OldJuddian

This is one reason to consider a new car, the state of the tech in cars is moving fast at the moment. I'm currently keeping an old car (Altima) for myself, but my wife's car gets renewed.

Her first car here was a (not new) '09 Venza which was far ahead of the Avensis that we had in the UK, but the '17 Highlander lease that replaced it came with adaptive cruise control which is amazing for the cross-state drives, along with blind spot indicators and a bunch of other safety features. She will soon switch to a '21 Highlander Hybrid with the latest Toyota Safety Sense which finally brings the Road Sign Assist amongst others.

Toyota is not yet at Tesla-like "self-driving" but the tech does make the family driving easier, and hopefully safer.

civilservant

Indeed. The Honda sense system (which is standard among trim levels on the Civic at least) is pretty impressive. Adaptive cruise control, active lane keep assist, dynamic emergency breaking. The only thing that wasn't standard is blind spot monitoring, which is one of the options we selected.

Pulaski

I like driving, meaning controlling the car. None of the factors you listed are of this slightest interest or concern to me, and won't be so long as I have four fully functional limbs and control of my faculties.

While I might end up with an automatic for daily driving eventually, I am hoping to be in a position to buy 2-3 "interesting" cars with manual transmissions within 5 years, not necessarily new, that I can maintain long term to enjoy driving for the rest of my life.

excpomea

We eventually progressed to all autos in the family but keep one manual to play with at the weekends.
Mind you, too many hours playing and my left knee starts playing up.
I can see us having to part ways with the toy sometime soon.

98 M Roadster

Pulaski

Nice! That is on my list of possibles, but with one possible deal-breaker, which maybe you can help with? .... Given that I am 6'5", am I going to fit in it and be able to drive it?

I don't expect it to be roomy, or even by most people's standards, "comfortable", as I am used to driving with my knees on either side of the steering wheel and/or my shins against the lower edge of the dashboard - my Mustang fits like a glove in that respect, but I do need to be able to get my feet on the pedals!

excpomea

I think at 6’5” you could have an issue.
but I do know guys that tall who drive them.
you can remove some seat back and it gives some extra leg room.

Steerpike

I acquired my first BSM car a few years ago; I didn't even know what it was when I bought it but now I absolutely love it. It is incredibly helpful when driving at night on freeways, where it can be hard to judge distances based on headlights only. I'm surprised, though, that lane-keep and emergency braking were standard while BSM was an extra.

Giantaxe

Yes, but a heat exchanger from exhaust gases requires the gas engine to be running too. I also read that some hybrids have the ability for the "heater core" to retain heat so that there residual heating available, i.e. when the cooling system is cold on engine restart.

Anyway, it seems that this heater issue is real and known:

"Cold weather effects can vary by vehicle model. However, expect conventional gasoline vehicles to suffer a 10% to 20% fuel economy loss in city driving and a 15% to 33% loss on short trips.For hybrids, fuel economy typically decreases by 20% to 40% in city driving and 25% to 45% on short trips.

When the cabin heater is not used, EV fuel economy is 8% lower at 20°F than at 75°F. Driving range is about 12% lower."

https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/coldweather.shtml

https://www.hybridcars.com/how-to-ge...inter-driving/

And this:

"What makes matters worse for hybrids is that because their engines aren't in constant use, in cold weather, it can take them longer warm up."

https://auto.howstuffworks.com/fuel-...eather.htm#pt1

sid nv

Exactly. Automatic gear shift is so girly.
Some advantages of stick shift:
- No-one will steal your car because they can't operate manual gear shift.
- Confuses everyone else descending the Sierra because shifting down uses engine brake. Every other driver is constantly hitting the brakes on every turn and twist.
- Bit less maintenance while spending time on the under-car creeper.
- It's just, well, more manly.

Giantaxe

Aside from CVTs, you can downshift in an automatic, either through the gear shift or paddle shifters. The fact that most US drivers don't - even, as you say, descending from the Sierra Nevada - is the result of cluelessness as opposed to anything else. Rather like lack of signalling on a roundabout

scrubbedexpat091

All these fancy options....lol

Fanciest thing our car has is cruise control and air conditioning....

I could never get the hang of manual, my dad tried and tried, but too much multitasking for me, one pedal to go and the other to stop is all I need.

Everyone I knew in Vancouver who drove a manual just complained about all the shifting in traffic, so I think automatic was worked out well.

My wife can drive a standard though, but when we were looking at cars 7 or so years ago, none of the subcompacts on the lot even had manual, it was automatic or nothing, but this was an ex-rental car as were all the cars on the lot, and manual rental cars not so common in Canada.




Only downside to our car, Mazda 2 is the tires are apparently an odd size as there is little choice in tires, and most tire places don't stock the size, and the few that do always charge a premium price, next car I get if we ever get another one, I am making sure the tire size is normal with lots of choices....lol

zzrmark

What about using A/C in hot climates, does the same not apply or using your wipers in places like Britain where it only stops raining on every sixth Thursday?
I'm going to assume that all the fancy 'must have' electric reliant gadgets, while presumably not a huge draw in the grand scheme of things, will have some impact upon your power drawdown?

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for halting our use of fossil fuels but my biggest concern with the move to going electric is more the day to day practicalities. Hauling non-aerodynamic loads, towing, daily mileages that can easily exceed 150 miles per work day are all concerns which I presume the industry is starting to think about but what about where all that electric power comes from. When we have power grids already groaning under excessive loads is there enough being done to address the problem? Are we going to trade off our use of fossil fuel for creating huge dumps for waste batteries or are vehicle users going to stand the costs involved with recycling?

I look at my 2013 gas guzzler with it's almost agricultural array of comfort gadgets, a cd/radio (no blutooth), and electric windows are pretty much it and my biggest concern is still it's reliance upon a black box and electric sensors that are so minor in it's make up but the failure of just one twenty buck sensor (and they do fail) can leave me stranded by the roadside and can't be spannered by the average DIY grease monkey without garage facilities. I quite miss the days of my old Triumph Herald which could be kept running with little more than a standard sized cantilever box of tools and a ball of string....

Partially discharged

I agree that an automatic is easier in stop and go city traffic but nothing beats the feel of a manual as you're going around hairpin turns in the car equivalent of a tour de france uphill drive. I"ve had manuals as my primary vehicle for probably 2/3 of my driving life and have now got our 19 year old son to be able to drive it (previously just able to drive the other car, the automatic). Our older daughter has had a few successful drives mainly in quiet parking lots.

Car rental companies don't ever have manuals to drive here and there is no differentiation in the drivers licence between manual and automatic. There are few manuals available now and the number of cup holders seems to be more of a selling feature.

civilservant

For those of us to whom a car is a tool to get from A to B don't give a fig about manual v auto so long as it works

Pulaski

I have experimented with shifting the occasional rental cars I have driven in the US, and had a highly variable experience. The two most recent examples were a Hyundai 18 months ago, and a Ford Fusion 15 months ago. The Hyundai's transmission was loose and flabby (the car was clearly near the end of its rental life, and it didn't handle well, and smelled bad too), but at least in manual mode it did as it was told, the Ford on the other hand, after about five seconds would override any attempt to shift into a gear other than the one that the computer deemed appropriate, and I couldn't find any "mode" that would enable me to use manual mode and not have my instruction overriden. If it makes any difference the Hyundai had a tiptronic-style H lever and the Ford had paddles.