It’s a question sure to raise blood pressures for vehicle geeks – manual vs. automatic. Most individuals under 30 in the United States were never really taught to drive a manual transmission vehicle. Over eighty percent of the cars sold in the U.S.A. are automatic transmissions. If you’re looking at purchasing a car, what kind of transmission should you look for?
Standard transmission benefits
Called a standard, stick shift, or manual transmission, this was the only type of transmission in cars for many years. Changing gears in a manual means manually disengaging the engine, changing gears, and re-engaging. You will find benefits to manual transmissions, even if they do take slightly a lot more work. Cars with manual transmissions get about 10 percent better gas mileage than their automatic counterparts. The cost of manual transmission cars is also about $ 1,000 less than automatics.
Automatic transmission vehicles
Easier to drive in stop-and-go traffic and accessible in most cars, an automatic transmission has definite benefits. Gears are less likely to get stripped as a driver is learning to operate an automatic transmission. An automatic transmission also keeps your hands and feet available while you are driving and lets you react to situations a lot more quickly. In general, vehicle dealers will have an automatic transmission in stock, where manuals have to be ordered. An automatic transmission is also the only type of transmission that many hybrid or electric cars use.
A third option – Manumatic transmissions
By combining features of both a manual and automatic transmission, a manumatic is a 3rd alternative. Every carmaker has a different brand name for these transmissions, but in general, the operation is the very same. Like automatic transmissions, these vehicles use torque converters to change gears, instead of a clutch the driver operates. Rather than being stuck in a single gear or the gear the computer chooses, though, a manumatic allows the driver to change gears. Vehicles on the higher end of the price spectrum are the ones probably to feature manumatic transmissions.
