shift stick drivers

would you buy a good accord with automatic transmission?

I've always drove manual cars, i'm not sure I could adapt to automatic, how
about you?

RAT

 

No way, dude.

No way, dude. My left foot would get bored.

 

i was a hard core stick guy until i had a serious left knee injury. so
i had to buy & drive an auto, always with the intention of getting rid
of it when i was healed. but i never did because i suddenly found that
driving in the city was so much more relaxing! seriously, if you're in
stop/go traffic, the stuff where you move forward a few feet then stop,
or have stop signs every block for a mile at a time, automatic is the
only way to go. even on the freeway, if it's an auto with a good shift
pattern, and hondas generally are, they're still plenty of fun. only if
i were hard core looking to red-line it all the time would i drive
stick. i sound like an old fart, but seriously, honda automatics are
really very good. and provided you don't have one of the recent ones
with the reliability problems, these transmissions last forever.

the only thing i would say to qualify that statement is that you've got
to learn to drive a little differently. on a stick, you can just change
gear & go. on the auto, you have to let it know that you want it to
change, and in the absence of tiptronic-type shifters, the only way the
transmission/ecu knows for sure you want to drop gear & accelerate is to
floor it. the ecu detects "w.o.t." [wide open throttle], and signals a
down-shift accordingly. and it has a small delay on that, just in case
of accidental signal blips, but once the ecu registers your intent,
you're off to the races. and it holds that lower gear, [or even
dropping 2 gears] until the red line before shifting, so you can
accelerate hard if you have to. in terms of driveability therefore,
once you get used to the style of giving it more gas than you might
otherwise be used to, auto's are just dandy.

the only downsides are that they weigh a little more and so can be a
little slower, and that the engine always needs to be in good running
order. with a stick, if it's off for some reason, you can compensate
and drive it until you're ready to deal with the problem. with auto's,
you can get bad flat spots in the acceleration if everything's not
perfect, and that can be a pain.

 

i dont drive a whole lot, since i have a couple "bikes". when i do
drive, i like to drive stick.

 

Driving an automatic is crippling vs. a standard tranny. The standard
provides the kind of control that adds to security, safety and performance
(but only in the hands of a race-ready driver). With the standard, you're
able to fine-tune exactly how much torque you can apply to the road,
control engine rpm to take advantage of road condition and get better fuel
economy from it's simplistic buy highly efficient design.

The newer automatic may return fuel economy that's only 5% less then a
comparable standard tranny. However, the automatic's fuel economy quickly
degrades as road conditions worsen, while a standard tranny can still return
good efficient in poorer conditions (e.g. excessive hills or stop & go
driving).

One of the downside of the Standard tranny is fatigue in the left knee,
which is usually avoided if the left clutch pedal is lighter variation
and/or has a very short travel range.

Pars

 

I have the Accord Hybrid. The transmission is rather annoying. It will
shift from 3rd to 2nd gear or 5th to 4th gear on the slightest gas pedal
nudge. The motion of driving over a bump unlocks the torque converter.
But, getting it from 5th to 3rd or or 2nd to 1st requires WOT for a full
second. Stomp on the gas at 60MPH and it feels like you slow down first.

 

From 98 through 03, that car didn't exist.

 

I have always owned manual transmission cars but occasionally drive an
automatic. I really don't like the way some automatics will downshift with
the slightest push on the gas pedal. I find that I have to have a very
light touch on the gas to avoid hitting peak revs (never a good thing
on a cold engine). OTOH, an instant downshift can be a great thing if
need to get out of the way in a hurry in an unexpected situation.
Dan

(This account is not used for email.)

 

"Rattus The RAT" wrote

I've always driven manual transmissions, too, and at age 56 got sick and
tired of doing so, having to shift every few blocks of crosstown traffic.
Once I got to test drive an Accord with auto, I realized these things have
come a long way and I would be happy with it. I was, and still am.

Sometimes in tight traffic I need extra control, so I stay in D3 for a
while. Then I have all the quick acceleration I need.

 

not even the 4 cylinder?

 

I too switched from strictly manual to auto recently because of rush
hour stop and go traffic (mostly stop). I can't say I'm disappointed
with my '90 Legend's tranny yet, but time will tell. On the other hand,
it only has 42K on it yet!

dan

 

damn. you buy it from some old dude? thats a steal!

 

no, no, no. Some old lady's trade-in. I got it 6 months ago with
under 35K and it's an LS. Perfect inside and out, like it was in a time
warp! Only problem was the Bose stereo. I fixed the 4 speaker amps and
replaced the head unit. Nice upgrade from a '88 Accord 4 banger stick.

dan

 

Howard Lester said

I've been very happy with the behavior of the auto transmission in my
2003 Accord EX V6.



Casey

 

I have to drive automatics when I rent cars. The most important advice
I can give is to firmly plant your left foot on the footrest.
Otherwise, if the left foot is just laying there relaxed on the floor,
it will be very tempted to jam on the "clutch" (which happens to hit
the extra wide brake pedal) when you brake.

 

Yeah, I hear that. I did that a few times the last time my car was at the
dealer. They gave me a civic hybrid to drive and I hit the brakes with left
foot a couple times going for the non-existant clutch. Probably scared the
crap out of the people behind me. Wouldn't that have been cute bringing
back the loaner hybrid after getting read-ended. Can you say oops?

 

You ought to see what VW/Audi is doing with their new Select Shift (?)
transmission. It's basically a 6-spd manual, shifted automatically with
hydraulic servos. Very slick. Available on V6 Audi TT, the new Passat,
possibly others.

 

Yep, I heard that Jetta will also have it, along with their regular Porsche
inspired 5spd Tiptronic automatic. If VW's DSG system turns out to be as
robust as a manual transmission in the long term, it could be a good
alternative for those of us with a weak left knee. Even so, there's no
substitute for being able to control the power delivery with the left foot
or randomly selecting a downward gear (instead of sequentially).

Pars

 

really? how long have motor cycles had sequential boxes? i've /never/
heard a m/c rider complain about not being able to shift more than 1 at
a time.

 

Sequential...but easily double shifted!