The stick shift is being murdered, by these 5
Cadillac announced that it would no longer offer a stickshift with the upper level (3.6L) CTS, from 2012 it would only be available with the base--and pretty booring--3.0L unit.
This is part of a growing trend to eliminate the third pedal.
Which is too bad, because you will end up with lots more Prius drivers who's understanding of car control is on par with a well trained goldfish.
This little murder is no mystery. There are some clear culprits, colluding to considerably curtail car's classic controls.
1) The DSG
Yeah... the DSG is an impressive little box. The Audi unit which first came out with the TT a while back was a big leap forward over previous automatics. Now, there are a lot of DSGs out there, and a lot of them are very good. Well, let me qualify that. They are very good at shifting: they do it quickly, they do it competently, and they let you hit little buttons and paddles to do the shifting.
The issue is this: the DSG lets you control the car in a way similar to a stickshift: you can downshift before you pass, before the hill, before you squeeze into a spot which really, lets be honest, you have no right to try and fit into (t.w.s.s.). And for most people, that is all the really need. The rest of the time, these are just glorified automatics. You don't notice them when they work well, and you just cruise around. Kind of like every driver of the original Audi TT (I have bad news for 1st gen TT owners: you paid $10,000 too much for your VW Golf).
2) The Flappy Paddle
Yeah. These... suck. They are adapted from F1 cars.. and they should have stayed there. I had something similar on my old S4 (buttons on the steering wheel - which did the same thing) and... they are ok, for an automatic, or a Ferrari. See, on a Ferrari, you really might be looking for the extra 1/5 second in shifting speed that the flappy paddle will give you instead of reaching down to shift. But, unless your car is pushing limits of what is possible with an internal combustion engine (it isn't) and unless the you as a driver have nothing you need to improve on to the point that those 1/5ths of a second really add up, you don't need the flappy paddles.
Yes - here, they are ok. If you don't have a Ferrari, don't get flappy paddles.
3) Horsepower
We live in a golden age of horsepower. Seriously. In the US, anything with less than 180hp is anemic. Any modern family sedan comes with a refined V6 which would have made BMW's from 20 years ago cry tears of coolant. To compete in the sports/muscle/luxury segments, 300hp is now the starting point. 300hp used to be supercar territory, then sports car territory... now it is the base model of the Ford Mustang, a car which 10 years ago came with a 145hp V6 and a 4spd automatic.... *shudder*... Though electric cars and idiot politicians may soon bring this era to an end, right now is a golden age where 250hp direct-injection variable timing V6's are finding themselves in Camry's and similar toasters.
And what happens with all that horsepower? You don't really need to shift. Most American's never see the right side of 3000rpm: they don't actually want to hear their engine, ever. Which means that they want enough power that they can overtake and sit in the left lane of the highway without ever hearing the engine strain. Which is why they buy cars with v6's etc, when honestly only about 1/100 drivers in this country need more than 150hp in their yachts.
Yes - it jumped almost 100hp in 10 years. Holy shit these are good times for cars.
4) Laziness.
You see - what the DSG and the flappy paddles give you is the "ooohhh" factor when you are showing off your car, and when you go through some turns with your co-workers in the car. But lets face it, most of the time, you like them because you put the car in "D" and cruise around like a septuagenarian rolling in a Camry.
This is why you have to get out of the left lane, you slow ass lazy bastards.
5) MPG
It used to be that manuals were about 15% more efficient than automatics. Now it is more like 5% on average, and some new automatics are more efficient than manuals. So, no longer is there an incentive for companies to put manuals on cheap cars, especially as cheap cars are increasingly becoming 'eco' cars, and 'eco' cars are almost all driven by idiots who would not know what a clutch looked like until it hit them in the face.
This is part of a growing trend to eliminate the third pedal.
Which is too bad, because you will end up with lots more Prius drivers who's understanding of car control is on par with a well trained goldfish.
This little murder is no mystery. There are some clear culprits, colluding to considerably curtail car's classic controls.
1) The DSG
Yeah... the DSG is an impressive little box. The Audi unit which first came out with the TT a while back was a big leap forward over previous automatics. Now, there are a lot of DSGs out there, and a lot of them are very good. Well, let me qualify that. They are very good at shifting: they do it quickly, they do it competently, and they let you hit little buttons and paddles to do the shifting.
The issue is this: the DSG lets you control the car in a way similar to a stickshift: you can downshift before you pass, before the hill, before you squeeze into a spot which really, lets be honest, you have no right to try and fit into (t.w.s.s.). And for most people, that is all the really need. The rest of the time, these are just glorified automatics. You don't notice them when they work well, and you just cruise around. Kind of like every driver of the original Audi TT (I have bad news for 1st gen TT owners: you paid $10,000 too much for your VW Golf).
2) The Flappy Paddle
Yeah. These... suck. They are adapted from F1 cars.. and they should have stayed there. I had something similar on my old S4 (buttons on the steering wheel - which did the same thing) and... they are ok, for an automatic, or a Ferrari. See, on a Ferrari, you really might be looking for the extra 1/5 second in shifting speed that the flappy paddle will give you instead of reaching down to shift. But, unless your car is pushing limits of what is possible with an internal combustion engine (it isn't) and unless the you as a driver have nothing you need to improve on to the point that those 1/5ths of a second really add up, you don't need the flappy paddles.
Yes - here, they are ok. If you don't have a Ferrari, don't get flappy paddles.
3) Horsepower
We live in a golden age of horsepower. Seriously. In the US, anything with less than 180hp is anemic. Any modern family sedan comes with a refined V6 which would have made BMW's from 20 years ago cry tears of coolant. To compete in the sports/muscle/luxury segments, 300hp is now the starting point. 300hp used to be supercar territory, then sports car territory... now it is the base model of the Ford Mustang, a car which 10 years ago came with a 145hp V6 and a 4spd automatic.... *shudder*... Though electric cars and idiot politicians may soon bring this era to an end, right now is a golden age where 250hp direct-injection variable timing V6's are finding themselves in Camry's and similar toasters.
And what happens with all that horsepower? You don't really need to shift. Most American's never see the right side of 3000rpm: they don't actually want to hear their engine, ever. Which means that they want enough power that they can overtake and sit in the left lane of the highway without ever hearing the engine strain. Which is why they buy cars with v6's etc, when honestly only about 1/100 drivers in this country need more than 150hp in their yachts.
Yes - it jumped almost 100hp in 10 years. Holy shit these are good times for cars.
4) Laziness.
You see - what the DSG and the flappy paddles give you is the "ooohhh" factor when you are showing off your car, and when you go through some turns with your co-workers in the car. But lets face it, most of the time, you like them because you put the car in "D" and cruise around like a septuagenarian rolling in a Camry.
This is why you have to get out of the left lane, you slow ass lazy bastards.
5) MPG
It used to be that manuals were about 15% more efficient than automatics. Now it is more like 5% on average, and some new automatics are more efficient than manuals. So, no longer is there an incentive for companies to put manuals on cheap cars, especially as cheap cars are increasingly becoming 'eco' cars, and 'eco' cars are almost all driven by idiots who would not know what a clutch looked like until it hit them in the face.
Old post but I since no one has posted so I just had to drop in and say this is fantastic! I would sooner die than buy a car that isn't a manual. The control and power(or lack of power) you can harness is what makes driving worthwhile. I drive a '96 Rav4, a car that as an automatic could'nt outspeed a turtle... I on the otherhand get to dart around in a light car that gets to shift at 5-6krpm if needed.
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