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Motors Why do Americans predominantly drive Automatics?

Discussion in 'General' started by xen0morph, 18 Jan 2006.

  1. GreatOldOne

    GreatOldOne Wannabe Martian

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    All I can add to this is that the Chrysler 300 Touring I had whilst on holiday in Florida was great to drive - as long as you didn't want to accelerate, and you only went in a straight line. ;)

    The V6 engine was fine, but the auto box was rubbish - it never quite seemed to work out what it wanted to do. Stomp on the Gas, and it'd just make a louder noise for a while, and not really speed up as it hadn't kicked down. Back it off slightly, and all of a sudden the box drops a cog away you go - it's almost as if the kickdown switch was faulty.

    Steering was - well - wooly. And the first time I used a highway off-ramp was a bit scary - the thing didn't corner, it banked. :eeek:

    But once you got used to it, it was OK. Got us from A to B, and once you got crusing, it was quite relaxing, what with the super squishy tires and suspension.

    Anyway, at least it had it's engine pointing North-South; My mate's rental Caddy had a V8 transversely mounted... I couldn't believe it when I saw it - a front wheel drive V8! :eyebrow: :D
     
  2. I'm_Not_A_Monster

    I'm_Not_A_Monster Hey, eat this...

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    my GF drives a focus, edhi, i second your comment
     
  3. jaguarking11

    jaguarking11 Peterbilt-strong

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    I second the motion on this. Caddy should have never built front weel drives period. But they did. It was probably a older cadillac sts or something. New caddies are rwd. One thing I did notice however is that the sts has little to no tourque steer even though its a v8 in fwd config.

    As for the transmission kicking like that I know that feel nicely on the older chrysler we had. SOunds like chrysler hasent got the act together yet.
     
  4. Altron

    Altron Minimodder

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    Oldsmobile has had a FWD V8 in their Toronado since like '66, although, from what I can tell, the engine is mounted the right way.

    I really don't understand why. There are plenty of alternative uses for a FWD car, because you can take off the back half without having to worry about the drivetrain, nice for a trailer or camper.

    But FWD in a muscle car? Ewww...
     
  5. Neogumbercules

    Neogumbercules What's a Dremel?

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    It's simple, really. The vast majority of Americans use their cars to get them from work and back. School and back. Pick up the kids and back. It's evident in your posts that you all feel that manual is more fun than auto. I agree, it really is. But since most drivers only use their cars as utility, they want it to be as easy and convinient as possible. Only a very small % of Americans use their cars for pleasure driving. Even fewer have the motorhead syndrome where they wanna fly down a road, banging through the gears. They want to be able to start at a red light without stalling it. They want to be able to not worry about smashing the tailgating A-hole behind them on the hill with a stop sign.

    US highways can be extremely congested. 300 million people live here. Try driving down the merrit parkway in CT on 4th of July weekend. Two and a half hours to go 10 miles, with stopping and starting and stopping and starting. One second you're going 70MPH the next you're slamming on your brakes and coming to a dead stop. It's tiring. Very, very tiring. People want convienience. Not just Americans, everyone. I'd say European cars are manuals just because it's common culture over there. As it's common culture over here to drive auto.

    "American's are fat and lazy" is the stupidest reason Europeans use for an answer to any question that starts off with the words "Why do Americans...?"

    It's like saying british society comes to a screeching halt every day for tea and crumpets. Everyone stops what they're doing to run to the nearest cafe! Or all French people are frog eating surrender monkeys! Or everyone in Eastern Europe is a vodka drinking communist! Or everyone in the middle east is a towel headed womanizer with a bomb strapped to their belt! Or all asians are good at math!

    You get my point. Please keep your ignorant biggotry to a minimum. (I know most of you do not feel this way.)

    Oh, and recent studys show that Americans work more hours per person than any other society. Beating out Japan. So I don't even know where all this lazy crap came from. :rolleyes:
     
    Last edited: 30 Jun 2006
  6. Altron

    Altron Minimodder

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    To back his claims about highway traffic up, I average 10mph on my daily drive. That's with moderate traffic, not during rush hour. I pass 18 stop signs or traffic lights.
     
  7. GMan

    GMan Minimodder

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    Yes, some of us are ignorant, lazy, stupid, drive huge distances, and some of us see no point in having to manually change gears when modern automatic transmissions can do it well enough.

    I learned to drive on a manual (a relative taught me when I was 12 years old), had to take a semester of driver education in high school, and the driving test in that city lasted an hour. They had me do practically everything you can do in car except have sex or wreck the thing (thank goodness on both counts - I saved the first for after I got my license and have yet to do the second).

    They no longer have driver education in public schools in Colorado and from what I've heard/read, neither do most other states. Private driver education courses can cost up to a thousand dollars, so most people don't take a course. They learn to drive with their parents, siblings or friends.

    The written and practical tests in use currently are a joke. I went 12 years without driving or having a license (I was living in countries with excellent public transportation) and passed both with perfect scores when I returned to the states.

    Some people prefer an automatic so they can fix their makeup, smoke a cigarette, drink something, talk on cell phone or play with themselves. That would be the stupid group, IMO.

    Do you churn your own butter, slaughter animals yourself for meat, or farm your own vegetables? Probably not, so why use a manual transmission? You use a manual because you want to, the same reason some people do churn their own butter. Driving an automatic doesn't necessarily mean you're lazy. Personally, I don't see the point of driving a manual. I don't really enjoy driving. It's just a necessary thing here. The public transportation sucks and I don't really want to walk to and from work since it's 40 miles round trip.

