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Originally Posted by darcane
I know exactly what you're saying... Gridlocked traffic, start, stop, start, stop, repeat. We have plenty of it here. I'm just saying you're doing it wrong. If you're on the brakes, you probably sped up too much. If you are accelerating a lot, you're probably using the brakes too much. Try to time your coasting so that the car in front of you starts moving before you get to it.
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Yep - I expected some manual tranny enthusiast would tell me I'm "doing it wrong".
Have you ever been to N.Y. City? Have you ever driven a car here? This is relevant to the discussion. I once spent some time driving in California and was amazed how you folks on the left coast piss and moan about how bad the traffic is there. You have mostly four-lane highways and no 'bottlenecks'. That's a piece of cake compared to where I am from. Traffic? Compared to what? I'm sure the traffic in Pusiwallop Washington is nothing compared to Manhattan, or the Bronx, or Brooklyn, or even Queens.
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Shifting doesn't really use up the clutch, slipping the clutch does. You do this mostly when you are starting from a stop. If you keep your car rolling, you have no need to slip the clutch and you will still have good clutch life.
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If shifting "doesn't really use the clutch up", then a clutch should last forever, right? What nonsense. The more anything involving friction is used, the faster it wears out. "Keep it rolling?" Try doing that at an intersection with one of our newly installed red-light cameras. Summonses are issued by data from road sensors, still and video cameras - with all three in active use - that show anything over 0 MPH recorded at the stop line.
Don't insinuate that I ride a clutch, or ride the brakes. I know better than to do that, but I have no way of proving to you that I don't, nor what traffic is like here. Until you move here and operate a vehicle under the traffic conditions that prevail your comments are not applicable. Brakes do wear out faster in city areas because we need to stop for stop signs on virtually every corner, ubiquitous traffic lights and often being behind semi-comatose drivers, with whom one must share the public roadways, who brake for hallucinations.
And don't worry about me - all the cars I've owned for the past 20 years are all automatics - not out of choice mind you, but out of sheer practicality and economic pragmatism.