If I was driving 8-10 hours per day I’d want an auto… I know manuals used to be cheaper and are still a little cheaper, but I’d have thought the reduced effort would be appealing.
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For starters, changing gears is not really a physical effort. Yes even in stop and go traffic changing gears is neither distracting or tiring. It used to be long ago that some cars had a heavy clutch but really nowadays they’re all feather light and shifting gears doesn’t really tire anyone out, and if you’re in the seat all day even the simple act of pushing the clutch pedal can get the blood flowing to your legs which you sorely need.
But really there’s three main practical reasons too:
1. Manual transmissions are cheaper. They don’t just drop the initial vehicle cost down a bit but they’re cheaper throughout their lifespan. Cabs get serviced a lot more than regular cars because they drive a lot more miles. Maintenance or even all out replacement of a manual gearbox is generally cheaper than that of an automatic gearbox which is a cost benefit throughout the life time of the vehicle.
2. The fuel economy is better. With a manual transmission you have control of exactly when to shift and how much to rev the engine. This allows taxi drivers to consistently drive in the most fuel efficient way possible. Sure automatic transmissions may have fuel economy modes and what not but ultimately you have no control over how much the engine will rev or when the gear will shift, you can only learn the profile that’s been programmed into the car and try to keep consumption low. However it is worth noting that this holds true if we’re talking about gearboxes with the same amount of gears. It’s now fairly common to find automatic gearboxes with 7 or 8 gears which does provide extra fuel efficiency over manuals, especially on highways.
3. It simply makes driving more enjoyable and that matters when you’re driving all day. Some, reading my previous point, may have thought that many automatic gearboxes offer manual shifting modes with paddles, so you take control back and can drive economically right? Well mostly yeah, though it really varies from car to car, but those manual modes are not really like a true manual transmission. For starters many of those modes will still shift gears even in manual mode, and in most cars manual mode reverts to auto if you don’t shift gears for a short while. In a manual, you change gears exactly when you want to, and this makes the overall experience smoother and better, especially in city traffic. This may seem like insignificant, so what if an auto transmission shifts a tiny bit later or earlier than you want to, why would it matter? Well generally it doesn’t, but if you’re driving all day every day, stuff like that starts to matter.
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