Because you will have a hard time finding an automatic car here ... unless you rent a luxury car.
Driving a manual transmission.your thoughts.your experiences.
- Thread starter Lesmore
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Because you will have a hard time finding an automatic car here ... unless you rent a luxury car.
Be surprised! I have driven rental cars in Germany, the UK, Canada, and most of the states in the US. It really is all the same, except in Alaska they gave me instructions on what to do if I encountered Moose. But it was one time -- in the US -- that I was asked if I minded a manual; but everywhere, always, the question is just if so-and-so model of car ok.
May be a valid point - in regards to a growing portion of the younger generations I guess - but those over say 25 (ish?) would most likely have the skills required - even if they drive autos at home. My point being, though the skill set unfortunately seems to be losing priority here - I still think the majority of drivers can drive a stick. 20 years from now, most likely not.
-s
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I understand you. I would hate see that happening in Europe.
In New Zealand I was warned about parrots (Kea) stripping the trim and wipers off the car. The car was fine, but one stole my sock.
-s
Agreed, if you can learn to drive with out riding the clutch there should not be any need for a new clutch. A periodic adjustment is a different matter.
Modern hydraulic clutches are self-adjusting.
I wish that was the case here in the US. Labor at a shop runs 70-100 dollars an hour. If you shop around, you could find maybe 55-65 per hour. I'm assuming most FWD cars like my Civic requires you to drop the subframe to do a clutch job. I'd guess "by the book" it is at least a 5 hour job.
I know I can get at least 100-150k out of the cat before even thinking about a clutch job, but it is something I need to budget once my car gets older since I intend to drive the snot out of it.
I learned to drive in a 1960 Chevrolet Corvair 3 speed. Talk about bare bones!
Family car is an automatic, but my wife and I both own, tinker with and drive old MG sports cars. She has a roadster, I have a GT. Nice 4 speeds, cars handle great for their era. Tried to get my grown kids interested in learning a manual, but they could not care less.
Family car is an automatic, but my wife and I both own, tinker with and drive old MG sports cars. She has a roadster, I have a GT. Nice 4 speeds, cars handle great for their era. Tried to get my grown kids interested in learning a manual, but they could not care less.
Great cars those Civic! I had two of them, two 1.5 iLS Vtec ... In terms of reliability they are very hard to beat. I sold both of them before reaching 200K kms, and never needed a clutch job. Nor anything else, only the regular maintenance program, fluids, filters, etc ... Amazing machines.
True, but the point is that there should be no need to replace a clutch through natural wear.
Oh, definitely agreed -- I was just saying that there's also no need to service it in any way, just drive and enjoy.
Any clutch, due to the sacrificial nature of the surfaces, is going to eventually wear out if it's used long enough: it's just a matter of whether or not you own the car when it does. It all depends, of course, on how much it's used or abused. Clutches will generally last longer in a cold climate as opposed to a hot climate but even a clutch treated with the utmost "care" will eventually reach the point where it can longer do its job.
I've got 175,000 on my Tacoma's clutch but it's starting to "squeak" a little from time to time. I figure it's probably good for at least another 20,000-30,000 before I have to get it worked on. It should be relatively cheap since there's not much to it and it's easy to get to.
For a dealership repair, it's close to $900 if the flywheel just gets resurfaced. If they replace the flywheel, $1000 is about right. I'm guessing you can save 10 - 20% by using a local mechanic as opposed to a dealership.
I agree that the clutch plate is sacrificial in nature. That having been said my last high mileage car was a 1991 Infinity G20 that I drove from new until it had a little over 300k kilometers on the odometer. That car was not driven lightly during it's entire life and I never had to replace the clutch.
That's really incredible ... If a mechanic here asked $1000 / €730, they would soon be out of business and starving .
I always drove an automatic until 1990 when I bought a standard 5-speed Acura Integra. I drove it for 13 years--and loved every minute of it. It handled like a sports car and, for me, had amazing performance. Just loved it. But with my creaking joints and a very bad right knee, I had a lot of trouble sitting in a car that small. So now I drive an automatic SUV. But I taught both my kids to drive the standard shift and they both still do.
During our Sunday afternoon walk, I conducted a completely unscientific experiment. I counted the parked cars I saw with a manual and automatic transmission. 50 manuals, and 2 automatics.
I stopped counting when I reached 50 manuals, but I think counting further would not have changed the ratio too much.
I guess the outcome would have been different when we would have walked in a neighborhood with elderly people, or with many luxury cars.
I stopped counting when I reached 50 manuals, but I think counting further would not have changed the ratio too much.
I guess the outcome would have been different when we would have walked in a neighborhood with elderly people, or with many luxury cars.
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I haven't done that type of data collection but today I got out of my wife's car, a manual, and was very surprised that the car next to us had a manual transmission.
I much prefer a manual transmission. The first car I ever bought was a 1989 Chevy Cavalier Z24. Through the years, I've had an Eagle Talon, BMW M3, Mitsubishi Evolution, BMW 328i, Subaru WRX and an Audi A4 which all had stick. I went 2 years with a Cadillac coupe with automatic and missed the manual transmission so much that it is now the first thing I look for in a car. My wife prefers manual as well, although we always keep a vehicle with automatic for our kids to drive (my oldest two boys still try to take one of the manuals when they can).
