Why do people buy manuals these days ?

Flyboy152

LOL. I thought this was an anti-Haynes thread. :D:D

Flyboy152

Mark_Hewitt wrote: »

I do like autos; however manuals have several advantages.
* Cost - Autos are usually at least £1,000 more expensive. Plus they are often only available for one model in a range, so if you don't want that model, tough!
* Control - I quite often like to have full control over the engine revs, e.g. slipping the clutch with high revs away from a standing start, plus being able to control when the upshifts happen to maximise the acceleration - or not, depending on what I want to do!
* In poor weather the option to use a different gear when driving slowly helps a lot!

However most of my driving is on dual carriageways or twisty A-roads where manuals are excellent. If most of my driving was stop-start in city centres I may well prefer an auto box.

Semi-manuals could resolve his for you, although there are some atrocious examples out there, there also some very good ones.

movilogo

A manual is more work? Its 2 seconds of moving a stick.

And repeat this every minute? (unless you are crusing on motorway)? Then everyday? Every week? etc.

Just have a look at Autotrader and look for very high mileage (in last 3 years) cars and you will mostly find autos.

For very high milers, autos are no brainer. Because in a manual, your left foot needs to press the clutch fully where as right foot needs to touch pedals (brake & accelerator) lightly. This action twists the body everytime. If this is repeated for several hours a day, the body develops leg pains, back pains etc.

For low mileage (but not stop start traffic), autos/manual hardly matters.

For high mileage, autos with cruise control wins any day.

iolanthe07

I don't think autos are any less reliable. My son in the US has a Ford truck with an auto box which came with a 100,000 mile/ten year warranty that included the transmission.

goldspanners

Gloomendoom wrote: »

So how is that different from any other automatic gearbox? :huh:

The only difference I can see is that they use friction clutches instead of a torque converter. The gearbox itself is no different from a 'full' auto box that uses helical gears and solenoids to shift them.

semi automatics have the functon available to the driver to change gear by means of a gear stick,but don't have clutch pedals.

full autos do not have this function.

semi autos usually have full auto or semi auto functions available to the driver by either moving the gear lever into auto mode or moving it to semi automatic mode,they can usually only be moved left or right (up or down the box) they don't usually have a normal manual gear change pattern.

i drove an older primera with this type of box in it,found it very annoying in semi mode,so just kept it in full auto mode.

im sure some earlier truck had semi automatics that didn't have the option of semi or fully automatic they were just semi automatic.

iolanthe07

semi automatics have the functon available to the driver to change gear by means of a gear stick,but don't have clutch pedals.

full autos do not have this function

Yes they do - most of the modern ones, anyway.

Flyboy152

iolanthe07 wrote: »

semi automatics have the functon available to the driver to change gear by means of a gear stick,but don't have clutch pedals.

full autos do not have this function

Yes they do - most of the modern ones, anyway.

Not really the same though. It is not very different to changing the gears selected on an ordinary automatic transmission.

mustrum_ridcully

bigjl wrote: »

I think the main reason for the increase in the number of autos on the roads is mainly due to congestion, especially in Urban areas.

Or could it be there are now more older drivers who are struggling with manual boxes?

Automatic transmission - helping pensioners have mental car accidents since 1939!

Like these chaps...
http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/north-east-news/evening-chronicle-news/2010/05/11/narrow-escape-after-car-crashes-into-garden-72703-26421386/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-506450/Pensioner-parks-neighbours-car.html

Or these in somewhat less amusing accidents...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/5833409/Pensioner-killed-as-husband-reverses-Mercedes-in-their-drive.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1328669/Pensioner-killed-freak-car-accident-trying-save-wife-ran-over.html

Harry_Flashman

mustrum_ridcully wrote: »

Or could it be there are now more older drivers who are struggling with manual boxes?

Automatic transmission - helping pensioners have mental car accidents since 1939!

Like these chaps...
http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/north-east-news/evening-chronicle-news/2010/05/11/narrow-escape-after-car-crashes-into-garden-72703-26421386/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-506450/Pensioner-parks-neighbours-car.html

Or these in somewhat less amusing accidents...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/5833409/Pensioner-killed-as-husband-reverses-Mercedes-in-their-drive.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1328669/Pensioner-killed-freak-car-accident-trying-save-wife-ran-over.html

These would appear to say more about old folks driving than the actual motors.

goldspanners

iolanthe07 wrote: »

semi automatics have the functon available to the driver to change gear by means of a gear stick,but don't have clutch pedals.

full autos do not have this function

Yes they do - most of the modern ones, anyway.

even torque convertor type boxes? i don't think other halfs mothers jag has this.