For you Clarkson-lovers (and I know there are plenty of them)....here's an interesting take on one of his views. While I don't necessarily dislike three-pedal vehicles myself (back when I myself learned to drive, traffic was light enough that they were still some fun...traffic still is, in some places). As one ages, though, and gets leg-issues (and even young people can get leg-injuries from sports), and traffic worsened, seems like there is less and less of a case today for traditional manuals as time goes on. Clarkson does have a point.

I can still see three pedals, though, in some sports-cars, exotics, and traditional pony-cars.

http://www.carscoops.com/2016/02/jer...l-gearbox.html


Some say “controversy” is his middle name and, love him or loathe him, you can’t deny he’s anything but boring.
Sun column comes as a surprise.

“WHY,” I wailed inwardly, “would anyone ever buy a car with a manual gearbox these days?”

Guess what: That’s just the beginning of his attack against those who prefer to change cogs themselves instead of leaving the task to a computer.

“The only people who would buy an old-fashioned gearstick manual are the sort who choose not to have a washing machine because they prefer to clean their clothes in the local river.” *

* Leave it to Clarkson to come up with some good one-liners LOL

Why, the Pope may turn out not to be Catholic after all, but Jezza advocating auto boxes and lashing out against manuals? That’s fresh!

In a nutshell what he says is that, since most of us spend the best part of our time behind the wheel not on a great mountain road or a track, when we can get the best out of a manual and enjoy things like heel-and-toe, but stuck in traffic or in motorways, we’d be much better off with a self-shifter.

Today they are so far removed from the slow, heavy, fuel-thirsty ones of the past that they are the natural option if you’re out for a new car.

“Flappy-paddle gearboxes now are sublime. Fast. Easy. Rewarding. Nice.”

Before you cry “Heresy!”, bear in mind that cars are nowadays just a means of getting from point A to point B for most drivers, who probably don’t know, and aren’t interesting in learning either, about things like understeer, oversteer, steering feel, how to balance the car on the throttle – never mind heel-and-toe and executing the perfect downshift.

Manufacturers themselves are consigning the gear lever to history. Ferrari’s metal gate is dead and buried and nowhere to be found in any of its cars on sale today. The same goes for Lamborghini and McLaren; and you definitely remember the outrage caused by Porsche Motorsport offering only a PDK dual-clutch on the GT3 and, subsequently, the GT3 RS. Nissan GT-R? Hypercars? Not a gear lever in sight, only paddles and buttons.

Is he just making a fuss for the sake of it or is he right in proclaiming the end of the manual?

 

I think there should still be the option of having a manual, especially in sports cars. I realize the demand for them is quite low (particularly in the US) and it really wouldn't be very economically viable for manufacturers to keep making them but there's always gonna be a minority of drivers who'd like to see them stick around

a manual is also a proven anti-theft device

 

manuals are more engaging and more fun to drive, BUT winning a drag race or passing someone on the back straight at the track is also equally fun and WINS !!

I would love to have a manual beater or even weekend car, but for the track ( 12 track days in 23 months in my ISF ) I want lightning fast paddles that revmatch and includes a shift beep or light at red line

 

I agree with him 100%.

 

How?.......because not many thieves know how to drive one?

 

I think you're onto something there . . . however trying to grind gears into a desired directional mode with a manual is both attention-getting and expensive. I've had a valet wreck one brand new car - unable to distinguish between the clutch and brake pedals . . . and it was an automatic. A second car with an MT was very nearly trashed by another valet. Had it not been for my intervention there would have been a former 5-speed transmission lying inert in one fancy restaurant's porte-cochère.

n.b. I no longer valet.

 

 

Yep...as I suspected. Good post.

 

He is probably right that there will be very few manual gearboxes in the future, just like there will be no more big N/A engines and probably no internal combustion engines at all later on. But this has in my opinion nothing to do with driving pleasure, the "best choice" or even the car itself to do. We all know that this is all about politics, economy and enviromental regulations.

 

Well Clarkson is stating the obvious.

The rise of turbo motors means that quick shifting automatics and lightning fast dual clutch manu-matics are better from a performance perspective. These days auto and auto/manual transmissions are just that good.

But back in the day and the cars of that era.... ask any Miata driver if they want the automatic. Or an E39 driver who has the 4.4 matched to a six speed manual. Heck VW's famous GTI and its Scirocco sibling were best with the manual.

For a modern car: don't bother with a manual option it wouldn't make sense. For an older hobby car - the manual can be a fun option.

 

Unless the driver has a injury or other issue with his or her left leg and/or has a difficult time shifting, the very idea of an automatic Miata is probably ludicrous. Yet the dealerships still order and stock them. When I went to review the latest Miata, for example, the ONLY ones available for a test-drive were automatics.......all of the sticks had either been sold or were pre-sold, on the way in.

 

Yeah that's a funny thing because it kinda says Miata buyers like their second or third car as a manual transmission hobby driver. But Mazda offers a pretty nice six speed auto on its Miata for people who don't like the extra pedal.

But with Clarkson. You gotta take it in context. He's really talking to Brits here and their preferences in the past for manuals. In fact, not that long ago, automatics in Europe were viewed as "fat cat", "rich" drivers' cars. Like Rolls Royce or Mercedes S600's with blacked out limo tint and flags of some other country etc.

Really it's a nice deflection from Clarkson and his PR people. He just settled a lawsuit for $190K and officially apologized to the BBC Top Gear producer he punched in the face. He has to move on to his Amazon series.

In the past he ranted about those manu-matic, "flappy paddles".

 

Shift-paddles, and their shifting-effect, can vary enormously from one manufacturer to another (or even by vehicles within a manufacturer). In general, it's hard for me to say which are the best I've experienced (there are several candidates), but the worst ones, by far, have to be from Ford (and Lincoln, as they use the ones from the Ford parts-bin). They are awful.......cheap, thin, flat-black plastic, rather wobbly in attachment / operation, and not particularly responsive.

 

i had always heard clarkson saying how "the flappy paddles are no good around town" when talking about things like a ferrari 360 or a gallardo, and never understood what he meant because every car i had driven with them just had a regular automatic gearbox with the paddles only there to give the driver some added input. it wasn't until last summer when i drove a ferrari 360 with the flappy paddles that i completely understood what he meant.

it comes down to the transmission itself, and has nothing to do with the physical paddles. while you're average car has just a regular torque converter auto, the 360 has an 'automated manual.' it quite literally has a clutch operated manual transmission, only instead of your left foot and right hand there's a computer operating the clutch and shifts. when you get going from a stop it revs up and feeds in the clutch just like a regular manual does. and it really is pretty jerky and dimwitted when just driving normally, but when you're trying to be michael schumacher it starts to make sense.

i'm sure most of you 'petrolheads' already knew about this but in case anyone's still confused there you go.

 

Depends on the engineering and design. Some automated manuals (especially the earlier ones from VW and Audi} were smooth as butter. Others, such as some off the later ones from Ford and Dodge, are unrefined, hesitant, or jerky. Most I've tried have been somewhere in between.