    I have quite a few friends and co-workers that drive manuals, but I don't assume it's because they're motor heads, speed freaks or meat heads. They, in turn, don't assume I'm stupid or lazy just because I drive an automatic.
     
  8. striker289

    striker289 What's a Dremel?

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    complicated if you break them but i am going to tell you now they dont break often if you know how to drive.

    My dads 1970 chevy monte carlo still has its original th-350 auto trans, only had fluid changes.

    My 1986 chevy monte carlo still has its original 2004r auto trans, only has had fluids changed. And i drive it hard! Had the rear end swung way out on a dry rode today. Smoke like no tommarow!

    I would love to have a Manuel but sadly monte carlos have always been offered with Autos.

    O by the way autos can accually be easier to drive in slippery conditions beucase the are smoother. Manuals tend to shift harder, hard shifts can cause more issues in slippery weather.
     
  9. Altron

    Altron Minimodder

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    First of all, that Monte Carlo is a really nice car.
    Second of all, a solid properly maintained automatic will last just as long as a solid properly maintained manual, except the manual will need occasional oil and clutch changes, whereas the automatic will need fluid changes much more often, but at less cost. My Olds has a THM200-4R also, and at 142k, it's still running strong.
     
  10. Xen0phobiak

    Xen0phobiak SMEGHEADS!

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    The rest of what was said could be valid, but thats complete ******** if the manual driver has been driving for say 6 months.
     
  11. striker289

    striker289 What's a Dremel?

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    the only way your going to shift insanely smooth is if you let the clutch out very slowly, at that point you rish wearing the clutch out.
     
  12. JCG

    JCG What's a Dremel?

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    Are all clutches in the US crap? Because almost American I talking about clutches seem to think clutches wear out in 10 miles.

    If you use the gaspedal to get you engine at the right revs you don't need to let your clutch slip long.
     
  13. Splynncryth

    Splynncryth 0x665E3FF6,0x46CC,...

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    It really depends on the car. We tend to have larger and heavier vehicles. Have you ever seen something like a Ford f350? Other cars like the Mustang, Corvette, GTO, and such produce 300+ fy-lbs of torque, and that is plenty to hurt a clutch. Add in teh weight of these vehicles, and it can be a real source of headaches. On smaller vehicles, it's not as bad, but there are plenty of manufactures that make questionable quality clutched because they simply aren't demanded.

    I will say I manged to not make a fool of myself taking a Mazda 6 for a test drive today (manual) and actually manged to do OK. It was a little frustrating trying to consitantly remember where the grab point is, but I can see how someone could adjust pretty quick. No, it was not difficult.
     
  14. Piratetaco

    Piratetaco is always right

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    wha?

    you only need to know where the biting point is to move off or do what everyone else does dial in about 3 extra revs and lift the clutch slowly to the top,then when the car is doing about 5mph start using the accelerator to control your speed.

    huzzah you're motoring
     
  15. xen0morph

    xen0morph Bargain wine connoisseur

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    no, the real way to shift smoothly is to ensure that you release the clutch when the revs are at the correct point for the next gear. in my car i can shift from 1st to 2nd very quickly and it's still smooth.

    and setting off is a doddle too, once you get used to it you only spend a few seconds at most slipping the clutch.

    mind you this is coming from someone whose car doesn't have a parking brake right now. so i'm kind of forced to have good clutch control :p
     
  16. I'm_Not_A_Monster

    I'm_Not_A_Monster Hey, eat this...

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    look under your car, look for a cable going to the rear wheels. if there is one cable from each brake going to a Y with a cable coming from the front of the car, you have yourself the parking brake.

    tighten any nuts at they Y junction while you have the e-brake pulled out 75% of the way. i used a 10mm wrench on the two nuts on a single bolt that adjusted tension of the line on my truck. tighten as tight as you can.

    release the brake and see how far the lever/rod/whatever goes out. adjust to taste.
     
  17. xen0morph

    xen0morph Bargain wine connoisseur

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    nah, the offside parking brake cable has snapped and needs replacing, i know what's wrong with it, i'm just a tight-arse and don't want to spend the £30+parts it would cost to have a garage sort it out :p
     
  18. I'm_Not_A_Monster

    I'm_Not_A_Monster Hey, eat this...

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    oh, thought you might have gotten lucky and needed a tightened bolt
     
  19. xen0morph

    xen0morph Bargain wine connoisseur

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    And I'm not really of the opinion that americans are too fat and lazy to drive a manual - but the fact is that over here we have people who use their cars for the school run/to go to the shops/etc and they get by just fine with a manual. my point is that driving a manual is NOT AT ALL difficult. you get better fuel economy and IMO if you drive it carefully it'll last much longer than an auto box.

    but then in a country where you can actually afford to have a 4 litre engine in your car, and people replace their cars every 100000 miles anyway, this probably doesn't matter as much.

    (oh and this is something i constantly annoy my mother with, as she can only drive an automatic, and now she's looking for a new car she's a bit stuck for choice as she can't get a diesel...)
     
    Last edited: 5 Jul 2006
  20. xen0morph

    xen0morph Bargain wine connoisseur

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    nah unfortunately not. it's my own fault for buying a vauxhall, british crap :p
     
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