10 Speed Auto or 6 Speed Manual, what say you?

[MIDLYFE]

Got called a pussy by a buddy who thinks my A10 GT should have been manual. I just laughed at him.

You'll be the one laughing when you're 5 car lengths ahead of him during a red light race.

Sponsored

 

[Balr14]

A10 because eventually you’re going to want to take a selfie or take a drink of your mocha frappe latte.

I like to fix my hair while I drive my A10.

 

[Norm Peterson]

Oh, I totally accept your convictions regarding this topic, I'm just trying to better understand them, not convince you you're wrong. What I don't understand is the assertion that the only way to have fun is to use a manual

Maybe it comes down to every individual's own answer to this question: when a transmission makes a shift for you, do you see that as relieving you of having to do some nuisance chore or as unwanted interference that takes something good away from you?

and that all the fun live in the clutch pedal. If that were true, any shitbox with a 5-speed would do it. Obviously there's more to it than that.

It's not really about the clutch pedal itself. It is in the fact that a certain amount of co-ordination is necessarily involved, where there's satisfaction to be had when you get it exactly right. When you don't get it exactly right - and this does happen - that's your reminder that you're not perfect, and should be your incentive to try a little harder to be a little smoother the next time. Those are good things, BTW.

I'd still drive a 15-second M5 car in preference to a 12-second A-anynumber

For me it's the acceleration, cornering, and getting better/faster under all conditions. There's a lot more to driving that just shifting gears. For me, pulling a lever just doesn't add to the experience. It changes it, but it isn't better.

Simply pulling on a lever isn't what you should be looking at here. It misses the whole point of getting everything right and keeping the engine at rpms appropriate for the conditions of the moment. Doing what it takes to keep the engine happy on a predictive basis - allowing neither lugging nor revving higher than necessary - has a separate satisfaction in the car always being properly responsive to the throttle when you're the one making it happen.

Automatics have their 'kickdown' functions as crutches for their drivers being far less aware of keeping the engine at its happy-rpms-for-conditions. With a MT you need yourself to be pro-active where the AT is reactive. And 'reactive' is always playing 'catch-up'.


Norm

 

[Norm Peterson]

Exactly, people act like shifting a manual is the be-all-end-all of driving, and that anything else just isn't fun. As if there was nothing else in the world to driving/enjoying a car.

It's really no different from "it's got to have a V8 - preferably a loud V8" or else it's boring.


Norm

 

[jwt]

One way the A10 upsets me is it's a "sealed for life" unit. No dipstick (user accessible, there is a dealer one with obscure markings) and when I asked my dealer to check the fluid he refused on the basis of it being sealed. But funnily enough he would accept 794 CAD to change the fluid. :(

So servicing these is expensive and not really a typical home garage mechanic item to service.

 

[Tellme]

What the actual fuck are you talking about? Sure, an automatic that isn't serviced for 5 years will have issues, but...so will a manual.

You alright? Who hurt you today?

 

[Tellme]

Not hurt at all. I love the mental gymnastics of the Manual Man. "Manuals last longer with no maintenance" is a new one. Might need to update my Bingo cards.

So let me ask you something since you seem to be a genius on the topic and afterwards I'll leave this thread so you can continue policing it.

Do you think transmission shops are in business because manual transmissions are their main business?

I'll ask my boys garage next door to my tire shop that fixes transmissions, how many manual vs auto transmissions he gets on a monthly basis.

 

[nrc]

I enjoy driving a manual so that's always going to be my choice.

 

[MaskedRacerX]

Did you know that boating accidents go up alongside ice cream sales?

What flavor?

 

[friedmud]

I considered the A10 but couldn't find one optioned the way I wanted it.

I found my 2020 PP1 optioned the way I wanted and grabbed it. I figured this might be my last manual car. There's plenty of time for automatics in the future. Is the A10 faster to 60 and the 1/4? Don't care. I want a manual while I can still have one.

This resonates with me, and is one of the reasons why I picked up my ‘19 right now. The time for manual, V8 muscle cars is simply coming to a close.

That’s not entirely sad as we’re going to get some pretty cool things running on electricity in the future too - but for right now I want to hold onto that analog goodness for a while longer.

This is also why I went with an analog gauge cluster. In just 5-10 years time this car will be an anachronistic throwback to an age of cars that won’t exist any longer.

 

[Doc2020GT]

Simply pulling on a lever isn't what you should be looking at here. It misses the whole point of getting everything right and keeping the engine at rpms appropriate for the conditions of the moment. Doing what it takes to keep the engine happy on a predictive basis - allowing neither lugging nor revving higher than necessary - has a separate satisfaction in the car always being properly responsive to the throttle when you're the one making it happen.

Automatics have their 'kickdown' functions as crutches for their drivers being far less aware of keeping the engine at its happy-rpms-for-conditions. With a MT you need yourself to be pro-active where the AT is reactive. And 'reactive' is always playing 'catch-up'.


Norm

This right here is priceless, could have been written by Al Unser, Mario Adretti or any number of ancient drivers.

 

[Kevindust]

I'm not a drag racer and my knees/legs still function so I would never consider an automatic in any vehicle with sporting intensions. Heck, even my 4x4 truck that I use to tow a travel trailer is a manual. My commuter car is a manual. Driving is a skill and an art that I love, I find that automatics neuter the experience. There are many things in an automobile where having computer control enhances my time in the drivers seat, shifting gears is not one of them.

Modern automatic transmissions are the equivalent of modern music recorded with a drum machine and set to a grid. The technology has come so far that from a mathematical standpoint, the performance is now better. The timing is always perfect, every note in exact tune. However, the music has no soul and has completely lost its art.

The auto folks can brag all they want about the consistent perfect shift or faster lap times but to me it will always be a sterile experience. They will never feel like when Buddy Rich, Ginger Baker, John Bonham, Neil Peart or Danny Carey is behind a kit.

 

[Fly2High]

Doesn't the A10 have clutches? Any idea how long they are expected to last?
Is it wet or dry clutch?

Does it also have a torque converter? When I think of automatics, I tend to think of the tranny having a torque converter.

It almost sounds like they took a fancy manual and threw a computer on it so the driver doesn't need to do the work. OK, I may be over simplifying things a bit.

I wonder if the A10 could be more reliable than the typical auto because it shares some of the simplicity of a manual and of course also the requirement to change a clutch from time to time.

Soo, is the A10 a computer controlled manual?


Even if you could make the A10 fully manual, knowing that you commands are going through a computer is what I do not care for. I prefer nothing between me and my tranny other than some mechanical or hydraulic linkages.

 

[Norm Peterson]

Doesn't the A10 have clutches? Any idea how long they are expected to last?
Is it wet or dry clutch?

Does it also have a torque converter? When I think of automatics, I tend to think of the tranny having a torque converter.

If they'll attach, I've got some light reading for you . . . not wanting to own a car equipped with this transmission doesn't mean I don't want to know a little about how it works.

Read the 5.3MB file first (it's 7 pages).


Norm

 

[ice445]

Not hurt at all. I love the mental gymnastics of the Manual Man. "Manuals last longer with no maintenance" is a new one. Might need to update my Bingo cards.

I'm surprised you didn't already have that one on your bingo card. "Manual is more reliable". It was true for many many years, its only the last 20 or so that some actually reliable automatics have come around. The lack of maintenance thing is just alluding to this concept. My Taurus for example, I would have zero faith in the trans lasting if I didn't do fluid changes every 30k.

Sponsored