Why do you drive an automatic (unless you don't)?

[Thymeclock]

Originally Posted by Old Mechanic

Sentra and dcb. I invite every member of this forum to look at the posts from you two and see who is confrontational, obnoxious, and in general derogatory to others in many of your posts...

If you two want to carry on a respectful debate about facts and even opinions I will gladly join you. If you want to be jerks, I can play that game as well, and will do so until the moderators kick me off this forum...

People who come here to learn something do not need to have to crawl through childish verbal fistfights. In fact they may even not bother when the SPAM gets bad enough. Not saying don't disagree, just state your point with a minimum of common courtesy and I will gladly do the same.

Then a newcomer to this forum will see a community that treats each other with respect for each persons efforts to improve their driving efficiency, instead of reading useless garbage that teaches nothing to anyone.

Even people who drive Automatics should have the ability to learn techniques without having to crawl through all the crap about their choice of transportation. That includes people whose lives include other distractions that would make intense hypermiling extremely dangerous, which was the point in my question you called stupid dcb.

That's the trend here now: belittle those with whom you disagree and seek an audience of supporters who can outnumber and drown out the dissenter.

Caused by too much immaturity and too much testosterone, perhaps?

[JacobAziza]

Honestly, I think it was inevitable, given the original question and the forum itself that a minority would drive automatics, that efficiency would come up, and that at least a few people would take it personally.

I don't think either of them started out sounding so... well, we've all been reading it... but it only takes one misunderstanding to get the ball rolling, and then...
well, its just a good thing this all is by internet, and not in a bar.

[nemo]

Originally Posted by mcrews

That 66 catalina must have been 220 -40 inchs long!!! was it the 4 door?
can't imagine it came w/ a stick!!

Sorry about the delay missed your post. Only found it after I reread thread to see were it went off track.

It was a convertable (2 door) and yes it was factory. The only option was power steering.
That brings up a point. You can no longer get a car your way. It seem all manufactures and retailers only want to sell you the 20% of the items that make 80% of the sale. This is why the selection of of car and trucks with manual transmissions is so limited.


When my son went to buy a truck he was looking for a stick. The Ford dealer didn't have one (Ranger) on the lot and wasn't getting one. He ended up buying a Colorado as the Chevy dealer had one he could test drive before purchase.

[gone-ot]

...another example of Detroit's "...take it or leave it..." marketing.

[comptiger5000]

When I bought my Jeep, I couldn't find the very rare I6 / 5 speed combo. The I6 autos are sluggish, and I found a nice 5.9 Limited (rare special edition, only just over 14k sold in the country) for sale at a good price, so I bought it.

They only came as autos, but they're basically an old school torqueflite with OD, so plenty of modding and such can be done to make it better around town. On the highway, it never drops out of OD and TC lockup (even climbing a 7% grade for a couple miles at 60mph), so it's a crapshoot anyway.

A 5 speed swap could be done, and has been, but it's very expensive and requires a lot of custom fab work, as these never came with a V8 and a 5 speed. It's a fun beast though, and the mpg isn't horrible for what it is, although it's certainly not great.

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by JacobAziza

Honestly, I think it was inevitable, given the original question and the forum itself that a minority would drive automatics, that efficiency would come up, and that at least a few people would take it personally.

I don't think either of them started out sounding so... well, we've all been reading it... but it only takes one misunderstanding to get the ball rolling, and then...
well, its just a good thing this all is by internet, and not in a bar.

Exactly!

I find these type of disagreements amusing, I don't take much of whats said very seriously and it shows I guess.

They can preach to the choir all they want but in the end of the day we are here to make our own situation a little better and by virtue of making small improvements individually we help our nation.

If we get a little braggers rights along the way so be it.

[johnhenry]

Test drove 08 Civic LX A/T and at 2000rpm it was running 61mph. The M/T at 2000rpm was running only 45mph giving 1/3 more speed at 2000rpm with the A/T, thus more mpg's. Call it whatever you like I wanted the most MPG. After 28,000 miles my average has been 36.6mpg for the life of the car. Did drive the M/T for close to 2000 miles and best that I could get was 37.7mpg as opposed to 43+ with the A/T.

[dcb]

yah, with those mph/rpm figures, that's a pretty obvious gearing problem. I bet the manual can get up and go though

[dcb]

ah, yup, that is the compromise they made:

(0 to 60 times) depends on the manual or automatic transmission

Manual: 7.7sec Auto: 9.3sec
The reason for the big difference is that the automatic is tuned for efficiency.Good luck!

[tumnasgt]

Originally Posted by johnhenry

Test drove 08 Civic LX A/T and at 2000rpm it was running 61mph. The M/T at 2000rpm was running only 45mph giving 1/3 more speed at 2000rpm with the A/T, thus more mpg's. Call it whatever you like I wanted the most MPG. After 28,000 miles my average has been 36.6mpg for the life of the car. Did drive the M/T for close to 2000 miles and best that I could get was 37.7mpg as opposed to 43+ with the A/T.

I find it annoying that car companies insist on gearing automatics so they run nicely at 60mph at around 2000rpm, whereas the manual version will almost always be doing 2500-3500rpm at the same speed. There is no reason they can't widen the gap a bit more to make highway cruising more efficient in a manual (or just have a really high 6th gear). I suspect part of it is that automatics would start to look worse on the highway EPA cycle, whereas at the moment manuals and autos tend to get pretty well the same score.

Whether you have an automatic or a manual doesn't make much of a difference on the highway (unless you want to pulse and glide), assuming similar top gear ratios. On the other hand, traditional automatics will never compete with a manual in the city, where they spend virtually all of the time with the TC lockup disengaged, while a manual still has a physical connection from engine to wheels.