Newfoundland Driving School to Stop Teaching Stick Shift - Polidicks

[img]http://roa.h-cdn.co/assets/cm/14/47/546b323607ea6_-_manual-transmission.jpg[/img] [quote]The province's largest driving school is putting the brakes on teaching standard shift. After more than 40 years, Young Drivers of Canada is phasing out its stick-shift program in Newfoundland and Labrador. Regional director Janet Kent said there isn't enough interest to keep the program going. "Over the past 10 to 15 years in particular we've seen a drastic decline. Even the sales of standard shift vehicles have gone down," said Kent.[/quote] [quote]"It used to be [that] fuel economy was a great reason to buy a standard shift, but you've got hybrid vehicles now." Trevor Bolger is Young Drivers' only stick-shift instructor in the province. Despite the initial learning curve, Bolger said all of his students learn to love the manual transmission. "They usually start off hating it and not wanting the stress and the worry," he said. "But when they get in the automatic they say, 'I can see what people mean, this is pretty boring.'" Over the past year, Bolger has fought to keep manual transmission instruction alive, but with little success. His is the last standard shift car offered at the school and, come December, it will be taken off the road. [/quote] [url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/lack-of-interest-prompts-driving-school-to-ditch-stick-shift-1.3122082]**GRIND IT 'TILL YOU FIND IT**[/url] IMHO: People who can't drive stick are pussies.

Why? That's a stupid idea.

[QUOTE=FinalHunter;48024964]I always liked shifting on a motorcycle more than a car. It was so much nicer with it being sequential. Anybody know why cars aren't like that?[/QUOTE] Something to do with design of the gears I presume. Since stick shifting is physical, the things need to be arranged in a certain way. I think there are cars that use sequential manual gearboxes now. But they're a minority.

If there's not enough interest left in it then obviously it's going to be stupid to continue offering the program with its associated costs.

[QUOTE=FinalHunter;48024964]I always liked shifting on a motorcycle more than a car. It was so much nicer with it being sequential. Anybody know why cars aren't like that?[/QUOTE] My car has a manual 'mode' I guess, kind of the same thing but not really. It lets me choose my gear, but no heel toe action for me.

What happens when your mum overdoses on maple syrup and needs a ride to the hospital but the automatic was trashed by a moose and the only available car is a manual, eh? [sp]sorry[/sp]

[QUOTE=pentium;48024934] IMHO: People who can't drive stick are pussies.[/QUOTE] "Hey guys, look at these losers who don't drive like I do! What pussies, amirite?"

[QUOTE=Jimesu_Evil;48024988]What happens when your mum overdoses on maple syrup and needs a ride to the hospital but the automatic was trashed by a moose and the only available car is a manual, eh? [sp]sorry[/sp][/QUOTE] Being Newfoundland, you are not far off on the latter part.

[QUOTE=itisjuly;48024978]Something to do with design of the gears I presume. Since stick shifting is physical, the things need to be arranged in a certain way. I think there are cars that use sequential manual gearboxes now. But they're a minority.[/QUOTE] Most racing cars use mechanical sequential shifters. It's actually a fairly simple modification to the shifting mechanism on a standard manual gearbox. However the gears themselves typically have dog engagement rather than synchromeshes like on road cars. I guess only few road cars would have them even with synchromeshes because they are 'boring', maybe also because they only really work with dog engagement due to the suddenness of the shifts, and well that kind of shifting is a different monster to the standard manual gearbox.

They don't teach Stick in Virginia here. I don't really get the cult behind stick. People who drive stick feel superior to people who drive auto because.... why? It's just a car. It's meant to get you from point a to point b. Knowing how to move a stick doesn't make you cooler. I don't get why people get their dicks so hard over a fucking car.

