Stick With It!
A couple of weeks ago, David Sirota, a writer for the "digital magazine" Salon, took to the keyboard to ask one of those burning questions only magazine and newspaper feature writers ever think to ask, and only when they're running up against deadlines and can't think of anything better to write about: "Is It Ethical to Drive Stick?"
No, I did not make that up. Click the link if you don't believe me.
How could one's choice of automotive transmission possibly be a matter of ethics? Performance, fuel economy, mechanical reliability, initial cost versus marginal utility and other microeconomic particularities, physical dexterity, personal preference, certainly--but ethics??
From this non-absurd premise, Mr. Sirota concludes that there is almost no reason to drive a stick--we'll get to his "exception" here after a bit--and, therefore, if you prefer a manual transmission, you're indulging a "fetish" for "machismo"--and probably killing baby polar bears in the process.
There is so much wrong with this thinking that we could spend several thousand words and a non-trivial fraction of Amazon's immense bandwidth and not even begin to cover it all. I could mock the article's postmodern-gender-role-deconstruction subtext, but columnist Jack Baruth at TTAC has already done that particular evisceration better (and funnier) than I ever could. I could just be snarky and say that his problem isn't that he's driving a manual transmission, it's that he's driving a Saturn--a badge-engineered monument to mediocrity brought to you by the same pre-bailout geniuses who gave us the Aztek and Catera--but that would hardly be sporting of me now, would it?
I'd rather aim a little higher with my critique. What really causes Mr. Sirota to go off the road is a lack of perspective.
To begin with the blindingly obvious, not every decision you make, and not every action you take, is of equal importance. How you treat your family or your co-workers or strangers in need, whether or not you live up to your responsibilities or keep your promises or cheat on your taxes, those are moral and ethical issues. Other decisions--do you prefer Garth Brooks or Chris Gaines? Ohio State or Michigan? Ginger or Mary Ann?--are mostly, or even exclusively, matters of personal taste that traditionally have not been considered to have any significant moral or ethical component. Notice that I said "traditionally." There's been a trend in the last century or so for academics and social commenters and miscellaneous activists to ascribe greater and greater moral and psychological significance to individual actions of lesser and lesser actual importance.
Where did this come from? Maybe it's a product of Freudian and Jungian psychology, which claim to derive deep insights into your personality from little things like what color the unicorns are in your dreams or whether you watch Castle or Hawaii Five-0 on Monday nights at ten. Maybe it comes from the assertion by advocates of social change that "the personal is political," or the innate need we all have to connect with something greater than ourselves. Perhaps it comes from all of these things, or maybe it's just how people roll these days. Whatever the cause, we have arrived at the point where an essayist for Salon is associating a preference for manual transmissions with, well, not to put too fine a point on it, creepy psychosexual personality disorders.
While it's true that modern automatics can be more efficient than a stick, the difference isn't really all that great. For the GTI, as I mentioned above, there's a 1 MPG difference--and according to the Ohio EPA's tailpipe test machine, the GTI is already about as close to being a zero-emissions vehicle as you can get and still burn gasoline.The environmental advantage of the DSG is trivial at most.
That 1 MPG advantage also translates to $100 less per year in fuel costs by the federal EPA's reckoning--a touch more than two tanks of gas at current prices. The DSG stickered at $1,200 over the base six-speed. That's twelve times the annual fuel savings--and it'll take longer than twelve years to break even once you factor in the time value of money and the payment of interest on the $1,200 if you financed the car. Any way you look at it, the economic and ecological argument for the autobox is pretty far from a slam dunk.
Now, you can look at that set of facts I've just laid out and legitimately conclude that the upfront cost of the DSG is worth it to you because you prefer not to do your own shifting, or you place a higher value on reducing your carbon footprint or our dependence on foreign oil than the raw dollars and cents calculation. You could also conclude, even if you consider carbon footprints or personal energy consumption to be extremely important, that the cost-benefit ratio isn't enough to justify the extra expense, or that you can do something else with that $1,200 that better serves the cause or improves your life in some other way. Either one of those would be reasonable judgments for an informed adult consumer to make. Neither one is obviously wrong or evil or unethical. Your ride, your money, your call.
