Fewer than 3% of cars sold in the U.S. have manual transmissions

Re:Fewer than 3% of cars sold in the U.S. have manual transm... by rsp1984 on Thursday November 17, 2016 @05:53AM (#12976277)

An often lost fact in automatic vs. stick-shift discussions is that in practice automatic transmission causes much heavier wear on the brakes of the car.

This is because with a stick-shift you can just gear down when going downhill or before a foreseen stop and let the engine do most of the breaking for you. You then only use the brakes to bring the car to a full-stop on the last couple meters. This gets you much better mileage on your brake disks and pads. Can't do that with an automatic.

Plus it's more fuel efficient.

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Re:Fewer than 3% of cars sold in the U.S. have manual transm... by joncalhoun on Thursday November 17, 2016 @06:06AM (#12976345)

Some new cars (and likely some older ones) offer paddle shifters and other ways to kinda pretend to be a manual. Eg most Subarus have this now.

As someone who preferred cars with a manual transmission until recently, the paddle shifters are useless when accelerating (they just don't work well, and rarely feel "smooth"), but I really appreciate them for engine braking in the snow.

I wonder if you could get similar brake-saving results if you got accustomed to switching to manual mode when braking and then switching back to drive regularly.

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Re:Fewer than 3% of cars sold in the U.S. have manual transm... by recursive on Thursday November 17, 2016 @11:16AM (#12978720)

Hey, I have a Subaru with those paddles! I never knew what they were. I've never pressed them.

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Re:Fewer than 3% of cars sold in the U.S. have manual transm... by userbinator on Thursday November 17, 2016 @07:01AM (#12976646)

In an automatic you can downshift to one of the low ranges, and that will effect engine braking. The ones I've driven allow you to shift between the forward ranges without depressing the lockout button, specificaly for this reason.

Unfortunately it seems a lot of drivers don't know about it.

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Re:Fewer than 3% of cars sold in the U.S. have manual transm... by henrikschroder on Thursday November 17, 2016 @06:00AM (#12976308)

My previous car automatically engaged engine-breaking when going downhill, when it was appropriate to do so. I also had paddle-shifters if I wanted to do it myself. Your statement that cars with automatic transmissions can't engine brake is wrong.

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Re:Fewer than 3% of cars sold in the U.S. have manual transm... by cjrp on Thursday November 17, 2016 @05:55AM (#12976287)

I use engine braking in this way, but I've often wondered how much additional wear this is putting on the clutch. Given that brake pads/discs are cheap, and a clutch is not, maybe in the long run this doesn't actually work out cheaper?

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Re:Fewer than 3% of cars sold in the U.S. have manual transm... by rhinoceraptor on Thursday November 17, 2016 @07:17AM (#12976747)

If you rev match properly, the down shift should be just as smooth and quick as a normal up shift.

E.G. you're in fourth gear at 50 MPH, you engage the clutch pedal, shift to third, tap the gas, and release the clutch pedal.

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Re:Fewer than 3% of cars sold in the U.S. have manual transm... by dghughes on Thursday November 17, 2016 @12:34PM (#12979500)

I'd be more worried about wear of the valve train. Brake pads are cheaper.

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