What vehicle is better with an automatic transmission?
Welcome to “According to You,” a weekly prompt on Hagerty Media where we pose a question, collect the answers, and share them the following week.
This time around, we want to know: What vehicle is better with an automatic transmission?
Many of us trumpet the mantra of Save the Manuals, while we endlessly lament the demise of three pedals in sports cars. (I’m looking at you, Corvette!) But as much as we love the freedom and control of a stick shift in any dynamic maneuver, we all know certain vehicles are better with an automatic. I was inspired to ask everyone this question because of the vehicle above. Every Friday morning I either hear the sound, or watch the garbage truck move down my street, grabbing everyone’s refuse at a furious pace.
The garbage truck’s motor and transmission quickly spool up and launch these mighty beasts a full 30 feet from driveway to driveway, emptying every trash can with the precision of a torque converter coupling engine to transmission. The sheer number of times this happens in a single mile of use must make for a miserable experience, if not for an automatic transmission eliminating a few steps in the process.
But not every massive commercial vehicle is better with an automatic, and its a shame that Toyota stopped making the Camry with a 6-speed manual.
I fondly remember many a school bus driver shuttling me to school with a manual transmission controlling either a Ford 385-series big block, or an International Harvester V-8 engine. The sound was exciting, the sensation of speed was entertaining, and the bus drivers seemed to be enjoying their job. Well, that’s provided the kids inside weren’t being disruptive little pricks, but I digress …
- Garbage trucks? All that starting and stopping makes a manual transmission a miserable notion.
- Cadillac Fleetwoods, Buick Electras, and Lincoln Town Cars? Commander Cody fans aside, those need an automatic to serve their intended purpose.
- School buses and RVs? Maybe not as much, especially if they rarely visit the big cities.
- Ordinary cars of all shapes and sizes? Well, it’s a shame that North Americans love automatics, when the rest of the world drives a stick.
So the question remains: What vehicle do you think is better with an automatic transmission?
I’m beginning to find that the older you get the better the automatics are. Hate that I am there.
After 30 years of driving truck, my arthritic 66 year old knees are happy to be not pumping a clutch pedal anymore . Now as a tilt n load tow truck operator [ with an auto trans ] I do have to move the occasional customer vehicle with a stick , 1st and reverse is about it tho.
There are two instances in which an automatic is a requirement:
1) when your truck in driving in a parade (sooooooo sloooooowwwww, soooo much stopping), and
2) over my dead body
Fire Engines! Weaving through traffic and avoiding the totally unpredictable things drivers do when rolling code having the rig shift for you is one less thing to worry about getting safely to the incident,
Jaguar saloons. My 3 1/2 litre just purrs me around town with the automatic. My E-type, manual is the only way to go.
I’ve owned a few stick-shift cars/trucks. The ones I enjoyed driving had well matched gearing to the engine and rearend. Its all a matter of gearing. The 83 Chevy Citation and the 2002 Chevy Blazer had a first gear that didn’t get you up to speed fast enough (like 15 mph) and I usually found the guy behind me with his automatic right on my tail. I had an 85 Jimmy with a low powered 2.8L, but the 5 spd. made it fun to drive. 1st gearing was matched well. I drove several Cobalt SS’s with the turbo and the supercharger, and most had a clutch that HAD to be held all the way to the floor and very little room (1/2″) before engagement which made it tricky to drive I thought. The supercharger version was ok, but the turbo ver. had too low a 1st gear again, but when the turbo kicked in you were driving 50 mph before you realized it. Kind of out of control. I think that car would have been better with an auto. to smooth things out, but they never offered it. I drove a 91 Mustang 5.0 GT that seemed to have good gear matching. It seems there are a lot more Mustangs with sticks than Camaros, so I wonder if that’s due to the gearing that GM provides.
GM engineers considered and rejected a stick for the C8 Corvette largely because their faithful C7 customers did not purchase that many manuals.
Any late 60s or 70s school bus. It is already one of the lowest paying and least desirable jobs on earth, but a manual, particularly on hilly terrain, had to have been torture. I distinctly recall one little old lady wresting one when I was in elementary school.
All Fire Apparatus, since the early 2000’s are automatic, 2 hands on the wheel, concentrating on where you’re going, how to get there, and concern about other responding apparatus going to the same call. Early in my career, 5 speed, non syncho transmissions, no power steering, some without a roof. When men were men !
Firetrucks
When I owned wreckers (both had 3-speeds with low, often mistakenly called 4-speeds) fully one half of the cars I towed had failed automatics. The only manual vehicle I ever remember towing was one of my own because I had twisted the driveshaft out of it.
Last week in my town they were running two trash trucks together, so that as a pair they stopped at every other house. Even though they were using twice the equipment and staff I think they were covering the route in less then half the time. The pair got up some real speed between stops.
70 years old. It depends. Automatics or dual clutches are so good these days the manual does not cut it for speed. Cars I run manual on. Any Corvette. Any CTS V. Any Taurus SHO. Any sport sedan. Any Mustang. Any 1928 Dodge (high school car). I will consider on others, but no muscle cars.
l love downshifting to 2nd gear at 70 mph and let the 18 Z06 wag its tail to those behind, which means it just seriously lost traction. But the nanny recovers well in a straight line (don’t try this in corners).
All my daily drivers since 1990 have been manuals. I commuted. I had rush hour traffic. I never noticed.
The rest get automatics, including the wife’s car. She would drive a dual clutch, but it would need to be a suburban, since that has been her car since 1985.
Rush hour traffic???? I have never noticed given the above.
Manuals are a great anti-theft feature too.
Ah there is a place in this world for the maligned minivan- a pseudo-aerodynamic box for the Interstates, where you can stretch out anytime and jam it full of kit. Also note that while radar guns may find ’em, it seems troopers don’t mess with vehicles that could be full of booster seats……..These absolutely have to be automatics!
Plus, any vehicle you drive when your other sport of choice requires a 4000Lb+++ boat, the fluid drive keeps you from stinking up the boat ramp with clutch fumes.