Enjoyed this. Appeared in today's Wall Street Journal.

 

While the author is not a hot rodder, he is not far from the truth. On a side note, why do cars need 10 speed automatics?

 

To meet the gas mileage standards...............

 

Simple. It is relatively easy to tune an internal combustion engine for optimum power and economy over a narrow RPM range. It is far more difficult to do that over a very wide RPM range. Transmissions with insane numbers of gears allow the engine to be held in that optimum RPM band to meet the CAFE and EPA requirements. A CVT is the optimum way to do that, but CVTs have their own problems, one of the biggest ones being torque and HP limits. Ten speed automatics can approximate the benefits of a CVT without the limitations.

 

I have a 10 speed auto in one of my vehicles, its awesome, superfast shifts, 3 overdrives, smooth shifting i really like it

another vehicle i own has a 5 speed manual trans its also awesome i really like it too but only 1 OD

 

I have a 6 speed manual with 2 overdrives, plus a Jeep with a 5 speed manual and a single overdrive.
You know how you get accustomed to driving a vehicle after a long time?
A time or two when I switched from the 6 speed vehicle to the Jeep I tried to grab 6th gear and got a loud grinding noise. Oops! That was reverse, not 6th!

 

They stopped teaching hand writing years ago. All kids do now is text with auto word suggestions. Next your gonna sleep in your car on the way in to work (if there is a work to drive to).

 

My wife leased a Chrysler 200 a couple years ago, it took some getting use to the way it shifted. It had the 9 speed transmission, it would shift 3 times crossing and intersection. It also wouldn’t shift into top gear until about 70mph.

 

They will chip your brain and connect you to your virtual work place. You'll never leave the house.

 

The few remaining sticks are also not immune to EPA. There is something called "rev hang" or "rpm hang" that will not let the throttle drop off fast for a good, smooth, fast shift. Fortunately my 07 stick only has it going into top gear when warm. You can still skip shift fast from 3 to 5. Modern cars with sticks have it in all gears, and the OEMs apparently are cool with shafting stick owners with it and the associated clutch wear in the name of less transient nitrogen dioxide generation events. The computers are hard to modify to get rid of it, too.

 

Good stuff Jaunty, my first Olds was a stick. Drove it in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. So I can totally appreciate this.

Interestingly I had recently watched a YouTube video regarding the extinction of the manual transmission in new cars. Somewhat of a perfect complimentary piece to the article you posted. A little long for my taste at over 13 minutes. Cut to the chase, of the 2019 new car sales, less than 2% were manual transmission.




P.S. the writing for me has been on the wall since the 1980s 4 speed autos. Performance advantage started to fade... No way to replicate an autos efficiency in the long run. So a lot of precise effort for less and less benefit. For me after about 20 years of driving stick I am done. Loved it at the time but do not miss it.

My 69 is of course a 3 speed auto and my daily is a 6 speed auto. Yes I do like the fact that I can drive stick and will have to figure out how to teach my son but its purely for nostalgia...

 

A friend of mine worked at UPS for a time as a mechanic. I said one time it was interesting that the Buster Browns are now automatic. He said it was a necessity. They couldn't find anyone to hire that could drive a manual.

 

Autos are now usually faster at the track. We love the 8 SPD in our Challenger, no way I could shift that fast. The 5 spd NAG1 in our 2010 was also good. There is the new 7 spd manual for self shifting nuts.

 

This thread makes me feel like a dinosaur!

 

But can you drive a column shift? This beast has a Ford 302, a 3 speed column shift, and a horrific linkage since you are shifting over your shoulder.

 

I’m proud to say both my kids own and drive manuals. My wife drives one too and prefers them over autos.

 

Four (4) more dinosaurs..lol.

 

That made me remember my brother-in-law telling me about the Peugot he drove in high school that had a 4 speed column shift. Talk about weird.

 

I suppose this is mandatory for a thread about manual transmissions.

 

I have owned several 4 box cars, still have one..My dad had a Saab back in the mid 70’s with a 4 on the tree shifter.. sort of weird but I drove that car burnin rubber in the front tires..lol. 3 on the tree you had to be quick shifting on those .. love the article, face it, most of us are products of our youth.. these 4 speed cars were and to us still very cool. The younger gen, they have little attachment to them..

 

We had a 66 with 250 straight six and 3 spd on tree, never learned how to drive it. My Uncle has one with a 302 Cleveland and a 3 on the tree.

 

My next sports car will probably be a automatic, kinda sacreligious for a sports car but I need a new shoulder replacement more than I need to feel like a racer anymore... I'll still have my old a Miata just incase I get frisky....Tedd

 

love!!!!!!!

