Thread: The change to Autos?

Good question. My prefered option is a manual as well. I think that more autos to manual is that with increasing traffic there is a reluctance to have to go through the motions of changing gears. A while back the owner of the company I work at used a ute for a few days in Syd traffic. Upon return decided all new vehicles were to be autos.
Personally I miss the cheap 4 pot , manual , rwd Econo box , such as the old corollas. Felt more like how a car should drive. So for the next long while I will stick with the td5 manual.

I haven't owned a manual car for close to 20 or so years. I wouldn't go back to manual now.
I have a manual, eighteen speed 'box in my truck and that is my preference. Occasionally I drive an automated manual truck, they're ok in flat or gently undulating highway conditions but, in steep, slow hills they're too slow to change and wont skip shift.

I have a manual light truck for work and at the end of the day my (arthritic) left leg is giving me hell. It is nice to jump in the auto D1 or Nan's Territory and give my leg a rest.

So like V8Ian, a vote for auto from me

I like feel of a manual box, you seem more in tune with the car, but when it comes to traffic and city driving an auto is great after a hard days work.
My v8 auto 110 is so much better in the really technical hard stuff.
The td5 110 manual is great to drive in the country. And I try to drive it as much as I can, although that isn't enough these days and I will soon sell it.
The work auto Colorado is boring as bat poo, but good in the traffic on a hot afternoon , when the Colorado was being repaired they gave me a commodore wagon, that was even more boring.
With more gears in the autos it's quite seamless, but I miss the engine coming on through the rev range.
If I didn't have city driving it would be manual all the way.

Autos have gradually taken over virtually the whole market for all types. Although not as rapidly as was forecast - I recall a 1950s article that forecast that within ten years almost all cars would be autromatics, and almost all automatics would be made by Automotive Products. It didn't happen.

What has made it happen is the narrowing of the gap in both cost and efficiency between the two, both the result mainly of advances in manufacturing technology, but driven by artificially imposed rules on economy and emissions. This means fewer and fewer buying manuals for cost reasons.

Fleet owners have long preferred autos since they stand up to abuse better than manuals.

As a result, we have gradually seen an increasing proportion of drivers who cannot drive a manual - and once this reached a certain number, perhaps 50-60%, dealers began to lose interest in manuals - after all, a manual driver can drive an auto, but not vice versa. So a decreasing number of new cars are autos, and the process is self accelerating.

You saw the same effect in the 1940s and 1950s with non-synchro gearboxes. By the mid fifties, you could not sell even a real basic car without synchromesh on most forward gears - VW was one of the last to change, and they became the first cheap car with synchro on all gears!

John

I've just gone to an auto D4 as they don't seem to sell them in manual here in Oz anyway. But apart from that I find it easier than keep changing as the legs don't work as well as they used to.
Had a Prado a few years ago and that was excellent in sand etc. so I think the auto with the D4 was the way to go. Actually it'll be far better than the Prado as it's got twice the gears.
Although the Prado was a good vehicle in many ways the cruise control/gearbox combo was as crude as you could imagine..... plenty of noise on changing down but no extra power. Even the Deafener with a smaller engine was far better.
Most drivers appear to be too lazy and incompetent to change gears and they need to use the mobile phone at the same time which would cause problems.
AlanH.

I like driving manuals on the weekends in the 101 and other cars we have, but I'm glad my daily driver is an auto. I do nearly 1,000KM a week in City traffic and I don't think my left leg woukd stand up to hour after hour of peak hour traffic in a manual.

And I'm with Ian on Automated manuals in Trucks - we have a stack of them at work, and aren't bad to drive on the flat but take sooooo much time to change gears they are a nightmare in the hills and the 'manual' mode is limited in what it will actually do for you - it thinks it knows better when it doesn't.

Also, when purchasing SWMBO's new car, the model we bought had both manual and auto in the base range, but manual and DCT in the top range and limited edition, so technically no auto in the more expensive vehicles. Although the DCT is in effect an auto, it does drive differently and requires you to take a different approach when driving off from a standstill. Once it's moving it's basically the same, although the gear changes are lightning fast when you are on the load pedal and you don't feel, hear or see on the tacho any kind of slip as it changes gear, it just seems to add the next one on and keep pulling. Very close ratios too as it's a 7 speed and it's a hoot to drive. The flappy paddles allow you to do it yourself, and it's better than most as when you hit the paddle, it changes gear instantly, unlike some autos with the same feature, but it's a bit of a gimic as the computer can do it a whole lot better.

My 30 years of driving P76's involved a progression of gearboxes, 3 speed manual, 4 speed manual, 5 speed Supra manual, and finally a 4 speed GM lock up auto. Each step up was an improvement in driving style. I'd not hesitate to drive a modern multi speed auto if it presented itself. Manuals have the advantage that you can use all the available power in any suitable gear, instead of driving with your accelerator just before kick down. I used to love rumbling off with the V8 in a high gear and using all the available torque. But I can manage without that rumble now that I've grown up a bit and drive a 4 cylinder Merc auto.