy enough with an auto -geez how can I take phone calls ,text ,AND Drive at the same time........well not really ....traffic jams vs manual do not interest me .

[DJM83]

I dont care how good automatics become as long as i can shift the gears myself ill have a stick shift.
Last car i had to have an auto as partner couldnt change gears

[kezzer]

I drive a manual in traffic occasionaly home from work, not hard at all!! I get asked all the time "is ur car auto or manual" you just get heaps more respect from others when your car is a manual.
I tend to get bored/sleepy in auto's, steer + push foot down, not fun in the slightest.

[Franco Cozzo]

I only like manual cars, I don't like auto, they always seem to be in the wrong gear at the wrong time and then laggy to respond to what I want it to do. I drive in traffic and I don't mind the clutch in clutch out 1st/2nd gear.

The only thing I can say is that a Honda Civic "Sport" survived me jamming it into park at 50km/h by accident when I tried to shift its T-bar manually and got excited, pressed in the button and pushed too hard on the shifter, it went all the way from 1 to P. I feel sorry for the person who buys that "Demo", haha.

[Rockape]

I have always had manual V8s untill this last car FG XR6T.. The turbo and the auto go very well together but after 12 months im looking for a manual V8 again.

[ebxr8240]

If you check.. Auto fuel economy is right up there with manuals now...
Late model auto's don't hunt unless there's some thing wrong..
Another.. An auto is far more less maintenance than manuals..
On performance vehicles twin plate clutches etc are NOT cheap to replace !!!

[xy500]

i think the op just wants manuals to disappear because they scare him...
i love the simplicity of a manual, easily serviced without using half a drum of atf!
Without a lockup converter there will always be slippage losses with an auto... making them substandard on an engineering level anyway.

[Grippy]

Originally Posted by xy500

i think the op just wants manuals to disappear because they scare him...
i love the simplicity of a manual, easily serviced without using half a drum of atf!
Without a lockup converter there will always be slippage losses with an auto... making them substandard on an engineering level anyway.

I race a manual car mate, im all for preserving manuals, thats what the thread was about. With the kind of demand there seems to be for manual so far judging by the replies, lets hope they're around forever in new cars

[ebxr8240]

I think new manuals will be far more hi tech.. With different clutch that we are familiar with now...BUT it maybe the other way around cost wise.. A manual maybe $3k extra ?? On a new car...

[Danny]

Originally Posted by glavas

are they gay mates or what?

You'd be pretty surprised d in the real world and saw that there are a lot of gay dudes out there that wear jeans and tee's, overalls, that drive manuals, FPV's and other sports cars, work in the building industry, or do "manly" things like cook BBQ's, eat kangaroo steaks, put up pergolas, lay bricks, and go wakeboarding, or mountain biking, or track their cars on a race day. Thats a pretty offensive and stupid stereotype mate, its what I've typically come to expect from you, you add nothing to these forums with your 1950's insights, nothing. Would you disown your son if he was gay?

Mods will shut a topic for inciting racism or religious intolerance and you pull some stupid comment like that.... It may have been in Jest, but Ford Forums is a wide community, and there ARE gay blokes on FF, just as there are Asians, Italians, Greeks, or Muslims, or Jews, or Americans, or Catholics, or New Zealanders. Bigotry of any type should not have a place here.

Back on topic, I don't think the manual is dying as much as it is becoming a lesser performance altenative. I ummed and ahhh'd non stop for 3 weeks about whether to buy My Golf in DSG or manual, but at the end of the day, I just could not go past the true feel of clutch in clutch out power on, smile like a cheshire cat.

[Ben73]

I love manual...... but I always buy autos.

Reason is I don't like manual when I am driving home from work at 8am after being awake for 24 hours.
And I just generally don't like changing gears all day every day.

If I had a second "weekend" car, It would probably be a manual.

[GreenR]

Originally Posted by Ben73

Reason is I don't like manual when I am driving home from work at 8am after being awake for 24 hours.
.

Really?! I find if I'm tired driving auto is what I wouldn't want to do! requires less concentration and you can be more lazy( just sit there with one arm on the wheel and cruise control)

On the other hand manual keeps me more alert. More concentration required

Maybe others agree?

[el4l]

Originally Posted by Ben73

I love manual...... but I always buy autos.

Reason is I don't like manual when I am driving home from work at 8am after being awake for 24 hours.
And I just generally don't like changing gears all day every day.

If I had a second "weekend" car, It would probably be a manual.

i love manuals and will continue to buy them.
i dont particually like people who stay awake for 24hours at a time than drive so they can have a microsleep and kill my friends and family and becauce they cant concentrate.

