Manual Transmission? Yea or Nay?
Still looking for the first truck in preparation for our first RV sometime next year and I've pretty much narrowed it down to an F2/350 with the V10. Not sure I want to roll the dice with a 6.0 Diese...
Forum Discussion
I don't understand all this nonsense about driving stick being a PITA in traffic. Actually, my automatic cars irritate me more in traffic than the stick ones. They are always hunting between gears as traffic speeds and slows, and most of those shifts are unnecessary. Unnecessary shifting causes wear and heat in the transmission. I often find myself manually over-riding even an automatic transmission in heavy traffic, forcing it to hold 1st or 2nd until I feel an up-shift is worthwhile. Holding a gear allows me to finesse my speed, avoid being on the brakes, and maintain a speady speed thru the traffic jam as much as possible.
So driving stick in traffic was no different, I generally kept it in 1st if cars were moving real slow, second otherwise, and just gently modulate the throttle as needed. In my Subaru, I could leave it in 1st and let the car idle it would hold a perfect walking pace. If you pay attention to the cars in front of you (and we all should) it's not hard to predict the slowing, and let off the gas enough slow without braking, then roll on the gas smoothly when it's safe.
Have owned and driven nothing but stick cars (until this last generation) since I started driving, they are still me preference. I would own them now if it was reasonable to get them anymore. Everything from my first car (85 Daytona 5-Speed) to trucks (90 Bronco 5-speed) and even minivans (88 Voyager 5-speed) was stick for 16 years. Not a one of them ever let me down. I never replaced a clutch that I wore out. Consider that minivan had 300k miles on it when we junked it, that's saying something. The automatics however, are a different story. My luck with autos is they generally last about 100k miles on average, some more, some less. Thank goodness the new ones are much sturdier, (why I finally buckled and bought a couple) but nevertheless someone who exclusively drives an automatic has replaced one at least once. Towing only accelerates the process.
So driving stick in traffic was no different, I generally kept it in 1st if cars were moving real slow, second otherwise, and just gently modulate the throttle as needed. In my Subaru, I could leave it in 1st and let the car idle it would hold a perfect walking pace. If you pay attention to the cars in front of you (and we all should) it's not hard to predict the slowing, and let off the gas enough slow without braking, then roll on the gas smoothly when it's safe.
Have owned and driven nothing but stick cars (until this last generation) since I started driving, they are still me preference. I would own them now if it was reasonable to get them anymore. Everything from my first car (85 Daytona 5-Speed) to trucks (90 Bronco 5-speed) and even minivans (88 Voyager 5-speed) was stick for 16 years. Not a one of them ever let me down. I never replaced a clutch that I wore out. Consider that minivan had 300k miles on it when we junked it, that's saying something. The automatics however, are a different story. My luck with autos is they generally last about 100k miles on average, some more, some less. Thank goodness the new ones are much sturdier, (why I finally buckled and bought a couple) but nevertheless someone who exclusively drives an automatic has replaced one at least once. Towing only accelerates the process.
