Quote: Originally posted by Devonatheart on 17/4/2024
Quote: Originally posted by Colin21 on 17/4/2024
Our car's cruise control is just the normal basic type but it it fine. It changes into the appropriate gear as required. It changes down when it needs to and changes back up when it can. Only slight snag is downhill stretches. It doesn't brake, so the car will speed up if I don't. Tows beautifully.
Colin, ACC and normal CC are worlds apart. I have driven/towed thousands of miles with both, mainly top to bottom of France, and there is no comparison. 👍
That may well be the case, but mine does everything I want it to do, so it's fine with me. I don't use it a great deal anyway. I don't have any problem with unnecessary gear changes or screaming engines. It changes down if it needs to and if it doesn't really need to, it doesn't. I don't see what more I could possibly want. I'm not someone who buys something that is supposedly "much better" if what I already have does exactly what I want.
Quote: Originally posted by Devonatheart on 17/4/2024
Quote: Originally posted by Colin21 on 17/4/2024
Our car's cruise control is just the normal basic type but it it fine. It changes into the appropriate gear as required. It changes down when it needs to and changes back up when it can. Only slight snag is downhill stretches. It doesn't brake, so the car will speed up if I don't. Tows beautifully.
Colin, ACC and normal CC are worlds apart. I have driven/towed thousands of miles with both, mainly top to bottom of France, and there is no comparison. 👍
That may well be the case, but mine does everything I want it to do, so it's fine with me. I don't use it a great deal anyway. I don't have any problem with unnecessary gear changes or screaming engines. It changes down if it needs to and if it doesn't really need to, it doesn't. I don't see what more I could possibly want. I'm not someone who buys something that is supposedly "much better" if what I already have does exactly what I want.
Colin, I didn’t say, or hint, your old car doesn’t do what you need it to do. I was simply saying that a modern car with ACC would do it much better, and more importantly……..Much, much safer! 👍
Thanks to everybody who has participated in what has turned out to be a very informative post....for me.
I'm too old now to start thinking about an automatic, I wouldn't know what to do with my left foot, but it has been an eye-opener, especially with the ACC.
Quote: Originally posted by Grayhair on 19/4/2024
I'm too old now to start thinking about an automatic, I wouldn't know what to do with my left foot, but it has been an eye-opener, especially with the ACC.
I bet you are not too old Grayhair, give it a week and you would will be asking yourself why on earth you didn’t change years ago. I am nearer 70 than 60, and you would not get me owning a manual again, I simply find them pointless now. As for towing…….No comparison, Auto is far superior. 👍
Quote: Originally posted by Devonatheart on 19/4/2024
Quote: Originally posted by Grayhair on 19/4/2024
I'm too old now to start thinking about an automatic, I wouldn't know what to do with my left foot, but it has been an eye-opener, especially with the ACC.
I bet you are not too old Grayhair, give it a week and you would will be asking yourself why on earth you didn’t change years ago. I am nearer 70 than 60, and you would not get me owning a manual again, I simply find them pointless now. As for towing…….No comparison, Auto is far superior. 👍
Your left foot stays planted on the floor unless you fancy shaking it to stop it getting bored.
Only use you right foot for the accelerator, or brake.
Auto allows me to concentrate on the road ahead, and no faffing around shaking a stick to change gears. Also easier on my left leg.
I am nearer to 75, and would never go back to a manual car, especially for towing. Shame you're not nearer to me, as I could show you how easy and more relaxed it is.
I will admit; that initially you may feel "not in control", but that wears off very very soon: about 10 minutes for me.
I also prefer to use auto, when the road traffic allows: again, more relaxing.
I am another who wouldn't go back to a manual. Many years ago, when I was in my 20s, I said I would never have an auto, but I saw a car for sale that I really loved the look of. It was a Zodiac Mk3 Executive, a beautiful car! On closer inspection I found out that it was an automatic, which initially put me right off, but I wanted that car! I bought it and never looked back. I have had a couple of manuals since, mainly on a temporary basis, but for over 30 years I have owned nothing but automatics. Choke controls and manual advance and retard levers all disappeared, so why are manual gearboxes even still around? They are simply no longer necessary. Even buses, coaches, and HGVs are nearly all automatics now.
I hear what you’re saying folks Devonatheart, jim oldham and Colin21 but I’m a little over 80 yrs and most of my “younger” caravan friends all drive autos. Deep down I know it’s the preferred means of towing, much easier, little or no clutch slip/burning and more relaxing. But hey changing gear and all the added effort on a manual keeps me awake
My first car was a Triumph Mayflower (column gearchange), then a cresta then a zodiac then a classic then a MGB Roadster (which I added twin delorto carbs) then a cortina....and a lot more besides, all were manual. Didn't realise I'd owned so many cars until now...phew!
I hear what you all say but I still prefer manual. I've just bought another car. I refused autos. I love driving. Changing gears is part of my driving. As I said earlier it keeps me focused especially on a 500 - 600 mile drive.
Quote: Originally posted by saxo1 on 19/4/2024
" so why are manual gearboxes even still around? They are simply no longer necessary."
Cost is the main reason.
saxo1
..... and some auto boxes are just awful!
With my car, it's because the auto option when I bought the car new and it was built to order not a stock car was notoriously awful! Had it been a decent auto box I would willingly have opted for it as my preference. As it happens that particular auto box had a pretty short life, being replaced by a much better one IIRC after about 3-4 years in production, but sadly not until shortly after I'd bought my car! I believe Ford and VW group have also produced different but equally rubbish auto boxes!
I've driven a courtesy car with the auto box I avoided, and it was every bit as grim and as all the reviews that put me off it in the first place described! It wasn't a gearbox produced by the car manufacturer, but a bought in Japanese product to be found in a number of makes of car, and seemingly just a bad in all!
I've driven both manual and auto boxes for some 52 years now, really have little difficulty switching back and forth between, but really can't say a bad auto is better than a manual, and I have driven a few that were no fun to live with at all!
As most of my driving and towing is on open roads rather than city traffic, can't say the manual gearbox is any great hardship, and despite the caravan weighing nearly as much as the car, rarely found pulling away from standstill a problem.
IF there is a next car, would certainly consider an auto box, assuming of course it's not an EV and no gearbox at all!
Monty, there are some auto-boxes I would avoid, such as the so-called automatic boxes used in some VW and Ford models. These aren't what I would call "real" automatics, so much as automated-manuals. I think they use some kind of automated clutch rather than the torque converter found in "proper" automatics. Wouldn't touch one of those with a barge-pole! I have heard far too much against them. I was at one time looking at the Skoda Yeti, but it was the "auto-box" that put me off it, and I certainly didn't want the manual version.
I have driven all sorts of different types of gearbox, from crash-boxes in the first buses I learnt to drive, through pre-select, and semi automatics in buses and coaches, to full automatics in cars. Much as I wouldn't have anything other than a torque-converter automatic in a car, I don't like full auto in buses and coaches. Give me a decent semi-auto any day!
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Topic: Towing & Cruise Control
via mobile 19/4/2024 at 9:14am
