On 02/03/2017 01:12 PM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Fri, 03 Feb 2017 11:49:51 -0600, Jon Elson
wrote:

wrote:

(my buddy the engineer always buys stick shift cars, I
actually wondered if he could even drive an automatic for a while but then
eventually I saw him do it...)

Yeah, but he keeps stomping his left foot on the floor where the clutch
pedal is SUPPOSED to be every time he come up to a light or stop sign.
Don't ask how I know about this - 30 years of primarily driving stick.

I are an engineer (of sorts). All my vehicles have had stick shifts
since about 1970. In the past, it was because stick shifts got better
gas mileage, and were cheaper. I even converted one old vehicle from
automatic to manual (because the junk yard wanted less for the manual
than a rebuild would have cost me for the automatic). Today, it's
purely psychological and maybe a little macho. It doesn't feel like
I'm driving the vehicle unless I control the gearing. Having it done
automatically makes me feel more like I'm a passenger than a driver.
After price, a manual transmission was a mandatory requirement for my
last vehicle. I even overpaid the dealer for it as I knew they were
getting scarce and difficult to find.

In October I bought a brand new 2012 Mustang convertible with the stick
shift. (It had 200 or so miles on it--it had got caught up in the
Takata airbag mess, so the dealer couldn't sell it for ages.) Got a
nice discount too--it wound up being the price of my daughter's Kia
econobox.

Newer cars are full of surveillance devices, which I cordially dislike.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal Consultant
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics

160 North State Road #203
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510

hobbs at electrooptical dot net
http://electrooptical.net