End of Manual-Transmission Era - Honda Accord

[Trenchfriend]

Yes, I do not pine for the old days. I had to learn to maintain my first cars as something was always amiss or out of whack in some manner. My last two vehicles a 2003 Honda Element, 185,000km just brakes, tires and oil changes. My current is a 10 year old Hyundai Sante Fe at 197,000km and same thing....nothing has gone wrong, nothing. I have not even bothered to change the spark plugs yet as my mileage has not changed at all.

Yep, Japan and South-Korea can build mass-production cars like no other!!

Germany? Horrible! Never constant quality. You're chance is maybe 50/50 to get a good reliable one.

 

[GHT]

Germany? Horrible! Never constant quality. You're chance is maybe 50/50 to get a good reliable one.

!996 Golf Mk3, over 200,000 miles, still my wife's daily drive, still going strong. Biggest ever repair, new clutch three years ago. We are not parting with it.

 

[Zombie_61]

Clutch every 15-20K miles ? Sounds like an "LA traffic" car maybe? Automatic is best in that daily scenario even in Australia...

Yes Sir! Rush hour traffic can be brutal on vehicles.

 

[belfastboy]

Yep, Japan and South-Korea can build mass-production cars like no other!!

Germany? Horrible! Never constant quality. You're chance is maybe 50/50 to get a good reliable one.

Yes, I have heard some horror stories about BMW and Mercedes these days......the golden era of German autos appears to be over.

 

[belfastboy]

Yes Sir! Rush hour traffic can be brutal on vehicles.

My current SUV was my work vehicle for 10 years.....10 years of daily commutes downtown.....an hour each way. Before that an 8 year run with my Honda. Never had any clutch problems....knock on wood. Having to shift kept me from falling asleep at the wheel.

 

[tonyb]

...
As for the British car industry, where did go? Where it belonged, consigned to history. Here's a link to those MG's:
https://mathewsons.co.uk/auctions/auction-dates/vehicles/9370-march-auction-mg-bgt-jubilee

Range Rovers and Jaguars are frequent sights around here, but, seeing how I’ve never been in the market for one (my rich Uncle Godot still hasn’t introduced himself), I’ve never looked into where they are manufactured these days.

 

[Zombie_61]

My current SUV was my work vehicle for 10 years.....10 years of daily commutes downtown.....an hour each way. Before that an 8 year run with my Honda. Never had any clutch problems....knock on wood. Having to shift kept me from falling asleep at the wheel.

My own work history includes a daily commute of 12 miles one-way, five days a week. When I started working there the commute took 20-30 minutes; 18.5 years later when I left on my last day the commute took over an hour because a) there are far too many people in California, and b) only about 3% of those people actually know how to drive, and the rest are morons.

One commute was particularly memorable because of the pouring rain. Flooded streets and overly cautious morons turned that 12 mile drive into a three-hour trip. At the time I was driving a '66 VW Beetle and, because I had previously dislocated my left knee, by the time I got to work I could barely walk because of all of that shifting. I sold that car not long after that, and I've had vehicles with automatic transmissions ever since; I'm older now, and they're just easier to drive. But there are times when I really miss the control that a manual transmission offers.

 

[belfastboy]

Range Rovers and Jaguars are frequent sights around here, but, seeing how I’ve never been in the market for one (my rich Uncle Godot still hasn’t introduced himself), I’ve never looked into where they are manufactured these days.

I think they are Indian owned (Tata) but they are made in England except for the Evoque (Brazil)

 

[Trenchfriend]

.the golden era of German autos appears to be over.

Like many older say: "Over since the 80s".

 

[Trenchfriend]

Yes, I have heard some horror stories about BMW and Mercedes these days......the golden era of German autos appears to be over.

90s: "Lopez-effect" (José Ignacio López de Arriortúa ruined the quality of Opel/GM and VW)
2000s: electronic crap
2010s: both

 

[MisterCairo]

Hey Tony, you want that because you don't work around programmers. They're happy if THEY get home. You get home that's a plus, you don't ahhhh, not a big deal to them.

I don't want a car the doesn't trust me to drive it.

Later

What he said...

 

[MisterCairo]

Several years ago I started a flame war somewhere in the FL for daring to say that the cars of the era were as good looking as they were spectacular garbage.

Of course, the minutia of such and such a (rare) model was trotted out. Unsafe at any speed anyone?

When was the last time you or anyone you know bragged about your odo hitting 100,000 miles? Why do you never see 50s cars on the streets in shows and movies filmed in the 60s and 70s? Because they were scrap.

Many of us here clearly remember when British-made goods (bicycles, motor vehicles) had a certain cachet here in the colonies and “Made in Japan” was a warning.

Things change.

Fire away, friends, and please know that I love old cars, but whenever I hear someone say in regard to motor vehicles, “They don’t make them the way they used to,” I say, “Thank the god of your choice for that.” It’s not at all unusual for all but the worst newer cars to cover a quarter million miles on the original engine and transmission, and half a million miles is far from unheard of. (Lincoln Town Cars and Ford Crown Vics, now discontinued, routinely cover that kinda mileage.)