I like manuals and I drive a manual car but somedays I'd much rather an auto like if I'm drinking something that has a cap you can only do it when you find time, I always have one hand on the gear stick and one hand on the wheel. With an auto it's pretty easy [editline]23rd June 2015[/editline] it's not that hard to really learn or conquer tbh, most cars sound off queues when you need to change like mine will roar at me if I push it too hard and you can see the revs getting extreme if you leave it in the wrong gear

[QUOTE=FinalHunter;48024964]I always liked shifting on a motorcycle more than a car. It was so much nicer with it being sequential. Anybody know why cars aren't like that?[/QUOTE] The double clunk of moving from first to second is always strangely satisfying.

[QUOTE=proboardslol;48025012]They don't teach Stick in Virginia here. I don't really get the cult behind stick. People who drive stick feel superior to people who drive auto because.... why? It's just a car. It's meant to get you from point a to point b. Knowing how to move a stick doesn't make you cooler. I don't get why people get their dicks so hard over a fucking car.[/QUOTE] As someone who right now has a malfunctioning second gear I do enjoy how I can limp the car around while jumping from first to third until I can drop the car off for the scheduled work. In an automatic there so many more levels of failure that render the car totally dead, including a failed second gear. Manual is cumbersome, old and has a retarded learning curve but it's amazing when something is acting up, or you car isn't going to spend almost its entire life driving on a highway where Automatic has a real advantage.

This is a really stupid idea, IMO people should always learn how to use stick before deciding whether they'd want to stick to automatic or continue using shifts. While we still use shift gearing nowadays and they are not totally extinct people should always know how to drive shift gears. To people asking why shift is better than automatic: 1) Allows for more car torque and acceleration control 2) Automatic is more expensive and if it fails, your car is next to useless. If you have a clutch fail or a gear fail you can still bypass those issues temporarily if you have manual stick.

[QUOTE=proboardslol;48025012]They don't teach Stick in Virginia here. I don't really get the cult behind stick. People who drive stick feel superior to people who drive auto because.... why? It's just a car. It's meant to get you from point a to point b. Knowing how to move a stick doesn't make you cooler. I don't get why people get their dicks so hard over a fucking car.[/QUOTE] Knowing manual actually does make you superior. Someone who knows manual can drive either a manual or auto, where's someone who only knows auto is limited to auto only. So from purely technical standpoint they are superior.

[QUOTE=pentium;48025049]As someone who right now has a malfunctioning second gear I do enjoy how I can limp the car around while jumping from first to third until I can drop the car off for the scheduled work. In an automatic there so many more levels of failure that render the car totally dead, including a failed second gear. Manual is cumbersome, old and has a retarded learning curve but it's amazing when something is acting up, or you car isn't going to spend almost its entire life driving on a highway where Automatic has a real advantage.[/QUOTE] Get your car fixed? If my auto is broken, I just get it fixed. Don't drive around in a shitty car, it's not safe

[QUOTE=pentium;48025049] has a retarded learning curve.[/QUOTE] Really? You can learn to drive manual within an hour. Even in a few minutes.

[QUOTE=proboardslol;48025064]Get your car fixed? If my auto is broken, I just get it fixed.[/QUOTE] He can get his car into service without calling tow services for additional fees, he still wins.

[QUOTE=proboardslol;48025012]They don't teach Stick in Virginia here. I don't really get the cult behind stick. People who drive stick feel superior to people who drive auto because.... why? It's just a car. It's meant to get you from point a to point b. Knowing how to move a stick doesn't make you cooler. I don't get why people get their dicks so hard over a fucking car.[/QUOTE] It's a car culture thing. You feel more connected to the vehicle, and it's also more predictable, there's no abrupt gear changes in corners or having to mash the pedal and hope the car downshifts when trying to pass someone. Prior to the mid/early 2000s, manual cars also generally enjoyed better MPG scores due to the inherent inefficiencies of automatics at the time, though modern automatics are actually more efficient than manuals as manuals have barely changed whereas new automatics employ completely different mechanics. That being said, I drive a Toyota with a 4-speed automatic slushbox because fuck driving every day in rush hour for an hour and a half with a manual.

