Wait…what?
In a world of ever-improving technological advances, more and more manufacturers are trying to automate everything about the driving experience (including the drive itself for some). However, for the normal car guy, the drive is what…drives…us. It’s what brings the smiles and all the feels that stir inside us from the speed and the noise. So why would I swap my manual for an automatic transmission?
Why an automatic?
If I decided to give up on the manual transmission, it would come with a few advantages. First of all, the large majority of fast cars today come with a version of an automatic transmission (dual clutch, sequential manual, traditional automatic, etc). If we’re only looking at fun/fast cars, automatics power everything from a Kia Stinger GT2 to the Charger Hellcat and all the way up to hypercars like the Bugatti Chiron. Even a manufacturer like Porsche, who offers a sprinkling of manual transmissions through their model lineups, ditches them for dual clutch automatics in the flagship models like the GT2/3/4 RS, saving the manuals for the “lesser” models.
The reason? Automatics are pretty much faster in every way now-a-days. Back when we first started going fast, a traditional manual transmission was lighter and able to shift faster than the competing automatic transmission. Every performance review I read for a while quoted times a couple of 10ths slower for the automatic vs their manual brethren. But now, with shift times down to a tenth of a second, they’re able to shift faster and more consistent than any person could with 3 pedals. And around a track, with sometimes dozens of shifts taking place, this meant that the automatics were faster everywhere. Hell, not having to think about shifting and heel-toeing to rev match a downshift makes even me much faster.
There are also features that you can get with an automatic transmission that appeal to me as someone who has to have one car to do it all. I would love to get a remote start for the Legacy. Unfortunately, most mainstream places won’t install them (probably for liability reasons) and the places that do, charge extra for the service. However, a lot of the automatic cars are coming with a remote start option from the factory. The aforementioned Kia Stinger GT2 seems to has quite the list of (my) preferred options: twin turbo, AWD, remote start, and ventilated seats! So why would I not swap my manual transmission for an automatic?
Why not an automatic?
Honestly, the reasons that I’d keep a manual are purely emotional. Primarily, the driving experience is enhanced for me when I can row my own gears. I’m still not great at heel-toe downshifting, but every once in a while I nail one or two in a row perfectly, and I immediately get a smile on my face. There’s no way I’d have the same reaction replacing the start braking/depress clutch/use heel to blip throttle/select lower gear/while maintaining steady brake pressure sequence with simply depress brake/click left paddle. Faster? Sure. Engaging? Eh…
I’m also at that age where things I don’t keep doing I can no longer do. Like touching my toes. I definitely feel like I would lose my hard fought “skill” (using that term loosely) switching to an automatic-transmission’d vehicle. Should I care about that? Probably not. What do I even need to keep that skill for? I don’t know. But for some reason transcending logic, I’m finding it a very difficult thing to let go.
Decisions, decisions
Ultimately, I’m not sure what to do with this information. Logically, I could get a faster, easier to drive vehicle with more options that fits my needs if I went with something automatic. But I’m emotionally attached to the 3 pedals like a toxic relationship you don’t want to leave.
Is this something you’d do? If you’ve done it already, what prompted the decision? Feel free to let me know below.
