TWeaK

Tbf the whole argument is basically moot with electric vehicles taking over.

I mean, my gripe is more about the lack of power on the wheels. It’s less about the time it takes to re-engage the clutch, more the overall time the clutch is disengaged. I want to accelerate briskly (not flooring it) and then cruise at a steady speed, to achieve maximum fuel efficiency. A good automatic handles this very well, and generally makes driving easier and more relaxed. Sure, changing gear manually and getting the clutch right can be fun, but it’s objectively a worse way of doing things.

Sure, a 0-60 hits all gears and requires 5 shifts to be done smoothly, but that’s rare.

That depends entirely on where you are driving. Come to a T-junction in the middle of the countryside, national speed limit, and you can easily find yourself doing that. Even on a motorway, in heavy crawling traffic, there will come a point where everyone accelerates back up to full speed. Even if you don’t find yourself in these situations, changing from 3rd to 5th (or 6th) has you working through the gearbox.

Many automatics will use engine breaking also. They will downshift through the gears as you brake. And, if you want to select a gear for a specific reason, you can either put it into manual and select the gear (or if you have padals leave it in auto and downshift with those) for either a corner or to prepare for an overtake, then you can complete the maneuver and either mash all the way up or straight back into auto, then it will handle all the acceleration optimally itself. Best of both worlds.

I had one that had a sport button, this also changed the automatic shifting profile. In particular, it wouldn’t shift up a gear until the next gear was above 2000RPM, where the first stage turbo comes in with diesel. So power was always on tap, rather than having to wait for a gear change from a low rev cruise.

It’s not about drag racing or any other type of racing, it’s about efficiency and minimising wear and tear on the equipment. Even the best drivers aren’t perfect every time. An auto isn’t either, but in general it’s closer.

A manual is better than a bad auto, but a good auto is better than any manual.

Manual drivers get very good at this, and add engine speed / accelerate on downshifts (ex: going from 4000 RPM to 5000 RPM as you go from 4th gear to 3rd gear), you can just apply the accelerator thereby adding engine speed to assist the clutch in matching RPMs for a smooth transition.

I’ve seen manual Fords with a little trick where it holds the revs at the speed for the next gear up, just for a second or so, to make it easier to get a perfect gear change. However, even then an automatic is far better for maintaining acceleration, and therefore more accelerating more efficiently.

In all three cases, modern automatics are heavier, require more parts, more assembly. Reliability is getting better however, and as computers minimize engine slippage the transmissions are having less stress applied to them in general.

Yes that’s the thing, cars already have ECU’s in them as a standard feature now (along with fly-by-wire in general), so the gearbox control is essentially an additional software function rather than any significant part cost. Electronic control is much less likely to burn out a clutch.

But yeah, the additional weight is what has always made autos perform worse. However in terms of cost, I do feel like automatics might come down and beat manuals eventually, particularly as traditional manual gearboxes become more rare and automatics scale up. In any case, the price a car sells for is almost completely detached from the actual cost - the price is set as high as they can get away with, not as a percentage of parts and labour. In this way, an automatic can easily be more profitable than a traditional manual.

I declare shenanigans on that!

SHABBA

it’s a pity some word filters screen it out for racism.

Wait, what? Why?

There’s also a cost factor, traditionally automatics cost more to build, weighed more and performed slightly worse. Now, automatics are probably cheaper to build, perform better, but still cost more.

A bad auto can be pretty terrible, but a good (or even half decent) auto is better than a manual in almost every way.

These days modern automatics allow you to select any gear in a manual fashion. Aside from the lack of clutch to control at very low speeds (on ice the wheels might just spin instead of gaining traction) it basically makes manuals obsolete.

Rail in the UK is crap when compared to the rest of Europe.

Another one for chai lattes: they go very well with spiced rum, and no one will even think that might be in a Starbucks cup!

Almond milk? I’m not sure, I’ve not really had it in tea, but it not massively changing the flavour is exactly the reason I use it for cereals and chai lattes.

I’m a big fan of almond milk. When I have a chai latte it’s always with almond milk. I generally find it the closest to milk, all the other ones have their own unique taste which impacts the flavour of the thing I’m having it with.