10 Things That Will Soon Disappear Forever (And 7 That Refuse to Die)

[Texas Proud]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jazz4cash I spent a lot of time convincing buyers of big trucks to spec automatic transmissions over manuals. The auto is way ahead in performance and productivity. In cars I expect auto makers will need to charge a premium for a manual transmission at some point and that will determine the future availability of manuals. I never heard anyone say they love to use a clutch before so I think an automated clutch/manual shift would be fun to drive. The tiptronic gearbox works this way.

I think that it will be awhile before a manual cost more than an auto.... an auto cost more to make no matter what...

Now, I have seen where you do not get the savings for manual, but most of the time they are $1,000 to $1,500 cheaper...


I hate the 'auto-manual'.... it is not the same... doing the clutch and the gears at the same time if the fun.... just clicking a stick is not... and, you are sequential with a tiptronic.... IOW, you have to go from 6 to 5 to 4 to 3 to 2 to 1..... with a manual I can go from 6 to nothing and then put it back in whatever gear I need when I need power again... I coast a lot...

[Calico]

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Originally Posted by euro 5

Six of us.

[NW-Bound]

My first car when I was 19 had a manual transmission: a Mustang 69.

I don't care for manual stick shift anymore. Too old and tired to care.

[6miths]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Texas Proud I think that it will be awhile before a manual cost more than an auto.... an auto cost more to make no matter what... Now, I have seen where you do not get the savings for manual, but most of the time they are $1,000 to $1,500 cheaper... I hate the 'auto-manual'.... it is not the same... doing the clutch and the gears at the same time if the fun.... just clicking a stick is not... and, you are sequential with a tiptronic.... IOW, you have to go from 6 to 5 to 4 to 3 to 2 to 1..... with a manual I can go from 6 to nothing and then put it back in whatever gear I need when I need power again... I coast a lot...

The last and only automatic vehicle I ever purchased for myself was a 2003 Acura TSX. The auto and the manual were the same price and the auto had slightly better mileage ratings. Another factor was that I planned to pass the car on to my mother when it was time for a new one for me. My mother now drives it and the replacement I bought was a manual. Missed the fun!!

[Texas Proud]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 6miths The last and only automatic vehicle I ever purchased for myself was a 2003 Acura TSX. The auto and the manual were the same price and the auto had slightly better mileage ratings. Another factor was that I planned to pass the car on to my mother when it was time for a new one for me. My mother now drives it and the replacement I bought was a manual. Missed the fun!!

Interesting... I bought a 2004 Acura TL and the manual was about $1500 less... wonder why the two were different...

[rodi]

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Originally Posted by aja8888 I think the people that think the manual transmission is going away just don't drive one or probably don't have the skill set to do so. I hear this frequently from young people who have never been exposed.

We are a stickshift family. My kids WILL learn to drive a stick. And as Totoro mentioned - manual transmission is much more common in Europe... you pay a premium to rent an automatic car in Europe. You might get stuck someplace and need to drive a manual. (Go out with friends and friend who drove is drunk, and the car is a manual.) It's an important life skill.

I don't see mail collection boxes going away. To many institutions still require hard copy forms. We end up walking to the mailbox at least twice a week to mail something or other.

[Music Lover]

I agree...everyone should know how to drive a manual. And how to swim. And how to cook a basic meal from scratch.

[Hyperborea]

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Originally Posted by ejman Not sure about the "snob" part of your comment (maybe true maybe not but personally I also have very powerful SS amps that cost even more than my tube amp - I just like the tube sound so most of the time I listen to tubes). Anyway, don't know if you are aware that there are power tubes recently designed and currently in production that are used mainly for Hi-Fi power amp applications such as the TungSol KT-120 and KT-150. As far as I know these tubes are not used in guitar amps. ( I use the KT 150's in my amp - wonderful, really great sounding tubes)

Sure, I can see that they would do that. I didn't know about the KT-120 or KT-150 but from what I read they appear to be tweaked models on the old KT-88 which is a common tube used in high powered bass guitar amps. If they can take an existing design, tweak it a bit, and then charge more money why wouldn't they. But without the mass of guitar amp tubes sold they wouldn't be able to keep the factory doors open. Most of the manufacturers would go away. There might still be some production but the price would have to rise to cover the whole cost of running the factory. It's a similar situation to car manufacturers, Chevrolet couldn't survive producing just the Camaro without significantly increasing prices.

