【Pacific Auto Network Industry Channel】I remember when I learned to drive more than ten years ago, it was a very humiliating thing to apply for the C2 automatic transmission, and everyone would think that only those who could drive the manual transmission Jetta could drive. After the author entered the car, I saw the changes in the transmission system in the past decade, the double clutch evolved from the scrap grade to "running fast", the CVT from soft egg dedicated to smooth and efficient and rapid, the AMT semi-automatic from popular to declining, and then there was a hybrid gearbox with a combined drive motor, and the manual transmission "as if" had never evolved.
Manual transmission only exists in cheap cars and sports cars?
Thanks to Rolls-Royce, I learned to start with a manual half-slope.
Many years ago, I opened a Venucia R50, went to Shenzhen with my wife to attend the wedding banquet of my classmates, started on the slope of the sinking tunnel of the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center, followed by a brand new unlicensed Rolls-Royce Gusta, on both sides of which are solid lines, and the goddess of celebration spreads her wings and tells me: If you slip back, God can't save you.
So I pulled the handbrake at the same time, put the clutch and bang the throttle, and forced the car to the top of the slope. Since then, I have understood that the true meaning of the half-slope start is to control the handbrake well, and I must not slip the car.
At that time, the author bought a manual transmission model not to practice good driving skills, purely did not have more than ten thousand yuan to buy automatic transmission, and the cost of manual transmission maintenance in the future is lower, saving almost 10 yuan per hundred kilometers (for me, a poor student who just graduated with a small salary of only a few thousand yuan is very important).
Later, the author drove a lot of manual small trucks and mini-vans, but also chatted with the driver's big brothers, everyone's common understanding is: the manual transmission to learn to slip only needs one or two weeks, after the pain is all advantages, when driving can be based on the passenger capacity and cargo capacity to judge the timing of the gear shift, maintenance costs are obviously very low, fuel money is saved is the cost of work. More importantly, many light commercial vehicles in the Chinese market only have manual transmission options.
The author has rented a number of cars in Europe to drive, and found a rule: today, when China's passenger cars are fully automatically transmitted, European manual cars still occupy such a high proportion. At first I mistakenly thought that Europeans liked a more sporty driving experience, but later I found that this was wishful thinking, and the reality was that Western European people also wanted to save money on cars and fuel.
Of course, Europe has a big advantage, their diesel engine is very advanced and environmentally friendly, before the Volkswagen diesel door to make a stinky reputation, "small displacement supercharged diesel engine + manual transmission + small body + hatchback" of the Typical European family car is my most favorite type, low price, can save fuel, low twist is not easy to turn off, but unfortunately China did not have to sell.
In addition to minivans and European grocery carts, the current model that can also be seen in the manual transmission is also a sport model. Before the Golf R was sprayed keyboard car because the manual version of fox RS/ST was not provided, golf R was therefore saddled with the insult of "silly fast".
Nowadays, BRZ and 86 are so hot in small circles, and manual models are a focus. The author has seen the BRZ order of the dealership in Guangzhou, and the naked car of 6MT + Rally Blue is the true love with the most tickets.
Manual transmission makes the driver more engaged
Just as the so-called "three pedals, real men", the biggest reason why the sports car group likes manual transmission is that it can control the speed of the engine by controlling the gear position and throttle depth, and get the output they want at the moment in the power curve and torque curve.
Of course, the "Fast and Furious" series of Hollywood car commercials also gives us a lot of "revelations", so that people who are racing too fast to lose their hair will only agree with manual gear - automatic gear may be fast, but that is the mother cannon.
There is also an advantage of the manual transmission, that is, after brushing the power that year, there is no need to rewrite the transmission program, and the manual gear can be opened directly, as long as the power of the brush will not be exaggerated to break the gears.
In fact, the "Fast and Furious" type of rotten street car film has been misleading young people, making them mistakenly think that running fast on the street is a good car or a good car skill. In fact, the only criterion for running fast is "fate", walking through the traffic in an unblocked field, ignoring any traffic laws, and the final result is that who is the most deadly, who runs the fastest.
Really fast speed machine, must be presented in the closed field, such as the Nürburgring North Loop lap list is a credible car performance list, and the manual car is difficult to rank on the New York North Lap speed list, after all, the faster manual shift action can not be compared to the current stage of the competitive automatic transmission, manual gear to the end is to play a so-called "sense of participation", by the way to help you practice muscle memory, so that you have more opportunities to communicate with the body.
What is "communicating with the car body"? For example, when I drive the manual transmission, the release of the clutch to the body vibration means that the clutch plate is combined, then I can gently step on the accelerator and put the clutch at the same time, and the car gradually becomes not shaky, and it is smooth. This is human-vehicle communication.
