3 ms·

For some niche "fun" car, sure. For a mass market vehicle, they would be nuts to increase the number of moving parts by a factor of 4 or 5.

icantdrive55 10y ago
Moving parts? An automatic transmission has many more parts. My biggest gripe with any vechicle has been the automatic transmission. An automatic transmission has a huge amout of parts. Too many for my taste. I really thought by now someone would have developed a simple automatic transmission, but it's just not a simple concept. A manual transmission is dead simple. Replacing a clutch is pretty simple. To poor people out there; If you can get a manual, over a automatic--get the manual. It will make your life simpler if drivetrain problems arise. They rear their ugly head at around 160,000 miles. That's if you can drive a stick? (Comming from someone who's been to automotive school. Off subject comming up. A few months ago I had a bad experience at AMMCO. I didn't come here to do this, but the franchise in Marin county is run by a questionable guy. He's either incompetent, or worse? If you(the new owner, who won't give complete rebuild costs) ever happen to see this--there are guys like me who know the lingo/game. Everything you claimed was wrong with the car was not right. I thought about Yelp, but I don't want to be that guy. I know it's difficult running shop. Stop with the b.s. Most AMMCO's I've dealt with are straight shooters. I did talk to him personally, and he changed his attitude once he knew what I was talking about. It's not suspose to be like that? We are definetly missing ethics/morals in so many professions. And I'll repeat, this is the first AMMCO I've ever questioned. They are a good franchise.)
kleigenfreude 10y ago
The reason that carmakers dropped manual was not the number of moving parts or that they wore out quicker. If anything, the car wearing out faster sells more cars and service. Instead, it was because not enough customers wanted manual: http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2015/02/why-lamborghini-trashed-the-manual-transmission.html http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2015/02/why-lamborghini-t... For a more in-depth analysis of this, see: https://www.quora.com/Why-is-the-market-for-manual-transmission-cars-declining https://www.quora.com/Why-is-the-market-for-manual-transmiss... However, there are still many that prefer manual, despite things potentially wearing out more quickly. And- you don't have to design a clutch that allows the driver to wear out things more quickly. You could still allow the driver to select the level of torque but only adjust for that in a way that would not cause damage.
- IshKebab 10y ago
  It's also regional. 90% of cars in the UK are manual. I don't know why exactly, but I guess it is mostly momentum and the fact that they are cheaper to buy and maintain.
  - Nullabillity 10y ago
    It's also much nicer and far more consistent to drive a manual. With an automatic, the "meaning" of the gas pedal will vary wildly depending on previous state. On a manual you can feel/see the setting, and more importantly, you can set it and thus anticipate exactly when it changes meaning.
- JshWright 10y ago
  This is not a manual vs automatic situation. It's "multiple gear ratio transmission with a clutch, etc" vs "single fixed gear ratio". The fact that electric motors have their highest torque at extremely low RPMs, which falls over fairly linearly as power increases means that multi-speed transmissions simply aren't necessary. Why add a bunch of unnecessary complexity? It's just more stuff to break (not to mention more up front cost).
  - kleigenfreude 10y ago
    > Why add a bunch of unnecessary complexity? 1. By adding an additional lower gear to an electric truck/4x4, it could provide even more torque at low gears to allow it to carry more load and go up steeper inclines. 2. By adding an additional higher gear to a car, it could go faster and accelerate faster at the top RPM end(s). For example, see how the acceleration drops quickly. That wouldn't happen if you were to keep switching to higher gears: http://static4.consumerreportscdn.org/content/dam/cro/news_articles/cars/CRO_Cars_Hellcat_Chart_06-15.png http://static4.consumerreportscdn.org/content/dam/cro/news_a... The reason they didn't do this in the Tesla was a technical problem, but that could be remedied: https://forums.tesla.com/forum/forums/adding-second-gear-speed-above-100mph https://forums.tesla.com/forum/forums/adding-second-gear-spe... "The roadster originally was developed using a two speed gear box. However, they had problems getting it to handle the massive instantaneous torque that the motor could produce, so they went for a single speed."

