Stefonius wrote:
Oh, and as for "holding the clutch pedal down at stop lights" . . . You should NEVER hold the clutch pedal down for longer than it takes to slip in or out of gear. That is a quick way to get 40,000 miles out of a clutch that would ordinarily outlast the engine.
I do agree that the Manual transmission gets the nod for simplicity of design. That is only part of the torque transfer system. I will beg to differ that if you wear out your clutch in 40,000 miles from holding the clutch pedal down, you have a problem with the slave cylinder, throw out bearing, pressure plate, or something else in the clutch linkage. Or else you are not doing it correctly. And one of those things is causing to have the clutch drag on the flywheel. If you depress the clutch pedal and it lifts the clutch plate off the flywheel, it cannot wear the clutch plate. However, I will agree that many really do not use the clutch correctly.
When you consider the manual transmission (gears, shafts, foreks, synchro's, bearings, etc), and all the clutch and linkage components, the flywheel, the drivers brain, the drivers left leg, and the drivers arm and hand changing the gears, the auto transmission puts all those things in one encasement. And the automatics computer controls the management of the valves, springs, modulators, pumps and fluid pressures. The torque converter handles the torque multiplication. The computer replaces the drivers brain in the manual transmission application and the torque converter is a fluid/mechanical component that replaces the drivers muscle power on the clutch pedal. The auto does require more maintenance. But if the Auto is maintained properly, it should outlast the total clutch/trans manual system. And the computer and software are much more consistent than any human can be.
All that being said, why don't they put the dimmer switch back on the floor. Since the clutch is gone forever, the left leg and foot have nothing left to do. Although I do brake with it...just so it doesn't fall asleep. And the floor is where the dimmer switch belongs. But then my family car has those automatic dimming lights anyway. And they are amazing.