Upon which automotive hill will you die?

[IndyIan]

+2

I had an S-10 pickup 5-speed which nearly drove me to road rage any time I had to drive it more than about fifteen minutes. I don't know what it was - wear and tear on the clutch, poor choice on the gear ratios, underpowered engine, or whatever, but it drove me mad.

Some manuals are a delight. But not all of them.

Yeah, my buddy had a beat up iron duke manual S-10 in highschool... Everything in and under the whole truck seemed loose and rattling...
Not a great machine... slow, loud, smelly!
My other buddies step-dad had a new extended cab rwd Ford ranger with the mtx and 4.0L and it was pretty fun, a little clutch kick in the 2nd or 3rd, even 4th on a gravel road would have it spinning the rears and drifting around like our dirtbikes.

 

[tessaseveride]

Eh, I dunno, have you driven all of them? there's lots of rwd manual gear boxes with the stick right on top that aren't great either. But yes, there are lots of cable shifters that aren't great, any GM fwd I've ever driven had almost no feel, but honda's(older ones are linkages) and mazda's are always good, VW's just seem to work and I don't recall anything bad or good about them? I find I can easily feel the syncro's do their thing in my Focus, gates are well defined, I find its a pleasure to row through it anyways.
The mtx Echo I drove recently was pretty light and vague but it was probably pretty worn.
My 2003 Tracker was not a great feeling manual trans, a low first, and a tallish second gear with a balky 2nd syncro when cold, made it a bit annoying in the mornings...

I've driven a lot, including FK8 shifters which are regarded as one of the best stock cable shifters on the market. Numb and lifeless. I'd much rather have pretty much any other direct fork shifter. I prefer notchy but connected rather than smooth but not really feeling what the transmission is doing if that makes sense. Just a personal preference.

 

[Allaneddie]

Only when all the fun of driving is gone. I doubt I'll ever have an electric car but from what I've seen and read, there are going to be some fun ones. From Teslas, VW, Ford, and from projections the next Chargers and Challengers (or another name if they choose), from Dodge.

 

[TiGeo]

I have other things to worry about than dying on a hill...change happens. Accept it and live your life or be a forever curmudgeon waving your first in the air. I can't really think of anything that bugs me that bad on modern vehicles including auto stop/start, automatic trans, tech, thin oil, EVs/hybrids, etc. You can always buy older vehicles and keep them as long as you want to get your curmudgeon rocks off.

 

[CanAmAndMore]

I wouldn't say that dying on a hill for them is the correct term...but I do like actual cars over suvs...and manuals over automatics.

 

[Allaneddie]

I have other things to worry about than dying on a hill...change happens. Accept it and live your life or be a forever curmudgeon waving your first in the air. I can't really think of anything that bugs me that bad on modern vehicles including auto stop/start, automatic trans, tech, thin oil, EVs/hybrids, etc. You can always buy older vehicles and keep them as long as you want to get your curmudgeon rocks off.

I'm somewhere between a crumudgeon (2007 Grand Cherokee) and liking more modern things like my GTI.

 

[brages]

i'm dying on a hill because I had it in third gear and thought it was first

 

[dishdude]

For me it's a CVT. I've avoided owning a car with one so far...we'll see if I am able to continue avoiding them.

 

[TiGeo]

For me it's a CVT. I've avoided owning a car with one so far...we'll see if I am able to continue avoiding them.

Even that one doesn't bug me enough to lose my mind over...I rent vehicles all the time and have had them in a variety...just weird when RPM drops as you accelerate

 

[fdcg27]

As long as I can buy and use personal transportation at reasonable cost I'm good.
Sure, there are cars we've had over the years that I especially liked and they were sticks as a rule, but at the end of the day all I really need is something not ridiculously expensive to buy or to run for as many miles as I care to use it.
Transportation has no hill to die on.

 

[Fabulous50s]

3 pedals.

 

[TiGeo]

3 pedals.

I really wish folks would stop calling it this. It's a stick. A manual. A standard. 3 pedals...hate it....all the young car kids say this.

 

[Skippy722]

I really wish folks would stop calling it this. It's a stick. A manual. A standard. 3 pedals...hate it....all the young car kids say this.

My truck has 3 pedals

 

[CanAmAndMore]

My truck has 3 pedals

So does mine.
Just another reason to keep my Ram 3500 diesel a long time.

 

[Skippy722]

So does mine.
Just another reason to keep my Ram 3500 diesel a long time.

The third pedal is an e brake

 

[michaelluscher]

Another automotive hill I will die on is give me a car with a plain metal key. No chips. No fobs. No keyless entry. I want to be able to go to any hardware or auto store and get three duplicates for like $6 so I always have a backup hidden someplace and an extra and they all just work if they go through the wash or get dropped.

Kia Boyz would love you

 

[DGXR]

The purist hill: no modifications, or as few mods as possible. There are many other more beneficial areas to spend time, money and effort... not on a machine that already works perfectly fine. I never understood the vanity or indulgence of dumping thousands into modifications that could actually bring down the vehicle's value. Even if your mods are free, why not just buy the right vehicle to begin with? Everyone is different so if modifications are your thing, rock those mods... I will smirk at all those lifted 4x4 grocery getters with 35s.

 

[Fabulous50s]

I really wish folks would stop calling it this. It's a stick. A manual. A standard. 3 pedals...hate it....all the young car kids say this.

Oh for heaven sakes.... you know what I mean. At least you think I'm young!!!!! Lol

I'm a manual man, always have been. Almost every car, van, truck, and Semi I've driven have 3 pedals.....and no I'm not talking about the e brake.....

This one was painstakingly converted to a manual, with overdrive, column shifted.

 

[hardcore302]

The purist hill: no modifications, or as few mods as possible. There are many other more beneficial areas to spend time, money and effort... not on a machine that already works perfectly fine. I never understood the vanity or indulgence of dumping thousands into modifications that could actually bring down the vehicle's value. Even if your mods are free, why not just buy the right vehicle to begin with? Everyone is different so if modifications are your thing, rock those mods... I will smirk at all those lifted 4x4 grocery getters with 35s.

Oh I disagree. The feeling of driving a supercharged fox body with a sweet cam, long tubes, and a lumpy cam and destroying every car un sight is bliss.

 

[Skippy722]

Oh I disagree. The feeling of driving a supercharged fox body with a sweet cam, long tubes, and a lumpy cam and destroying every car un sight is bliss.

Username checks out.

Mmmmmmmm lumpy cam+supercharger whine