[RobertSmith]

Eventually manuals will be endangered because of the safety/autonomous controls need to take control under certain situations.

[Mr. Wyndham]

Originally Posted by RobertSmith

Eventually manuals will be endangered because of the safety/autonomous controls need to take control under certain situations.

Well there's an interesting thought...Or will the safety/autonomous controlled vehicles have to be designed to take into account a "manual driving" vehicle?

[fastball]

Originally Posted by RobertSmith

Eventually manuals will be endangered because of the safety/autonomous controls need to take control under certain situations.

I'm never going to buy a car with so much automation. As someone who works with computers every day I can tell I will never trust a car that isn't operated by a human.

Before you go throwing accident stats at me, what happens when the system fails and the car accelerates into a crowd of 50 people at a high school baseball game? Or fails to brake and runs off a bridge? Don't think that will happen? I got news for you brother - humans, with all our faults and drunk driving and texting while driving and teenagers blasting their music and talking to friends while driving are STILL more reliable than computers.

[Hawk Fan]

Manuals might go the way of the dinosaur, but until then, those of us that love them will continue to get a better deal on cars! Of course, it depends on the car. Some manuals hold their values as well as the auto counterpart. As an example. Consider buying a daily commuter car, something cheap. When I taught both my sons to drive, I choose a manual. I knew whatever I bought they would inevitably thrash it through their learning period. So, I went out and bought a brand new kia spectra off the lot for 2k less than the auto counterpart they had on the lot. It was probably that much cheaper because it had less people interested in buying it and due to "supply-and-demand", brought with it - a lower selling price. Now, both my boys drive and prefer manual over auto. And will also reap the benefit of the lower selling price at the lot. When I said some manuals hold their value well, I was referring to the Sti I used as a trade-in. Which we all know only comes in a manual. I was SHOCKED when they gave me the trade in value of that manual. 9 years old and had very little depreciation. I doubt very much my 2SS will hold its value like that, but i think the manual will hold its value as well as the auto because of its sports car nature. All that being said, less expensive is not why I buy manuals, it’s like others have said. It feels more like a driver’s car. Even though track times prove the autos are quicker. If it’s a sports car, and I'm driving it, it’s going to be a manual.

[Juliannnt]

I say this all the time when people ask me why i chose manual over auto: I enjoy it more. I know its not as fast an all that, I have no illusions about it. But it's just more fun. I like shifting that's what it comes down to, it feels like I'm actually driving. I'll be the fist to say auto is better. But at the end of the day it just ain't for me.

[jlagman]

To each their own, I prefer to stay with a manual for as long as I can, but I realize it's not necessarily just up to me. When I was truck shopping, I had to do quite a bit of searching to find one with 3 pedals, which still met my needs for daily driving and hunting. When my Canyon goes, it will likely get replaced with an automatic. Don't even get me started on the eventual pill I'll have to swallow if I get married and have kids.

But then again, that's why I'm getting all my "immature" BS out of the way right now. ;P

[NUCAR]

Originally Posted by AquilaNoctis

I can imagine it now.

The streets will be silent, self driving electric cars whizzing around making the world a better place. Suddenly, the roar of a V8, it can be heard for miles. Tires squealing, the smell of burning rubber in the air.

Everyone will know when I am going to bingo.

You see a small puff of smoke in the distant sky as the hellfire falls off the drone's wing and the engine ignites . Hammer down as you realize that you will really enjoy these last two gears......

The pussification will be enforced at all costs

[psheldon97]

The demand for manual among purists is still strong. For the 2018 911 GT3 they brought back manual after only offering the PDK in the current 991 generation.

I'm also 25. While I agree with the majority of comments in this thread about my generation, I don't think broad stroking that description is accurate because the cultural shift from manual to automatic started in the 70's and 80's. It has nothing to do with millenials and laziness - it was a continuation of a trend already in place. I did four years in the military and earned my college tuition, always pay for my own car, and I know a slew of other college-aged folks who only applied for FAFSA.

[Norm Peterson]

Originally Posted by psheldon97

I don't think broad stroking that description is accurate because the cultural shift from manual to automatic started in the 70's and 80's. It has nothing to do with millenials and laziness - it was a continuation of a trend already in place.

Actually, the trend started a good bit before the 70's with my parents' generation (closer to your great-grandparents' generation).

In some respects, your generation is as much a victim of the previous three generations' trend to automatics as it is to anything within itself. On average with each successive generation, there's been less exposure to MT driving. Makes MT driving kind of an "out of sight, out of mind" thing for lots of people, must be difficult because hardly anybody they know drives stick, etc.


Norm

[fastball]

Originally Posted by Norm Peterson

Actually, the trend started a good bit before the 70's with my parents' generation (closer to your great-grandparents' generation).

In some respects, your generation is as much a victim of the previous three generations' trend to automatics as it is to anything within itself. On average with each successive generation, there's been less exposure to MT driving. Makes MT driving kind of an "out of sight, out of mind" thing for lots of people, must be difficult because hardly anybody they know drives stick, etc.


Norm

The Hydramatic was the result of years of trying to make cars shift themselves and make driving more appealing and easier for the masses.

Until the 1930s car companies hadn't standardized even the manual transmission operation of their cars. It was a real chore and kinda dangerous just to drive a car down the street to the market for milk and bread in the early years of the automobile.

Here's a good video on how to start and drive a 1916 Ford Model T:



Obviously just getting out of your driveway in the morning was a pain.

Now, by the 1930s automatic chokes, the electric starter, and the now standard setup of clutch pedal on the left, brake pedal in the middle, and accelerator on the right had made cars much easier than that Model T to drive, but you still had to shift constantly. Many companies had developed a semi-automatic transmission, which shifted from 1st-3rd on it's own but you still had to clutch-in and engage the clutch going from a dead stop in first gear.

The invention of the hydraulic torque converter in 1939 made it possible for the first time to have a completely self shifting car.

When you watch that Model T video you'll understand why there was such a demand to make driving a car easier. Car companies knew if they could made it easier to drive, they'd get more customers. Not sure too many teenage girls were going crazy to get their driver's license like they do today when they had watched their Dad do a jig and a two step with a dosie-doe just to pull the car out into the street lol!

Today driving a manual is fun, especially in the right car. But I've driven an old manual before, a 1938 Pontiac Fireball Straight 8 with a 3 on the tree, and it's fun too. I guess it's more fun when you want to learn to drive it, as opposed to all the people who back then HAD to learn how to drive it. There was no such thing as an automatic anything. If you wanted to get your driver's license, you had to know how to shift as well as stop at red lights and made left turns in traffic.

[psheldon97]

Originally Posted by Norm Peterson

Actually, the trend started a good bit before the 70's with my parents' generation (closer to your great-grandparents' generation).

In some respects, your generation is as much a victim of the previous three generations' trend to automatics as it is to anything within itself. On average with each successive generation, there's been less exposure to MT driving. Makes MT driving kind of an "out of sight, out of mind" thing for lots of people, must be difficult because hardly anybody they know drives stick, etc.


Norm

Good point. I always looked at the oil crisis of the 1970's as the time when automatics really grew more traction. I think with more industrialized areas and suburbs you still see lots of people today who have never seen a manual. My 22 yr old girlfriend is from outside Philadelphia and she didn't know what it was until she met me. In the "country" or outlying areas it still seems to be more prevalent, at least that was what my experience was living in the south for four years and then northern virginia.