[Outdated, please look at pinned post] Casual Conversation

My last car was a 2005 VW Golf 1.6 manual. It was a fun little car. It looked like trash, and i treated it like trash. We had many fun adventures together.

I went over to an EV after being tired of paying a fortune in petrol. My current car is a BMW i3, and i LOVE it. It's rear wheel drive, cheap to run and cheap to service. I live close to the arctic circle, so it's snowy about 5 months of the year, and this little thing with its skinny wheels is superb on winter roads.

Looking back, i don't miss driving manual. Driving an EV is completely noiseless and calm. No fiddling with the stick, no clutching, just pure pleasure. The rear wheel drive makes it equally fun to drive, and skidding around in the winter is really fun.

I went from a manual to an EV. For an everyday use point of view there is just no comparison. Acceleration is effortless, start/stop traffic is no longer a nightmare, it's quiet and refined. It is the ideal daily driver. Even on longer trips I no longer feel fatigued after driving for 4-5 hours (the enforced charging stop helps with that).

I personally would not go back to an ICE car in general, manual or not, for everyday use.

From an enthusiasts perspective, however, this is a different question. I wouldn't rule out getting an ICE manual for fun/weekend use in the future - the kind of driving where you can actually enjoy the level of fine control and feedback that a manual gives you, rather than just wasting it in traffic. But it would have to be something pretty special.

no.

All of my vehicles have been manuals. I'll probably pass on full electric until there is more infrastructure. Right now, I would be looking at a plug-in hybrid.

Not now, no. I have concerns about long term cost, keep my cars forever, have nowhere to charge the thing, and do greatly enjoy a more analog driving experience.

I'll probably buy one eventually, but I will also probably be noticeably behind the curve on this particular trend. If nothing else, it will be time for my next new car before EVs really take over, and I'll (hopefully!) keep that car for a couple of decades.

My car's a stick, my wife's is electric. One of the reasons I don't really like automatics as I don't like how it always felt the car wanted to "drive itself" as soon as I let off the brake, and the ability to still gear down it up for conditions.

My wife's car pretty much covers most of that. It doesn't go until I hit the gas.

The thing has a huge amount of torque and acceleration for a passenger vehicle, and engine braking actually recovers power on downhill.

It corners very nicely. The balance is more towards center than my car due to the battery weight in the bottom-middle.

If I have to give up my clutch, an electric is probably the best choice IMO

Yes. In fact we did. PHEV, but still electric part of the time.

Love the hell out of it. Being able to cruise around town for weeks and use zero gas. We charge at home, so no $$ charging subscription.

For context I’m a Gearhead. Built muscle cars myself and with friends, work on my own vehicles as much as possible, love the sound of muscle and high-rev exotics…and I have no problem with electric cars. People in my hobby group tend to be bass-ackwards and stubborn, they dislike change. I find their whining about electric cars to be louder than a straight cut gearbox. Hell with that. EV power and performance is astonishing, we just gotta get the charging and range sorted out. We’ll still have gas-powered muscle and exotics, but they’ll be specialty cars and not daily drivers.

Times change. Move forward, don’t cling to the past like painting a brand-new Porsche GT3 RS in a 55 year old ‘68 Gulf livery. SMH.

My sole current hangup on getting an EV (other than my '80s 300zx is still running) is that they are trucks, SUVs, sedans, or micro city cars. I feel like the last time I looked there was one or two little hatchbacks on the horizon, but not really anything in production.

Also not a fan of the current prices of course, but there seems to be a "missing middle" of a small car with good handling. Maybe the e500 or something will be that, but not enthusiastic about that coming to the US, and would like to have some options.

FWIW I have driven several and really like one pedal driving, but they all feel so big.

I can say I am a stick shift driver (S2000 fun car, Elcamino other fun car, IS300 time attack car) and I also own an electric car (Polestar 2). They are all fun in their own ways. The Polestar is our daily driver and saves us a shit load on gas. Also it is fast AF and will embarrass my racecar off the line, but it is driven for different reasons. Also not worrying about a hill start in traffic with a heavy clutch is nice.

