My wife gives me a dirty look every time I suggest that instead of buying an electric car, we convert our manual-transmission car to electric. We could be the only ones on the block with an electric manual car!
I know; in theory you don’t need gears at all. But this overlooks the flat-out weirdness available.
You would be the only people with an Citroen e-2CV Sahara on your block…
Now to figure out how to shift gears …
In my nearly 60 years of driving many cars I’ve never had any problem with a manual gearbox, but last year I had an auto transmission fail. The repair quote? $7k. More than the car was worth so it was scrapped. There’s awlyys a price for convenience.
Yeah, in cursive it’s more a sort of scrawled triangle thing than quite being a real /s, isn’t it?
Sounds like Security From Obscurity to me.
Last time I was in Italy and rented a car (in Rome) when I went to get the car and the lady behind the counter heard me talk, her face fell. I asked he what was wrong and she said, well, you’re American right? I said yes. She said all we have is a manual diesel Volvo wagon. I couldn’t have been happier!
These carjackers were zoomers.
Well… lives over. Forget about graduating high school or having gainful employment for the next decade. Probably gonna end up having to sleep on the streets because of this stunt.
I miss driving a stick.
About ten years ago my neighbor’s daughter got married he had a friend with one of those rich people car collections who let him pick one for the wedding.
It was a 60s Chevy, I seem to remember Chevelle, it was classic muscle car and mint condition.
He got drunk and asked me to drive him home in it.
Oh boy. Please please please can I light 'em up? Go for it.
My wife was following in the mini van, she knew.
Just like riding a bike, you don’t forget. That thing was a rocket.
Now I want a stick. Our 2010 Malibu has a manual mode, is hitting the levers on the steering wheel the same?
I drive a manual car daily and there’s no way I would try driving a RHD manual. I would need an extra day or two and an empty parking lot just to deprigram my brain from LHD shifting. Then adding driving on the right and unfamiliar roads - I’d crash in no time.
It’s even worse than if it were just a mirror image. That would be bad but doable. But being left hand shift-right hand steer, but the shift pattern and foor controls the same just scrambles my brain.
Most new cars do. I think it started with Mercedes? But now Toyotas and Jeeps and many others do. Some let you disable it semi-permanently but others don’t even let you disable it at all. It really sucks.
My Smart Car was a manual transmission that shifted itself. This unique setup let me flat-tow it behind our RV.
Most of the cars I’ve owned have been sticks, but I didn’t learn until I was 22 or 23. One of the thieves was barely old enough to have his license. (Which I admit doesn’t seem like the kind of thing that would have stopped him.)
I still prefer a manual transmission, but I have to admit they’re making less and less sense as automatic transmissions get better.
What’s funny was I drove around for 6 months, no problem. Never a wrong turn, always the correct side, everything good. I got back to the States and first time pulling out of a parking lot I turned into oncoming traffic and almost got in a crash. I think in England I was much more focused, and concentrating so I didn’t have problem. I got back to the States and relaxed, but had developed new habits.
Give it a little choke and you’ll be fine.
I have a 1975 MGB with threefold theft prevention: 1) It’s a stick shift, 2) It’s only 65 horsepower so I can probably chase it on foot, 3) The oil drips act as a tracking device.
That doesn’t make any sense. EVs don’t have transmissions. The purpose of a transmission is to keep a combustion engine within its narrow useful torque band at various road speeds. EVs make 100% torque from zero RPM.
Some EVs use a small planetary box for gear reduction or power transmission to multiple wheels when one motor is used, but that’s it.
As others said, most new cars do this. When done well, you don’t even notice it. Not every car does it well. Honda’s is excellent. BMW’s is insufferable.
They have special heavy duty starters and batteries that can handle this. Car makers are not so stupid as to design a feature that would push a basic component well beyond design limits immediately.
There’s actually a ton of software that goes into it. People think it’s simple- stop engine when stopped, start when brake is released. However before deciding to stop, the car has to guarantee it will start again, and quickly (before one full crank is complete). This means monitoring battery voltage, engine temperature, starter temperature, ambient temperature, fuel level, and many other variables.
This is all not for nothing. It saves quite a bit of fuel and emissions. Idling at lights and in traffic is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions of cars.
You should try something and consider the reasons it exists before assuming it is stupid.
I had questions about this also. It seems to happen all the time in US. What is the point of having separate enforcement for kids if it’s never used? The US seems to always charge and try kids “as adults” for unspecified reasons.
They have to keep the juvenile system available in case they accidentally are forced to arrest a white kid.
