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Do you prefer driving automatics or manuals?

Started by US 41, February 11, 2019, 10:02:23 PM

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Automatic or Manual

Automatic
Manual

Takumi

Quote from: jakeroot on February 28, 2019, 01:27:47 AM
^^
My only issue with the Si is the body style. No hatchback availability, which is a walk-away moment personally. It's a hot hatch, not hot...sedan. Never mind the obvious practical benefits with the entire rear-end lifting up. Hence why I drive a Golf now. I can fit massive things in my car with the entire back-end opening up.

I'd be stuck with either the regular Civic hatchback, or the Type-R. Probably would go for the regular Civic hatch (with the 6-speed, of course), if only because I drive Lyft and would prefer to keep my passengers from getting sick. Well, and myself.
It wouldn't even be that hard to make an Si hatch. The Si has a little more power (whether it's just a different tune or a different turbo, I'm not sure, but Civic 1.5T hatches can make Si power with a tune), a limited-slip differential, and adaptive dampers over the regular Civic. I'm not sure how difficult it would be to send those things to the Swindon factory if demand warranted. (It'd certainly be more difficult to retool the Ontario and Ohio plants to add the hatch in, but that's actually more likely to happen as Swindon is set to close when the next generation of Civic comes out in 2022.)

Quote from: ClassicHasClass on February 27, 2019, 11:52:22 PM
The Si has been six speed since 8th gen.
Fixed. Sorry to be pedantic, but the 7th gen (also the last Civic hatch sold in the US until this one) was still a 5-speed, due to pressure from Acura not wanting it to cannibalize RSX sales at the time. In Europe, that same car was sold (as a Type R) with a 6-speed and the same engine as the RSX Type S, but here it was limited to the 5-speed and the base RSX engine.
Quote from: Rothman on July 15, 2021, 07:52:59 AM
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Don't @ me. Seriously.


Zeffy

Quote from: ClassicHasClass on February 27, 2019, 11:52:22 PM
So *you're* one of the Type Rs. I like the engine, but that wing is just too ugly to drive to work. So it's another Si for me. (I saw a Type R in downtown San Diego the other day with the license plate "SI LOL." Hey! I resemble that remark!  :pan: )

The Si has been six speed since 7th gen.

The looks are not for everyone - as it goes for the tenth gen Civic in general - but I work in an office and I get so many compliments about my car like you wouldn't believe. I really like the 2 door Si, the lines flow extremely well, but I am one of the few that likes how the Type R looks.
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ClassicHasClass

Quote from: Takumi on February 28, 2019, 07:30:04 AM
The Si has a little more power (whether it's just a different tune or a different turbo, I'm not sure, but Civic 1.5T hatches can make Si power with a tune), a limited-slip differential, and adaptive dampers over the regular Civic.

It's possibly a little more than that. The 1.5T can get into the power range but apparently the part numbers are different, presumably for internals that can handle the higher boost pressures. The jury's still out on exactly what difference they make. https://www.civicx.com/threads/si-vs-non-si.22517/#post-380859

I wouldn't have minded an Si hatch for this go-around, since I do occasionally schlep stuff around. But the Type R wasn't what I wanted and there's not enough room in the 2 door Si for me to use it as a daily driver, so the Si Sedan it is. I had an '08 (eighth gen ;) ) Si Sedan before anyway, so this was a logical progression.

Takumi

I like the Si sedan. I looked for them when I was shopping for what eventually became my TL last summer, but I couldn't find one in a color I wanted. Everything in reasonable distance was silver or red, the two colors I don't want, or the bulbous coupe.
Quote from: Rothman on July 15, 2021, 07:52:59 AM
Olive Garden must be stopped.  I must stop them.

Don't @ me. Seriously.

bugo

A standard transmission by a million miles. That being said, my last two cars have been slushboxes after driving several cars with manual transmissions in a row. You have much more control with a stick. You can drop down several gears at a time which is very useful when passing. Driving is much more fun when your left foot is involved.

kphoger

Necro-post!

I prefer stick shift, but I haven't owned one since about 2005 or so.

Well, until last week-end, that is.  I had grown tired of shoveling repair money at our car, so I had considered picking up a cheap old sedan as my daily driver, and just keeping the other one around for when we need cargo space.  Plus, my eldest son will be learning how to drive soon, and I want him to learn on a stick shift.

What we could afford is generally junk, and it would likely require repairs of its own in short order.  Everything more reliable was just out of our financial reach, and/or it gets snatched up within days.  But then a gem showed up, and I jumped on it.  So I now own a 2002 Ford Focus with five-speed stick.  It needs some work, but parts are much cheaper and repairs are much more easily accessible than on our other vehicle.

I'm proud to say that I haven't stalled it a single time, from first test drive till now.
Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
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Max Rockatansky

I drove a manual Chevy Optra down in Jalisco through town on a recent trip.  The annoyance of having to switch between 1st and 2nd constantly at low speeds brought back a lot of un-fond memories.  I'd love to have a manual for purely recreational driving but probably never again for in-traffic commuting.

freebrickproductions

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Road Hog

With a stick you have to replace the clutch every 75-100K miles. Just an expense I don't like to deal with, so I've driven nothing but automatics since 2013.

