Manual Vs Automatic Transmission
By: Yan • Essay • 1,289 Words • December 31, 2009 • 944 Views
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Manual vs. Automatic Transmission
You want to get a new car, but you are not sure whether to get one with an automatic transmission or one with a manual transmission. Well read on and perhaps this essay will help you out with your decision. Cars have played a big role in my life. When I was a little kid my dad and I used to work on his 197? Ford Granada. Every time something would go wrong with the car he would ask me to help him fix it. Not because I knew much about cars, because I didn’t know anything about the subject, but because he wanted me to learn about cars and spend some time with me. Or maybe he just didn’t want me to get ripped off at a garage when something went wrong with my car. Either way, we spent a lot of time working on cars. He taught me to love cars; I think it was because of him that I got really into cars. Unlike most people when they do something for a long time, they tend to get bored of whatever it is they’re doing. But I, instead of getting bored of cars, the more I work on them, the more I like them. What I really like about cars is the engine. A car can look beautiful and exciting on the outside, but if you don’t have enough power under the hood, the car will just end up being boring. The transmission plays a really big role on the car too because, besides getting power to the wheels, it can make or break the car. There are two different kinds of transmissions, automatics and manuals. Stick shift cars have played a bigger role in my life than automatics. If you want your drive to be boring or you’re just lazy, no pun intended, you’ll choose an automatic transmission. But if you want your drive to be fun, and most of all, if you want to control the power out put of your engine, you’ll choose a manual transmission, hands down.
There are many pros and cons on the different transmissions. For example, manual transmissions don’t work very well on places like San Francisco, where there are a lot of hills, because the car tends to roll back. This is actually not a major problem because you can overcome it with a little practice. Automatic transmissions, however, do not have this problem; they do not roll back on hills. A benefit of manual transmissions is acceleration. Cars with manual transmissions accelerate more rapidly and evenly than automatic transmissions, if you know exactly when to shift. Automatic transmissions accelerate a little slower. One very important con on automatic transmissions is that it gives much lesser mileage. Manual transmissions do not use any power from the engine to change gears, because you do that your self, thus saving you money. Another advantage on a car with a manual transmission is that, if your battery dies, you do not need jumper cables and an additional car. All you have to do to start up a car, with a manual transmission and a battery failure, is to push it to a reasonable speed (walking speed) and then jump in and start the vehicle.
The manual gearbox just gives you a lot more control over your car. Like safermotoring.co.uk says, on one of their reports, “Many veteran drivers who have experience of both types of transmission systems insist that a vehicle with a manual gearbox is safer because it gives them more control.” I mean I don’t know about you, but for me the more control I have over my car the better. Another con on automatic transmissions is that they are just boring to drive. I may be a little bias, because of the simple fact that I like manual transmissions a lot better than automatics, but statistics never lie.
As you can probably tell by now, I love manual transmissions. I like them because they’re not boring and dull to drive like automatics. Driving a car with a manual transmission makes me feel like I’m in control of the car. Unlike automatic transmissions, manuals give you a sense of empowerment, they make you feel like you actually control the car not just how fast it goes. Also wit manual transmissions you are more alert on the road because you have to shift up or down constantly. And if for some reason your breaks fail you can slow your car down by shifting down and breaking with the engine. I feel that cars with automatic transmission are boring to drive, and I’m pretty