In my case, not only did I not want to spend the extra $1,200, I actually like driving a stick. I have to spend an hour a day in the car, sometimes more, and I wanted a car with driving dynamics I would enjoy, and I was willing and able to pay for that. My ride, my money, my call.
Mr. Sirota likes driving a stick too--but he can't leave it at that. He writes:
Thanks to all this, on the days I don’t bike to work and instead fire up my 11-year-old Saturn and shift it into first gear, I no longer feel so righteous or populist. I feel like part of the problem — not just because I’m driving a fossil fuel-dependent vehicle, but also because the manual transmission seems like a silly relic.
I don't get this. Why the guilt over something that you enjoy, and which (as we've demonstrated above) is at worst doing no measurable harm to either your wallet or the environment? You have to get to work, and on the days when riding the bike isn't practical, it's going to be in some vehicle that burns fossil fuels unless you have a Nissan Leaf handy or live on a streetcar route--and even then, electricity usually comes from fossil fuels, so you're still using fossil fuels anyway.
If you rank the sins and follies of mankind in descending order of importance, driving to work in a gasoline-powered car will be pretty far down the list--if it even makes the list in the first place. Certainly, then, your choice of transmission in that car isn't something that you need to wear a hairshirt to the next Sierra Club meeting over. It's not that big a deal. Relax, embrace your inner Andretti, and sink your left foot into life!
There is, however, one point on which Mr. Sirota and I are in complete agreement:
In the age of distracted driving, many believe the stick shift might encourage kids to stay focused on operating their vehicles, rather than operating their smartphones. The idea is that because a manual transmission requires special attention to operate, it doesn’t allow for as much multitasking as an automatic.
While there’s no science (yet) to prove the manual-transmission-as-deterrent-to-distracted-driving hypothesis, the memory of those first harrowing stick-shift lessons — with my dad imploring me to “really focus, goddammit!” — suggests to me that there’s something to the theory.
My oldest son learned on the GTI and drives a manual transmission to school, and my youngest is repeating the process. Both boys are much better, much more careful drivers than I was at their age, and they (and I) credit learning on a stick for much of that.
They also agree with me that it's much more fun.
--Cookie the Dog's Owner
Obi-wan Kenobi on June 05, 2012 at 06:47 AM
Small thinkers like David Sirota, in small-thinking magazines like Salon, are way outclassed by Tom Vanderbilt, writing in the February 2012 issue of Wired magazine. "Let the Robot Drive" offers insight into how self-driving cars will be generally available in 2020. Suddenly, all the sniping about stick-shifts versus automatics seems as trivial as last year's sitcom.
Self-starters on cars have been around for a century, and Hydra-Matic drive (and increasingly better automatics) for three-quarters of that time. Cruise control, Night View, lane keeping, blind-spot warning, and other electronics are leading us to the autonomous self-driving car.
These Google-equipped self-driving cars are running around in Nevada and California as we speak.
It may not be where you and I want to go, but that's where we're going, whether we want to or not.
HELP!
That Car Guy (Chuck) on June 05, 2012 at 10:48 AM
Ya know, if you're in reverse in a manual transmission, while going back wards, you can shift into second, then up to first, pop the clutch, and leave a nasty burnout while going backwards. Try that in an automatic.
Just saying.
Eric Bowman on June 05, 2012 at 01:11 PM
I've driven a Saturn with a stick. Mushy clutch pedal and a hyper-notchy shifter; no wonder this guy hates it. I've driven aircooled VW's with better shift feel.
I'd say that driving a stick might make you more alert and attentive, but I've totalled a car and had several other close calls of which I was wholly culpable, even with a shift-it-yerself tranny. On the other hand, my wife's old Wrangler was often the vehicle of choice for road trips - between the 5-speed, the vague steering, and the wind noise, there was little chance of nodding off.
