ALT-1 Do People Prefer Automatic or Standard Shift Transmissions
Automatic transmissions are to cars what the remote control was to the television set. When the automatic transmissions first came out, there was a plethora of on gadgets which went along with them: Cruse control, Air Conditioning and Radios. The automatic along with cruse control was like going from antenna to high def over night and the public never looked back.
The line between automatic and standard is starting to blur with the advent of the auto-stick. The car is an automatic but a setting on the shifter lever allows the driver to select his/her own gears. There is no clutch to deal with, there is no potential of selecting the wrong gear or stalling the car out. The car will override the driver inputs to select the correct gear. Personally this is borderline insulting.
The other manual transmission available on the market is the Formula 1 paddle shifters. Originally built for the the most technologically advanced race cars in the world, now can be found on the entry level street tuner Lancer Evo. These gear boxes have no driver clutch and thus I would consider not real manual transmissions.
For a car to be considered a true standard transmission, there needs to be a third pedal in the floor. This pedal is dedicated to the left foot and can become quite heavy in rush hour traffic. It can also be cumbersome while sitting at a red light or stop sign at the top of a steep hill. For these reasons, I feel that America has gone away from the standard transmission to the automatic.
I recently bought a car and on purpose, I picked a manual transmission. In order to get the car, I had to go out of the state and when I took it into the dealership to have it's first oil change, the mechanic looked at the car in awe and asked, "Is that what I think it is?" I realized at this point in time, automatics will always rule the road, gone are the days of the big block V8 with 4 on the floor. The rumblings of a 400+ cubic inches at 5000 RPM in favor of the screaming 4 and 6 cylinders with automatic or quasi-manuals. I bought a standard transmission, at the same time my father bought an automatic. After staring for a long moment at the stick in the middle of the console, he said, "I know they are fun, but why would you want one." My reply, "You wouldn't understand." Being a gear-head, I understand, all of my friends are gear-heads as well, but while we fawn over three pedals on the floor, most of them also drive an automatic everyday. As the old saying goes, if you can't beat them, join them.
