Mazda 3 Hatchback Suggestion

[Loose]

Man, I hate it when people use the "Oh, I have too many hills" or "Oh, traffic here is bad" cop-out. Listen, I live in Alexandria, VA, which is plenty hilly and drive through the D.C. area during morning and evening rush hour to and from work. D.C. traffic is notoriously some of the worst in the nation. And guess what... I love driving my manual in it. Save your friggin' coffee for when you get to work, turn off your friggin cell phone (it's illegal to use it while operating your vehicle anyway), and enjoy driving.

When I hear about cars in the future being able to drive themselves, it makes me want to puke. We've already numbed the driver/car connection with all these fancy doodads and trinckets, so the manual tranny is our last holdover from a time when people knew how to drive. Half the people on the roads these days in America don't even deserve to drive and would fail their license test in countries like Germany where licensing is more stringent. If these people drove on stick, they'd forced to be better drivers just because they're more involved in the operations of the car and would have to pay attention more.

Sorry for my rant, had to vent.

Thanks for your opinion. Sorry to hear you can talk on the phone in your state.

Oh btw how many post are there for Manusuckit tranny's (1?) compared to the 5spd (tntc!)

 

[ImportBabie3]

I Agree with Kain because I mean if youre serious bout the drive..drive a manual. I'm a girl, I chose to drive a stick, I wouldnt drive anything else. I mean yeah auto is almost luxury BUT wheres the fun? Opening up ur car on back roads, shiftin.. yeah thats great1 props for sticks! its alllllll about the drive baby..all about it.

Oh and hills and traffic, it ain't no thang.

 

[dulog]

Man, I hate it when people use the "Oh, I have too many hills" or "Oh, traffic here is bad" cop-out. Listen, I live in Alexandria, VA, which is plenty hilly and drive through the D.C. area during morning and evening rush hour to and from work. D.C. traffic is notoriously some of the worst in the nation. And guess what... I love driving my manual in it. Save your friggin' coffee for when you get to work, turn off your friggin cell phone (it's illegal to use it while operating your vehicle anyway), and enjoy driving.

When I hear about cars in the future being able to drive themselves, it makes me want to puke. We've already numbed the driver/car connection with all these fancy doodads and trinckets, so the manual tranny is our last holdover from a time when people knew how to drive. Half the people on the roads these days in America don't even deserve to drive and would fail their license test in countries like Germany where licensing is more stringent. If these people drove on stick, they'd forced to be better drivers just because they're more involved in the operations of the car and would have to pay attention more.

Sorry for my rant, had to vent.

Haha. I use to commute to N. Capitol Street from MD that was no fun and I don't miss it. Visisted Boston, NYC and DC last summer and if I had to choose one I'd rather not commute in I think it would be Boston though that place is a mess.

Go ahead and have your fun with this but I have the auto. I figured someone should speak up for them in this thread. One thing I'd say we have going for us is less complaints and problems in these forums it seems (in fairness there's probably a disproportiante # of stick drivers belonging to this forum). I got the auto not cause I don't know how to drive stick, not that cause I live in a city or on a hill....the car was for both my fiance and I and though she was willing to drive stick I didn't want this car to be the one she learned on. Those of you new 3 owners who learned on this car thats cool I respect that. Do I wish it was a stick sometimes for the fun factor - yeah but not as much as I thought I would. I think having the sport automatic also makes it feel less like a econobox because that's an option that's more typical on more upscale sedans than it is on compact cars. Autos have gotten better over the years performance and maitenance wise. The better gas mileage would be nice to have though considering how crapy prices are here.

 

[Kain]

If it sounded like I was hatin' on the automatic, then no, I wasn't. Is it my tranny of preference? Obviously not.

I absolutely agree that automatic transmissions have made huge strides in the last decade. Hell, the F1 clutchless paddle shifter in the Ferrari 360 Modena shifts twice as fast as the best drivers could in a manual. Same thing goes for the new manumatic in the Audi TT. But for me it's not all about 0-60 times. I like being in control of the vehicle (which is why I'll never actively seek out traction control or intrusive ABS brakes), and the one thing that really wins a traditional manual over a manumatic is that you can select whatever gear you want in whatever order you want. I don't have to shift sequentially in my car, and if I want to drop from 5th to 2nd, I can do it directly without having to go to 4th and 3rd first.

A couple other reasons why I favor manuals is usually an auto tranny adds $500 to $1,000 to the price of the vehicles (in some cases like the 350z, the manual actually costs more). And, of course, is the weight factor. Automatic transmissions add about 100 to 200lbs to a car. The mileage issue is not an issue at all; I never noticed a marked difference in miles per gallon between the two.

 

[dulog]

No I didn't think you were to harsh on them. Others were worse but its all in good fun. I agree with what you said about the idea of these automatically driven cars in the future souds lame and people need to pay attention and quite spacing out with all their trinkets. To much disconection I agree. Had meant to comment on that but didn't get to it.

 

[3junky]

Here's what it boils down to:

Auto:
If you want to not think about driving, get from point A to B, go with an automatic. I am not saying in any way that this is a bad thing. It is easier to drive an auto. If you have a bad knee, go with auto. Convenience? Go with auto.

Manual:
If you want to control the car, rather than have the car control you, go with a stick. It doesn't matter if you don't know how to drive a stick. You will learn. Don't make a 5+ year discision based on the fact that you don't yet know how to drive a stick.

My opinion, manual is the only way to go. In Atlanta the traffic is as bad as the worst in the nation. It doesnt bother me at all. I live in a suburb north of ATL and commute downtown to work daily. No prob. I love downshifting through uphill corners on winding roads, dropping it from 5th to 3rd to smoke somebody on the highway, etc.