On Friday, February 3, 2017 at 6:42:04 PM UTC-5, wrote:
On Fri, 03 Feb 2017 14:49:36 -0800, Jeff Liebermann
wrote:

On Fri, 03 Feb 2017 16:21:44 -0600, Jon Elson
wrote:

Jeff Liebermann wrote:

In the past, it was because stick shifts got better
gas mileage, and were cheaper.

Well, adding more gear ratios and the lock-up torque converter helped the
mileage a bit. Now, I have a hybrid that has a continuously variable
transmission and no torque converter. They use a wet-pack clutch like on a
motorcycle to do the initial start. So, it has all the advantages of a
stick shift, but my family can drive it, too.

Thanks. I'm told there's little difference between the gas mileage of
a stick versus an automatic. For example, my current 2001 Subaru
Forester is rated at 21 mpg with either transmission.
https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=17279&id=17278
Left column is manual transmission while the right column is
automatic. My Acar Android program has about 8 years of mileage
records and shows an average of 22.673 mpg over a distance of 47,215
miles and 2,000.50 gallons of the cheapest regular I can find. This
is a 16 year old vehicle, which does not have the benefits of the
technology you mention, yet still has identical rated gas mileage for
manual and automatic. I suspect the reason lies elsewhere.

Even if the gas mileage was better for an automatic, I would still
prefer driving a manual transmission. I don't feel like it's driving
without the stick. There's probably some symbolism there, but I'll
pretend not to notice.
I tend to drive my cars almost into the ground because I keep them so
long. I gave my last car away when it had 280,000 miles on it and it
still ran well so I guess it wasn't quite driven into the ground.
Hah, mee too. But around here in the winter they use a lot of salt...
and I guess that just brings the ground closer... (I'm happy
if I get 200k.) I buy little commuter cars, and just can't find many
with a stick... so my last two cars have been auto.
I down shift going down my hill, but that's about it.

George H.
always bought sticks but my most recent car purchase, which will
probably be my last, is an automatic. I chose automatic because they
now, and for some time, have been more reliable than a clutch. They
just plain require less maintenance and last longer. On top of that,
it used to be you could bump start a car with a manual transmission
and a low battery but modern fuel injection requires too much juice
for a bump start with a low battery. So another advantage of the
manual transmission goes away. Besides, I'm not a kid anymore and
don't tend to let my battery go dead or run out of gas because I'm a
little more responsible that I used to be.
Eric