I just want to drive without having all this extra shit to worry about. I'm not racing I'm just cruising from place to place. What's the point then

[QUOTE=itisjuly;48025055]Knowing manual actually does make you superior. Someone who knows manual can drive either a manual or auto, where's someone who only knows auto is limited to auto only. So from purely technical standpoint they are superior.[/QUOTE] Knowing lots of things make someone superior over others who don't know it as well, but none of those get people quite as smug as knowing how to drive stick, for some reason. OP is a shining example of this effect.

[QUOTE=itisjuly;48025055]Knowing manual actually does make you superior. Someone who knows manual can drive either a manual or auto, where's someone who only knows auto is limited to auto only. So from purely technical standpoint they are superior.[/QUOTE] But driving a car is such a small, insignificant part of life that I don't understand why people feel superior about it. It's like me feeling superior to windows users because I use primarily CLI Linux. It's a stupid measure. Who cares? It's just a goddamned car

[QUOTE=Saber15;48025071]It's a car culture thing; you feel more connected to the vehicle. It's also more predictable; no abrupt gear changes in corners or having to mash the pedal and hope the car downshifts when trying to pass someone. Prior to the mid/early 2000s, manual cars also generally enjoyed better MPG scores due to the inherent inefficiencies of automatics at the time, though modern automatics are actually more efficient than manuals as manuals have barely changed whereas new automatics employ completely different mechanics. That being said, I drive a Toyota with a 4-speed automatic slushbox because fuck driving every day in rush hour for an hour and a half with a manual.[/QUOTE] When you overtake someone and you have an auto, most auto gearboxes have a function to force the car into a lower gear, even select a specific gear. It's always been a pretty standard feature.

I wonder is there a stick / auto hybrid yet where you can change what mode you want

[QUOTE=proboardslol;48025078]But driving a car is such a small, insignificant part of life that I don't understand why people feel superior about it. It's like me feeling superior to windows users because I use primarily CLI Linux. It's a stupid measure. Who cares? It's just a goddamned car[/QUOTE] It's a hobby. I may think people who play Warhammer or whatever are silly for spending $1000 on miniatures or whatever, but they probably think I'm silly for reading every major automotive publication and aspiring to own two cars.

[QUOTE=itisjuly;48025055]Knowing manual actually does make you superior. Someone who knows manual can drive either a manual or auto, where's someone who only knows auto is limited to auto only. So from purely technical standpoint they are superior.[/QUOTE] In the UK if we took our driving test in an auto we're not legally allowed to drive manual.

[QUOTE=Antdawg;48025087]When you overtake someone and you have an auto, most auto gearboxes have a function to force the car into a lower gear, even select a specific gear. It's always been a pretty standard feature.[/QUOTE] Yeah, mine does it as well but it can be pretty hit-or-miss. If I absolutely [I]floor it[/I], it generally shifts but pretty much any other amount of pedal travel just results in it chugging along at 2000rpm unless I engage the ECT power mode to make it more eager to shift and rev.

[QUOTE=redBadger;48025088]I wonder is there a stick / auto hybrid yet where you can change what mode you want[/QUOTE] Pretty much every car with an auto gearbox since 2005. Most have a sequential shifting mode.

[QUOTE=Antdawg;48025087]When you overtake someone and you have an auto, most auto gearboxes have a function to force the car into a lower gear, even select a specific gear. It's always been a pretty standard feature.[/QUOTE] Overdrive. I have a button on my car to turn overdrive on/off. I really can't wait for Electric Cars. I think that most products should be like the electronics industry; you can buy straight from the manufacturer, the manufacturer guarantees it with some kind of warranty, and if it breaks, you take it back to the manufacturer. I don't like car culture, but owning a car means I have to be around the people who do.

I hate driving stick, And this is why [video=youtube;S8Ms6ng6FmI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8Ms6ng6FmI[/video]