They’re simple, reliable and rapidly disappearing from the auto industry.
The automatic transmission has been mass produced since the 1940s, but until the ‘60s most people changed gears manually. Why? The clutch and gearbox was, and is, a simple, robust and reliable power transmission technology that costs less, weighs less and engages the driver with the vehicle in a way no automated system can. But modern automatic transmission technology delivers superior performance, and few drivers want the inconvenience of manual shifting. That’s a shame, because it’s an experience that everyone should enjoy at least once in their driving life.
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Episode Transcript:
People around here that know me know that I have a somewhat unusual taste in the cars I drive every day.
Some people race the speedometer. The dynamometer guys race the tachometer, and the hyper-milers race the gas gauge. But I like to race the odometer.
Durability in mass production consumer goods is interesting to me, and the difference between modern automobiles and the ones that I recall as a kid is little discussed—and is dramatic. One hundred thousand miles was considered a realistic life expectancy of an automobile when I learned to drive, but I drove to the studio today in a 2008 Honda Element with over 200,000 on the clock, with the original engine and transmission, and it still runs well.
How far will it go? I intend to find out, but to determine when that last mile comes, I still have to cope with regular maintenance and consumables. My Element is a little rare, in that it has a manual transmission, and like brake pads, clutch plates are a consumable item. Occasionally, the clutch release bearing which actuates the system gets consumed, as well—and mine decided to grenade in a most spectacular way inside the bellhousing, taking out most everything that matters inside.
I do this kind of work myself as a hobby, and also to examine the way that these vehicles are designed and assembled. Like most modern front-wheel-drive vehicles, removing and replacing the transmission in my Element would turn any God-fearing man into an atheist, but on completion it occurred to me that this will likely be the last clutch that I ever replace.
Not because I intend to leave this Earth anytime soon, but because the manual transmission is disappearing. The automatic transmission has been around in one form or another since about 1940, and up until the 1960s, it was a luxury and an extra cost option. People that bought them paid for the convenience of two pedal driving with weight, complexity, cost and something like 5 percent of engine power lost by way of the torque converter. Automatic transmissions made vehicles slower and less fuel-efficient.
All this changed with computer control, solenoid-actuated hydraulics and the lockup torque converter. Today, it’s possible to have the best of both worlds: manual shifting on demand and effortless driving in stop and go traffic. But the complexity is still there, as is the weight.
Purists like myself still like the engagement with the machine, the tactile feel of synchronizers and the bite of the clutch disc under hand and foot. But it’s very likely that this Element may be the last daily-driver I own with a manual transmission. The few vehicles that are still available with them are sports cars and big Class III and IV trucks.
My previous daily-driver, a ’97 short box F-150 was also a stick, and I did try to replace it with a similar vehicle. But the local Ford dealer informed me that manual transmissions were long gone in half-tons. If I expect to use both feet and both hands to operate my next daily-driver, the options appear to be limited to things like the Mazda Miata or the Porsche 911, neither of which is likely to oil down my driveway anytime soon.
It’s a shame that a new generation of drivers will never experience the tactile sensation of mechanical components engaging and disengaging. I think every engineer should drive a car with a manual transmission, but most young engineers that I meet have never done so. If you can find a car with a stick, buy it—or at least drive it, once. You will never forget it.