Sidebar: As to the use of "tube snob", I don't understand why people want to spend a lot of money to distort the music they want to listen to. Tubes add a warmth to sound reproduction. That warmth is distortion. I can see why a musician might want to distort the sound - they want to do that to create the sound. But in reproduction you want to get the original sound back again. At one time tube amplification was the only way to do that but that's no longer true and hasn't been for a long time. Solid state amps reproduce the original sound more true to the original. I understand spending money on quality components and good speakers but too often in my experience the "tube snobs" believe in magic fairy dust type things that have no basis in science or engineering - often over cheap components like cables where some manufacturer makes a dubious marketing claim like "directional" and adds $100 to the price. Guitar players aren't exempt from this magical thinking either though they often do it over capacitors and pay $30 for old style paper in oil capacitors in a high-pass tone circuit where a $1 mylar film capacitor does the exact same job.

[Hyperborea]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rodi We are a stickshift family. My kids WILL learn to drive a stick. And as Totoro mentioned - manual transmission is much more common in Europe... you pay a premium to rent an automatic car in Europe. You might get stuck someplace and need to drive a manual. (Go out with friends and friend who drove is drunk, and the car is a manual.) It's an important life skill.

It can also apparently get you shot.

Carjackers kill Texas*man in front of his family after realizing they couldn't drive stick shift, deputies say | Crime | Dallas News

Pedro Aguilar, his wife and their 10-year-old daughter were returning home to their apartment when a sedan pulled up and two men held Aguilar at gunpoint while he was in the driver's seat, KHOU-TV reported. His wife and daughter were outside the car.
The men told Aguilar to get out of the car and hit him with a gun because he was taking too long, according to the Houston station. The carjackers got in but couldn't drive a manual transmission, so one of them shot Aguilar in the chest in front of his family, KHOU reported.

P.S. It's interesting that when quoting somebody you get to see whether or not they used one or two spaces after the period. The board software maintains the original but in display it becomes one space. The old two spaces after a period were done in typing because of the limitations of the typewriter. In computer layout the space used is proportional and adjusted based on the characters around it.

[Nemo2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hyperborea P.S. It's interesting that when quoting somebody you get to see whether or not they used one or two spaces after the period. The board software maintains the original but in display it becomes one space. The old two spaces after a period were done in typing because of the limitations of the typewriter. In computer layout the space used is proportional and adjusted based on the characters around it.

Typing, (other than the two fingered variety), is but one of the many skills I lack....however, I always leave two spaces after a period. Perhaps it's just a part of being old.

[Fedup]

The last stick shift my family had was sold in 1997. After that, all the cars have automatic transmission.

[Walt34]

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Originally Posted by Nemo2 Typing, (other than the two fingered variety), is but one of the many skills I lack....however, I always leave two spaces after a period. Perhaps it's just a part of being old.

Learning how to type was probably the most useful thing I learned in high school. I took the class for two reasons; I knew they couldn't require me to buy a typewriter and therefor the class would have no homework, and I was one of two guys in a classroom full of girls.

[6miths]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rodi We are a stickshift family. My kids WILL learn to drive a stick. And as Totoro mentioned - manual transmission is much more common in Europe... you pay a premium to rent an automatic car in Europe. You might get stuck someplace and need to drive a manual. (Go out with friends and friend who drove is drunk, and the car is a manual.) It's an important life skill. I don't see mail collection boxes going away. To many institutions still require hard copy forms. We end up walking to the mailbox at least twice a week to mail something or other.

The great fun is renting a manual in the UK or another left-hand driving nation. Way too much fun!! Definitely willing to sacrifice the fun of the manual for the boring automatic in these countries. Interestingly, only two of our 4 children have learned to drive our manual. Although a third is a motorcycle rider so he does drive a manual there and I suspect he could drive the manual car with little difficulty.

Two spaces for me after a period. Just as I learned in Grade 9 typing class.

[Music Lover]

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Originally Posted by Walt34 Learning how to type was probably the most useful thing I learned in high school. I took the class for two reasons; I knew they couldn't require me to buy a typewriter and therefor the class would have no homework, and I was one of two guys in a classroom full of girls.

I also took typing because the class was full of girls...