EVs are not like combustion engine automatic transmissions. You can actually control power pretty accurately, which is the weakness of automatic transmissions. I prefer manual (assuming I don't get stuck in traffic) but EVs are fun to drive tbh

I have a 2017 vehicle with a manual transmission. It is probably one of the last of it's kind and I fully expect my next vehicle purchase to be an ICE vehicle or at least the next big alternative fuel source. I have always driven old Japanese stick shifts until recently, and I can't say I won't miss it, but the future is now old man. I hope to get another 10 years out of my current vehicle, so it'll at least be awhile.

Can't afford one

Funny you ask, I was thinking of just this lately. I love driving manual, I would never buy an automatic ICE vehicle. That being said, if there was an affordable electric option I'd go for it in a second even though they don't really have transmissions at all from what I gather.

Where I am, manuals have been difficult to get for the last few decades, so I gave it up. Actually I gave it up after spending too many hours sitting in traffic in a tunnel under Boston Harbor. Manuals may be a more satisfying driving experience but they sure became a hassle to find and to use

Since then, I’ve learned to appreciate other technologies for what they are. I’ll probably never like the traditional American land yacht automatic designed to just be cushy but there are plenty of sports sedans with outstanding, responsive automatics. I’ve also grown to appreciate the CVT in my Subaru: it’s a nice steady pull that is just always there and ready (CVTs got a bad name from from underpowered cars when the technology was new). But now I have a Tesla and wow! The instant torque and acceleration from any speed are out of this world , and the lack of engine noise makes it feel effortless. I’ll always love to feel the rumble of a big V8, but now it feels quaint, like that really cool steam engine in a museum. All that sound and fury, signifying nothing but noise and pollution.

Realistically the only transmission I hate (aside from traditional American land yacht automatics) is the fakes. Let me appreciate the transmission for what it does well, but when you add artificial shift points and fake noises, I’ll have none of that. I love my Subaru CVT but newer models have fake shift points, so no

I have an EV and a truck with a manual. I love them both.

Every time I swap back to my EV I'm shocked (no pun intended) by how immediate the response from the accelerator is. There's no delay for air to flow, revs to build, nothing.. Just instant, push you back into the seat torque.

That being said, I also fully expect my Toyota to outlast my Tesla lol

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a44211128/toyota-prototype-ev-sports-car-manual-transmission/

https://cars.usnews.com/cars-trucks/features/electric-manual-transmission

There are also a couple guys in Los Angeles that have been tinkering with converting older cars into EVs and some are made manual transmission as well

I kinda want to get an old 1986 SAAb 900 SPG and convert it to a manual EV

My car had always been a stick shift. I bought an electric car and am very happy.

As a consolation, EVs can be considered "manual", they never shift gears of their own accord. They just only have one gear.... So it's a one speed manual transmission...

I've had several manual cars including 1998 Chevy Tracker (first car) 2017 Ford Fiesta ST (traded for a Lincoln towncar of all things) 1991 Ford F250 (still have)

I daily an electric Fiat 500, it's fine. I will say that when I hop on my motorcycle and bang through the gears it's briefly exciting but still slower/same speed as the lil Fiat.

The thing with a manual is that they're great when the road is twisting away in front of you and you can really engage with the experience, but let's face it, most of the time you're stuck in traffic with an aching left foot. I've also driven many different kinds of autos, some great and some truly terrible. Even the best automatics are in no way comparable to driving an EV.

Sure, sometimes I do miss the feel and engagement of a manual when the conditions are but I stick the EV into sports mode, which gives a decent approximation of engine braking, and use the instant torque that you only get with electric to make my own fun through the corners.

The rest of the time, when I am stuck in traffic or just going from A to B, it's so relaxing and smooth and so much less stressful than anything else. I wouldn't go back.

The only issue I can foresee is that unless you want an SUV your choice of EVs is very limited. I certainly can't think of anything Mazda 2 sized.

I bought a hybrid honda civic last year which only has one gear, so no point in having manual transmission. Don't really miss it, although I always liked the extra control stick gives.

I prefer manual (probably only because I live in the UK and autos are much less common here) but I'm not so precious about it that I'd prevent myself doing something that's objectively better for the environment.