One of my cars (the only one that isn’t a real manual) has a “sport mode” manual upshift/downshift on its automatic transmission, and it’s FUCKING INFURIATING because there’s this huge almost-a-full-second lag between when you tell it to shift and when it finally gets around to doing it.
I would trade it for a manual transmission – even in stop-and-go Atlanta rush-hour traffic! – in a heartbeat if I could.
That’s fair! I’ve only driven standard in Initial D, and my car is for getting me and my things places so I have no use for a standard transmission. It is fun, I’m sure, but I’d teleport if I could.
My “daily driver” is a cargo bike, so pretty much all my cars are either sporty or 4x4s (and cheap/old/unreliable). The only reason I own the one mentioned above (which is a minivan, BTW) is that my parents insisted that I “need” a car that has more than two seats and actually works, just because I have two kids.
The funny thing is that I find nothing objectionable about the “minivan” part; my entire dislike for that thing is due to the “automatic transmission” part. I have seriously considered importing a manual transmission (and associated bits) from an Asian-market version to fix it.
I’ve always had Asian cars, and they’ve always lasted me amazingly. My Honda hit 230k miles before dying.
Minivans are totally fine with me, especially if their fuel economy is good. I would have one if I wanted kids, but thats not for me. I have a small Japanese hatchback and a nice sound system and I love her.
My partner has a big American SUV? Enclosed truck? they got for under 1k USD five years ago at 300k miles. He’s still kicking. He’s a fuckin champion. Fuel economy isn’t great but WFH means we don’t have to take him out unless we need to haul things.
I’d love a cargo bike but anywhere I need to go to that I can’t walk is a 15-20 minute highway drive and despite the huge health benefits, my time to myself is more valuable than not sitting my my sweet car and jammin for a little bit compared to 3-4 hours a day biking.