icantdrive55 10y ago

Moving parts? An automatic transmission has many more parts. My biggest gripe with any vechicle has been the automatic transmission. An automatic transmission has a huge amout of parts. Too many for my taste. I really thought by now someone would have developed a simple automatic transmission, but it's just not a simple concept. A manual transmission is dead simple. Replacing a clutch is pretty simple. To poor people out there; If you can get a manual, over a automatic--get the manual. It will make your life simpler if drivetrain problems arise. They rear their ugly head at around 160,000 miles. That's if you can drive a stick? (Comming from someone who's been to automotive school. Off subject comming up. A few months ago I had a bad experience at AMMCO. I didn't come here to do this, but the franchise in Marin county is run by a questionable guy. He's either incompetent, or worse? If you(the new owner, who won't give complete rebuild costs) ever happen to see this--there are guys like me who know the lingo/game. Everything you claimed was wrong with the car was not right. I thought about Yelp, but I don't want to be that guy. I know it's difficult running shop. Stop with the b.s. Most AMMCO's I've dealt with are straight shooters. I did talk to him personally, and he changed his attitude once he knew what I was talking about. It's not suspose to be like that? We are definetly missing ethics/morals in so many professions. And I'll repeat, this is the first AMMCO I've ever questioned. They are a good franchise.)

kleigenfreude 10y ago

The reason that carmakers dropped manual was not the number of moving parts or that they wore out quicker. If anything, the car wearing out faster sells more cars and service. Instead, it was because not enough customers wanted manual: http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2015/02/why-lamborghini-trashed-the-manual-transmission.html http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2015/02/why-lamborghini-t... For a more in-depth analysis of this, see: https://www.quora.com/Why-is-the-market-for-manual-transmission-cars-declining https://www.quora.com/Why-is-the-market-for-manual-transmiss... However, there are still many that prefer manual, despite things potentially wearing out more quickly. And- you don't have to design a clutch that allows the driver to wear out things more quickly. You could still allow the driver to select the level of torque but only adjust for that in a way that would not cause damage.

IshKebab 10y ago
It's also regional. 90% of cars in the UK are manual. I don't know why exactly, but I guess it is mostly momentum and the fact that they are cheaper to buy and maintain.
- Nullabillity 10y ago
  It's also much nicer and far more consistent to drive a manual. With an automatic, the "meaning" of the gas pedal will vary wildly depending on previous state. On a manual you can feel/see the setting, and more importantly, you can set it and thus anticipate exactly when it changes meaning.
JshWright 10y ago
This is not a manual vs automatic situation. It's "multiple gear ratio transmission with a clutch, etc" vs "single fixed gear ratio". The fact that electric motors have their highest torque at extremely low RPMs, which falls over fairly linearly as power increases means that multi-speed transmissions simply aren't necessary. Why add a bunch of unnecessary complexity? It's just more stuff to break (not to mention more up front cost).
- kleigenfreude 10y ago
  > Why add a bunch of unnecessary complexity? 1. By adding an additional lower gear to an electric truck/4x4, it could provide even more torque at low gears to allow it to carry more load and go up steeper inclines. 2. By adding an additional higher gear to a car, it could go faster and accelerate faster at the top RPM end(s). For example, see how the acceleration drops quickly. That wouldn't happen if you were to keep switching to higher gears: http://static4.consumerreportscdn.org/content/dam/cro/news_articles/cars/CRO_Cars_Hellcat_Chart_06-15.png http://static4.consumerreportscdn.org/content/dam/cro/news_a... The reason they didn't do this in the Tesla was a technical problem, but that could be remedied: https://forums.tesla.com/forum/forums/adding-second-gear-speed-above-100mph https://forums.tesla.com/forum/forums/adding-second-gear-spe... "The roadster originally was developed using a two speed gear box. However, they had problems getting it to handle the massive instantaneous torque that the motor could produce, so they went for a single speed."