Jamz3k

Why do Americans love automatics so much?

Watching Wrecks to Riches USA here and everytime they do up a car, they near enough always put this daft looking autobox system in which *if* i was looking for an American Muscle Car would be the first thing to put me off? it is not half the fun flying up and down the gears in a Muscle car?

richie001

iTrader: (3)

Easy,their Lazy ******'s

BOB.T

Have you been to the US? It's all massively long straights, changing gear out there would just be boring!

That said, there a couple of mountain roads near Mount Whitney that are awesome, I would have loved to have my own car up there!

Snazy

lol being in the USA is such a relief on the old clutch leg.
Auto's work for what they have.

They ask the same of us. Why bother doing all that work. Hell thats like gettin up and changing the channel on your TV are you reject remotes lol

Jamz3k

I can understand it on a road car but a Muscle car? you don't exactly buy a muscle car to do the shopping/ferry the kids!

Markus

I'm with Bob that it's due to the vast expanses of straight roads, but there must be other reasons to it as well, apart from the obvious lazy bastid one, which will be a main factor too.

My wife doesn't know how to drive a manual, and our current car is an auto, so I can't teach her at present. I must admit I do shake my head when she mentions she can't drive a manual as it's something that seems so odd to me.

I have to say I don't miss a manual that much and even find myself sticking on the cruise control on the highway. Maybe I'm just getting old

Markus

I think quite a few of the classic muscle cars were originally four speed automatics anyway. I could be wrong though.

wayne9t9

in the towns you have lights every 200 yards, so it can be a pain driving a manual, "stick" if your american. No roundabouts either. Having said that post #2 is right as well. I1ve never seen so many cashpoint cripples, or people that pull up to a store doorway, get out of the car, leave the engine running with the door open and go shopping.

BOB.T

LOL, I called in at a cafe in Kansas, some old boy had left his truck running outside whilst he had lunch! I think it's to keep the AC runing but still!!

I also saw 'Drive Thru' banks, pharmacies, Starbucks...you name it!

Markus

Drive Thru banks or ATM's can be quite handy when it's rather cold outside and you are lazy. I had always wondered if Starbucks would do drive-thru's as I'd never seen them, but lo and behold, when I move to our new town there are two of them! Haven't used them though.

I do recall seeing a drive thru chinese, which I think is taking things a little too far.

hodgy0_2

i remember being told a story (years ago - early 80's) about a septic who hired a Ford Scopio at Manchester Airport and drove it to London

when he handed the car back to the hire company he mentioned that is was not particulary fast and v noisy and the autobox was "weird"

when the hire man got into park it he noticed it was a manual

Simon C

Dont mention USa and auto boxes to me please.

When I was out there, 1 of my relations bought a car to turn into a drag / nascar thing. Fine by me, except I was the one they turfed out of bed early to go with them to get it. Why did they get me up, cos out of 8 people, only 2 of us could drive stick!!! And my uncle was aprroaching his 80's!!!

Mind you, I got my own back I offered a ride home to his girlfriend as I didnt facy a 4 hour drive by myself and she wanted a go in it. I had her screaming by the end of it. Apparently to them 90 on a freeway is fast!

Unfortunatly GMC got even for the USA and whilst driving the stripped out pickup, I punched the door reinforcment when going to change gear. Yup, I forgot I was in a lefty and broke 2 knuckles..

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

In fairness on hot rods/modified muscle car, some of the fast road/drag strip autoboxes can shift pretty gears pretty brutally if all the valving and clutch packs are setup for the job. Some can even have manual only valve block conversions, so its basically a sequential manual with a torque converter instead of a clutch (which, if its a TH700 or similar can lock up giving direct drive on 2nd gear onwards). The work involved can be less than a manual conversion, essentially being a bolt-on/drop in solution on many cars, and Americans do love "bolt-on" modifications.

So some of those wrecks to riches cars might not have a standard slushmatic.

Having said that, can't beat a good proper manual transmission with a nice beefy clutch; none of this flappy paddle nonsense either

Leslie

Its usually a matter of what is easiest I think. Lot of people over here prefer an auto box, less hassle in nose/tail traffic.

I certainly prefer a manual box, personally I like changing gear.

I had to learn the hard way initially with double de-clutching etc and am well used to it. I used to have an old Bedford Tiger Cub as a transporter and that had a full crash box. You had to work at that one a bit!

Les

Snazy

Driving like ya stole it - manual (fun fun fun)
Just driving about - auto is nice, especially for distances.

LG John

What's needed IMHO is a non-sequential manual gearbox with automatic functionality. In other words, you press a button and the fly by wire clutch drops to the floor out of the way an the connection between the gear stick and box is cut. The car then manually shifts gears for you in much the same way an SMG does. Then, when you want manual control again you turn 'auto' off and away you go.

urban

iTrader: (1)

In the states - auto is the way forward regardless of the type of car.

If you've ever been then you'd understand.

Actually even here now commuting to and from work in an auto is the ticket.
Wifes car is automatic.
I head off from home in the mornings Bangor - Belfast.
Thats normally 14 miles of torture depending on what time you leave.
Plus 70% of the route is an average speed zone too.

