My wife and I were talking about Tom Cruise the other day. After discussing the diminutive actor's parenting skills and religious beliefs, we came to the somewhat inevitable conclusion that Hollywood's number one Scientologist is as crazy as a loon. In this, he's not alone. At least not in Hollywood. You don't have to read the celebrity gossip mags or watch their TV equivalents to know that Tinsel Town's "elite" have lost all grip on what we outside of their realm commonly refer to as "reality." It's only common sense. Take a group– any group– of good-looking, highly ambitious, ultra-competitive people, give them each a couple of thousand toadies or so and ten or more million dollars, and watch their neuroses bubble to the surface like magma heading for the top of a pre-eruption Mt. St. Helens. Money on that scale still can't buy you love, but it can buy you drug addiction, divorce and up close and personal access to a panoply of mental illnesses. And if these well-loved and lawyered-up people happen to be actors/actresses, they'll be able to hide their insanity from the outside world. Until they can't. I mention all this because I've been searching for a reason why so many carmakers make such boneheaded branding decisions. And I've decided it's because they're cruising along without a care in the world, burning through other people's money as if it were… other people's money. When one of the heavy hitters goes Chapter 11, the resulting chill may cause a change. Then again, maybe not. And how dull would our world be if we couldn't laugh at the foibles of others?
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What about basic well balanced handling dynamics, positive break, shifter, and clutch feel in “regular” Lexus cars or all Toyotas in general? (Assuming you can get a real manual) I’d buy an auto myself, I have other cars for flogging, but I like the idea of having a choice.
Massive, big $$$ bhp alone will NOT make for a good car, but you just need to examine the Honda folks. TSX is sweet, despite FWD and 4 pot motor. Fit proves even base cars can zip, even if they can’t zoom. Scion can’t hide behind, “well, its a budget brand”.
The Corvette’s Achilles heel is the same as the Z4…they are so much more street-savvy with Porsche-grade summer tires. That and they are frickin’ fast.
Why GM insists on handicapping the ‘vette is beyond me. We’ll happily take the can of Fix A Flat instead from the C5 Z06, right?
Robert, are you trying to get in your doom and gloom prognostication for the manual transmission again? I feel there will always be a few who like the interaction with a car derived from clutch and gear change. And don’t forget we all now know it saves gas! (yes, that’s sarcasm) But I think it’s a bit foolish to state that a manual tranny makes driving less safe. It is an action you must undertake while piloting an automobile, but so is opening a window, turning the steering wheel, pushing the brake pedal, etc. If you make an argument that less driver involvement is safer then where does it end?
I’m highly ambitous and ultra competative, but not so good looking. Where does that leave me? And this DPC has piqued my interest…I’ll check it out after work.
Once I was driving a 5-speed Jeep Wrangler in a secluded part of Michigan. When I went to shift from 2nd to 3rd, the gear lever wouldn’t go up. I tried it a couple more times with some muscle behind it, but it wouldn’t go into thrid.
Finally, I looked down at the lever to see what was going on. While examining it, I apparently forgot that looking at the road was a good idea, and drifted off the side and into a wire fence. Thankfully I was going slow and the Wrangler took the abuse in relative stride.
I also have a friend who got into a minor accident when she ran a stop sign in her TSX because she was watching her tachometer too intently for some reason, and as a result was spaced out from her surroundings on the road.
So I’m a bit skeptical with the argument that a manual in of itself leads to safer driving.
I’ve never had a “slush box” car. Partly because I always bought the cheapest version of the car that I wanted and that meant a manual. The fact I got better gas mileage was a bonus. If your DPC increases the cost too much, there may still be a market for a manual. I’m pretty sure I would not spend an extra $4,000 on it.
Everytime I see a 911 for sale with a TIP or an Auto, I throw up a little bit. It should be illegal.
BTW…I put my 16 yr old in a 1994 6 cyl F-150 truck with a manual because I think he NEEDS to know how to drive a manual, even if he never has another vehicle with a manual. (AND because it was already so beat up, he couldn’t hurt it!!)
If a Homo sapiens can’t handle a stick safely, that’s evidence of terminal dumbing down.
Logically, manual gearboxes don’t make sense. I can drive one, but I don’t like them.
If one were to go to a showroom, would the following conversation take place?
Dealer: Right, sir. Would you like electric windows or manual windows?
Customer: Electric, definitely!
Dealer: Electric Sunroof or roll up sunroof?
Customer: Electric, please.
Dealer: Manually adjustable side mirrors or electric?
Customer: Electric, again!
Dealer: Air Conditioning. Manual or electrically adjustable climate control?
Customer: Climate control, please.
Dealer: So, I suppose you’d like an automatic gearbox, right?
Customer: No, manual, please!
Dealer: Huh?!