 

The writing was on the wall when the new generation Charger was a 4 Door - lol for sure - manual shift is not there either
I work with 20 somethings that are looking for 4 door 60's 70's classic(s) - they say it's easier for their friends to get in and out. whatever.
- so not like our generation (which can be expected)

The Times They Are A Changing - Bob Dylan 1964

 

Um, Yep!,...and in style, not Duesenberg style, but Nonetheless! 😉

 

My first experience with attempting to understand anything about automobiles involved riding in a 1959 VW bus - owned and driven daily by a friend of our family (Donnie). It had bucket seats in it. I could walk around inside right up to the dashboard between the seats. I watched as Donnie moved this 3' tall metal stick around doing stuff with it. Between Dad & Donnie they tried to explain what those three pedals on the floor were supposed to do, and how that metal stick made the bus move. Donnie still had that VW bus by the time I reached ~14 years of age, and one day they took me for a ride in that bus on Donnie's apple orchard property showing me what that metal stick and the clutch did. That was basically my first experience with a manual transmission. I'll never forget how amazed I was back then to have learned something about a car.

 

Our next-door neighbor had a VW with stick. I was 15, had my driver license, but had never driven stick. One day, out of the blue, the neighbor asked if I would like to drive his car. OF COURSE!

It was a really fun experience. The clutch was nearly fool-proof.

Fast forward to 1970, I ordered a 4-speed Corvette. Even though I had not driven stick since the VW, I had the confidence. And it was fun as well. I had that car for 45 years. And now my two modern cars are also stick.

When I met my wife, she had an Isuzu mini-pickup, stick. So stick is in her blood too.

I taught my three kids to drive stick on a Cimarron, which had a really-touchy clutch. My daughter's astounded a few with her stick ability.

I've done my best to keep the dinosaurs alive.

 

 

Learned a manual on our Farmall H and a Wheel Horse lawn tractor, later refined shifting and feathering in a VW Beetle....Born just in time to miss the great stuff, early enough to have a real childhood..

 

At one time I owned 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-speed manual cars. Today it's 4, 5, and two 6's. They're just more fun.

 

No joke, I was at a work sponsored function at a high-end resort that had valet parking. When I left, the valet (young kid) took my ticket, went to the parking area, then came back on foot and fessed up that he didn't now how to drive a manual trans and asked could I get my own vehicle? Kinda defeats the purpose of valet parking, but I didn't have high expectations to start with.

 

There's something about the sound & violence of a mean power shift that you just can't experience with an auto.

Watch these gear changes at around 9000rpm.

 

Two of my four vehicles have manual transmissions; one 3 speed; the other 3 speed + O.D. I prefer the manuals.

 

TEST RUN #3 @CORDOVA DRAGWAY GETTING READY FOR THE OZARK MOUNTAIN SUPER SHIFTER SEASON. 9.96@135.
Thank You for that !

 

The first three cars I owned back in the early '80s were all VW Beetles, with four-speed manual gearboxes. I've been driving automatics ever since. The only manual 'three-on-the-tree' car I've ever driven was a 1941 Buick that my dad had for a few years. The six-speed automatic in my 2013 Buick LaCrosse can be driven in manual mode but in the nine months I've had the car, I haven't once been tempted to try that particular feature out. Seems kind of pointless without a clutch.

 

That's nothing compared to Citroen weirdness:

 

I learned how to drive a 4 speed on my high school buddies factory 4speed 78 Monte Carlo. It had the mighty 3.8 engine originally, we later swapped in a 400 small block.

I taught my ex-wife to drive a manual shortly after ordering a new GMC step side pickup. I did t want to use a brand new truck, with a brand new clutch, so I went to a used car lot and found a Cavalier. Told the salesman we wanted to take it for a test drive. We had to drive around awhile to air out the burnt clutch smell before we returned it. 😎

My learned how when we were new truck shopping in ‘06. However, it’s nearly impossible to kill a Cummins engine by letting out the clutch too fast, especially with the granny low gear of the 6 speed. But, she did drive it.

I really considered the 6 speed trans, however there was a truck in the service Dept that had the manual transmission out and on the trans jack. Once I saw that heavy transmission, the thought of doing clutch maintenance on the ground, with a floor jack, changed my mind quick!! That, and I can fix the 618 transmission, I know nothing about the manual stuff.

 

I learned how to drive in my Dad's 65 Ford pickup that had a 300 ci 6 cyl. and 4-speed with compound low gear. Essentially a 3-speed. So when my boss once asked me to move his two matching Mercedes with column shift 4-speeds it didn't phase me at all. I think he was disappointed that it wasn't a shock to me. My car at the time was a Plymouth Duster, slant-6 and 3-on-the-tree. I jacked up the driver's training set-up once when I tried to keep using the clutch in the simulator. They didn't understand...

 

As we mourn the imminent passing of the manual transmission, the truth is that transmissions themselves may well be a thing of the past in the not too distant future as large segments of the automobile industry commit to producing electric vehicles. We're not there yet, by any means but it's coming slowly but surely. Acceptance and liking it are two entirely different things.

 

I agree with you. One of my co-workers brought his Citroen to our annual car show and I had to look up what that stick in the dash was on the internet.