Car and Driver magazine launches campaign to save manual transmissions!

nist7

nist7

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http://www.caranddriver.com/features/10q3/save_the_manuals!-car_and_driver

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Save the Manuals! - Car and Driver

Like me, you may have noticed an alarming paucity of vehicles offering fully manual transmissions. Even sports-car stalwart Ferrari, of gated-shifter fame, isn?t providing a three-pedal option on the new 458 Italia. Equally distressing, I read in the Washington Post that our nation?s hard-texting youth have pronounced driving seriously lame, with only about 30 percent of 16-year-olds having acquired driving licenses as of 2008. I can?t help but think these things are related.

If folks learned to operate the entire car, not just the steering wheel and occasionally the brakes, I?d bet they?d like driving better. If they knew the sense of control imparted by that third pedal, I?d bet they would strive for its mastery. If they knew the excitement that accompanied a perfectly timed heel-toe downshift, I can guarantee they?d be hooked.

You know what we need? We need a crusade. We need to save the manuals! Not only are manual transmissions often more fuel-efficient than their two-pedal counterparts, you also can?t text while operating one. So let?s lobby carmakers to produce more of these things because they?re safer and more frugal, and let?s not tell them that they?re way more fun. Let?s train our offspring in the ancient ways of the stick shift. Let all of us knights of the clutch pedal drive our manual-equipped cars to Washington and pop ?em in front of Barry O?s house.

Won?t you join the cause? ?Eddie Alterman
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If you email them your address, you can get a free sticker and button! Limited to first 500 supporters only. Hurry! (Not sure if they do international shipping though)

Show Your Support

The first 500 people who pledge their support will get a free sticker and button, perfect for spreading the manual-transmission gospel. Simply send your name and mailing address to backfires@caranddriver.com with ?Save the Manuals? in the subject line?that part?s key, otherwise we might miss your message?and we?ll pop your stuff in the mail. (Give us 6 to 8 weeks for delivery.)
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Thanks Autoblog! http://www.autoblog.com/2010/07/21/car-and-driver-launches-save-the-manuals-campaign-w-vide/
 
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As much as I'd like to see manual as an option on more cars, I seriously doubt this has anything to do with the decline in 16-year-olds getting licenses.

1) most people don't enjoy driving, making it take more work won't fix that

2) Minimum driving age is rising in many states, especially for full license vs learner's permit.
 
well, that just means, as we get old. "We would talk about the good old days, when real men drove manuals, not like you youngsters with your double clutch 16 speed gearboxes."
 
I suppose all the AB nerds (aka the internets car experts) snapped them up. <_<
 
You need a campaign?

There's enough manual transmission snobs out there already who think an automatic is unsuitable for any driver on any car.
 
What do I know... I drive a refrigerator on wheels, and an automatic one at that. :shifty:
 
thevictor390 said:
As much as I'd like to see manual as an option on more cars, I seriously doubt this has anything to do with the decline in 16-year-olds getting licenses.

1) most people don't enjoy driving, making it take more work won't fix that

2) Minimum driving age is rising in many states, especially for full license vs learner's permit.
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Not to mention the requirements for getting one. If you take drivers ed (which if you want to afford insurance when you are under 18 you pretty much have to) they at least here have that bullshit spend X amount of hours "observing" thing, which if you haven't had to do this can be explained as sitting in the back of the drivers ed car and listening to the instructor yell at the kid driving and not observing anything as all you can see is the back of the seats anyway. The driving itself can be nasty too as the witch woman I had would scream at you if you didn't go EXACTLY the speed limit (not over or under a single mph) and expected you to do shit like stop for empty crosswalks, then scream at you. She actually made a friend of mine cry. :|
If you aren't motivated you probably won't want to deal with that bull knowing if you wait 2 years you won't have needed it at all.
That made a couple people I know hold off on theirs.
 
This seems more like a publicity stunt.
 
I sent in for my sticker.... cool idea even if it is just a ploy to sell magazines.
 
I have an auto, but I'm all for this! I am sick and tired of my Sentra not downshifting when going up one of Pittsburgh's many hills even with the pedal to the floor until I've slowed to ten under the limit.

Let the computers figure out the fuel/air ratio and whatnot, but let me control the car.
 
katwalk said:
Not to mention the requirements for getting one....
If you aren't motivated you probably won't want to deal with that bull knowing if you wait 2 years you won't have needed it at all.
That made a couple people I know hold off on theirs.
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Are you saying that it should be easier to get a license and car? :lmao:
 
I don't think were can save the proper gated shifted manual. Now the majority of cars will be auto tragics with a few sequential. It's sad and I truly despise the auto tragic but there's nothing we can do.
 
With fewer and fewer cars even coming on the market with available manuals, and the fact that the manual versions just don't sell...the manual transmission isn't the "need" we think it is, business wise.

Acura TL: at most, 5% will opt for the manual.
70-80 Porsches are auto since the introduction of the PDK
7.7 of all US auto sales in 2007 were manual...and that was an INCREASE from the previous year due to econoboxes being sold with rising gas prices.
Corvettes: 66% sold with automatics. 75% of Corvette convertibles.

They won't make business sense anymore before too long. It sucks, but it's the truth.

The only way it makes sense is if it's made elsewhere in other countries/continents where manuals are high-sellers.
 
The big problem for stick shifts is that duel clutch gearboxes are faster. They are more enjoyable, but now not as fast.
 
katwalk said:
Not to mention the requirements for getting one. If you take drivers ed (which if you want to afford insurance when you are under 18 you pretty much have to) they at least here have that bullshit spend X amount of hours "observing" thing, which if you haven't had to do this can be explained as sitting in the back of the drivers ed car and listening to the instructor yell at the kid driving and not observing anything as all you can see is the back of the seats anyway. The driving itself can be nasty too as the witch woman I had would scream at you if you didn't go EXACTLY the speed limit (not over or under a single mph) and expected you to do shit like stop for empty crosswalks, then scream at you. She actually made a friend of mine cry. :|
If you aren't motivated you probably won't want to deal with that bull knowing if you wait 2 years you won't have needed it at all.
That made a couple people I know hold off on theirs.
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Lynn Junk taught your driver's ed class too?
 
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