Because there is a human-vehicle communication link, the manual car will not be so boring to drive long distances, but if I choose, I choose the automatic transmission.
In fact, there is not much difference between driving manual transmission and automatic transmission on high speed, and I have also driven a manual transmission model with fixed speed cruise, and after the highest gear is stuck, you can continue to cruise.
The biggest difference between the two gearboxes is that in the urban congestion road conditions, manual transmission owners will step on foot cramps due to frequent stop-and-go, especially the garbage clutch of Nissan's low-end model that is "as thin as paper" (produced by Tangshan Gear Factory); the driving experience of automatic models will be more comfortable, that is, the old dry dual-clutch transmission is more likely to overheat.
The era of electrification and the indissoluble contradiction of manual transmission
Many friends should not have seen an interesting model - a pure electric car equipped with a manual transmission...
For example, Lifan EV650 magic version, equipped with 5 forward speed manual transmission, as a coach car launched on the market, coaches have said: This car is really good, next time goodbye. (Lifan: Okay, this is going to go out of business)
For example, Karry Automobile once launched the MPV model K50 EV, the motor output is very weak, only 57PS and 150N·m; on the other hand, only 4450m long K50 EV has weighed 1550kg, which is the weight of a BMW 320i.
Considering that the K50 EV is fully loaded with 7 people and a bunch of luggage, it will produce a very extreme case of small power and high weight, which is destined to be the embarrassment of "small horse-drawn cart". Therefore, Kerry equipped the K50 EV with a manual transmission, whether it is sporty or not, at least let the driver drive the car smoothly...
"C1 Electric Bee" is an unknown car name, based on the Changan Shenqi gasoline car modification, Sandian equipment independently developed by China New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd.
C1 electric bee is one of the cases of pure electric box logistics vehicles, due to the curb weight of up to 2195kg, the rated load mass is also full 1165kg, only with 75PS/190N·m weak motor can not be pulled at all, so it must be decelerated through the gearbox to increase the twist, in order to achieve 0-50km/h acceleration of 11 seconds of performance...
Putting aside these industrial wastes, pure electric vehicles do not need manual transmission, to the top only need to add a cruise gear on the reducer of a single forward speed, so that pure electric vehicles can get a more suitable motor speed ratio when cruising at high speed.
The advent of the electric era has solved the dilemma of China's automatic transmission industry very well, and the long-term technical blockade has finally become no longer important, because electric vehicles can bypass the technical barriers of automatic transmissions and directly solve the problem with the powerful torque of the drive motor.
In the past, buying an automatic car was usually more expensive than manual transmission for 10,000 yuan, and now it only takes 30,000 yuan to buy a Wuling Hongguang MINIEV electric car, which defaults to automatic transmission.
In addition, because China does not have an infinite speed highway, our maximum cruising speed is 120km/h, and most drive motors can cope with high-speed cruising without adding an additional deceleration gear.
The dwindling of manual transmissions cannot be avoided
The technology of automatic transmission is becoming more and more mature, and now some Honda CVT models have been more fuel-efficient than MT models with the same power, and the acceleration ability of Porsche PDK models is much stronger than that of MT models with the same power, and the advantages of manual transmission are getting smaller and smaller, but it does not mean that it will completely disappear.
Just now we mentioned that the manual transmission is cheaper, easier to maintain, easier to repair, more fuel-efficient (for most models), in addition, the manual transmission can also solve the problem of insufficient power of the cheap entry car, and friends who brush the power will also prefer the manual transmission model.
After manually blocking the habit, it will be smoother than the automatic transmission, of course, now that the automatic transmission technology is more and more mature, I dare not pack the ticket myself must be smoother than the automatic transmission.
The purpose of the BBA sales in China is basically not to provide manual transmission, the previous manual transmission 3 series has become a hot model, in addition to various brands of medium/medium and large cars basically do not provide manual transmission, you are difficult to climb on a 7-seat SUV to see a manual transmission.
Problems also arise, such as the Cadillac ATS-L I bought three years ago with automatic transmission, but this 8L45 gearbox is very silly, in order to save fuel, often too actively upshift, causing the vehicle to shake, the solution is manual downshift or give more throttle.
However, an automatic transmission that often requires you to operate manually to open smoothly is not as good as a manual transmission. So if the ATS is equipped with a 6MT manual, I will not hesitate to buy it, even if the 6MT and 8AT asking prices are as high.
Therefore, the final fate of the manual gear should be left to the low-cost small horsepower entry model, and the sports car in Western Europe that takes the retro route is estimated to stick to it for a while, and there is no other use - when a friend asks you to borrow a car, he tells him that you bought a manual gear, which is also a one.
(Text: Huang Hengle, Pacific Auto Network)