The death of the stick shift

[RoryN]

We get a lot of postings about EVs on the PB, so I'm putting this article here for discussion:

https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/27/opin...l-cars-electric-pollution-hockenos/index.html

Opinion: The long overdue death of the stick shift car

My opinion on it:

1. I'm a fan of EVs, and not because of environmental impacts. Current (pun) problems aside, they will have far more advantages to gas cars in the future.

2. This article is a...surprisingly dumb take. For so, so many reasons. I hope he gets a thousand women writing in, calling him an idiot. (And seriously, how to tell someone you've never driven in freezing rain when you've obviously never driven in freezing rain..)

 

[jomar]

I’ve long thought the move to front wheel drive takes the fun out of driving in the snow

 

[RoryN]

I’ve long thought the move to front wheel drive takes the fun out of driving in the snow

Well, yes - there's driving for fun, and driving to get shit done. But both have their place.

The author's premise that a stick shift is nothing more than alpha male romanticism is just flat-out stupid.

 

[Greylag]

Try driving in the UK mostly stick shift! I can flit between one and the other easy peasy.

 

[adrina]

What a fucking dumbass writer.

I loved driving my stick shift. Still miss it. The only time it sucked was when traffic was slow.

 

[KeithD]

Although I learned on a stick shift, I eventually lost the ability to do the pedaling required and am happy for everything to go to automatic. As far as EVs, until the recharge coverage and the range on a charge improve, I'm not interested. Have been including a hybrid in our vehicle holdings for a couple of decades, though.

 

[wizzard426]

The difference between men and women. Ball bearings and a stick shift!

 

[RoryN]

The difference between men and women. Ball bearings and a stick shift!

The difference between boys and men: your posts (boy) vs. ours.

 

[BabyBoomer50s]

I learned to drive in an old Rambler with 3 speed on the column and my first two cars I purchased new had 5 speed sticks. Manual shifting keeps the driver more engaged and preserves brake life. It’s been years since I’ve had a vehicle with a manual clutch and I’ve gotten used to automatic transmissions. But now some of the new cars have push button automatics that I fucking hate!

 

[Astrotrain]

"Only a little boy starts his car by turning the key in the ignition, a real man gets out of the car and manually cranks the engine like back in the good old days because he's not a fucking pussy!"

It's obsolete technology, and it's way past time for it to be put out to fucking pasture.

 

[RoryN]

It's obsolete technology

1. Not true.

2. If it were, sooooooo many analogies to be made which would also shut you down. But I'm not going to bother.

Unsurprisingly, already some reaction:

CNN’s Anti-Manual-Transmission Article Is Just Total Garbage

https://www.theautopian.com/cnns-anti-manual-transmission-article-is-just-total-garbage/

 

[Fuzzy1975]

My truck's a manual, and I guess I have to use that term now. In my youth it was a "standard transmission". I guess automatic is the new "standard"....

 

[RoryN]

Some are mentioning that this piece is really just clickbait. I'm now inclined to agree.

 

[jomar]

Well, yes - there's driving for fun, and driving to get shit done. But both have their place.

…

The two are far from mutually exclusive

 

[PaxNurgle]

(wow, finally, an intelligent discussion with halfway intelligent people...seriously thanks guys. Even you, 'Arpywizard.)

I prefer stick shift vehicles for the following reasons: Driving on dirt/mountain roads, and keeping speed under control when driving through school zones. The former, allows engine breaking and better control when climbing steep pitches, and the latter, makes it easier to maintain a certain speed without exceeding it. In both cases, second gear is your friend. With an automatic, the vehicle may want to jump gears on you when you don't really wish it to. I've always owned standard (Stick/Clutch) shift vehicles ever since I learned to drive.

 

[Fullygrownbrat]

I’ve owned 3 cars. All of them have been manuals. I get annoyed at how hard they are to find outside of a sports car. I feel like it connects you to the engine more and you notice when things are “off” faster than in an automatic.

 

[PaxNurgle]

Exactly my thoughts as well. With a manual you have better control and relationship between the engine RPM'S and the speed of the car, and you have the ability to torque down (that is, downshift for higher RPMS for lower speeds, helping you on climbs) or up.

 

[Lady2020]

I had to learn to drive a stick bc my husband's (at the time) truck was a stick. I developed an aberration to sticks after I found out he deliberately wrecked the truck. I was home with the baby when he thought it was cool to smoke some pot, then deliberately drive fast in rain then take a curve fast. I found that out months later. By this time he had been using my car for months to work while I was stuck at home. Which triggered the divorce.

 

[RobDownSouth]

I’ve long thought the move to front wheel drive takes the fun out of driving in the snow

The first time I drove up a steep icy uphill in a front wheel drive car was a revelation.....the world had somehow changed forever.

 

[coati]

Both my farm truck and my highway vehicle have manual transmissions, mainly because I'm often pulling either a utility trailer or a camping trailer in remote locations. Both have a high quality drive train designed and made in Japan.

Like someone else already stated, it's getting harder and harder to find newish vehicles with a stick shift. The article cited in the opening post was probably written by a city boy who never had to use granny gear on a steep unpaved road in the West.

 

[Lazaran]

Will vehicles eventually get so "smart" that no human could come close to matching their capability to adapt to / navigate any road condition / incline???



Maybe a better question is, should humans become totally reliant on "smart" vehicles???

 

[doowdniw]

Apart from brief stints with a Chevy Silverado right out of college and a pair of Toyota Highlanders, all of my daily drivers for the past 45 years have been and currently are manual transmissions. Because I prefer driving to going for a ride. The manual gearbox increases involvement and also, i believe, attention. I can't say I've never missed a gear in a down shift, but I've never over-revved the engine on a downshift either because I didn't pay attention and dumped the clutch in the wrong gear. And I'm not sure what to make of the author's lament about grinding the gears on a downshift. Either he drove a car with a crash box (which I doubt) and didn't know how, or he just has no clue how to operate a manual in general. Grinding gears in a modern synchronized gearbox takes effort. I have one vehicle with an unsynchronized first gear that is strictly a take off gear. Now that'll grind big time if you try to downshift into it (I don't). And one final note - that third pedal can also be a bit of a theft deterrent for the uninitiated. My $.02 from someone who doesn't like paddle shifters, either. Give me a manual gear box and I'll row through it all day long.

 

[zipman]

I miss driving manual transmissions.

 

[wizzard426]

 

[John Doe]

We get a lot of postings about EVs on the PB, so I'm putting this article here for discussion:

https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/27/opin...l-cars-electric-pollution-hockenos/index.html

Opinion: The long overdue death of the stick shift car

My opinion on it:

1. I'm a fan of EVs, and not because of environmental impacts. Current (pun) problems aside, they will have far more advantages to gas cars in the future.

2. This article is a...surprisingly dumb take. For so, so many reasons. I hope he gets a thousand women writing in, calling him an idiot. (And seriously, how to tell someone you've never driven in freezing rain when you've obviously never driven in freezing rain..)

I found your pun rather shocking.