Where old cars had it over the later ones is that they were simpler and less expensive and major components could be had at the wrecking yard for relatively small money. I suspect that part of the reason getting a car and a license at age 16 isn’t the rite of passage it was for boys of my generation (and the ones immediately before it and after it) has more than a little to do with that. Cars just cost too much these days for every kid from humble circumstances to acquire one for less than a month’s pay. My first car set me back 65 bucks. My friends and I routinely bought engines and transmissions and rear ends at the boneyard and squeezed a few more months out of those beaters of ours.

 

[belfastboy]

Several years ago I started a flame war somewhere in the FL for daring to say that the cars of the era were as good looking as they were spectacular garbage.

Of course, the minutia of such and such a (rare) model was trotted out. Unsafe at any speed anyone?

When was the last time you or anyone you know bragged about your odo hitting 100,000 miles? Why do you never see 50s cars on the streets in shows and movies filmed in the 60s and 70s? Because they were scrap.

My first car, a 1956 Meteor bought in 1966 had rust damage that I repaired. My mom's last car was the infamous rust bucket Fords of the early 1970's....a Torino....what a piece of crap. When she finally parked it i am not sure it was safe to drive due to all the rust....everywhere.

 

[Bern1]

A manual transmission puts me into the zen of the drive every time.

 

[tonyb]

Several years ago I started a flame war somewhere in the FL for daring to say that the cars of the era were as good looking as they were spectacular garbage.

Of course, the minutia of such and such a (rare) model was trotted out. Unsafe at any speed anyone?

When was the last time you or anyone you know bragged about your odo hitting 100,000 miles? Why do you never see 50s cars on the streets in shows and movies filmed in the 60s and 70s? Because they were scrap.

A one-time regular poster here was of the view that cars made 50 and more years ago were superior to their more recent counterparts in almost every regard. He was adamant in that opinion, and cited old vehicles of his own that had travelled multiples of hundreds of thousands of miles.

I believed him, just as I believe those accounts of old Volvo P1800s with millions of miles on ’em. But for every such example are at least a hundred others in support of your position on the matter. Rings and valves at 50 or 60 thousand miles. Full rebuild at 100 thousand, if you got there. Cars of yore driven in locales where corrosive deicers were applied to the roads rusted out after just a few winters.

The problem with keeping a vintage car is using it AS A CAR. Cars show signs of use. And nothing lasts forever. Very rare is the owner of a restored vintage car who uses it as his everyday ride.

 

[tonyb]

I read that the new Corvettes aren’t available with a manual transmission. Rather, they have 8-speed dual-clutch “automatics” with paddle controls on the steering wheel. No clutch pedal. Using those paddles is optional; the transmission will shift in its own if the driver so chooses. (My Toyota Sienna van, which is near the opposite end of the automotive spectrum, had a 6-speed automatic on which the driver can manually control the shifting, although I never do.)

I further read that the new ’vette goes zero to 60 in 2.8 seconds. That’s PDQ.

And, for all that performance, it still returns 27 mpg highway and 19 city.

Dang, they sure don’t make ’em like they used to.

 

[belfastboy]

I read that the new Corvettes aren’t available with a manual transmission. Rather, they have 8-speed automatics with paddle controls on the steering wheel. (My Toyota Sienna van, which is near the opposite end of the automotive spectrum, had a 6-speed automatic on which the driver can manually control the shifting, although I never do.)

I further read that the new ’vette goes zero to 60 in 2.8 seconds. That’s PDQ.

And, for all that performance, it still returns 27 mpg highway and 19 city.

Dang, they sure don’t make ’em like they used to,

My problem; at the point in life that I could afford a Vette I could no longer get down low enough to enter or exit one of them. I would have to exit head first on hands and then feet and that kind of defeats the panache of owning one.

 

[Downunder G Man]

I have owned 3 different Corvettes over the last 35 years. 1974 Auto , 1978 pace car Auto, 1977 4 speed MANUAL

Manual Corvettes were only ever 6% max of the build back then so it was a rare beast. Owned it 1988-2011

The whole time my daughter was growing up it came out of the garage maybe 3 times yearly. Strictly a 2 seater y'see !

Bearing in mind from '88 to '99 it was a daily driver by comparison. So sold it in 2011.

Daughter now grown up , a working Nurse , and I should still have that car. many here will have similar stories for sure.

 

[tonyb]

My problem; at the point in life that I could afford a Vette I could no longer get down low enough to enter or exit one of them. I would have to exit head first on hands and then feet and that kind of defeats the panache of owning one.

Sometimes I see a fellow of a certain age in a Ferrari or a new ’vette or a Lotus or something along those lines and I gotta wonder if the ED meds ain’t working.

I am now a fellow of a certain age.

 

[Bern1]

Modern vehicles just have no soul for the most part. One of the problems is that today, virtually everything is high performance compared to yesterday. Literally your econobox is capable of racing worthy performance from the 50’s. And today, where can you really use any of that? I live in California and all the roads are congested with too many people driving, never mind all the bicycles and pedestrians.

My thing is motorcycles and I have turned down every offer to ride a modern liter bike for the last 20 years. Nothing worthwhile would come of it!