Manual vs. Auto

[ECHOKnight2000]

I wish I had a manual and I'm still learning but I have an auto and sometimes the car is surprisingly peppy, and sometimes being an auto shines through...gas mileage is comparable to the manual so I don't think its much different, especially in cars now a days when autos have come a long way. Plus you can dick around in a manual which uses more fuel but I guess that's why its fun (to play not to waste gas). I guess just look at the long term and see if you would like to drive manual or auto and it depends on where you live.

[stuffy]

no offense, but i have tried to drive like you stated, and guess what happens when you leave more then a 2 car gap, a car pulls in front of you, using your theory, you would then go into coast, and another car would pull in front, etc... it must take you a long time to travel from a - b??

so in stop and go traffic you can get to your destination quickly????
what's your secret? riding the guy's bumper in front of you?

i stay in the slow lane and keep a 4 to 10 car length open in front of me, sure cars enter and exit the lane in front of me, it has no effect, i keep a constant speed and am not repeatedly putting on the brakes or shifting gears. occasionally, i coast to a stop when things are jammed up in front.

it works really well in heavy traffic, if everyone drove like this, things would move much quicker.

[07WYarisRS]

Originally Posted by stuffy

well if you are sitting in one place for 3-4 minutes, then the issue of working over the clutch makes no sense, because as you say, you just shut the engine off (or you could put it in neutral)

the 401 is the busiest highway in n.america, if you dont' believe me, look into it.
the traffic is comparable to either l.a., new jersey, new york, take your pick, i've driven in all three.

the excuse that you can't drive like this in heavy traffic is just complete b.s. because i do it all the time.

Well I don't know how old you are but I have been driving the 401 on a weekly basis for 16 years from Niagara strait through to NorthBay/Parrysound and I would rather drive that every day then drive in Atlanta for a day again. Rush hour on the 401 you can creep along at a snails pace and seldom need to stop and go just like you said. Hwy 69 on long weekends is just as bad as the 401. I've seen it take 4 hours to go from Honey Harbour to Barrie.

Go ahead and split hairs to justify your manual being so much better then any automatic.

My point is sitting in dead stopped traffic moving 8 feet at a time or less like I do everyday is harder on a clutch then driving in a town or city with free flowing traffic. I've seen MANY people pushing cars to the side at customs because of burnt up clutches and out of fuel because the wait is so long. Climbing up the steep bridges like the peice bridge a couple feet at a time for over an hour is not easy on a clutch. Tonight the sabers play at the HSBC and the traffic was crazy. The guy ahead of me was in a sunfire (standard) and like me traffic going up the steep bridge was moving at about 4-8 feet every 30 seconds. it is impossible to crawl along at any speed, and you can't hang back to give you a bit of room because 10 people will try to jam into your spot. It took me 35 minutes to cross the bridge alone another 10 to get through customs and the toll...
Find a moderate hill like the skyway or peace bridge and practice stop and go moving 4 feet at a time every 3-4 minutes and tell me that its not hard on a clutch.

[stuffy]

Go ahead and split hairs to justify your manual being so much better then any automatic

i didnt' say the manual was better than auto, read my first posts on this subject. it's my preference, that's it.
i don't buy the argument that driving a manual in traffic is as much a pain as people make out.

your example of a steep climb in traffic would pose a problem in the circumstance of arriving at an international border crossing, or even a busy toll booth. but i bet most people dont' encounter these things as often as you do 07wyarisrs.

[SimmZ]

Other important fact about auto-vs-stick... whatever which one you choose, it doesn't make more the Yaris to be a performance car!

If I ever change the Echo for a Yaris, it will remain auto.

[vodkalush]

which came first the chicken or the egg?


no more needs to be said on this or this thread.

[Pars]

Originally Posted by 07WYarisRS

You clearly have never driven in HEAVY traffic
I'm not talking about highway stop and go traffic, I'm talking about sitting at the border crossing like the Rainbow and peace bridge into Canada and US. Where you can often have to sit in one place for 3-10 minutes before moving ahead 8 feet then another 3-4 minutes. Same with US tolls.
On an average week day it take 30 minutes to an hour to move 1/4 mile or less. often i shut the car off until they move up, start the car move up 8 feet and shut it off again
On the 401-403 I can avaerage 20-30kph on my bike while everyone is almost at a crawl, you can't do that in Atlanta or LA or even downtown NY.
I've driven the 401-403 for 15 years and have NEVER seen traffic like at the customs/borders or in the Major US cities.

That's only kind of traffic jam that would drive me batty. And, I'm somewhat of a pro since I'm on the road about 10hr/day.

My old 98 Civic Hatchback was actually very good in those type of traffic in-which you're completely stopped. The Civic's clutch take-up was amazing (at the time, I never thought it was amazing, but now that I'm driving the 07 Yaris, it's definitely amazing in comparison). Also, the Civic had enough low-end grunt to easily get going without using the accelerator. I hate the fact that the Yaris's drive-by-wire accelerator isn't linear and seems to have a mind of it's own. It's also stupid, since it can't quickly compute a blip for rev matching. I mean, if you're going down on the clutch while blipping the gas, the electronic brain for the accelerator should get out of retarded mode and push some gas into the engine ASAP.

One thing I do like about the manual Yaris, which might be the case for the Automatic, is that you can drive aggressively at above average speeds, while negotiating through traffic and still get good fuel economy without seriously working the engine.

[bugnuts]

I test drove a manual liftback first, and I thought it was pretty damn quick for what it had under the hood, So when it came time to order one I just went for the five-speed without even getting a test drive first, Now I would not go back to a manual for nothing, You can manipulate the power range in a manual so much more, Plus it's cheaper and lighter than the auto.