mjw47 Posted April 29, 2014 Share Posted April 29, 2014 100% incorrect, in my opinion. Driving a manual is easy. And so it is, never had any problem driving a manual. Flew to Ireland last year, hired a manual first time I'd driven one since 1998. Piece of cake, never had a problem, why would anyone have a problem? Wouldn't go back to one though, they're simply irritating in traffic, stop engage clutch, start, engage clutch change up,engage clutch, change down, we've gone 50 yards, do it again. Tedious and unnecessary, but everyone to their own. If it gives someone the feeling that they are somehow 'experiencing' the drive, in some way more than they would by just, you know, driving the car then fine, away you go. I'll just sit there enjoy the music and move forward in a gentle unhurried fashion using my right foot only. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonzo77 Posted April 29, 2014 Share Posted April 29, 2014 And so it is, never had any problem driving a manual. Flew to Ireland last year, hired a manual first time I'd driven one since 1998. Piece of cake, never had a problem, why would anyone have a problem? Wouldn't go back to one though, they're simply irritating in traffic, stop engage clutch, start, engage clutch change up,engage clutch, change down, we've gone 50 yards, do it again. Tedious and unnecessary, but everyone to their own. If it gives someone the feeling that they are somehow 'experiencing' the drive, in some way more than they would by just, you know, driving the car then fine, away you go. I'll just sit there enjoy the music and move forward in a gentle unhurried fashion using my right foot only. Automatics are no fun. You can't drop a gear and put the revs up. I like my sequential gear box. Can't beat a bit of flappy paddle action to make you feel like a race driver! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
medusa Posted April 29, 2014 Share Posted April 29, 2014 So no one mentioned the third and best option, tiptronic. The DSG is tiptronic too, as are most modern automatics. ---------- Post added 29-04-2014 at 22:03 ---------- Automatics are no fun. You can't drop a gear and put the revs up. I like my sequential gear box. Can't beat a bit of flappy paddle action to make you feel like a race driver! Yes, you can. Accelerator pedal gently down past full open if you want to drop one gear, a bit further down if you want to drop two, then drop it back past full open and away you go (usually with mucho speed!). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjw47 Posted April 29, 2014 Share Posted April 29, 2014 Automatics are no fun. You can't drop a gear and put the revs up. I like my sequential gear box. Can't beat a bit of flappy paddle action to make you feel like a race driver! Did you not see my earlier post? My Saab 93 2 litre constant turbo had thumb paddles and sports mode. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonzo77 Posted April 29, 2014 Share Posted April 29, 2014 Did you not see my earlier post? My Saab 93 2 litre constant turbo had thumb paddles and sports mode. Sorry, I'm referring to twin clutch DSG gearbox, not the old semi automatic. They're useless, rather have a fully manual. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjw47 Posted April 29, 2014 Share Posted April 29, 2014 Sorry, I'm referring to twin clutch DSG gearbox, not the old semi automatic. They're useless, rather have a fully manual. Now you've lost me, I currently drive a VW with a seven speed DSG auto gearbox, previously drove a Saab auto sports model which are you on about? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RutlandFlyer Posted April 30, 2014 Share Posted April 30, 2014 Yes, you can. Accelerator pedal gently down past full open if you want to drop one gear, a bit further down if you want to drop two, then drop it back past full open and away you go (usually with mucho speed!). That's not direct control though, is it? It's a grubby combination of throttle and gearchange and not something a racer would entertain for a moment. Racing is about knowing exactly how your car will respond to your inputs and a conventional automatic is just not conducive to that. I'm probably a bit more demanding than most, as I've done quite a bit of racing in the past and I'm probably more aware of car control as a result. I've been active in karting, open wheel, rallying and all manner of tin tops, and although my personal preference is always for manual transmission, for the past 7-8 years it's become more and more common for sequential autos to have better ultimate speed and you have to go where the speed is. They gain a lot during acceleration and braking because you can flick through the gears that much quicker, but personally I have less confidence during cornering. Between not knowing exactly when the gearchanges are going to happen and not controlling the revs by heel-and-toe, I can't quite be sure the car's going to have the stance I want, when I want and so I can't be as aggressive on entry as I'd like. It could well be a generational thing, though and I suspect the young uns won't think twice about it. I can certainly remember my more aged peers wittering on about ABS while I was cheerfully mashing the pedal into the bulkhead and letting ABS brake for me. On the road, it's a different story. I grew out of driving hard on public roads some years ago and 'brisk' is about as quick as I feel the need to drive nowadays. I also drive about 30,000 miles a year in a variety of company, pool and hire cars and having experienced most of the systems out there, I'd still have a manual and I think I'll only switch away from manual for a car that drives itself. For me, once you take away the need to go as fast as possible it comes back to a matter of car control and although auto transmissions have made great strides over the years, there are still compromises in that area. For starters, I wouldn't touch an automatic that didn't have shift buttons of some sort. They can change up when you want to change down, down when you want to change up and you can't really engine brake. It feels like driving by committee and I can't stand it. The Tiptronic/semi-auto systems are much better. I can choose the gears and can make the car engine brake quite effectively, so I feel like I'm in charge and would have sufficient control in an emergency. I've driven with the VW DSG system quite a lot and I could certainly live with that. It's bloody expensive though, considering that on the last Golf the DSG and paddleshift were two separate optional extras and would set you back the better part of £2,500 (not sure about the new Golf). The system has been a bit prone to expensive failures too, particularly relating to the dual clutch, so I'd think very carefully and probably take out an extended warranty in a car over three years old. The thing that keeps me in the manual camp is the level of finesse you can apply with the clutch that even modern autos have no answer for. If I'm maneuvering the car in a tight area, or having to drive on gravel, mud, ice, or grass, it's useful to be able to feed in power really, really gradually. Fly-by-wire throttles in modern cars tend to be a bit abrupt at the bottom end and you can soften that with the clutch. Ultimately I just feel manual gives you that little bit more control over the car and while it might be nice to have an automatic in stop-start traffic, I think I'd miss manual at all other times. I really don't understand the logic of autos being better for long journeys, though. If it's a really long journey then surely you're on motorways for the bulk of it, at which point you're in 6th gear the whole time anyway? Isn't cruise control more important for that sort of thing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tzijlstra Posted April 30, 2014 Share Posted April 30, 2014 I really don't understand the logic of autos being better for long journeys, though. If it's a really long journey then surely you're on motorways for the bulk of it, at which point you're in 6th gear the whole time anyway? Isn't cruise control more important for that sort of thing? It's the combination of cruise and auto. Cruise for those long stretches of asphalt and auto for all the stop-start bits. I have never been able to do a 6+ hour journey without hitting serious traffic at least once and usually several times. But fair enough, if you don't like autos you don't like autos, nobody makes you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Obelix Posted April 30, 2014 Share Posted April 30, 2014 There's nothing to recommend having a stick shift. Why have to keep shifitng up and down in heavy traffic on a motorway, using another foot pedal into the bargain and lets face it there's very few places now where there's not heavy traffic On mountainous roads with an automatic all you have to do is put the lever in D-3 instead of D-4 which stops the auto trans from shifting up and down all the time 1. You have more control over the vehicle. 2. Better fuel economy 3. Simpler vehicle - more reliable Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonzo77 Posted April 30, 2014 Share Posted April 30, 2014 Taken a friends F-Type out for a spin yesterday! I'm very tempted! The Quick Shift Automatic is much better than the wifes VW with DSG. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.