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EVs are now outselling manual transmissions in the US
The manual transmission continues to have a pretty tough time here in America, with buyers avoiding manual-transmission cars in record numbers. Such record numbers that now EV sales have surpassed sales of vehicles with manual transmissions, according to data from J.D. Power and reported recently by Driving.ca.
Why is that important? Well, the venerable stick shift has been around since someone decided that cars needed more than one gear. While its previous popularity has been eclipsed by the automatic transmission for decades, the manual transmission has managed to hang on.
According to J.D. Power, manual transmissions have approximately 1.1% market penetration in America, which for many enthusiasts is a fairly grim figure to see. Comparatively, electric vehicles -- which have really only been commercially available to the public for the last decade or so -- now represent 1.9% of car sales in the US.
A big chunk of the reason for this likely lies in good old-fashioned availability. The manual transmission used to be the cheap transmission of choice. It was what you got when you were buying a small, affordable car and didn't want to shell out several thousand dollars for an automatic.
Now, most of those same small, affordable cars are only sold as automatics. The manual transmission was also traditionally the way you'd go if you wanted to buy a high-performance car because old automatics were often slow to shift and shifted at the wrong time. That's also changed, with many of the most high-performing models from companies offered with either paddle-shifted dual-clutch transmissions or performance-tuned automatics.
It was only a matter of time as fewer and fewer cars with manual transmissions are being manufactured at the same time as more and more electric vehicles are being built. Who here saw this coming so soon?
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday November 09 2019, @04:52PM (3 children)
You can also just not give a damn if the vehicle in front of you moves less than a car length. You're not going to get there any faster by covering that distance now as opposed to later and nobody can cut in front of you if there's not room for them to fit.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Sunday November 10 2019, @01:04AM (2 children)
True, but in a semi especially, I frequently ran across the "move into any open space large enough for my car syndrome even though I only gained six inches of forward distance" stupidity. Now I don't live in a city with totally snarled traffic like Seattle or San Francisco (or deity forbid, NYC!) but even then I do see lane bunny's who think hopping lanes every chance they get gives them some mystical advantage. I don't even bother to attempt countering them as they make no difference to my travel time in any meaningful way.
After re-reading your comment I realized I missed part of your meaning. I wasn't referring to traffic at a total standstill, but traffic that is "inching" along. That's why I mentioned moving at 3/4 car length before space becomes available to be cut off and otherwise just sitting there and not trying to 'match' their speed. I only close the distance a moment before it becomes available, or earlier in especially aggressive traffic that repeatedly noses in to 'claim' that lane. In a commercial vehicle of any size this is extremely common. You attempt to drive with courtesy for your fellow drivers, even though that courtesy is rarely returned. Oddly I ran into the least in New Jersey (Tough "yo, yer bustin' my bawls here" reputation, but more likely to give a big truck room) and the most in Pennsylvania with NYC and Miami being nearly as bad as Pennsylvania and every other big city falling somewhere in between. Most drivers either seem to be blind to a big trucks existence, or think 18 wheels, 18 brakes (it's only 10 as four wheels are duelies) and can stop instantly which is totally not true and a surefire way to find out if there is life after death. There is a delay in air brakes that doesn't exist in hydraulic systems due to the compressible nature of air. Of course with the last sentence I'm referring to Seattle where they pull into a 70mph freeway at 40mph frequently without really looking. Large cities each seem to have their own personalities and you have to account for it. In general, the more people, the less courtesy and the more aggression.
Of course driving a car as opposed to commercially are totally different and a commercial driver is likely to be afforded more aggression from traffic due to a variety of factors, so I likely have driving biases that car only drivers don't. I was merely passing on a decades worth of knowledge about how to reduce clutch wear in heavy, aggressive traffic.
But, can't fix stupid now can we?
***note*** Some aggro driving seems more statewide in some cases than others, the reason I mentioned PA and NJ over a specific city. This is all based on my very biased real world experience and YMMV. Happy motoring!
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday November 10 2019, @02:09AM (1 child)
I've been all the hell over most everywhere north, south, and east of Amarillo you can go without crossing a border and the worst drivers I've found are in Austin. Chicago was courteous as fuck compared to those cocksuckers. Actually, Chitown ain't bad period as far as courtesy goes, they just have a slightly different definition of what's courteous since all their driving is done in extremely congested streets. Houston's pretty bad too but that's just lack of knowing what the fuck they're doing rather than setting out to see how big of a fucktard they can be on the way home like they do in Austin.
In an 18 wheeler? Sure, just be a little slow to hit the brake.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Sunday November 10 2019, @08:26AM
Yeah, Chi-town isn't too bad at all. Haven't been there for a few years but I was through there for the several years they rebuilt the Dan Ryan Expressway. The new pass though tolls and widened road really improved traffic. I've only been through Austin a few times, mostly at night so I never really got the 'Austin Experience.' New Jersey overall surprised me the most I think. Never a problem changing lanes, not 'courteous' but efficient. and over the river in NYC, an entirely different metric and attitude.
L.A. wasn't nearly as bad as the reputation, but San Francisco makes up for it, horrendous drivers.
Bad driving though, seems pretty universal.
We have a sign exiting Fairchild AFB (or used too, haven't been on the base in a decade) that said something like "You are now entering the most dangerous place in America, the United States Highway system."
Best description ever.
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.