GM Manual Transmissions - Who would have thought?

38Chevy454 said:
There are also heavy duty traditional style automatic trans with a torque converter (Allison is manufacturer) that are also used in the big trucks. The Allison are heavier duty versions than what is used in the diesel pickups. Several states now have designated class A drivers license where it may have a restriction for auto trans only, for drivers that can;t drive manual trans big trucks.
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I worked for Allison but I was not aware of states restricting drivers to automatic only. We talked about it, though! With driver shortages being a major impediment some fleets acquired a training vehicle with an Allison so prospects could learn how to drive first and then learn how to shift. That led to some fleets switching over completely to appease drivers and deal with traffic.
 
Back when I bought my first stick shift, you saved $500

That's why I chose a manual for a 1984 Firebird. Being frugal, we've had a lot of manual cars over the years. Our sons learned to drive on a stick shift, and the people who administered the driving test were certainly impressed! We had always been able to find bargain manual left-overs at the end of the model year. My last new stick shift was a 2015 Versa Note, nice car and I didn't put many miles on it. My son had bought a 2009 Versa when he was in college and unfortunately, allowed it to begin the "descent into heapdom" (credit to Cartalk!). When he didn't want to pay for a repair recently, we traded cars. Now he's got a nice like-new Versa, and I've got an older uglier car. I'm actually enjoying fixing it up a little!
 
Andre1969 said:
Go back far enough, and automatics were able to do that. However, I think you had to get them up to around 11 mph in order to do that. Chrysler Torqueflites could do that, from '57 until whenever they relocated the pump from the rear of the unit. I imagine the old Powerflite could, too. I think the old 4-speed GM hydramatic, which was phased out around '64, could do that as well, dunno about the Powerglide. I'd imagine some Ford transmissions could, as well.

But yeah, manuals are a lot easier. A few years back, I helped to push start a guy who had a manual transmission Maxima. It died when he pulled out of a parking spot and wouldn't restart, because his battery was shot. I got behind him and gave him a shove, and he started with no issue. And that was just me using my body to push it, no car.
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I heard a story once (possibly apocryphal) about a guy who wanted his DW to help him start his auto-trans car by pushing it. He told her she'd have to get up to about 20 mph for it to w*rk. Looking in his rear view mirror, he then saw DW approaching at (you guessed it) 20 mph. YMMV
 
^^^^^
Hard to fix stupid.

Reminds me of the story of the cop stopping a women for going 30mph over the posted highway speed limit. He asked her if she had a good reason for going that much over the speed limit. She answered, well I was about out of gas so I was rushing to get to the gas station.:facepalm:
 
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^^^^^^


Best buddy at w*rk relayed the story about how his first (and now ex-) wife did a favor for him. She told him that his car was low on water so she had filled it up - all by herself. Turns out, she had put water into the oil-fill port instead of the radiator. He drained the oil and rinsed it out with some oil before ever starting the car. After filling with oil, he prayed and cranked the engine which started as usual. No apparent damage.

I guess this was one in a long line of really stupid things his DW pulled in their relatively brief marriage. You can't make this stuff up. Well, I guess you could, but why would you? People do such stupid things for real that you don't really need to make things up but YMMV.


Returning you now...
 
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mpeirce said:
> 2024 Volkswagen GTI and 2024 Volkswagen Golf R

2024 is the last year for the manual transmission for the GTI or R. We have a low mileage 2015 GTI with a manual transmission and plan on keeping it until it dies. It's far from dying though and a real fun car to drive around. The ONLY downside is because it's a turbo, it wants premium fuel.
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Mk7 GTI does not require premium. The manual for my 2017 said regular was fine. Wonderful cars.

My 2008 GTI required premium, however.
 
One of my favorite cars was a Subaru Outback manual--but it did get tedious shifting in stop and go traffic in the Houston commute, as much as I liked the car. The oldest son/winemaker in the Central Valley CA inherited it and used it for another 10 years, but he finally sold it to a friend with a son in Trinidad, CO, where it could be put to good use on the kid's snow commutes. On long road trips up to the Colorado cabin and other trips, it was a lot of fun and dependable as hell. When traffic was dead halt on 287 due to blue Northers (3 times), I could snake it around jackknifed big rigs that had traffic at a standstill for hours. And I only had all-season tires, although they were decent in snow. The Colorado cabin was at 7500 feet, so the Subaru was tested pretty often in winter.



Morning Houston city traffic, not so much fun, but very fuel-efficient and shifting kept me awake, at least.
 
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Yipper said:
We've traveled to European countries many times and even as recently as September, rental cars are still mostly manual transmissions (Scotland). In fact I've found that automatics are typically priced a bit higher for the same class of vehicle even if you can fine one available.

I think it's fun to convince the rental people that yes, someone from the USA can actually drive stick - AND when shifting using the left hand and using the clutch with the left foot.
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Doesn't everyone use the left foot to push the clutch :confused:
 
Keep in mind, the feds and the certification authorities do not care for gearboxes. Some of the push to auto comes from the regulatory state.
 
indiajust said:
Keep in mind, the feds and the certification authorities do not care for gearboxes. Some of the push to auto comes from the regulatory state.
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I didn't know that!
 
Going back to my earlier comment about being able to push start some early auto-trans cars, here's the easiest way to get that done :p
 

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I had an '89 IROC Z Camaro for many, many years that had the World Class T-5, 5 speed manual transmission that had a decent shift feel to it. It was a fun car that I really enjoyed.

