I'm Tired Of Hearing "Save The Manuals".

Updated: 29 Nov 2024

I wonder if someone that learned to drive with a Model T ever wrote to a motoring publication with the view:

“Three pedals and one lever is way to easy. I like to feel the man and machine connection by mastering the timing of synchronised movements between my left foot, right hand, left hand and right foot while trying to steer at the same time. It’s no wonder there are so many accidents when you consider people don’t even have to concentrate on driving because they don’t need to alter the air/fuel mixes themselves when changing speeds!”

Now, I’ll grant you that the “move with times you’ll not miss it” point of view is a little obvious and obnoxious. I simply can’t argue against the great joy in controlling the gear box with a fairly simple mechanical connection. I’ve no doubt that there will still be some more analogue cars built around a stick shift for the purist, the playful and those that love the challenge. However we are now in an age where many cars drivetrains are not built around a manual transmission, and that makes for some contradictions being typed into comment boxes across the internet by the hardcore manual gearbox fetishists.

The contradiction is in those people holding onto the idea of stick shift as the be-all and end-all of motoring perfection are also the same people salivating over technologies such torque vectoring and adaptive suspension. These are technologies becoming commonplace that genuinely cause the car to require less skill and understanding to drive at any pace. The computer will dial out to a large degree the pressing need to understand the surface you are on, and dial out oversteer and torque steer for you.

Let’s take the darling of the automotive world at the moment, the Ford Focus RS. If you visit Fords introductory webpage on the car you will find this statement:

“… the Ford Performance All-Wheel-Drive System intelligently distributes power for maximum benefit, both front and rear as well as left and right. “

That’s basically the computer and associated technology controlling the entire dynamics of the cars handling and adapting to the conditions you are driving in, thus removing a fair amount of responsibility of control of the car. The same applies with the simpler pure front wheel drive Focus and Fiesta ST models. All this amazing computer controlled technology is designed to turn the car into a precise handling instrument, yet people want to depress a pedal, move a lever, then release the pedal every time they want the car to change gear. Many want to add a blip of the throttle on the downshift with the same foot that is doing the braking - yet at the same time the computer is deciding when and how much braking to apply on different corners of the car and how much to split the power between the front and rear of the car to keep it stable and maximise grip.

At that point driving a stick shift is nothing but an illusion of control.

Now, I’m down for doing things for fun in a car designed to put a smile upon my face like the ST model Fords, but the disdain shown when any popular car comes out with no stick shift option is most often nothing short of absurd. On top of that it’s inevitably shown by people that haven’t driven the car and were never going to buy a new model in the first place.

At this point I’m sure there are engineers in all over the world absolutely baffled that these amazing cars they have designed to drive and handle beautifully are being slammed in website comment sections because people are demanding an archaic form of control over the gearbox. It must be all kinds of frustrating that instead of the slick paddle controlled masterpiece the entire drivetrain is based around, the loud people want to disengage drive with a foot pedal and remove their hand from the steering wheel to shift a lever around instead.

So where does that leave us?

It actually leaves us in a place where we have cars serious about their performance and looking to give people something exhilarating to drive based on current technology… and it’s getting a bit weird to keep trying to impose a contrivance that is tottering over the brink and into becoming old school technology.

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Comments

I have to agree with you, he “Save the manuals” only applies to the Americas. But in the rest of the world, manuals are bae. Although I like autos, I think they’re boring

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That’s nice if you can afford to purchase and maintain two cars for yourself.

How do you stall an auto? By definition it can’t stall without a mechanical failure.

I think you missed the point of the post though.

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Matt Robinson

I think the manual transmission is a bit useless in the modern world, as it’s usage now limits to some conditions now. Firstly, Manual transmission is cool, but not all cars suit it. I don’t wish manual transmissions work on a 1000hp hypercar. Too much power to handle and too much hassle. Also, recent testings have also shown that some auto transmissions (DSG, PDK for instance) preforms better than manuals. The Golf R DSG just needs 4.9 seconds to 100 km/h but the manual needs 5.1 seconds to do so. There’s no logical reason to fanboying manuals. Well, I still think manual transmission must stay longer but I can’t deny autos suck.

That’s kind of my point. Manuals are fun, but to try and justify there existence in performance cars is a bit silly. Particularly when the gap is bridged by having an automatic for traffic and then you can change mode to manually change the gears when you want to play.

I think the problem is more due to the drivers of these cars. Most modern ferrari and lamb and etc drivers want to show off. They don’t know how to drive a ‘proper’ car and therefore all these supercars have become autos with loads of driver aids. A 488 is easier to drive then a Manual M4. I therefore think that this auto phenomenon is more due to the people who drive the cars, more then the fact that we are evolving with time.

That’s why paddle shift exists.

BMW is phasing out stick shifts…

I’ve ordered my Porsche Cayman with a PDK.
And I’ve driven both, manual and PDK and they are both brilliant gearboxes. And manual is more involving indeed, but, unlike car reviewers and people on the Internet I also think about what this car is actually going to be like when I start living with it. When I sit in the traffic on my daily commute or when I am going back home through a town and all I want is to relax a little bit, and not have an unplanned left leg workout.
So you can call me a non-carguy and whatever, I don’t care, this is my choice and I believe it’s better for me. And I don’t think that PDK takes away much from driving, as it was rightfully said, we’re come to a point when double-clutch gearboxes are much more efficient and fast than the ape behind the wheel.
So yes you don’t get the feel and as much control, but you can focus much more on actual driving while using the paddles for those instant gearshifts.

I’m not saying that we all should be driving paddle-shift cars, I still like an occasional drive in a manual car, but what I am saying is that if your car has a proper auto gearbox, you still can have fun and enjoy driving in a slightly different way.

I concur. As far as I can tell, a true enthusiast is able to enjoy driving just about anything. I’ve own full auto cars and loved them. I currently drive a stick, and my next car will probably have paddles.

It’s the snobs that drive me nuts. Anyone who thinks there is “only one true way” is an ignorant fool.

That Cayman is going to be fantastic, I would take one with the PDK as well - it’s what suits the car and will allow you all the intended control over it.

Tag me in on any posts you make about it, you must be crazy excited.

Manual transmissions are slowly being discarded in performance cars for a reason, but it still does have its place in the modern days. When weight and cost matter alot, it may be the more sensible option for the manufacturer to chose the simple design of a classic manual transmission rather than a semi-automatic transmission.
That being said, the “MANual” fanboys are bothering me too. Back in the days, when the transmissions weren’t synchronised yet and people had to double-declutch every time they were switching gears, the then-new synchronised manuals were considered an unnecessary comfort too. “You can swith the gears without double-declutching, what’s the point? Everybody is able to double-declutch anyways, so why don’t stay with the unsynchronised transmissions?” Remove the clutch pedal from the equation completely and now the same sentence is being said. People need to move on.

I actually edited out a paragraph talking about how I had to double de-clutch the first car I drove because it was pre syncromesh and I don’t complain the modern manual is too easy… and went for the Model T thing instead.

You get where I’m coming from completely, thanks for reading and taking the time to comment.

This sounds like the stuff auto fanboys say when they try to convince people flicking a little paddle with one finger twitch is “emotionally involving”

It depends on the car. In a gtr or 458 its fine, but not in a slow.

You didn’t read it. Painfully obvious.

I just feel like people are starting to let technology make them too lasy. The automatic transmission and paddle shoft transmission are nescassary, but going from a manual car to an automatic car feels like losing a limb to me. I just like being a bigger part of the experience, and I like it better. If something is fun but can be a chore sometimes, maybe the right thing to do is not take the easy way out all the time. I like driving manual, and you have no problem with that right?