My main preference for a manual in my daily driver is a little bit of fuel economy and a lot of vehicle control. Traction control? Meh, just start off in 3rd and ride the clutch like an old lady. Need to slow down on the freeway without flashing your brake lights at Smokey? Downshift and dump it. No 'sport mode' here, I'll just wait a few hundred more RPM to shift myself, thankyewverymuch. Change the oil as per the factory intervals, enjoy the wonder of the self-adjusting hydraulic actuated clutch, and never worry about a kickdown cable linkage or an overdrive solenoid.
As for completely, truly automatic cars... well, you've seen how some people drive. Maybe it's a good thing after all. It would be a whole lot easier to type this if I didn't have to steer and brake, let alone shift at the same time.
Chris Mallow on June 05, 2012 at 06:54 PM
That article is the sort of coastal-elitist-urbanocentric crap that litters our media landscape today. But it's in Salon, so that's the definition, I guess.
I drive a 2006 Ford Focus wagon, with 5-speed stick. When I bought it, I specifically went hunting for a car with a stick...because say what you will about the manual, but when you're driving one, you actually feel like YOU ARE DRIVING. And I do love driving it! It's a spartan little thing, but even after a year I still feel great when I get in and feel like I'm in control as I speed down the road. Sure, I can drive my old Ramcharger with my left leg, while holding a double-dip ice cream cone in one hand and a drink in the other...but then I'm certainly not driving, am I? I'd rather go with one of the robot cars, and just completely give up control so I could read or something, than go with one of the many lame automatics we have on our roads in spades.
Gene on June 06, 2012 at 10:28 AM
My problem with that old idea that "the personal is political," apart from the fact that I don't agree it's true, is that sooner or later, people like Sirota begin pushing their political into my personal.
Cookie the Dog's Owner on June 06, 2012 at 11:16 AM
My younger son's reaction to Mr. Sirota's thesis is, and I quote, "LOL WUT?"
franco on June 06, 2012 at 04:31 PM
I like a stick car but there are limits.
All but the best manual cars are miserable to drive in places like San Francisco for extended periods/congestion. Mushy shifters, especially three on the trees that were junky when new. Cars with unsynchronized forward gears. Cars with wide ratio gearboxes that are harder to keep in the powerband.
As far as fuel economy goes the kind of short shifting is takes to get that last bit of fuel economy take most of the joy out of a stick.
When cousin Billy's Powerglide Camaro is just starting to shift a little soft, you are buying a clutch job that spent all the money you saved on gas. Billy is laughing at you.
That said, buy a stick, enjoy it. A close ratio box backing up a healthy powerplant and a decent final drive ratio. Now FWD vs RWD. . .
Bill T. on June 06, 2012 at 06:23 PM
I will take a stick any day. I learned on it, and had no problems for several years. It became second nature. Then, in the eighties, I had two hatchbacks with 5 speed trans's, a Dodge and a Plymouth, and both did quite well on gas. Now I have had automatics for several years, but am considering a 'Vette. My wife and I have been to a dealer to check out the pricing and options, and for a manual trans, GM offers a bit over $1,000.00 off the price. We both agreed to it. With the complexity of the automatics today, I can imagine the repair cost if an automatic needs fixing. Clutches are likely easier and much less costly to replace.
SirTweakAlot on June 07, 2012 at 02:15 AM
Currently I own three BMW 635CSi coupes plus an E34 535i all featuring wonderful 5-speed manual transmissions. The M30 big six combined with the Getrag manual simply transform the driving experience.Bombing through nearby Ortega Highway taking advantage of engine braking is a real grin generator.The Bimmer dual-mode auto slushbox is the Achilles heel on BMWs whereas the 5 speed is practically bulletproof.An absolute joy to drive.
My '65 Mustang convertible is an auto that along with its over-boosted power steering and soft suspension are befitting that cars character as more of attention-grabbing parade float than a sporting road machine. I could resto-mod it into a Shelby clone but I have the 6ers & a Triumph Daytona 955i for the go-fast rush. Sometimes its fun to drive using just the index finger to cruise.
