Why have manual transmissions become replaced by paddle shifters and such? What are the benefits in terms of performance?
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Paddle shifters have the advantage of the quick and precise shifts of an automatic transmission, but with the individual control about when to shift that comes with a manual transmission.
Manual transmissions are slower to 60 and less fuel efficient than current automatic transmissions. So there is very little reason to produce them anymore.
They are still produced here actively. Never seen a paddle-shift being sold that isn’t on a really expensive vehicle.
I like manual transmission anyway, adds to the fun of driving.
From my point of view in the 1980s manual transmissions had three major advantages over automatic transmissions:
1)Manuals were faster. The automatic transmissions weren’t slow but they did not allow for shifting at the highest RPMs, where an engine usually makes its highest horsepower. This was borne out over and over in the testing records of the various car magazines.
2)Manuals gave more control. Downshifting when I saw some stupid nonsense approaching gave me more options to do something with just my right foot: slow down with engine braking, maintain the same speed at a higher RPM, or accelerate out of the trouble by picking a line and threading the needle before it closes. Until the Porsche Tiptronic came along, manually moving between an automatic’s gears, like going from D to 2, was rough and harsh on the transmission.
Notice none of those options involve hitting the brakes, which before ABS could be a real problem. Skidding would mean going straight into whatever you were aiming at when you hit the brakes. As I became a better driver more advanced moves like double-clutching and speed shifting became options. (Although I spent way more time trying to learn it and practicing and getting in trouble than I ever did getting *out* of trouble with those tricks!)
3) Manuals are less expensive all around. The car itself was always cheaper if it had a manual, and not just because manual transmissions were cheaper to make. Manuals usually came with a no-frills baseline package that drivers like me recognized as lighter weight and easier to fix. That would include hand-cranked windows and a crummy radio you were likely to replace anyway. There was less mechanical complexity in a manual, so it cost less to maintain and far less to fix, although nobody wanted to have to replace a clutch.
Steadily over the years much of that has changed. Car brakes are awesome now and allow for control while emergency braking. Total game-changer, that one. Performance transmissions are computer controlled to shift at ideal points, far quicker than a human can throw a lever like a gearshift. They will furthermore refuse to risk blowing the engine in a mis-judged double-clutch down two gears. Manufacturing tolerances are so much better that a complex system like an automatic transmission can last the life of the car.
And the power. Modern cars have lavish amounts of soupy torque and soaring horsepower that one could only dream of in the 1980s. Sometimes far more power than a normal driver can manage with a manual transmission–that was part of the art of mastering race cars, and while many of us wanted to be that, we were not. Sometimes it’s just far more power than *any* manual transmission can manage.
If I could hop back into my tiny 1.6L Miata and toss it around the mountains like a toy, I surely would and to hell with safety. But in the real world I would have to think rather seriously now about how a manual transmission is right on the verge of *giving up* safety, performance and control, instead of *increasing* it, like it so obviously used to be.
And I guess that right there underscored some attitude difference between drivers which I’m sure still helps define the automatic/manual divide. Some drivers wanted to have more points of control so that they could be more in the moment of driving. Others wanted to put less effort into (and pay less attention to) driving. And looking back the ones I considered “lazy” weren’t wrong. They were coming to terms with the modern reality that for most people your car is sitting around in traffic, waiting. Why would you want to row your car to work and back every day?
You have an automatic transmission. Some years ago, some companies let you put the transmission selector level into a little slot with + and – to allow you to force the transmission to go up or down a gear based on your input instead of its own devices. Paddle shifters are the same thing. You get the option of choosing your own gears like a manual, but the benefits of not having to shift when you don’t want to.
Sometimes it’s not an automatic, but a dual-clutch, which is sort of computer-controlled manual that can work in automatic or paddle mode.
Performance? Automatic vs. manual? Long ago there was a huge gap, especially because automatics had fewer gears. Today that’s close, with six and seven speed automatics available, and they can shift faster than you can. The dual clutch ones can shift extremely fast.
The only downside is you can’t select your own gear directly, like fourth to second for a curve, you have to go 4-3-2.
Subaru specifically has recently switched over to CVT’s (continuously variable transmission), which are a set of pulleys that adjust size Continuously to keep you in an optimal power band(RPM range) for gas mileage. This means that there are no physical gears, eliminating shifts and allowing you to stay in the gas mileage power band no matter what speed you’re going. The addition of paddle shifters and manual mode gives you a higher level of control by having set ratios on those pulleys as “gears”. Why that matters really is the power band for maximum torque and horsepower are much higher than it wants to automatically sit at so if you want more go, and go fast paddle shifting is right there as an option and since it’s not physically shifting gears just preset ratios controlled by a computer, it makes a lot more sense to have quick buttons rather than a full shift.
The main benefit for average drivers is it reduces the amount of things to think about, leaving you better able to concentrate on putting the car where you want it.
Think of it like a turn based game: coming up to a corner, braking is one go, pressing the clutch, downshifting, blipping the throttle, letting the clutch out is another 4 go’s, change down twice and that’s another 4 go’s, turn in, get on the power, change up, and again, that’s 17 turns to go round one corner.
With paddle shifters: brake, press, press, turn, throttle, press, press is less than half as many.
This leaves much more of your brain power in reserve.
To see what this feels like, try answering simple maths questions (5+7, 2+9, etc) while throwing and catching a ball, and hopping on one foot at the same time.
Are you asking why cars frequently have paddle shifters now, rather than a gear box stick in the console between the front seats? It’s worth clarifying, because most cars now which have paddle shifters, are in fact automatic transmission cars. The paddle shifters are just an option to manually override what the auto transmission in the car is programmed to do, so you can drive a car in either way if you want.
As for the reason that someone would want to manually shift gears in an automatic car. This is primarily to better control acceleration. You can get faster acceleration by delaying your shifts and letting the car run a lower gear up to higher RPMs in that gear. This is really good to get going faster, but it’s also bad for fuel efficiency. It allows you to drive more aggressively in lower gears, or just quickly merge into traffic.
On the other hand, if you’ve got paddle shifters in a car that only has a manual transmission, it’s mostly because it’s more convenient than reaching your hand down to a stick.
You are very slow at quickly depressing the clutch pedal shifting the gearbox and getting off the pedal. The paddle shifters do it all in a fraction of a second.
Every second that pedal is not fully engaged is time that you aren’t getting power to the wheels.
Paddle shifters perform the same function as a manual with less work. A manual transmission requires some level of skill that paddles do not, while achieving the same goal.
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