Re: [PLUG] Survey: who drives a stick shift?

On 10/4/07, Guillermo Moyna <g.moyna@usip.edu> wrote:

I have driven sticks since all my life. First thing I drove was a
Citroen Mehari (600 cc, 2-cylinder, 4-stroke engine, basically a
scooter with a fiberglass body). My wife's car has a slushbox (i.e.,
automatic tranny), and I always dream of how much more fun that car
would be with a stick.

Where I come form (Uruguay, South America) you won't find an
automatic anywhere. Simple reason: More expensive [more expensive to
buy, a lot more expensive to repair, less wear on break parts (you
can do engine braking), and 10% less fuel-efficient (or more)]. The
'fun to drive' argument is also true back home, but if manuals and
automatics were equally expensive to buy/drive/maintain, people would
drive more automatics. As it says in the clip, most people want to
get from A to B in something that 'looks cool,' but have no intention
of learning when it's better to upshift or downshift...

And it is true: In the UK they will let you take the drivers exam
with either manual or automatic, but you will be able to drive either
one if you took your test with a stick, but only automatics if you
took your test with an automatic (I mean, driving an automatic boils
down to pushing two pedals...).

G.

On Oct 4, 2007, at 1:11 AM, JP Vossen wrote:

> I drive a stick.  I hate automatics.  I convinced my wife to drive
> a stick, and she did for 10 years.  Until...  No one makes a mini-
> van with a stick...
>
> Why Software Sucks: Geeks Drive Stick Shift Cars
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAOTTLQ0rlY
>
> Who else?
> JP
> ----------------------------|:::======|-------------------------------
> JP Vossen, CISSP            |:::======|        jp{at}jpsdomain{dot}org
> My Account, My Opinions     |=========|       http://www.jpsdomain.org/
> ----------------------------|=========|-------------------------------
> Microsoft has single-handedly nullified Moore's Law.
> Innate design flaws of Windows make a personal firewall, anti-virus
> and anti-malware software mandatory. The resulting software arms race
> has effectively flattened Moore's Law on hardware running Windows.
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.__________________________________________________________. ._____.
| .______________________________________________________. | | ._. |
| |                                                  .___|_|_| |_| |
| | Guillermo Moyna, PhD                             | ._____| |___|
| | Associate Professor of Chemistry                 | |_| |_|_|___.
| | Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry           |___| |_____. |
| | University of the Sciences in Philadelphia           | |_| | | |
| | 600 South 43rd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-4495   |_____| | |
| | ._____.                                                      | |
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.___| |_|_|_| | E-mail: g.moyna@usip.edu                          | |
| ._| |_______| WWW:    www.usip.edu/chemistry/faculty/moyna.asp | |
| |_| | | |______________________________________________________| |
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___________________________________________________________________________
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