Better during spirited driving, better in daily driving, better when just sitting in my garage, manual transmissions are just better dude. End of post. Get gud and get a manual. Goodbye.
… OK I’m kidding, but only about the abrupt end. Everything before that I completely believe. Yes, even about being better merely sitting in my garage. Let me give you the whole explanation…
A Random Blessing One Day…
This is a slight deviation from the actual crux of my story, but it ties in I promise. So for the majority of my time owning my 2016 Dodge Dart SE (Xavier), he had horrendous rev-hang. Not the typical split-second pause often spoken about in modern cars, I mean atrocious slow-motion refusal to drop revs. This impacted… essentially everything. It was a big contributing factor to me being a speed bump in traffic, it made spirited driving less satisfying (because matching revs on upshifts took forever), the car holding 2K rpm while at a standstill weirded me out, and creeping in traffic while the car held revs felt mechanically abusive to me. I figured this was simply part of some emissions protocol in the tune, and didn’t think much more of it.
Fast forward much of the year and after a small carbon buildup cleaning at my local dealership, Xavier randomly improved one night on my way home. Previously, I could get my Dart to drop revs “normally” if I ran with the AC on. Since this robs power and impacts fuel economy though, I prefer not to use it (especially not constantly). On this night, however, my Dart was driving like that perpetually! Didn’t have the AC on, heat doesn’t affect the car like that (though I turned it off to make sure), and nothing I could think of changed about my car. This was awesome! Finally, my Dart gave me the driving experience I deeply wished for!
Now Let Me Tell You Just How Awesome It Is…
It’s been a little over a month since this improvement and everything about driving Xavier is better! Spirited driving is glorious, daily driving is a good deal more satisfying, creeping in traffic no longer feels abusive (even if only mentally), literally the whole experience of driving an automobile has become that much more pleasurable!
It’s the increase in enjoyment during daily driving where I became radicalized though. With the act of matching engine speed to gear speed becoming natural and quick, any acceleration event became very addictive. Even for something as mundane as reaching the speed limit when pulling onto a main road from a side street. I’ve done that plenty of times in my mom’s automatic Tiguan, and I never looked forward to that anywhere near as much as I do in my Dart. That is almost entirely because of the fact I get to shift myself (a vastly smaller portion of it is because I get to do that in a car I own). With a –well sorted– manual, even little things become consciously fun. That extra point of engagement (and all the additional considerations that come with it) really does make all the difference. To be concise, it’s the difference between commuting and driving.
I am not saying automatics suck or shouldn’t be offered at all, but if a transmission can make something as typically uninspiring as normal driving fun, why isn’t that the better transmission? Why shouldn’t it be considered as such (even if subjectively)? Why should I not write this article spewing my love for the good ol’ H-pattern? I’m really getting on my Joker soapbox so bare with me, but manuals are the superior transmission, and I’m tired of pretending they’re not. No they aren’t faster, more economical, or even cheaper, but that’s sterile thinking. They’re better because they’re more evocative, stimulating, engaging, and rewarding than their self-shifting counterparts. In a world becoming increasingly automated, take back some control and do things manually…