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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A good manual (VAG is really good at calibrating these) is less fatiguing to drive than an automatic transmission. Now before you disagree, hear me out.
Automatic creep in traffic is annoying and the brake pressure required to keep the car in place is almost silly when you think about it. Try it in Neutral vs in D. It’s way more sustained effort over time than just using the clutch to move the car in stop and go traffic.
Modern manuals will add enough throttle to get the car moving on its own without stalling and you can let the car idle in 1st gear for slow creep. When you’re at a stop, the weight of your foot resting on the brake pedal more than enough to stop the car from moving. This isn’t the case in an automatic that is constantly trying to move forward. Some cars require huge amounts of brake effort to stay still in D, some less than others. You can test this on your car between N and D to see the difference.
Along with hill hold and hill start assist, a modern (good) manual is way easier, less fatiguing, and more engaging to drive. Not to mention way less maintenance. On 3 different cars I’ve been able to have the original clutch last over 250k miles including time on the race track.
My best guess for the “I drive in traffic so I can’t buy a car with MT” is that there is zero MT training in North America. It’s sort of a figure it out on your own situation over here.
That combined with poor technique that gets passed down from driver to driver – you get a bad perception of the transmission because of it.
All things factored in the Manual trans is:
Less expensive to purchase (usually)
More fuel efficient (usually)
Significantly less expensive to maintain
Less fatiguing on the driver
Significantly more inspiring to drive.
It’s actually more fun to drive a manual than an automatic. If i were to extrapolate you could ask why do people drive cars instead of self driving cars, if you take money out of the equation, some people just do enjoy driving cars and manual has that feel that automatic doesn’t.
I’m in the UK. Here, automatics are rare – I’ve been driving for more than 20 years and the *only* times I’ve ever driven an automatic are when I’ve hired cars in the US (and one camper van in New Zealand). I didn’t enjoy that experience at all because driving an automatic requires extra concentration and just feels weird when you’re used to a manual transmission (I was constantly stamping on the brake when I’d instinctively be dropping the clutch on a manual).
To be clear, when you’ve driven a manual your whole life, there is zero extra effort using gears. Most of the time I’m completely unaware of gear changes, just as I don’t consciously think about moving my computer mouse when I want to select something on screen – recognising when to change gear and doing so is completely “automatic” when I’m driving unless I’m doing something unusual like driving up a crazy incline.
Here in the UK plenty of high-end cars are automatics, but regular and low-end cars are not. There are a few exceptions: some people who are unable to pass a normal driving test can opt to be tested on an automatic and are then issued a restricted license that only permits them to drive automatic vehicles – they’ll find it hard to buy used cars because there are so few automatics around. For context, I’ve only met two people with automatic licenses.
People used to claim automatics were unpopular here because of their reduced fuel efficiency and our high cost of fuel compared to the US. That’s no longer the case: there’s no real difference in fuel costs any more. However, cheap/mid-range automatics are significantly more expensive to buy (because there’s practically no demand for them) and no one wants their friends to think they might have an automatic-only license (the only reason you’d normally own such a car).
So if you’re a taxi driver driving a mid-range vehicle, why would you pay significantly more for a style of transmission that you’re not used to? You wouldn’t.
In the uk now most taxis are electric or hybrid so they are automatic but manual driving is really not that much more effort
I’d say if I was driving long hours I’d want manual. It isn’t exactly hard work and it keeps you a bit more focused on what you are doing. I’ve always found that I start to lose concentration much sooner when driving auto.
But then I learned to drive manual and didn’t even come across an automatic until I’d been driving for years.
European here. Nowadays with modern cars I think it’s just cultural. I have never driven an automatic car and am not sure if I even know how to lol
Where have you got this info from? Gotta say here in Sweden – or at least in Stockholm – I can’t remember when I was in a Taxi that wasn’t an automatic. Never in the 2000’s have I seen it…
I owned a 2006 Ford Ecosport with a manual transmisión and a 2007 Ford Ecosport with an automatic. Both had the same 2.0 engine and the automátic consumes much more gasoline . Most of my driving is in the city.
As a former taxi driver working on commission for a few years, here’s my two cents:
Cheaper cars, with cheaper repair costs, available in cheaper trim levels. The maintenance costs on a MT mostly(but not exclusively) depend on the driver. Those are relatively cheap. All mechanics know how to work on them, at least when it comes to change a flywheel, a clutch or a bearing. Not many mechanics now how to change clutches on a AT. MT is traditional.
Lower fuel consumption. A lighter car and more controllable gear changes lead to lower fuel consumption. This is especially important because when your life’s spent on the same roads every day, at the same time of the day, you predict a lot of your driving. You learn to observe the 4/5/6 cars ahead of you, and constantly adjust your gear and drive accordingly.
Not many taxi owners actually drive them. Yes, there is a large number of self-employed taxi drivers. But there is also a huge percentage of them pertaining to a small amount of people who own 4/5/6/10/20 taxis. Those usually don’t work with any of them.
So… On one hand you’ve got a car that’s way more inconvenient to work with, but it’s cheaper in every way, has better mileage and just about any shop can work on it.
On the other you’ve got a more expensive car, with more expensive maintenance costs down the road, that burns considerably more fuel and whose only upside is the driver’s comfort.
Guess which one will the owner(the same one that pays for all costs, including fuel, and never actually drives it) choose. If it isn’t obvious: fuck your left leg cramps!
Manuals are fun, I hate auto and refuse to drive them when I can avoid it. They are much more common over there and its easy to get ahold of. Thats why.
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