All new inventions on cars are designed to make life a little easier and more comfortable. The gearbox is just an extension of that principle. We don’t have to manually adjust the choke on cars any more, neither do we have to tune the car any more as we have engine management systems to do that. Yet, when it comes to gearboxes, everyone flocks to the manuals! Why? It doesn’t make sense.
With regards to Lexus making smaller cars, I agree that it is brand suicide. Mr Farago mentions that BMW and Mercedes-Benz are making smaller cars so Lexus are following. The reason BMW and MB are doing that because of the European CO2 regs. Lexus doesn’t need to do that because they can use Toyota’s fleet to bring their average emissions down. BMW and MB are doing it out of necessity, Lexus don’t have to do that.
Lexus has always been targeting MB, rather than BMW. IS-F is a direct competitor to C63 AMG. M3 is the class benchmark, but has more of a raw/racing oriented nature – smaller engine, more high revving, manual gearbox and track orientated variable differential. MB and Lexus have taken a bit different approach competing in this class. IS-series Lexus has a strong following in the States and I think IS-F will be a success in the U.S.
But those bumper integrated fake tailpipes are nasty! :)
“All new inventions on cars are designed to make life a little easier and more comfortable.”
I don’t want it to be easy. I want to test my skills. That’s what driving on a track is all about. Why not just have a car that automatically drives you around the track? It wouldn’t be any fun. It wouldn’t be stimulating.
Also, I disagree about the climate control systems in cars. I’ll take manual controls, as I find them to be more efficient. The climate control is always kicking on the AC and such. As for the rest, it depends on the price for such features.
In regards to the coordination issue that Robert mentioned, I haven’t experienced that problem yet. I actually drove my stick shift car to work last week while eating blueberry pancakes. The pancakes were tasty, and I made it to my destination without colliding with another object. No syrup was spilled.
Another point just occurred to me: One problem we have as we get older is the decline in perceptual-motor skills due lack of use. Possibly activities like driving a manual transmission car might help keep those skills sharper and thus increase our safety on the road (and other places)?
Slushboxes are one of the reasons Americans prefer cars with oversized engines. While a 100hp Golf with a manual feels lively, the slushbox version will feel inadequate, no matter how modern the technology is. BTW, here in germany the majority of cars are stick shift but somehow the roads are still remarkably safe. Maybe that’s because for the most part people stick to driving when they’re behind the wheel (Nobody here was missing cupholders before german carmakers introduced them to appease their US customers).
ajla: There are probably people who have gotten into accidents while looking away from the road because they were trying to adjust their seatbelts while driving. It doesn’t mean that wearing a seatbelt is not an unequivocally safer way to drive though
KatiePuckrik: If you are trying to equate the pleasure of rowing your own gears with the task of rolling up the windows manually, you’re on the wrong site
There is something I like about manuals that I have not seen in either automatic transmissions or the quasi-autos like DSG setups, and that is the ability to use the engine as a mechanical brake via a clutch.
Being able to blip around the gears you want is one thing, but being able to slowly (or quickly) link the motor to the drivetrain is cool. You get to use all the engine’s internal friction and inertia as a big mechanical brake to slow the car down, and yet at the same time match engine RPM to the geared RPM of the turning wheels, with no throttle. Only setups with at least a manual clutch let you do that. That braking technique (in combo with regular braking) is so much better in stuff like snow and ice!
Plus, when it is throttle-time in those situations the motor is matched up RPM-wise to the rolling speed of the car – you just punch right out if you want. It would be interesting to see a DSG-type setup that lets you manually engage the gear at your own pace instead of you picking the gear and letting IBM do the rest.
I know that kind of defeats the point for those things, people seem to hate manual clutches and like manual gear-changes. But I like the manual engagement of the gears, it makes me not a better driver, but gives the attentive driver more options to control the vehicle, whether stopping or going, and I am that kind of driver…its why I read TTAC!
thetopdog: I agree that there are a ton of things that can distract someone on the road. But, I can also never think of a situation where I’ve thought, “If I was driving an automatic just now I would have been less safe.”
The biggest safety argument for manuals seem to be that it forces people away from using cellphones, reading, or eating while driving. And it would. But, my point was that a stick shift won’t eliminate every distraction people can fall into, and sometimes it even creates new ones.
Katie,
The features you list are ancillary and those I definately want to be as hassle-free as possible. I want to drive, not fiddle with A/C controls (sorry Nemphre, gotta disagree with you on the climate control issue), window cranks, headlight and windshield wiper activation, etc.
But there is value in being involved with the actual driving: steering, braking, throttle, clutch, gear selection. To that end, there is rationale in having a manual transmission but automatic/electric everything else. The automatic ancillaries let you spend more time paying attention to the important/fun stuff.
That being said I do commute on straight flat roads in moderate-to-heavy traffic so my current ride is the first in years to have an automatic and I don’t really miss my stick-shift, though a Dual-Clutch setup would be nice. What I don’t have anymore is climate control and I DO miss that.