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End of the manual transmission?
High Gear Media via Foxnews ^ | May 02, 2012 | By Thomas Bey

Posted on 06/01/2012 7:23:21 AM PDT by US Navy Vet

Go to any given dealership with 100 new cars.

On average, just four of the 2012 models will have manual gearboxes.

The trend of the vanishing third pedal is nothing new, notes The Detroit News.

Even a decade ago, just 8.5 percent of 2002 models were manuals. The paper’s own automotive reporter even confesses she never learned to drive a stick shift until it essentially became a job requirement.

It’s more than a little contradictory to automotive reviews (including many you’ll read here) extolling the pleasure of enthusiastic driving with a true manual gearbox. Likewise, purists gravitate to manuals for tackling their favorite twisting road or occasional track day. It’s the original form of in-car connectivity.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Technical
KEYWORDS: manualtransmission; stick
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To: US Navy Vet
Learned to drive stick on a '85 renault with a 5 speed getrag transmission. After you got past first, it was very easy to shift. First gear in that thing was a stone b#+ch. But , every other manual I've driven since then has been easy compared to that thing. So ultimately it was good training.

CC

21 posted on 06/01/2012 7:33:51 AM PDT by Celtic Conservative (Q: how did you find America? A: turn left at Greenland)
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To: US Navy Vet

4 on the floor, and 3 on the column.


22 posted on 06/01/2012 7:33:59 AM PDT by shorty_harris
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To: US Navy Vet

My jeep is a stick...wouldn’t have it any other way!


23 posted on 06/01/2012 7:34:38 AM PDT by liberalh8ter (If Barack has a memory like a steel trap, why can't he remember what the Constitution says?)
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To: US Navy Vet
My high school had a Chevy standard (1965), worked out great for my first job, driving truck for a local car parts company before I joined the USAF. Drove standard right up until 2000, knees went on me. Would never own a pick-up with auto.
24 posted on 06/01/2012 7:34:49 AM PDT by Wilum (Never loaded a nuke I didn't like)
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To: US Navy Vet
"How many here can drive a "Stick"?"

Hah.

I learned to drive on a John Deere "A". Automatic trans. was not an option.

Learned how to double clutch on it also.

25 posted on 06/01/2012 7:34:49 AM PDT by SnuffaBolshevik (In a tornado, even turkeys can fly.)
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To: US Navy Vet

I used to always get a manny tranny for economy and reliability, but the new auto tranny’s are so much improved I prefer them, especially in traffic jams. I would only go stick again in a sports or muscle car.


26 posted on 06/01/2012 7:35:24 AM PDT by HerrBlucher
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To: US Navy Vet
"How many here can drive a "Stick"?"

While lighting a cigarette and tuning the radio...

27 posted on 06/01/2012 7:36:29 AM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
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To: US Navy Vet

Just us elders.


28 posted on 06/01/2012 7:36:29 AM PDT by donna (Mitt quote: ...gay couples raising kids. That's the American way...)
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To: US Navy Vet

I’ve owned 8 cars and only 1 was an automatic. I took my driver’s test in a manual. Recently I was shopping for a newer used car and tried a few of those ‘paddle-shifter’ transmissions and missed the control of a manual.

And I’m a relative young-un (42), and most of my gear-head friends drive manuals, but most others drive automatics.


29 posted on 06/01/2012 7:37:39 AM PDT by Betis70 (Bruins!)
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To: US Navy Vet

If it doesn’t have three pedals, I don’t want it.


30 posted on 06/01/2012 7:37:53 AM PDT by Nik Naym (It's not my fault... I have compulsive smartass disorder.)
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To: HerrBlucher

Boring right back at ya.

I’ll keep using my stick, and make it click.

Made that mistake one time, and one time only. Never again.


31 posted on 06/01/2012 7:38:16 AM PDT by Cringing Negativism Network (America doesn't need any new laws. America needs freedom!)
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To: US Navy Vet

This must be a subversive liberal plot...


32 posted on 06/01/2012 7:38:16 AM PDT by AngelesCrestHighway
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To: US Navy Vet

I can drive one, my husband taught me...marital no-man’s land. I like them except for hills with ice and snow covered roads.


33 posted on 06/01/2012 7:38:53 AM PDT by madison10 (The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. TJ)
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To: US Navy Vet

It was required when I took driver’s training but was no big deal because I was already and experienced driver in a Ford F150 with 3 on the tree.

I prefer a stick to an automatic.


34 posted on 06/01/2012 7:39:02 AM PDT by cripplecreek (What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?)
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To: I cannot think of a name

I always drove stick’ even from high school when I first had my ‘ricer’ and raced it on the weekends. I have always thought anyone who drove automatic’ were not actual drivers. Now I drive a 6 speed auto (sigh)


35 posted on 06/01/2012 7:39:02 AM PDT by max americana
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To: US Navy Vet

I remember trying to teach one of my kids to drive a stick about 16 years ago. This kid is brilliant, a double major in the sciences and instructional tempered as well. But the car I had was equiped with a grabby quick spring pressure hydro clutch and he couldn’t get the feel for it. It made him so mad I thought he would have a stroke.

When a lot of use older guys learned we had steering column mounted three speeds with low rpm higher torgue engines on old pick-up trucks and sedans to start learning on. It made it a lot easier to get started. Even if you slammed it and popped it, it would still muddle through without the stalls and giant jerks of the higher rpm engines of the 80s and 90s.


36 posted on 06/01/2012 7:39:31 AM PDT by KC Burke (Plain Conservative opinions and common sense correction for thirteen years.)
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To: US Navy Vet

My current vehicle is the first on in almost 25 years that has automatic transmission. Before that every car but one had manual transmission. I think I can still drive a stick.


37 posted on 06/01/2012 7:39:52 AM PDT by Daveinyork
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To: US Navy Vet

I married a shiftless woman; but that was remedied in the first year.


38 posted on 06/01/2012 7:40:06 AM PDT by Arm_Bears (Journalists first; then lawyers.)
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To: US Navy Vet

guilty...

Up to a 18 speed :)


39 posted on 06/01/2012 7:40:06 AM PDT by cableguymn
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To: US Navy Vet

have a stick.

It would seem that the government overlords would have mandated more standard transmissions because of the fuel economy involved.

Go figure


40 posted on 06/01/2012 7:40:14 AM PDT by School of Rational Thought (Fun for women ages 21 through 35)
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