I never expected to ever type again after high school but it became very useful.

[Car-Guy]

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Originally Posted by Walt34 Learning how to type was probably the most useful thing I learned in high school.

I never took typing in school but I can type very fast. I took spelling in school for years and I still can't spell s***. If spelling was a prerequisite for a job, I couldn't get a job picking up trash.

I don't know who invented on-line spell checkers but I owe him (or her) a debt of thanks.

[ls99]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 6miths The great fun is renting a manual in the UK or another left-hand driving nation. Way too much fun!! Definitely willing to sacrifice the fun of the manual for the boring automatic in these countries. Interestingly, only two of our 4 children have learned to drive our manual. Although a third is a motorcycle rider so he does drive a manual there and I suspect he could drive the manual car with little difficulty. Two spaces for me after a period. Just as I learned in Grade 9 typing class.

Can relate funny story. Long ago, around 1973, the research ship I was w*rking docked in Cape Town, Africa. Got off the ship had a cab take me and a buddy to a car rental place. Rented IIRC an Opel. Naturally steering wheel on the wrong side, manual tranny. Never driven in a country with lanes on the wrong side, or shifted a manual with left hand. Fortunately the pedals were in the right order.

Anyhoo, off we went trying to get out of the city to the huge Kruger national park. Not even a half mile, and I get pulled over by the local police, he asks for license, I hand him my NY State license. The man asks how long I've been here, I say maybe a couple of hours.

I was pulled over for making an illegal right turn. He could tell by the plates, it was a rental car. The policeman then patiently says, slow down, try to read the signs and watch for signs prohibiting right turns. Let me go with no ticket.

Survived three days without further violations or mishaps.

The final funny is we stopped to watch some baboons, nasty stinking buggers they are. One sat on the hood and grabbed hold of the viper arm, would not get off. Weeeellll, slowly accelerated to about 45, jammed on the brake, baboon went flying with the wiper arm still firmly in grasp. We escaped. On return of car had to pay around 20 Rand for the missing bit. There was no charge for the brown skid marks on the hood.

Ok resume, whatever the thread was all about.

[CardsFan]

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Originally Posted by Walt34 and I was one of two guys in a classroom full of girls.

This is off topic, but reminds me of college, as an engineering student. For our liberal arts elective one year, a friend and I took "Ethics in Medicine", a required class for all Nursing students. This was 1974. You can guess the odds .

Side note: the two engineers aced the course with hardly any study .

[Nemo2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CardsFan This is off topic, but reminds me of college, as an engineering student. For our liberal arts elective one year, a friend and I took "Ethics in Medicine", a required class for all Nursing students. This was 1974. You can guess the odds . Side note: the two engineers aced the course with hardly any study .

Circa 1978 I was promoted from sales rep to the lowest level of telco management. The positions available at that stage were primarily sales support roles......chained to a desk answering calls from salespeople.

Spoke to a service advisor....this group was almost exclusively female, (above average looking females at that); they were nominally management, (to give them a little clout I figured), and were keen to have males.

The job was pretty much autonomous, similar to sales without the target quotas.

When the move was announced, another male sales rep asked "If I wasn't concerned that people would think I was gay?" (since the two, IIRC, males in that division were).

About a year later, when it became abundantly clear that I'd made a superb choice, I was approached by another male sales rep, about to be promoted, who asked what I thought of him trying to get into the group.

I replied "Don't do it, people will think you're gay", ("not, of course", as Seinfeld would say, "that there's.....").

[Bir48die]

So two years ago I'm traveling to Dallas. I am 80% to our airport and realize I left my cell phone at home. So I have to go on the company's email and let everyone know I'm out of commission for 48 hours. When I land in Dallas I try and find a payphone. None to be found. Have to drive to my hotel and use an old phone card issued years ago. I thought I was going to die. Now I couldn't give a rip. There are no payphone 's to be had. Once I relaxed I actually enjoyed the quiet.

[Fedup]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CardsFan This is off topic, but reminds me of college, as an engineering student. For our liberal arts elective one year, a friend and I took "Ethics in Medicine", a required class for all Nursing students. This was 1974. You can guess the odds . Side note: the two engineers aced the course with hardly any study .

As one of the 5 females in the whole engineering school, I have to say the odds were good, but the goods were odd.