Do you miss manual transmissions?

I like driving a manual, but I don't miss it with our Prius. The Prius transmission is unlike anything you have ever experienced. It's so smooth that you can't believe it: no shifting, lurching, or grinding. You press on the gas and the car goes faster, without shifting.

Tom

 

A manual transmission was fun if you had a sport suspension and drove hills and sharp curves. Beyond that.. I can't say much positive except for the nastalgia of it. I remember 3 speed on the column shifting. Those were kinda fun. I also had an old Plymouth with a push button automatic.... Now that was cool.

Air-conditioning was an option? Those were the days.

 

29 years of driving with 22 of them in manual transmissions. Good Lord no, I don't miss them. My current, but old pickup is manual, same with the motorcycle.

As said before, Prius doesn't shift gears, it is incredibly smooth. After checking tires today, had a chance to drive under 30 mph. The car went almost a mile on battery alone and I really like that. It will be great if they have big breakthroughs in battery technology in the next few years.

 

WOW somebody else besides me remembers pushbutton transmissions LOL. My Valiant had 3 on the tree, I don't miss that LOL

 

Nope, I certainly don't miss mine. The daily stop & slow commute ruined the appeal. All that shifting really became a pain.

Now, it's quite the opposite. I roll through that mess in bliss, enjoying every moment of the electric drive.

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I really enjoyed manual transmissions and preferred them until I got my Prius. One other thing that changed my mind was NO VA traffic on I-95. I had a few three-hour commutes (one way) and my left leg would cramp up and there was nothing I could do about it. The CVT is excellent.

 

Some pushbutton transmission cars are still around and we have one. Here are couple pictures of our 1963 Chrysler New Yorker. The row of buttons on the left of the instrument panel are for the transmission and the row at the right of the instruments is for the heater/ac controls. With a 413 cid engine, it doesn't get the mileage of a Prius, but it sure is fun to drive.

 

I started driving in 1977. For the first 20 years or so, I drove nothing but manuals.

Do I miss them? In a word ... no. Manuals were fun driving on the open road, but I live in a city of almost 2 million, and there aren't many open roads around here anymore.

Driving a manual in stop-and-go traffic is miserable.:frusty:

 

My push button auto was on a 1962 Plymouth Valiant

 

From the perspective of fun, I do. Until the Prius I drove nothing but a stick shift and I enjoyed it. But from a practical perspective, the CVT is far superior to the stick. You essentially choose the gear ratio with your foot and let the car handle the throttle, so you get exactly what you need when you need it. How many cars will let you cruise a 55mph road turning 1500RPM and then slide up above 3k to pass without so much as a flutter?

The simplicity wins me over, too. No friction material to wear out, no gears to grind. Put fresh fluid in it once in a while and the transmission should last practically forever.

 

My push button transmission car is a 58 Plymouth Fury 4 door with fins, 318 with Torqeflite and green color with matching green interior.

 

I've been driving for 34 years and this is the first vehicle I've owned that is not manual, same for my wife. I miss it somewhat, but our '95 S10 eases the withdraw.

PA P

 

Yes, I did. No, I don't; the Toyota HSD works too well. Zero shift lag.

 

There is NO reason to have a manual in the Prius. If you really dig in to what makes the HSD work you will see why. Here are some of the highlights.

1. There is nothing in the Prius that resembles a standard auto or manual transmission.
2. The gear ratio never changes. Thats right, from 0 to full speed the gear ratio used is exactly the same. The electric motors (2 of them) and the gas engine are connected in such a way that the gas engine thinks it connected to a continuously variable transmission, and the main electric motor is hard connected through some fixed gears right to the wheels. The speed difference between the two electrical motors is what makes the gas motor think it's connected to a CVT. It's diabolical.

3. Since no gears ever change you don't need any clutches, synchro's, valve bodies, torque converters, etc. etc. In short, nothing that you find in a standard auto or manual is in the HSD. Oh, yeah, no tranny fluid either.

 

My previous car was an '02 Subaru Impreza with a built suspension and engine and, of course, a manual. It was a blast on the mountain roads.

No, I don't miss the manual. The Prius is so damn smooth, you never feel any of those lurches or lags you get from an auto. My my has an '03 Subaru Forrester, I used to think it was a really smooth riding car (it was compared to a lowered/stiffened Impreza). Now every time I drive it all I can think of is how clunky and awkward it feels.
I think I would prefer a CVT to a manual, even in a performance/race car, now that I've experienced it and learned the strengths of it.

 

"Do you miss manual transmissions?"
never
what i do mis is automatic when driving a stuppid manual car.

 

A couple of corrections, There are planetary gears and there is transmission fluid in the HSD.

Edit: There is also a clutch, but it doesn't disengage, it acts as a buffer between the engine and transmission to take out some of the jerk during engine off/on transition.

 

Not quite.

In Prius, the PSD doesn't have any "gears" since nothing ever shifts up or down. Those components are only the basic power carriers.

In other HSD vehicles, there is a second PSD which provides a type of low/high gearing.

.

 

5 Porsche's and a really nice 64 Corvette and I do not miss the Manual Transmission one bit!