Motors Why do Americans predominantly drive Automatics?

There are markets and models where semi-automatic is the only option availble. Here you can't get or even order some cars with a manual transmission, so this is your best option for keeping revs up and avoiding the lag from an automatic transmission.

 

The sequential shifters are actually faster then regular manuals. You just don't feel as cool when you are using them . I'd rather have a regular, but I doubt well be seeing any of them in the near future.

 

i don't like autos, their acceleration is too mushy for me and manuals are more fun. then i got a manual MGB with a United Kindom logo on the front bumper. me=happy

 

we build our computers because we like to have absolute control over our rigs. we should drive manuals to have absolute control over our rigs.

also, i missed a ticket by downshifting to slow down quickly without flashing the brake lights

 

I can do engine braking in my automatic. If I need to slow down, I drop it from fourth into third.

 

how do you do that now?

 

Most normal American automatic transmissions are 4 speed. The shift slector usualy has P-R-N-2-3-D, or something similar. D is for Drive and allows full automatic shifiting, but you can downshift the car to 3. This allows something like engine braking, although it is techincaly the torque converter doing it, IIRC.

Most new sports cars that have semi-automatic, like triptronic or sentronic are 5 or 6 speeds. Some use a torque converter and some use clutches. I'm pretty sure that the Ferrari boxes are clutch and gear, but I'm not so sure for Audi and Porsche.

 

i thought that you needed to be completely stopped to change gears in an auto, guess you learn something new every day!

 

Y'all missed some points:
American cars are predominantly Automatics except Sports modals.
Imports are predominantly manuals excepts luxury modals.
Trucks are predominantly Automatic because Automatics are made much stronger and can handle much more torque.
American is a huge country. Southern California where I live is bigger the most countries in Europe. There are long straight roads that go to nowhere and tight twisties.
Don't forget about a mid 80's Volkswagen GTI Rabit. The automatic has a 15mph more top speed and has slightly quicker acceleration then the manual transmission version.
Yes its about Demand and Supply........the majority of the world prefers Automatics.........the rest of us that like a little soul in our cars have to deal with it..

 

I don't actually know if that's true or not, but if it is, it's NOT typical of most automatics, which have less power at the wheels, and are slower, and less economical than the manual variant.

 

1. The Toyota Camry, the best selling car in America, is an import and over 90% of the cars sold are automatics. The same goes for Honda, Subaru and every single major import sold in the US.
2. There is nothing inherent about an automatic transmission that is stronger. Most heavy trucks are actualy manual, usualy with split gear transmissions. Only the big 18 wheelers from Mack, Peterbilt and the like are usualy automatic, and then only if built in the last 10 years or so. Most trucks sizes that require a Commercial Drivers Licence are manual, hence it being required on the test. And certianly outside the US, where the trucks stay in use a lot longer (think trucks built in the '60s), every truck I have seen has been a manual. That includes everthing from Ireland to Iran and everthing from milk trucks to oil sounding trucks.

Actualy they don't, which is the point of the whole thread.

 

It's even possible to buy a "dual gate shifter" for an automatic (well, at least for most THM autos), which is a standard auto box with two sides, politically incorrectly called "his and her" gates in the sixties when it was available on a lot of GM cars (you can google Hurst Dual Gate if you want to see what one looks like). On one side was the regular P-R-N-D gates, the other was a just N-4-3-2-1 and you could move the lever over onto that side and shift it like a manual, except no clutch. The idea was that the missus could do grocery runs and such in it using the regular automatic side, but then daddy could tear up the drag strips on the weekends with the other side. Gives you the abilities to pick gears with the convenience and durability of an automatic.

 

But theres no clutch so thats pointless (to me) anyway.

 

i was thinking of the machanics involved in shifting, and how to automate it as a mod. you figure a solenoid for each gear, a tach and speedo that sends a PIC info. really easy to interface. it would have the longevity of a manny with the convenience of a manual. you know, so the missus can drive it

 

Yeah, but then, you still gotta replace the clutch every once in awhile.

 

did it in auto on a friends car, it went pretty quickly (89 toyota truck)

 

my car has nearly a hundred thousand miles on it and has never had a new clutch (although it is starting to go ) I bet most modern automatics would require at least some work before then.

 

324K + and only ben replaced once, you need to learn how to drive!!!

\sarcasm about the driving
\\my truck isn't even halfway done yet

 

Yeah but my car is the pinnacle of British automotive achivement.

The doors fall off and the handbrake doesn't work, after all, so you can hardly expect the clutch to last a long time.

 

Yeah. Modern automatics suck. I refer only to GM automatics from the 60s through the 80s by "automatics". They were designed to sit behind a big block V8, and they're built like tanks. You should see the power ratings. They're obscene. They could be used in friggin' tractor trailers.