But the rest of the GM cars that I had, that were front wheel drive, the feel of the cable actuated manual transmissions just didn't compare to the Japanese competitors of the same vintage. I thought they'd improve over the years but that really didn't happen to any significant degree. I had an '83 Cavalier with a manual transmission that had a terribly deigned piece of the linkage that looked like a fat wire tie that actuated reverse gear, made out of Nylon 6/6, that would dry out and break periodically, usually in the middle of winter. A friend had a Caddy CTS-V and both the clutch feel and the transmission feel were not even close to the refinement that you'd find in a German car of the same years. It's been many years since I bought my last GM vehicle and don't see any on the horizon in the near future.

For the most part, I won't miss GM manual transmissions.
 
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Since I got out of the collectable car hobby, I don't have any manual transmission cars, but a good friend of mine, who is still in the hobby, has several.(Mostly 4 speeds) Whenever I visit him "at his house" we always end up looking over his collection and picking one to take out for a short drive (~30 miles). He usually drives first and I'll drive it back. I guess it's like riding a bike, I can jump in the drivers seat and drive any manual transmission vehicle he has... It does bring back memories but driving a stick shift a few times a year is enough for me. I drove one of his "three on a tree" cars late last year. That really brought back some memories of the early 60's when I learned to drive.
 
Sunset said:
Doesn't everyone use the left foot to push the clutch :confused:
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Yes, RHD cars use the same pedal configuration as LHD cars: Throttle on right, brake center, and clutch on left. Shifting you will need to use your left hand in RHD cars. I have two of my classic cars that are from Australia and still RHD. It is legal to drive them in US, I get that question all the time. It is not hard to drive, just different than typical LHD. Not so good for drive-throughs unless you have a passenger.

To really mess with your customary driving, drive a RHD car with 3 on the tree. That takes more paying attention than a center transmission shifter.
 
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^^^^
BUT, they probably make great rural route mail delivery vehicles. :)
 
38Chevy454 said:
Yes, RHD cars use the same pedal configuration as LHD cars: Throttle on right, brake center, and clutch on left. Shifting you will need to use your left hand in RHD cars. I have two of my classic cars that are from Australia and still RHD. It is legal to drive them in US, I get that question all the time. It is not hard to drive, just different than typical LHD. Not so good for drive-throughs unless you have a passenger.

To really mess with your customary driving, drive a RHD car with 3 on the tree. That takes more paying attention than a center transmission shifter.
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I drove a manual Diahatsu while on vacation in the Cayman Islands. It was RHD. Grand Cayman roads are drive-on-the-left. My two main problems were pulling out of side streets or parking lots into the right lane instead of the left. That was the scariest thing to get used to. The other problem was shifting with my left hand. That wasn't the problem, but having my right hand on the wheel and needing to signal. Whenever I tried to use my right hand to activate the turn signal, I ended up turning on the darn wipers! :facepalm:
You needed to take your hand off the shifter, use the left stalk to signal, and then use your left hand to shift again. They should have swapped the signal and wiper stalks on the RHD cars.
 
Car-Guy said:
Since I got out of the collectable car hobby, I don't have any manual transmission cars, but a good friend of mine, who is still in the hobby, has several.(Mostly 4 speeds) Whenever I visit him "at his house" we always end up looking over his collection and picking one to take out for a short drive (~30 miles). He usually drives first and I'll drive it back. I guess it's like riding a bike, I can jump in the drivers seat and drive any manual transmission vehicle he has... It does bring back memories but driving a stick shift a few times a year is enough for me. I drove one of his "three on a tree" cars late last year. That really brought back some memories of the early 60's when I learned to drive.
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Weirdest manual I ever drove was a Saab 93. It had a 4-speed on the tree - with overdrive/freewheeling. Of course, the really strange thing was the 3-cylinder 2cycle engine. The owner (a friend of mine) burned out his engine, trying to start it when it ran out of gas (no gas = no cylinder oil.)

One night, my friend was sitting in a night university course and the thought occurred to him "A tree has fallen on my car." Sure enough, when he got to the parking area, a tree had indeed fallen on his car and destroyed it. Lots of strangeness surrounding that car. I think it's now a classic (well, not his, of course.) YMMV
 
Koolau said:
Weirdest manual I ever drove was a Saab 93. It had a 4-speed on the tree - with overdrive/freewheeling. Of course, the really strange thing was the 3-cylinder 2cycle engine. The owner (a friend of mine) burned out his engine, trying to start it when it ran out of gas (no gas = no cylinder oil.)
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I had to look that one up. But then, I'm not that familiar with many foreign (non US "assembled") cars and certainly not 2 strokers. I've had motorcycles with bigger engines than the 50's era Saab 93 (but 4 stroke of course) and ~4 times the horsepower.:) I guess they were competing with the Volkswagens of that time period.
 
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Car-Guy said:
I had to look that one up. But then, I'm not that familiar with many foreign (non US "assembled") cars and certainly not 2 strokers. I've had motorcycles with bigger engines than the 50's era Saab 93 (but 4 stroke of course) and ~4 times the horsepower.:) I guess they were competing with the Volkswagens of that time period.
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Saab was in a world of their own back then. No wonder they are not around anymore. Although their smaller Saab is still quite collectable.
 
REWahoo said:
^ A real Saab story.
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Yes, and many previous Saab owners are still saabing over their previous ownership. Especially the Saab 93 owners that had to have the digital instrument cluster removed and replaced outside of warranty. Those costs were saabering. :D

Owning a Saab was typically a real saab story.
 
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