ClassicHasClass

Eh, got 180K out of my last one. Granted I do a lot of freeway miles, but 75K seems kind of low.

DTComposer

Quote from: Road Hog on March 01, 2024, 08:21:23 PM
With a stick you have to replace the clutch every 75-100K miles. Just an expense I don't like to deal with, so I've driven nothing but automatics since 2013.

I drove my last two sticks over 150,000 miles each before trading them in with no issues at all - I was in L.A. at the time, so plenty of stop-and-go driving involved.

Brandon

Quote from: Road Hog on March 01, 2024, 08:21:23 PM
With a stick you have to replace the clutch every 75-100K miles. Just an expense I don't like to deal with, so I've driven nothing but automatics since 2013.

What kind of wear and tear are you doing to a clutch?  I've gotten mine to last 250k to 260k.
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kalvado

Quote from: Brandon on March 01, 2024, 10:00:49 PM
Quote from: Road Hog on March 01, 2024, 08:21:23 PM
With a stick you have to replace the clutch every 75-100K miles. Just an expense I don't like to deal with, so I've driven nothing but automatics since 2013.

What kind of wear and tear are you doing to a clutch?  I've gotten mine to last 250k to 260k.
Old style mechanical clutch is, by its nature, a wearable component. Of course, it's much better with mostly highway driving.
But I wonder if hydro transformer made it to the world of manual transmission, making it quarter automatic so to say?

Road Hog

My last stick was a 1998 Chevy pickup and there were a lot of city miles involved. So YMMV.

MikeTheActuary


oscar

Quote from: Brandon on March 01, 2024, 10:00:49 PM
Quote from: Road Hog on March 01, 2024, 08:21:23 PM
With a stick you have to replace the clutch every 75-100K miles. Just an expense I don't like to deal with, so I've driven nothing but automatics since 2013.

What kind of wear and tear are you doing to a clutch?  I've gotten mine to last 250k to 260k.

I fried a few clutches when I first got a stick. Working the clutch in stop-and-go city driving probably also contributed to a mysteriously broken left ankle.

Nowadays, it's a CVT automatic, which avoids wear-and-tear on my surgically repaired left ankle. Still, I love to hear about car thieves who gave up when they realized the car they had just hot-wired had a stick (that happened once to me).
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Ted$8roadFan

My last stick, probably forever, was my old 2001 Honda Civic. I got it to 192k after nearly 20 years before replacing it with my current vehicle. I don't recall replacing the clutch, but I do recall replacing the timing belt. As for preferences, I liked the challenge of using the stick, especially in urban environments, as well as the ability to choose when to downshift (or upshift). But automatic is easier.

riiga

I used to drive a manual and preferred that over automatics, but now I own an electric car and they're all automatics with no gears to shift, it's all just a smooth acceleration. Consider me a convert to automatic.

epzik8

Well, I've NEVER driven a manual, as much as I used to brag about wanting one...
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algorerhythms

When I bought my current car, the manual was $3000 cheaper than the automatic, so manual it is.

bwana39

Quote from: algorerhythms on March 02, 2024, 06:55:21 PM
When I bought my current car, the manual was $3000 cheaper than the automatic, so manual it is.

Is it really old or a VW?

Let's build what we need as economically as possible.

algorerhythms

Quote from: bwana39 on March 02, 2024, 07:10:59 PM
Quote from: algorerhythms on March 02, 2024, 06:55:21 PM
When I bought my current car, the manual was $3000 cheaper than the automatic, so manual it is.

Is it really old or a VW?


2015 Chevy Spark.

Max Rockatansky

When that generation of the Spark became the Mexican market Beat the only transmission offered was the manual.  That car was stripped down to Geo Metro levels and cost a glorious approximate $9,000 USD.  My wife's cousin was so confused when she saw me taking pictures of one in 2020.

bwana39

There was a time, I clearly preferred manuals. Strangely, I have had several performance cars and only one had a manual.

I am too old and too sedate for the clutch and gears. Dad told me I would get there.
Let's build what we need as economically as possible.

triplemultiplex

Quote from: algorerhythms on March 02, 2024, 06:55:21 PM
When I bought my current car, the manual was $3000 cheaper than the automatic, so manual it is.

Similar experience.  Though the price break wasn't quite that sharp, everything else about it checked a box for what I was looking for.  The fact that it was about two grand cheaper than an automatic of the same make/model of the same year with similar mileage was a bonus.

It's a skill I'm glad I have, and it gives me more options in the secondary market.  But I'm not dead set on getting another manual transmission vehicle when it comes time to replace my current rig.  It's a pain in the ass in stop-and-go traffic and every so often, I still dump the clutch and stall the sumbitch out.  Which makes me feel like an idiot, especially because it always seems to happen when a light turns green.  But I do appreciate the marginal improvement in gas mileage and it is nice to be able to downshift to help slow down on hills or whatever.

I joking refer to my stick shift as an "anti-theft device".  Not that I'm actually concerned about it getting stolen, it's just funny to assume car thieves are dumb kids who can't drive stick.  :-D
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