Why is better a car with manual transmission instead of an automatic one?

[Mermaidman]

Originally posted by: j00fek
Why is better a car with manual transmission instead of an automatic one?

For make glorious Fast and Furious

 

[SVT Cobra]

Originally posted by: psteng19

Originally posted by: SVT Cobra
LOL no I've been driving sticks since I learned to drive, and in a daily driver it's a pain in the ass. Do you really need to rev your Kia into the 5's at a stop light to beat other cars? Absolutely not. Is it fun? Not really as any BMW or Mercedes even with an auto will easily catch up to you once you hit 60. Not to mention automatics are much easier to drive in traffic. I do not see any point these days in driving a non sports car with a manual tranny. My Cobra is just for weekend fun. I have a manumatic (just auto as I don't use the feature anymore) Kia for regular work days, as it is much more conveinent and gets me there when I don't car about an instant of acceleration lost.

And, I still don't buy into Perknose's arguement of being able to take an old VW or something to the max on the real roads because it has a small engine. I had a 1988 Volvo stick for years (5-6?) before I got my Kia and I could easily speed in it if I got it going, and it was a pain to have to shift when I wasn't in a car that could really get up to pace.

So my opinion is still, it isn't worth buying a manual (because they are mostly for run now a days, especially with the new advanced SMG's, triptronics, steptronics etc that are coming out) unless you have the fun power to back it up.

Sorry, I am not going to spend my time shifting in an accord and trying to get "the best out of a small engine with my super awesome macho skillz" when I could just press the gas peddle and be gone, and then have some real fun in a car that can do something on the weekends.


Summary:

Manuals aren't worth the trouble unless you have the car to make it enjoyable and balance off the hastle.

You're still missing the point. It has nothing to do with fun or showing off skills.
Some cars are just downright unbearable with an auto, while acceptable with a manual.
I know because I have (had) 2 identical cars, one of them auto, the other manual with a puny 1.6L engine.

With the AC on and only myself in the car, each time merging onto the highway was an adventure in the auto, and not a good one.
With the manual, I could do the same task with a passenger or two, no sweat.

You summary is opinion, which I disagree with. I enjoy driving the manual variant of the same car, any car, 10 times out of 10.

I can see your point with a 1.6L.

 

[exdeath]

Manual connects the driver to the road better, literally. Manual gives direct mechanical linkage from the engine without slip or loss. Automatics use loose fluid coupling via a torque converter to connect the engine and drive line together and divert some of the power for operating high pressure hydraulic pumps inside the transmission, etc. On a low power engine, say 150HP and less, an automatic is typically taxing on an engine already running up hill with 4 people and a trunk of food while running an AC compressor, power steering pump, water pump, loaded alternator with lights on and radio blasting, etc.

Manuals typically offer better mileage, more efficiency, less complexity, less weight, less maintenance. The trade off of course is they are no fun to drive in rush hour.

There are a few reasons autos are used for racing, more specifically drag racing.

One, it's not because they can handle more power, but rather the loose fluid coupling of a torque converter absorbs and smoothes spikes in drive train shock better. With a manual everything is connected and locked together mechanically with nothing slipping and the only shock absorption is provided by slipping the one clutch yourself or letting the tires light up. However when you are in a car with 700+ HP to the wheels and you dump the clutch with sticky tires you stress the hell out of the entire drive train from the crankshaft to the axles as the momentum of the engine suddenly has to move a 4000lb car from a dead stop. Eventually even the strongest drive line components are going to break if either the tires or the clutch don't slip. An automatic, via a fluid coupled torque converter and numerous clutch packs, absorbs these types of power spikes better. The auto smoothes drive line shock and assures that the power is applied from the engine to the wheels smoothly and continuously over fractions of a second (i.e.: the delays associated with automatics) during surges in engine power. This simply allows the rest of the car, and the transmission itself, to accept more power without fear of breaking anything, but it leads to the misconception that the auto itself is inherently more capable of handling that power. Given an auto and a manual built with the same shaft and gear materials, same axles, etc., you are least likely to break something with an auto than the manual even though they are both made for the same power level, so when someone snaps their input shaft on their manual, the appearance is that the auto can handle more power.

Messing up a shift and grinding gears in a civic is just embarrassing, but when you do that with some real horsepower, you start cracking gears, breaking teeth off, etc.

The other reason is that automatics are more consistent, and in the most common form of street drag bracket racing, the slower car wins if it?s more consistent, it doesn?t matter how fast the other car is. This type of racing places the emphasis of the race on the skill of the driver (ie: you're racing only yourself) and not ones capacity to throw endless money at more and more horsepower, etc. Automatics eliminate shift errors and make it easier to launch the car more consistently from a stop without spinning the tires or holding revs with the clutch pressed. Just hold the brake down and floor it, and let the torque converter handle the rest.

Either manual or auto can be built to handle 1000+ HP, but typically a factory manual like the Cobra/Z06/Viper T-56 with no special attention can handle more than any factory auto right out of the box. Autos require special attention (i.e.: a purposely "built" race transmission) to attain the power capacity of any old manual clunk box, simply because manuals are little more than some big clunky gears and 3 meaty shafts. Autos have thousands of delicate tiny moving parts, hydraulic systems, clutch packs, etc.

I drive a 2003 Cobra with a 6spd manual with 700 HP to the wheels. In normal driving I can shift about as fast as an auto with a shift kit (ie: passenger would feel an immediate thump in the seat and change in engine speed without any lag or perceived shift time) It has a very stiff clutch pedal and is very tiring to drive in bumper to bumper stop and go traffic for more than 30 seconds? but I wouldn?t have it any other way in *that* particular car. In my case a manual or auto is going to light the tires and knock the wind out of you, but there is a certain fun factor to driving a manual with ass loads of bottom end torque.

The woman has a ?06 Avalon with an automatic, and while it?s more relaxing to run errands or just go out for dinner or something in busy traffic, there are times where I want/need to floor it and the computerized automatic lugs in a high gear for too long or doesn?t down shift enough sometimes and you have to rock the throttle a little bit for it to get a clue. Or if you just floor it after cruising for a while, it will downshift, allow the tach to gain maybe 1000 RPM then the transmission immediately and prematurely shifts back into the gear you just came from and goes back to cruise mode before you've experienced much acceleration. Or sometimes stepping on it will achieve little more than free revving the engine for a few seconds before it upshifts again, basically achieving nothing. Ease out and try again or coast for a second or two before trying again? Hmm. Even in 'manual' mode where you can bump the stick yourself to upshift or downshift, the computer will overide and shift anyway if you lug the car in high gears or rev to long in low gears. Obviously you don?t have that problem with a manual, you just toe the clutch with your left foot, grab the shifter and yank it hard toward your right knee, release your left toe, and let it rip. Doesn?t mean I want a manual in the Avalon, that would suck. But what I describe are situations typical of any automatic so you get the idea of why people cite ?lack of control? regarding automatics, because it does get annoying at times.

You can drive manual without thinking about it with enough experience. Theoretically that should *always* be a given with an automatic, even for a new driver. But when you find yourself in one of the above situations with an automatic, you get derailed for a second and find yourself thinking about something you normally dont give a second thought to. It isn't doing what you expect, and in an automatic, you are unable to do anything about it.

Oh yeah, you can also push start a manual =D Torque converters only transfer power in one direction.