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

[user removed]

It is ridiculous when you consider the old 76 280Z I drove many years ago. I put a later 5 speed in the car with the stock 3.54 differential. Later I replaced the diff with a 3.90.
With the 3.54 it would do close to 90 MPH at 3k rpm. The later 3.90 gave it 30,60,90,120,150 top speeds in each gear, calculated at max RPM.

The Altima in top gear is very close to the same revs per mile as the Z was with the original 3.54 differential, and very close to the 94 VX. Any car that is taching 3k at 60 in top gear should have at least another .75 to 1 overdrive top gear or even greater.

Maybe you would have to downshift climbing a grade with a full load, but that seems like a limp excuse to not give you good highway economy, especially with a 6 speed transmission. You could have 30,60,90,120,150,180 and be at half red line at 90 MPH.

With the higher power of today's engines it would sure be nice to think the car companies don't consider us to be so stupid we can't use a lower gear when the loads are too high for a really tall top gear.

Just using a different differential ratio or gear sets is about as simple as you can get when you do it building the car.

That's how they are getting decent mileage out of the new high performance cars. I guess they forgot we dropped the 55 MPH speed limit.

In fact my old 59 Corvette with a .308 diff was close to the same revs per mile as the rest of them, something like 2100 at 60.

regards
Mech

[user removed]

Originally Posted by SentraSE-R

Welll, this is the third time this moron has been the target of Mech's venom when he's targeted my SE-R. Time for an end one way or another. His first post says it. He took this thread to the crapper when he joined it. I'm out of it.

The thread went to the crapper after you chose to pound a fellow member for driving an automatic in NYC and Long Island. My first post was reply number 15.

It went to crap when you hijacked the thread around post 115 to belittle people who drive autos, when, by YOUR own admission your wife drives an auto. I guess it's OK for her to decide to do so when she has a reason to make that decision, but when someone else decides to do the same they don't deserve your respect.

I have seen this same attitude towards others in many other threads from you and when I see it in the future you will be called out for that attitude as soon as I read it.

If you want to practice self righteousness and hypocrisy do it elsewhere or face the consequences.

This thread is about automatics. The Sonata hybrid you begged someone (on another forum) to allow you to accompany them on a transcontinental trip, was GUESS WHAT!

AUTOMATIC!

That's hipocrisy, by any rational definition.

Your request was rejected becasue the driver knew there was a real chance that he would not make it on two tanks of fuel with the addtional weight of a passenger.

FACT!

It is not my desire to drive you or any other person from contributing to the information and knowledge of the sum total of contributors in this forum. I am here to learn, not to wade through inconsiderate and self righteous rubbish.

You were not the target of my VENOM, your own Venom was the cause of my responses to your attitude towards others.

regards
Mech

[MetroMPG]

Holy cow.

To all: some civility please?

I don't give a crap who started it. We have the individual ability to choose whether take the bait, or rise above it and stay on topic. Responding in kind is guaranteed to further derail things.

Worst case scenario: if your blood pressure is consistently harmed by the words of another member, investigate the forum's "ignore" feature: http://ecomodder.com/forum/profile.php?do=ignorelist

Please stop the bickering now. Thanks.

[Cd]

So ... to those of you that learned to drive a standard car late in life, how did you go about doing it ?
My co-worker has a manual car and had to have his wife drive him home from the dealership. ( Ouch ! )
He said he tried practicing in a parking lot, and by the end of the day he felt comfortable with it all.
I had a guy that offered to trade a '94 VX for my '93 DX auto.
I really wanted to go for it, but passed it up.
Oh well.

[MetroMPG]

I used to teach driving, as a part-time job while going to university.

Normally, instruction was done in an automatic. Manual shift lessons were available too. So you could investigate that. I taught several "mature" drivers who wanted to learn.

I will also say though: I have seen drivers who just didn't have the aptitude to drive stick. They're rare, but they're out there.

[JacobAziza]

I learned by volunteering to be the designated driver of someone else's car and not mentioning that I didn't know how to drive a stick.
By the time the car's owner realized, they were too drunk to complain.
I got to practice on the hills of San Francisco. I stalled and spun out a lot.
Then I bought a stick shift of my own.

[Cd]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

I used to teach driving, as a part-time job while going to university.

I will also say though: I have seen drivers who just didn't have the aptitude to drive stick. They're rare, but they're out there.

( That would be me
I have a agora/driving phobia. If i'm on a road that I am familiar and comfortable with and there is minimal traffic, I actually enjoy driving.
Otherwise, I'm am a nervous wreck ( is that a pun ? )

I envy you guys.

So how do the new clutch-less cars compare to traditional stick shift cars ?
Can you do the same things as a traditional stick shift cars, or is it just a fancy automatic ?

[JacobAziza]

There are some very expensive luxury cars which use the same clutch-less electronic paddle shifting system as formula one cars.
Those should have the power/economy of a manual with the easiness of an auto.

The manu-matics are just fancy automatics. They still have a torque converter.

[tumnasgt]

Originally Posted by JacobAziza

There are some very expensive luxury cars which use the same clutch-less electronic paddle shifting system as formula one cars.
Those should have the power/economy of a manual with the easiness of an auto.

The manu-matics are just fancy automatics. They still have a torque converter.

And most won't let you change up unless it would have anyway in Drive. I love have manumatic for engine braking though, cos there are plenty of hills round here that are too fast for '2' but really, really scary in top gear.

I spend so much time arguing with the automatic (well, mainly the torque converter lockup) in our Sonata that I find the manual Camry is easier to drive, unless I'm in really bad stop start traffic (or a pre-christmas mall parking-lot jam).

[user removed]

The definition of manual and automatic is getting cloudy with the new dual clutch 6 speed automatics, which are actually manual transmissions with computerized clutching and shifting. I think some car company (may have been a tranny manufacturer) just came out with a 9 speed auto.

A lot of work has been devoted to making the automatic a better competitor for the manual, and my personal preference is the CVT in my Altima. I am still learning what it can do, like coasting at 65 MPH and shifting from neutral back to drive with the RPM not going past 1200 until you apply some accelerator pedal then it seems like the converter locks and the linking of the engine to wheels is as slip free as a manual with no change in RPM as you climb or descend grades. Yesterday in temps barely above freezing I managed to drive down the interstate at just lower than a 65 MPH average, and got 38.8 MPG indicated for 22 miles including the cold start. That 38.8 reading is a little optimistic. I believe it is calibrated for E0 fuel while we can only get E10 here. Probably about 36.5 to 37 at 60-65 MPH.

regards
Mech