Driving stick

I know that earlier I remarked that the next post would discuss the origin of the term "Arsenal of Democracy", but I lied.

I have been driving with an automatic transmission for about five years. I got in a wreck, but so has every teenage driver. In any case, the damage might have been catastrophic, but I lived with the consequences, and fixed the damage enough to keep that 1989 Honda Civic on the road. In fact, almost everything still works flawlessly and the engine, electrical system, and suspension are all peachy. The only thing that is threatening that old warrior is.... automatic transmission woes. It started slipping two years ago at about 100k miles, and now it's at 140k. I have always remedied the problem by changing out the transmission fluid. I did it two times and each time it fixed the transmission problem for the best part of a year, and then started to get bad again. As of this writing, I have replaced it with synthetic oil, hoping for it to last longer, before selling it to a coworker (more on this story in the next post).

Perhaps something in my driving has caused the transmission to begin gradual failure at 100k miles, but even if we accept that I'm hard on my tranny, it's still harder on the wallet in an auto than a stick. I know several people who have replaced a clutch, including a few Mexicans who would be willing to do that sort of job cheaply. However, I know of no individuals outside of professional mechanics that self-identify as sufficiently competent to do an automatic transmission rebuild, and they admit that it's impossible to figure out what the real problem is without taking out the transmission and opening it up. Aamco quoted me $435 for the internal inspection, but comforted me with the knowledge that every dollar of the inspection would go towards any repairs that I chose to have made on the vehicle. The comfort evaporated when I asked for a probable cost estimate, at which point he said that a rebuild would cost at least $1700. If I could find a buyer to pay the princely sum of $1700 for that car, then I surely wouldn't be keeping it very long.

Now, my dad has two Hondas. He bought my grandma's car when she died (a 2001 automatic Accord) which he loves and will probably keep until the wheels come off. His former car is a manual 1995 Honda Civic EX coupe, bought new by my aunt. My family tends to keep cars for a long time, recycling them between members, and the car of choice ever since the 1980s is Honda.

It is a lovely car. I suppose when it was just a family car, I never noticed how nice the paint looked. It's such a bright, eye-scorching candy apple red that it looks slightly juvenile, which suits me wonderfully. I learned through some research that the EX model had the same 1.6L VTEC engine as the Civic Si, which was good for 125 horsepower. Not too shabby in the coupe body, which only weighs about 2400 lb and has a surprisingly taut ride and precise handling. It even has the same four-wheel discs as the Si. Who knew? I love how the EX, unlike the Si, has no styling touches that identify it as a sporty model that can scream its way up to nearly 7000 rpm.

Unfortunately, my brother doesn't drive, and my sister doesn't want to learn to drive the manual (why not?). This means that this car is just a second car for my dad, not earmarked for anyone else.  So, as the most magnanimous and wonderful father that he is, he will give me this car to keep once I have mastered driving it. I do need to master it pretty well because my home in Texas is about 1300 miles away from my hometown in Ohio. My departure was affected in a rental vehicle slightly before Christmas; I must return as soon as possible to get back to my job, and I have not arranged a return rental. This Civic EX is how my dog, belongings, and I will get back.

For those who are interested in learning manual, I think my dad's lesson plan was the best possible. You need to start out in a parking lot where you can't hit anything. Just practice the takeoff. You need to push in the clutch all the way (it feels like your foot will go through the firewall until you get used to it) to start the car. To get the car in motion, select first gear with the clutch in, and then begin to let the clutch out until you start to feel it "catch"- this is when it starts to transmit power from the engine to the wheels. Unless you give it some gas, it will drop the idle speed so precipitiously that the car stalls, and you judder forward in embarrassment. At the moment that the clutch starts to engage, slow down on the clutch: release it VERY slowly, while pressing down on the accelerator to get the revs up a little bit. After a few hours, you should be able to do this very smoothly. Doing this reliably and smoothly is absolutely crucial before doing anything else with your manual car.

Shifting up is the easy part. You can play with the gear stick in neutral with the clutch in, and find out how it "feels" to get first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and reverse. Even if you make a stupid mistake going from second to third, and end up in neutral (as I once did), all you'll get is a free-revving engine to remind you that you're an idiot, and just push the clutch in again and slot it in correctly. You'll slow down a bit, but it's not the end of the world.

The next step in my dad's instruction was to let me drive us home. It was a few miles in a medium amount of traffic over fairly low-speed roads. In such cases you will be working the gearbox a lot. I got us home safely but slowly. Since then we haven't driven together once. He gave me one day and since then I have had free access to the keys. He knows I can drive a car already, so it's my responsibility to figure out the new tranny. I've kept at it for the past three days.

Shifting down is a little trickier. I am not yet to the stage where I'm worried about the best performance driving method, so I haven't tried "heel and toe" downshifting. Downshifting simply isn't something you do all that often on the road. But when you do need to downshift at speed (not just when slowing down for a low-speed corner) you need to understand that the lower gear will require a higher engine speed than the higher gear did. That means there's a big leap in engine speed and to get a smooth change, you should first "match revs" by giving some more throttle as you downshift. Your clutch will appreciate this, I'm told.

It all sounds like a lot of work. Sometimes it feels like a lot of work. But it's work that needs to be done. If you do it yourself, then you really are in control of everything that the car does. Every single time I parked and finished a drive, I realized that I hadn't done anything but drive. There's time enough to adjust the radio or the ventilation, but that's about it. No room for texting, chatting on the phone, or eating while driving. As I pull away from every light, I'm looking for ways to improve my driving habits to optimize economy and smoothness. It isn't distracting to have a manual. Quite the contrary. If you have to row your own gears, it makes you very involved in the driving process, which inevitably causes you to be a better driver.

The internet tells me that new cars available in the United States for the 2012 model year, only 6% of them will have manual transmission offered. It seems that for at least a decade, manuals have been present in less than 10% of all cars sold. Even as late as the mid 80s, more than half of males buying new cars chose manual shift. Women have always preferred automatic on the basis of its "ease of use" and "simplicity", to use language that would be instantly comforting to an old-school sexist. Perhaps there is something to be said for men keeping the "stick shift" something of a gentlemen's club, but that implies that they must maintain the monopoly by teaching their sons. Evidence suggests that just 11% of young men drive manual transmission cars in 2011, as compared to more than 30% in 1998. This is what I would call laziness, and I call on women to help fill the ranks of manual-supporters. I'm happy to report that the internet also says that manual transmission knowledge has actually become more common among women over the past 20 years, though they still overwhelmingly prefer automatic.

May I suggest that Americans make an effort to re-acquire this skill? If you once knew how to drive stick and can't anymore, buy or borrow a car that has it, and teach yourself again. If you never learn how to drive manual, you don't really know how to drive a car. I have heard this kind of talk from car blogs and websites for years, but I always dismissed it. Now I understand what they're on about. Your children deserve to have this skill. The greatest risk is that there won't be enough manual cars for the future generations to learn to drive in. We need to buy manuals and tell manufacturers to keep making them. If they stop making them, the skill will become extinct, and it will be our faults for not buying a manual in the first place.