Sigivald on June 07, 2012 at 01:39 PM
Fuel economy is not a matter of ethics anyway.
Even if one buys his base assumptions (as I do not), lower cost of transport increase transport use, to a great extent.
Last I recall the trends, discretionary travel booms when transport cost drops, and vice versa.
(On the other hand, I don't give a flying damn for manual transmissions. What is this, 1940? Want manual timing advance and choke, too?)
That Car Guy (Chuck) on June 07, 2012 at 04:52 PM
Well,the last time the battery died on my automatic, I sure wish it had been a manual so we could have rolled it down the hill and started it without calling emergency road service.
Just saying. ;)
Sigivald on June 08, 2012 at 12:21 PM
(Chuck: That just means we need automatics that can push start, by having the appropriate internals.
My old Mercedes has an auto, and can roll/push start...)
Cash on June 11, 2012 at 01:01 PM
Oh my..since all three of our cars are manual, I guess we're wrecking the enviroment. I'll tell my wife after we have our baby polar bear seat covers installed..might go oout for some dinner after, fried snail darters and rice sounds good..
Common sense..dead since oh, about 1982.
Paul on June 13, 2012 at 11:13 AM
I prefer a stick. My '88 Ranger has a stick and V-6-and the original clutch. My automatics have been purchased at the behest of my wife. She never drives the truck these days although she has in the past. I just purchased a '97 Honda Civic for my 17 year-old son. Fortunately it has a stick. I am amazed at how many people these days can't drive one. I understand that automatics are marginally better on gas these days. Since I tend to keep my vehicles longer than most, I take the long view. When something goes wrong with a manual, it is almost always the clutch. $200-300.00 if you hire it done and you're back on the road. Odds are, eventually you will have trouble with the automatic. They are invariably more complicated (especially these days) and more expensive to repair/replace. That alone is reason enough to justify a stick. It's all about money; automatics are more expensive up front and down the road. Besides, sticks are just more fun to drive-especially on a twisty 2-lane. I also agree with the author's comment about being more focused. CTDO, you are correct on all counts.
Brian on June 20, 2012 at 08:14 PM
To play devil's advocate, it seems pretty clear that our consumption choices are inextricably wrapped up in ethical issues - especially now that we are more aware of the effects of our consumption on the environment. Outside of a few crackpots and the willfully ignorant, the consensus seems to be that global warming is a serious threat. Not to mention additional costs like health effects of air pollution. As a sidenote, these costs usually aren't factored into the price of gas, so a simple cost/benefit analysis is kind of missing the point.
So, if we can accept what should be uncontroversial - that our consumption choices have an ethical dimension to it - then maybe Sirota has a point. If reducing harm to the environment is ethical, and automatics, due to slightly better fuel efficiency, don't do as much harm as manuals, then logically, automatics are more ethical than manuals.
That said, Sirota is probably putting too fine a point on it, and it seems like it might be a case of a slow news day at Salon. With so little of a difference, the question of "manual or automatic" is dwarfed by questions like "Hummer or Prius" and "Drive, bus or bike"
jjcarguy on July 01, 2012 at 10:15 AM
Perhaps if Mr. Siorta was so worried about the "ethics" of driving a stick, he should get rid of his 11 year old Saturn in favor of a newer vehicle that has the most up-to-date emission standards available.
That said, I drive a 1984 Dodge van witha slant six, and a 4-on-the-floor. Yes, 3 with overdrive, and a floor shift in a van. Way cool, but the gear ratios suck around town, lol.
The van does, however, get the same fuel economy in the city as my 1999 Pontiac Grand Am with 2.4L 4 banger and overdrive automatic.
I like driving a stick, and have 5 speed floor shift, 3 on the tree, and 4 on the floor, as well as many automatics.
When all your car buys are used, you take the best overall deal, regardless of compromise in engine, or transmission availability.
My van cost me $700 bucks, put a speedo cable on it, and that was all.