[SSD-85]

I don't have a problem with manual transmissions being continually available. Lots of people love them & id hate to see them miss out (as id hate to see autos be gone in the same token).
I can drive stick and I cant stand it, i dont care if that makes me some sort of dont-deserve-a-license, cant drive, blah blah type of person. The slusher will always be my weapon of choice.

[Ben73]

I don't usually do the 24 hour thing. But I have.
Driving in general wakes me up. I could be dead tired at 4am siting down, but then I go and start driving and I'm awake and ready to go.

[Fiesta God]

Good discussion.

Manual sales have remained just as strong in Europe over the last decade ... Asia, Australia and the US seem to increasingly want to buy only automatics, but Europe certainly understands driving.

I actually find driving a manual in heavy traffic better. Sure your leg can get a little sore, but IMO you concentrate far more than you do in an auto, reaction time is faster (because your foot/hand and eyes are attuned to the traffic in front of you and to the car controls more closely) and you pay more attention to what is up ahead.

If you drive a manual in traffic and observe/anticipate what's going on 2-5 cars in front of you, then it's not really much different to driving an auto IMO.

And once you get on an open windy road ... 80km/hr+ ... nothing will EVER replace the pleasure of driving a manual.

The manual transmission will be around as long as cars are manufactured.

[pauljh74]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aU09...7FEB0&index=42

from 0:35
Why manuals are better

[MR.BA.GT.332]

Originally Posted by pottery beige

big cubes + big hp + manual = sex on wheels....

couldnt have said it better myself

[Yaw]

Originally Posted by GT0132

Fast forward a few years mate - you haven't really driven until you've driven an HQ Kingswood or Belmont 202 with 3 speed manual on the column with bench seat and no power steering...Ahhhh them were the days

Or 2 door valliant regal.
One of the smoothest cars I ever drove

Having said that though. I think the "sports shift" auto is a good compramise.
Love it in my Terry.

[Rev28K]

Have a look at Car & Driver's "save the manual" campaign.

Pro -
The manual FPV's are around a second quicker in Motor's winton laptimes.
You always know where you are and have full control of when and where you are shifting.

Cons -
Knock on F1 glamour effect for autos
Poorer emissions and shift speeds
Lamborghini sell more autos than manuals, you can't buy a manual Ferrari California or 458, it's getting harder to get a manual BMW (3 series and 135 excepted). BMW did a manual M5 for the American market and it was by all reports a pain in the bum (don't know if they fiddled the engine tune)
Manufacturer sneakiness - Mutsubishi Evo X choice of 6 speed auto or old 5 speed manual. Lotus and Bolwell use Camry drivelines and had a devil of a time getting manual gearboxes (the new Loti look to be autos).

My next car (tow car) will very likely be an auto (although i have been offered a manual 335 Beemer) but the 3 "track" cars are all manual - 2 light Honda gearboxes (very, very rarely have a problem with the Integra's one) and a Super T-10 4 speed for the V8

[Yaw]

Originally Posted by ebxr8240

I think new manuals will be far more hi tech.. With different clutch that we are familiar with now...BUT it maybe the other way around cost wise.. A manual maybe $3k extra ?? On a new car...

Been there done that. The little Mercedes A class has a manual with no clutch
Very wierd to drive a manual without a clutch

[Bent8]

Manuals are definitely on the way out, why do you think "proper" manuals still only come with 6 gears while we have 8-speed autos and 7-speed DSG's?...

As much as I appreciate the mechanic feel of a manual gearbox, I still prefer my ZF autobox.

[aussie muscle]

I like autos for 'ordinary' driving. i'm not a fan of my BF's sports shift, as it seems so superfluous and unnecessary in most circumstances.

Originally Posted by mrbaxr6t

last time I checked all forms of motorsport use a manual transmission

except drag racing.
i think motorsports will switch over to autos when they can be set up to be faster than manual. i think the only issue is power loss.

[Yellow_Festiva]

Originally Posted by SgtBourne

I'd say expense will keep them around.

I was questioning this myself.

Do the differences in materials and manufacturing processes justify the $2000-$3000 difference in 'cost'?

I wonder what the real cost difference would be, if any at all?

Auto cars are still seen as a premium / luxury addition IMO (especially in Asian / European countries) and as such you pay for the 'privilege' of driving a self shifter.

[rjk74]

I dont know how anyone could buy an auto in anything 2litre and under, when we test drove auto lancers, focus, mazda3 they all seemed sluggish around town. We ended up with 5sp Focus, Missus loves it and for the sake of $2000 Im glad we didnt bother with the auto