Manual Transmission Cars for 2020

denverpilot said:
All sorts of carburetors are a lot harder and more fiddly to rebuild than many of the popular transmissions
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I find carburetors one of the easiest parts on an car. My next street rod will have three of them. Simple to adjust for altitude.

The old GM auto trans (350, 400) were pure simplicity. To beef them up we cut down Ford clutch plates and used them.
 
denverpilot said:
Renault. Such a weird company with wild history. Dead family members after WWII, an assassinated Chairman... nothing says Europe better than that! Ha.

But everyone needs a Le Car! LOL!

https://jalopnik.com/le-cheapest-classic-car-ever-is-a-1-600-renault-le-car-1784540998

And not too many remember that they won Motor Trend Car of the Year with the Alliance once ... here in North America... :)
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I worked for a dealership that sold Renaults when the Le Car was in its later years. Odd little car to say the least. They had three lug wheels and the wheelbase was different from one side to the other.

They also had a wet sleeve engine. If you needed to remove the cylinder head for any reason, the drill was to remove all the head bolts except one, then loosen that one slightly, and tap the head with a mallet until it had pivoted at least a few degrees. If you didn't, you risked pulling one or more of the sleeves up, then you had to pull the entire engine to get them pressed back in. Like GI Joe said, knowing was half the battle.

They really were fairly pleasant to drive, quite slow, but with a very compliant suspension and surprisingly good grip. I had one to drive for a while, I went to pick my sister up in it, and we started rocking back and forth in our seats, the car responded by leaning over to whichever side we'd gone. If you were used to driving a VW Beetle, these were quite a step up.

I had one of these as a demonstrator for a while:

iu
 
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Ah, the Renault Appliance! They even had a spec racing series of their own, for a while.
 
Manual transmission all my life... even drove 900 miles to get one ..... sadly Land Rover aren’t doing manual in the USA
 
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My new car purchase this summer was a 2019 Mustang Bullitt, yes it is a manual transmission, and I'm loving it...sadly will soon put it away for the winter.
 
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The crazy thing is the vast majority of cars in Europe have a manual transmission. Even the ones you can only get with auto in the US. We were in Spain for two weeks. Every vehicle we got in had a manual transmission, every taxi, even a minivan. I didn't drive, but I noticed that there were no automatics; I'm sure there are some somewhere, but not many. The tour guide in the minivan said that one had to use a manual car on the drivers test as part of it was starting moving on a hill with a clutch.

I was glad that I got a vehicle with an auto in Scotland though. It was a big car for their narrow roads and driving from the right seat on the wrong side of the road. I'm still surprised I didn't swap paint with some big tour buses going the opposite direction through some tight curves. :eek:
 
wayne said:
The crazy thing is the vast majority of cars in Europe have a manual transmission. Even the ones you can only get with auto in the US. We were in Spain for two weeks. Every vehicle we got in had a manual transmission, every taxi, even a minivan. I didn't drive, but I noticed that there were no automatics; I'm sure there are some somewhere, but not many. The tour guide in the minivan said that one had to use a manual car on the drivers test as part of it was starting moving on a hill with a clutch.

I was glad that I got a vehicle with an auto in Scotland though. It was a big car for their narrow roads and driving from the right seat on the wrong side of the road. I'm still surprised I didn't swap paint with some big tour buses going the opposite direction through some tight curves. :eek:
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The European culture surrounding manual transmissions as well as their emissions/mileage requirements are also completely different than what we have here, which is the real reason why.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
The European culture surrounding manual transmissions as well as their emissions/mileage requirements are also completely different than what we have here, which is the real reason why.
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I might be the only guy in Europe that owns two auto trans cars.

(that isn’t true)

I thought about getting a manual while living here to “fit in”, but since I’m a novice at it, i figured the stress of driving here was enough. I didn’t need to add the fear of stalling at every stop light to the equation.
 
NealRomeoGolf said:
I might be the only guy in Europe that owns two auto trans cars.

(that isn’t true)

I thought about getting a manual while living here to “fit in”, but since I’m a novice at it, i figured the stress of driving here was enough. I didn’t need to add the fear of stalling at every stop light to the equation.
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My godfather had an Audi A6 with an automatic and cloth seats. It was odd over there, and large by their standards.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
My godfather had an Audi A6 with an automatic and cloth seats. It was odd over there, and large by their standards.
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Both our cars are massive by local standards. My wife has a Volvo XC90 and is a tank. I have a BMW 525d and is longer than the XC90 by an inch or two. I hate parking garages here...
 
NealRomeoGolf said:
Both our cars are massive by local standards. My wife has a Volvo XC90 and is a tank. I have a BMW 525d and is longer than the XC90 by an inch or two. I hate parking garages here...
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My godfather's A6 was one of the largest cars in Brussels. I saw a few BMW 7s and Jaguar XJs, but otherwise you're familiar with the standard fare over there.

It felt like driving my truck over here does, so it wasn't too horrible for me, but I found myself laughing at how inept most people were at parking. I spent a month there after college and chauffeured him around quite a bit, so I'd sit in the car. I remember watching one woman trying to park something about the size of a Smart Car into a place I could fit the A6. I just started laughing after her 4th attempt, and then she saw me laughing and gave up.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
My godfather's A6 was one of the largest cars in Brussels. I saw a few BMW 7s and Jaguar XJs, but otherwise you're familiar with the standard fare over there.

It felt like driving my truck over here does, so it wasn't too horrible for me, but I found myself laughing at how inept most people were at parking. I spent a month there after college and chauffeured him around quite a bit, so I'd sit in the car. I remember watching one woman trying to park something about the size of a Smart Car into a place I could fit the A6. I just started laughing after her 4th attempt, and then she saw me laughing and gave up.
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People where I live can park anything in any space. I don’t even try. I have a big car and I am going to find a parking lot or a really wide berth. I have an assigned spot at work and am glad every day to have it. They are very limited in number.
 
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