3 ms·
For a long time there was a perception that Europeans are real drivers with their stick shifts and "didn’t everyone in the world think that American people wer
by zwieback 4y ago
For a long time there was a perception that Europeans are real drivers with their stick shifts and
"didn’t everyone in the world think that American people were babies—with their innocence, their Disney, their inability to drive a stick shift?" (Elif Batuman)
but maybe with EVs and modern automatic transmissions the day really has come to say goodbye to manual transmission. Our family cars have them and my daughter just bought a new manual Civic but not for any real rational reason.
- Gare 4y agoNo, the reality is that we were (and still are, though a bit less) poor compared to the Americans. I can afford myself a nice automatic car and it is a blessing for me, but most of my compatriots still can't.
- thyrsus 4y agoIn the low end models that I'd be willing to pay for, there is no price difference between stick and automatic in the U.S.
- toast0 4y agoModern automatic transmissions are kind of icky, IMHO. DSG is pretty good, except the car I had with one had a speed around 6 mph that was terribly jerky; other than that it was fine. My van has a 9 speed automatic that's awful though, routinely hard shifts around 25 mph, can't engine brake on downhills for anything, even in L. Hybrid e-CVT is nice though, driving wise and engineering wise.