Caterham and Ariel Atom FTW haha. I also dislike anything dealing with electronics like what you quoted. Evo's... and Sti's.... aren't my thing.. there's too much bolt on technology.

 

The only experience I've had was on a fishing trip to Utah last year. Rented some sort of Jeep and it had the feature. I wasn't sure about it and avoided playing around the first few days, but once we got up into some high country I figured, maybe it makes sense. Turned out to be fun and effective in that mountain world.

 

Exactly, that's why I love my Civic so much

No A/C, ps, pl, pw, traction control, abs, stability control, not even vtec lawl

Plus all those gadgets add weight, and what manufacturers should do is add lightness (paraphrase of an old colin chapman quote)

 

yah, im not particulary picky about mpg. but the noise associated with a high reving/heaping 4 banger is tiresome. luckily 99% is on surface roads so it's okay for me. :)

 

I enjoy my MT ...it's just more fun to me than an AT

Oh and Ken...I never noticed that most of your cars are silver, lol

 

Thanks for the input on paddles and experience with it. My mom has a bmw 325i AT and it has that sequential shifter. I only used it a couple of times and it became old fast. I don't even understand why bmw would even input that in their cars. I personally don't think paddle shifters or sequential shifting is a daily thing, and there's really no point unless you go on mountain passes hahaha

 

yah, werd, huh? silver isn't really my favorite color either. when i choose a car i look at it from all angles and it tells me what color it should be. and coincidentally ended up with silver. lol

the GD, i wanted taffeta white. they didn't make 08's in white so went with silver... but definitely went with the taffeta white when i got the 09'. hahahahaha

 

No problem, though I partially disagree about the uselessness of paddles and sequential shifters. Transmissions like these are a good compromise for someone who does track/autocross/gymkhana/canyon runs and has people who don't know how to drive a manual like an elder, their kid, etc. and commonly use the car. Along with that, if you know what you are doing you can improve your MPGs (and shut up the axle-back) and they come in handy when coming to a sudden stop by foot and engine braking at the same time.

The paddles on Steptronic A/T BMWs and MINIs are pretty lame. Both of them up-shift when you pull them towards you and down-shift when you push away. Its confusing when you use those after driving a car with a traditional paddle setup like the Fit or an SMG trans'ed BMW.

The manual override isn't all that either. Most models have the typical shifter that you pull straight back and to the left to override, these are the pretty solid feeling ones whenever you up or down shift. Other models, usually higher end, have SBW (Shift By Wire) shifters that you have to push a button and move the shifter to the desired gear and slide to the left if you want to override. These shifters suck and feel like they are on the verge of breaking when I shift.

Personally, I think a DSG trans accompanied with a Steptronic style shifter would be perfect for the Fit as an automatic option in addition to the paddles. It will still have the quick gear changes like the Fit currently has, but it will get rid of that torque converter and allow more power to be put to the wheels.

 

paddle shifters are for retarded people who want to believe they are driving an indy car. the honda fit paddle shifters are no better than any other automatic transmission because there is still a torque converter between the engine and the transmission.

 

:D Well you said you did it once and reiterated the once like it was never happening again. And I was just joking being that it was your sister's car; that because of the paddle shifters, you found them less desirable tnan a manual?

Ohhh forget it, not sure if you took it as insulting or not in a joking manner. Where have people's sense of humor gone? Society is so damn uptight these days. And that is just a generalization/opinion of mine. Though it sure is proven many times over on forums online.

 

I just didn't get it? haha

 

MT hands down (even before reading the entire thread)
Not trying to derail the thread but topic is not a good comparison. Paddle shifting in D mode vs paddle shifting in S mode on the other hand is more relative... just my 2 cents

 

Yeah this sort of arrangement works better for a floor-mounted sequential-style shifter, where "push to downshift, pull to upshift" makes perfect sense.

Porsche has this ridiculous arrangement on its PDK steering wheel "gear toggles" too. Jason Plato, BTCC racer and co-host of "Fifth Gear," drove two Porsche Caymans back to back around their test track, one with a good ol' manual gearbox and one with the PDK dual-clutch 'box and the aforementioned toggles. The PDK Cayman was a lot slower because it was trying to reinvent something that didn't need fixing.

 

Manual Transmission > Paddle shifting

I had the option to wait 2 months for a manual Fit to be built, or get an automatic within a couple days. It's been almost 2 months and my 2010 Fit Sport MT arrives on monday :D

I like the control, feel, and synergy you get with a well-built manual gearbox. Nothing quite puts a grin on your face like a perfect heel-toe downshift now does it ;)

I race autox and commute 60 miles a day... MT does just fine in both realms.
JOIN THE MOVEMENT!!!
Save the Manuals! Official Headquarters ? Car and Driver

 

I agree, the motions that you've mentioned are second nature to anyone coming from a manual gearbox, regardless if its a "H-type" or "Dog Leg" gearbox.

As for Porsche's PDK trannys, I haven't heard too much about them aside from it being another stab at a dual-clutch transmission. However, looking at it from a technology stand point; if Porsche can get this system setup to out perform its automatic counter part without sacrificing drivablity like Audi/VW did then this would be a good achievement so long as they don't try use it as the substitute for a proper manual gearbox like Nissan did for the R35 GT-R and like BMW did for the V10 M5 and M6 during the first few years.

 

Now here's something to stand behind.

 

and what ferrari is now doing

gheyyyyy

 

No I'm not offended, I just didn't know if that was a movie quote or something that I wasn't aware of. And yes everytime I drove it since then I just put it in D and fell asleep.