Have they gotten rid of "stick" shifting cars?

fuzzybuddy

fuzzybuddy

SF VIP
Location
The Sticks, Northeast PA.
Maybe, it's me. I was looking at some new cars. I'm not sure who is going to give out first. Me or my 2009 Hyundai. Both are showing their age. I noticed none of the cars had a cheaper stick shift tranny. Not that I'd really want one. Playing with a stick shift is fun, when you're a kid.
 

DW and I drove stick for the last 40+ years, almost 50 years. We didn't get automatics until the last couple of cars, the older one being 4 years old. We only made the switch because getting a stick was so difficult for the cars we were interested in. Manual trans is so much better in the winter snow, imho. We also preferred the control we had over the engine (being able to control when to shift). But, that ship has sailed.
 
They still make vehicles with manual transmissions, see HERE.

Our newest vehicle '07 Dodge Nitro has an auto tranny, but our other two vehicles have the stick, '96 Jeep Cherokee and '92 Dodge Ram diesel. The manual tranny has some benefits especially in off-road or snow conditions, but not as easy to drive especially in traffic around town.
 

I know you're all in the USA and Canada where Autos are more popular, but here in the 80% of our cars are Manual ( I checked the stats) ... simply because we live on a very crowded island, so our roads are jammed solid continuously and with hills, dips and bends on most roads ...unlike the USA and Canada with your long straight roads...it's far more practical to have a manual than an Automatic here, so for the UK, there's no chance that manual cars will ever decrease in popularity...
 
Drove standard transmission vehicles for 20+ years (1980-2002), then inherited an automatic. I missed it. Makes you concentrate on your driving more, especially in town. My mind tends to wander off more driving the automatic.

I've got a Ford 1-150 now. Looks like they've quit offering standard shift on those.
 
I've driven a lot auto and floor stick shift vehicles but I was never able to master a silky smooth shift with a column shift vehicle.......luckily I didn't have to drive one that many times.

shift.jpg
 
I didn't see any "options" for a stick. I'm not sure they don't offer them any more or i just didn't see it?
I drove a stick for years to save on gas. But I wasn't sure how much money I really was saving with all that shifting. I went over to the "dark side" and went with an automatic.
 
hollydolly said:
I know you're all in the USA and Canada where Autos are more popular, but here in the 80% of our cars are Manual ( I checked the stats) ... simply because we live on a very crowded island, so our roads are jammed solid continuously and with hills, dips and bends on most roads ...unlike the USA and Canada with your long straight roads...it's far more practical to have a manual than an Automatic here, so for the UK, there's no chance that manual cars will ever decrease in popularity...
Click to expand...

Well now, it's not all long and straight if you ever drove through the rocky mountains it's all hills and valleys and steep ones at that.

I drove a manual shift on those hills. It was terrible. You come over the hill and it is steep and you can't slow down because the breaks fade. So trying to shift into second gear is almost impossible. You have to anticipate the hill and put the gear in second before you go over the top.

Automatic transmissions fare a lot better on hills.
 
Most cars in the UK have manual transmission and I definitely prefer them. They let you drive the car, and not have it chose how it should be driven. Brake fade and difficulty engaging second gear sounds like a problem with the car!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top