How America lost its love for the stick shift

Re:How America lost its love for the stick shift by nostrademons on Tuesday September 11, 2018 @06:23PM (#17963930)

Engine braking is a pretty gradual deceleration - if the car behind you doesn't notice that you're slowing down in the ~30 seconds it takes to close a safe distance with a car that's gradually slowing down, you got bigger problems. For that matter, automatics do it too. Take your foot off the gas in an automatic and wind/rolling resistance will eventually slow you down too.

I find that the fuel economy savings from engine breaking are largely a matter of incentives. You can drive the same way in an automatic, and you will get nearly the same fuel economy savings. You're just not incentivized to do so, since the break/gas dance is much easier in an automatic and you don't have the cognitive feedback of needing to shift gears each time you accelerate or decelerate.

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Re:How America lost its love for the stick shift by taeric on Tuesday September 11, 2018 @06:34PM (#17963996)

Most people I know that refer to engine braking have always meant something faster than an automatic would do. Unless you are talking about letting of the gas and downshifting in an automatic.

Is it guaranteed to get you in a wreck? Not at all. But, I would be surprised if people weren't more keyed to the "red light" in front of them than you are letting on.

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Re:How America lost its love for the stick shift by tspike on Tuesday September 11, 2018 @06:44PM (#17964084)

More blame should be assigned for being dangerous to the person who only glances up from his phone when he sees red lights than to the engine braker.

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Re:How America lost its love for the stick shift by taeric on Tuesday September 11, 2018 @06:52PM (#17964123)

This implies I was giving less blame to those folks. I'm not taking away any responsibility from anyone for dangerous behavior. However, especially with how highly visible lights are on modern vehicles, it is silly to not realize any situation that at all inhibits visibility will benefit from extra signaling.

As I said down thread, I think I can logically and in full conscious support both of those statements. :)

So, yes, folks that are being negligent deserve the blame in wrecks they cause. However, signaling benefits everyone. Including folks driving in fog/rain/night/whatever.

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Re:How America lost its love for the stick shift by amalcon on Tuesday September 11, 2018 @07:25PM (#17964322)

Being able to assign the blame elsewhere is cold comfort when you've been in an auto accident.

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Re:How America lost its love for the stick shift by smileysteve on Tuesday September 11, 2018 @08:07PM (#17964542)

To be fair, engine braking is quicker deceleration than an automatic does, a modern automatic will freewheel the transmission when coasting.

One of the first things i notice when driving an automatic that scares me the most is that it doesn't stop.

Thankfully electric cars are bringing this back. And i think studies are showing its safer.

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