why do some automatic cars have a manual mode? What are the advantages and why is it there?
In: Technology
Automatic cars involve using a system that (generally pretty accurately) guesses what gearing it should use, typically involving how hard you’re pressing the accelerator. This is *probably* more computerized than when I learned about it, but my first automatic car had what was called a kick-down linkage, which was in essence a cable that connected to the throttle-body of my engine to my transmission, and if the pedal was pushed down all the way (or past a certain threshold, more accurately), it would pull that cable and tell my transmission to go down a gear so that I could get more acceleration.
But the manual mode or sport mode is there for basically that function: if you know you are going to want more torque or get your engine to higher RPMs for a burst of acceleration (for passing on the highway, for example), you might want to pre-emptively downshift so that you can get that without just flooring the throttle immediately.
That and it’s fun enough that some people will pay extra for a sport mode.
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