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From 1in 3 to 1 in 200. Say it ain’t so

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I found an '85 Celica GT for our Granddaughter's first car.She paid for it.
An interesting car,but after I drove it for a while I came to the conclusion that
the automatic sucks the fun out of driving it.
My Wife has a 2010 Ford Fusion with a 4 cylinder engine & a 6 speed manual
transmission,& it's actually a fun car to drive through the corners/mountains/etc.
She had our youngest Grandson with her & he asked her what she was doing with
that thing on the console.Guess he's never seen anyone drive a manual before.
 
Five out of my six cars are manuals. The auto in the group is the 68 Coupe DeVille. I also suppose that only four of the cars here are mine now, since the Jeep is now techincally my daughter's.
 
Restoring an old MK1 Jag sedan with auto. Have a parts car with 4 speed non-syncro. Have to decide what to do. Also, have extra MK2 manual with syncro. Decisions.
 
LarryK said:
Restoring an old MK1 Jag sedan with auto. Have a parts car with 4 speed non-syncro. Have to decide what to do. Also, have extra MK2 manual with syncro. Decisions.
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Go with the non-synchro tranny.
 
Well depends. If it is the same Moss gearbox the early Es used, check that it isn't broken where first, reverse and the cluster come together. They all seem to go bad there and you can't find replacement bits. That's why my early E has the later all syncro, the original broke years before I bought it.
 
My syncro manual is out of a 62 MK2 and is OK. Had a dash fire, short by ignition switch at 40,000 mikes. French Import.
 
Gliderman8 said:
stocks.apple.com

The death of the stick shift is almost here — The Washington Post

Driving a manual vehicle is a lost art. Hopes of a revival have fallen flat. With the rise of EVs and autonomous vehicles, only a few die-hards hold on.
stocks.apple.com stocks.apple.com
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From the linked article: "At the same time, sporty cars — the kind that buyers might demand a stick shift to drive — have fallen out of favor, replaced by interest in hulking SUVs, which are almost always automatics." Grrrr!

Those hulking SUVs drive me crazy. I can't see past them, so when the light changes I have to wait for them to move out of the way so I can be sure no one is running the red light. I can't make a right turn on red because I can't see if anyone is coming. Their LED headlights blind my eyes even on low beam. ...
 
John Turney said:
From the linked article: "At the same time, sporty cars — the kind that buyers might demand a stick shift to drive — have fallen out of favor, replaced by interest in hulking SUVs, which are almost always automatics." Grrrr!

Those hulking SUVs drive me crazy. I can't see past them, so when the light changes I have to wait for them to move out of the way so I can be sure no one is running the red light. I can't make a right turn on red because I can't see if anyone is coming. Their LED headlights blind my eyes even on low beam. ...
Click to expand...
I'm guessing you don't like SUV's :smile:
As long as people continue to buy them, the auto manufacturers will continue to make them. I drive a small 4-door sedan but my wife has a SUV and I must say, the times I need to move or pickup something I'm glad to have one available.
 
Gliderman8 said:
I'm guessing you don't like SUV's :smile:
As long as people continue to buy them, the auto manufacturers will continue to make them. I drive a small 4-door sedan but my wife has a SUV and I must say, the times I need to move or pickup something I'm glad to have one available.
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Actually, we have a 2005 Subaru Outback, which might be called a SUV or station wagon. It's just small and not a hulking SUV.
 
I had a '93 GMC 3/4 ton Suburban for a while.It had everything you could get
on one ,including a 454 & 4WD.Once I weighed it - it weighed 6800 pounds!
I would think about the gas mileage on it as I waited at a stop light.I was
excited when it got double-digit MPG!
And I noticed that I'd see them with one person in them.
 
I have two Land Rovers, which get me thru all types of weather and terrain. I have two MINI Coopers, one 4dr and my 23 yr old MINI Hatchback we play with. But, mainly drive Rovers for height and crash protection, not too bad on fuel.
 
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AngliaGT said:
I had a '93 GMC 3/4 ton Suburban for a while.It had everything you could get
on one ,including a 454 & 4WD.Once I weighed it - it weighed 6800 pounds!
I would think about the gas mileage on it as I waited at a stop light.I was
excited when it got double-digit MPG!
And I noticed that I'd see them with one person in them.
Click to expand...

I have one of those, but the 1989 (one of the last years for the classic square body design for the Suburbans, trucks switched body style in 1988). Gas milage with a 454 is effectively nonexistant. It doesn't get daily use - it comes out when I need to move something heavy or have a comfortable back seat to sleep on for a weekend.
My daily commute is a tiny Madza 2 which does have a stick.

I like driving the stick, but for some applications (the boat ramp comes to mind, as does bad traffic) the automatic is better. Comes does to the right tool for the job at hand. Can't read the article that started this discussion though, got the 1st 2 sentances followed by a "provide credit card to continue".
 
My current daily is a 2012 Mini Countryman with a manual. I find it's just right for a commuter car and rather enjoy it. It's "just" a base model which is fine by me. 5th and 6th gear don't get used a lot, usually when I'm on the highway between work and home.
 
Last summer I went on vacation with a good friend and we took her Mini convertible. We mostly took it because compared to the Miata it is cavernous inside, so she could pack more clothes and I could bring my daughter. Sadly, it is an automatic, so I didn't enjoy driving it all that much when it was my turn to drive, but my daughter managed to pick up 1,000 miles of driving towards her license when we got home. Anyway, I am sure that had it been a standard it would have been fun to drive the engine was sprightly and the car seemed fairly nimble.
 
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