I remember the year I was in the states and travelled from Chicago to Indianapolis which was around 170miles
I watched F1, then drove back again

I done that for Friday practice, qualifying & race
Mind you the drive was a boring as ****, most of the time was spent on a very long very straight road for if I remember rightly about 130 miles at 55mph

I remember distinctly sticking to the speed limit on the way there for the first morning.
My return and subsequent journeys didn't adhere to that limit
I just kept very careful watch for highway patrol

bish667

iTrader: (1)

Why do people prefer auto's for long distances? I dont change gear a lot when driving long distances as your generally in a high gear anyway
Is it not the shorter journeys that are worse as those are the times that you need to change gear more

As you can tell I prefer manual

Klaatu

An automagic gearbox can handle a lot of power, and with the tourqe multiplying effect of the TC, you get an infinitely variable range of tourqe from 2:1 to ~1:1, and then with TC lockup on later transmissions, 1:1 ratio.

So you can, more often, get that power out of the engine on to the road without blowing your transmission up.

Auto's are actually quite good, and you can do so much to the valve pack and/or GCU. But it is a careful balance between TC stall speed and valve pack/GCU setup to work properly. Most OOF setups are poor, as in my current 2003 Impressa, it's horrid and suffers badly from hysteresis.

Jerome

I hate automatics with a passion. However, when I lived in Canada, they have a stop sign every 2 yards. You have to come to a complete stop - the cops seem to spend all the time they aren't eating donuts (as they spell it Tel), doing people for not coming to a complete stop at stop signs.

A manual soon gets to be tedious in towns and cities.

Most Americans/Canadians will drive even the shortest of distances, and often places don't even have sidewalks (pavements) to get to them so you have to drive.

As for the comment about 90mph seeming fast, I got pulled at about 93mph on a totally empty highway by a Canadian equivalent of a State Trooper. He couldn't stop going on about the how fast 93mph was, as if I'd spontaneously combust or something. Cost me 4 points (out of 12) and £275. Ouch.

urban

iTrader: (1)

**** - I forgot about the yank's and having to come to a complete stop.
I found that really annoying - approaching a junction where you could clearly see noting what coming, but yet you must stop completely and then start from scratch - stupid

boxst

Automatics make sense as anything other than a freeway is a nightmare to drive on as there is either a traffic light or a stop sign at every intersection and the intersections are very frequent.

As soon as you get somewhere that you can drive, erm, vigourously then the automatic is a pain. I go to San Francisco every month and sometimes go whale watching (proper whales, not just Americans in buffet places) and that is across the mountains. After about 20 minutes of driving the brakes are literally smoking away as there is no way to hold the car in gear whilst driving quickly, slowing down for corners etc.. so you have to use the brakes.

Steve

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Steve: use the "3, 2 or 1" on the gear selector to manually hold a lower gear; Thats what its there for - to save the brakes on long hill decents.

I use it all the time on the Jag: V12 engine braking means the brakes need little use going down long hills

Modern automatics should do it automatically anyway (most ZF transmissions do), but sometimes they still need a helping hand.

boxst

It isn't so much the long descents, but the twisty bits. The automatic gear doesn't smoothly change even when using 1,2,3 so you can't go fast and control the car. That and the suspension/tyre set up is usually useless as well.

Steve

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

I can understand that, if the gearbox is stupid enough, shifting down into 1st or 2nd when going too fast can lock up the driven wheels if 'box shifts gears too aggressively.

Combine that with dodgy handling and a mountain road with a sheer drop the other side of the armco and I can see why that might not be a good idea.

Klaatu

As I said before, standard configurations are not optimal. You can configure what you need, even to the point where you can "lock up" a gear and bump start your vehicle. It's all about needs and tuning. In my experience, off-road especially, is that you can change gear without losing traction. Any gear, forward, reverse, any gear, drive is always "on", unless in "P" or "N", obviously. It's just the way an "oil" box works.

I converted a LandRover 2.5L petrol 5sp manual to V8 4sp auto (ZF4HP22). And what a machine. I could descend inclines with the gearbox in "R"...on tickover...almost like traction control.

Auto's, properly tuned, you'll be surprised.

superstar1

Wife used to work at a travel agent specializing in holidays to the US, and part of the deal was car hire/fly drive in the US.
One couple had trouble with one of the auto's, it drove perfectly during the day in "D" mode, but would not function properly at all at night in "N" mode!!!!

SimonD

My wife's car is an auto Tribeca. Great in traffic but crap as soon as you come to bends and/or hills. The auto box can't see what is coming so is always in the wrong gear when conditions change. This leaves you with a jerky badly timed and late gearchange every time. Modern fast shifting seven speeders minimise this but the problem is still there.

I remember hiring an old Mustang a few years back in Vancouver. It had a three speed auto and on my drive up to Whistler was constantly shifting between 2nd and 3rd at the 55mph speed limit. My annoyance at the 'box almost (not quite) ruined the stunning scenery for me.