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I’ve seen a lot of semi now a day are automatic, I used to only see them in manual, plus even I recently made the switch to automatic too because driving a manual to work in Boston 5 days a week is suicidal. I don’t know about other places around the country, but from where I’m from. I hardly see any manual transmission vehicle.
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I hope they don’t. For me, a manual transmission is crucial to the “art” of driving. Automatics are fine for long-distance road trips with cruise control, or battling gridlock, but “real” driving happens with manuals.
[quote=”cap269″ post=142768]I hope they don’t. For me, a manual transmission is crucial to the “art” of driving. Automatics are fine for long-distance road trips with cruise control, or battling gridlock, but “real” driving happens with manuals.[/quote]
+1
Good topic. I don’t think they’ll go away completely, but they have been getting more scarce. It’s really what the public wants to buy that dictates what manufacturers do. They want to make vehicles that sell and manuals just aren’t as popular as they used to be.
It would make a good topic for a video. Thanks for the suggestion.
There’s some kind of voodoo being performed in the realm of automatic transmission technology. We now have transmissions that don’t have dipsticks, are sealed for life, and don’t require periodic fluid and filter changes.
When looking at American pickup trucks, it used to be par for the course that any truck with a manual transmission had a higher tow weight rating than an identical truck with an automatic. Over the past 15 years or so, it’s become more common that automatics have the towing advantage over manuals.
As our technology becomes “smarter”, I think we’re going to see automatics rule the market. With increasing fuel economy coupled to decreasing emissions, it only makes sense to have the transmission micro-managed and fine tuned by a powerful and quick-thinking electronic brain. You’d be throwing a large portion of potential efficiency benefits out the window if you left the shifting to the typical hairless ape. Manual transmissions will be available only in certain ego-boosting testosterone niche vehicles, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they eventually become burdened with extra taxes or fees to make them less desireable.
We’ve come a long way from the old two-speed slush box.
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