Automatic Manual Transmissions vs Manual Transmissions

I asked mine for my rib back just yesterday.

 

Boys go to Mars to get more candy bars.
Girls go to Jupiter to get more stupider.



There's more to it but I can't remember.

 

I love my Volvo I shift. Put it in power mode and I can out accelerate cars when lightly loaded.

 

If you run paper you don't have to show a pee stop

 

If a dot pulls you over after you leave a rest area you're going to wish you had.

 

Most drivers feel they have less control backing up with a auto since their is no feel for the clutch engagement point. Auto manufactures have been continuously working on and trying to improve the back-up issues since they have been reintroduced.

Really? Do you like to be concentrating on you gum when walking or concentrate on your walking when chewing gum? At some point when driving shifting should become second nature, require no more thought, and if it isn't, you cannot "double clutch or float with the best of them."

AMTs are full of maintenance and reliability issues. I known companies that have bought AMT trucks just to pay for the expense of replacing them with manuals just over reliability issues.

 

I don't like the computer selected shift points very much. I don't like the way you can't hold steady in a gear if the computer decides it wants a shift - in a corner, up or down a hill, or a situation where I don't want another gear. I don't like the way Auto trannys go down hills very much. I don't like the surge backing into a dock or coupling very much. I don't like riding the brakes to gain control very much. These problems are not bad problems, and cruising down an open road, who could tell the difference? Auto tranny sure gives a lot more cab space.

I'd heard about the fuel economy discussion, so I did a firsthand experiment. I had been assigned a new Volvo 670, D13, I-shift tranny, 34 miles on odometer. Drivers, that truck was so sweet, like driving a Cadillac. After about 10K miles to warm it up, I ran another 10K on full auto shift, then ran another 10K manual shift. (I-shift has a manual shift button you can use, pretty good) Both sequences on average terrain, average wind and weather, average loads and weights. Comparable conditions in both sets, in other words. This was realtime truck miles, not track miles, so these averages are as accurate as l I could get, as trucking allows.
Jim - 6.8mph, average terrain. Auto tranny w/computer shifting - 6.3mph. These numbers are very realistic, and I'd say a driver can squeeze more miles out of a tank of diesel than a computer. My experience, anyway.

But really, if you like auto tranny, drive one. If you don't, don't. See? Easy!

 

Prefer the manual, feel like I have more control with it and I enjoy shifting my own gears. Drove an automatic for a summer it was alright (still had a clutch so I guess not fully automatic). I don't think I'd like an auto on the hills in winter though.