More re Compact SUV's

Regarding cars being so much better these days, some of the new improvements in cars make me crazy. My current work truck (2015 GMC pickup) has the worst headlights of any vehicle I have ever driven, by far, and there is no excuse for that kind of flaw these days. Anyway, I had a headlight burn out, and both high and low beams failed. I looked at the bulb and there’s only a single filament and two connectors. I asked a guy at the auto parts store what’s up with that (how the hell does it work?) and he said that by some miracle of modern science which he does not understand, computer control of the power going to the bulb determines whether it’s high or low beam. Seems like one more unnecessary feature to fail, but he said to be glad that I didn’t have a 2018 truck, because in that case, simply replacing a burned-out headlight costs $2,200 (and I bet it would cost twice that much to get it done by a GM dealer)!

I call the 2200 bill for headlight BS

Here looked it up. https://www.carid.com/2018-chevy-silverado-bulbs/

I read an article year or two ago how headlight technology was way behind other patrs of car development. DOT has limits I am sure they could make blinding headlights.

I had to rent an Altima one time and it had that continuously variable transmission. It felt like the poor engine was being lugged most of the time. I hated it. Do all cars with that transmission have that feel?

Oh yeah, “Improvements”. I know Subaru has had it forever but the ‘hill assist’ they put on cars with manual transmissions works as ‘hill hindrance’ for me. I went on YouTube and found instruction on how to disable it. Thanks YouTube! Another "improvement’… there’s no coolant temperature gauge; just an idiot light. Wonder if Subaru’s head gasket problems are due to folks driving around overheated and unaware? %$#@* engineers give me a little mpg needle but no temperature needle. The world would be such a great place if everyone would just do what I tell them to do.

Guideboatguy
Gear ratios matter. I never used the lowest forward gear in the 6 wheeler set up to haul a horse trailer unless I had a load of hay. And my recall is that I went directly to second gear in all or most of the four speed and up manual transmission cars to get out of a snowed in spot on the street. It is a place I still use the fake second gear on my auto transmission cars. But I am talking about continuing to have a standard transmission thru 12 years of daily city driving. It got to where I minded.

Headlights are a complaint I have in current cars. I look for replaceable halogen bulbs and open the hood to see if I can get my skinny hand in there to replace them. Hoping I can still. get away with it in this 2018 but it looks close. If you don’t like what the dealer puts in, you can often get better (brighter and with more range) bulbs from places like Advance Auto. I always carried replacement bulbs that were the first level upgrade from the basic ones in my 2007 Subie.

Rex
The lugging with CVT’s seems to depend on the manufacturer. Ford went to it early and the later model years I have rented are much better than the first year cars with it. I hear no complaints from current owners of Subarus with it. Toyota has been introducing the CVT in steps, they put it into the Corolla earlier and in the hybrid Rav4’s for 2018. In 2019 it is in all the Rav4’s. Car and Driver had complaints about acceleration in the 2018 Rav4’s but it was more on the HP than the transmission that was driving things. They are happier with the 2019’s there.

I agree about the hill holder thing. As my last standard transmission Subaru GL station wagon aged it got to be trickier to disengage the damned thing so I could move.

@Andy_Szymczak said:
I’m beginning to look for a new vehicle, but my 2009 Rav4 runs like new. Have 146K on it and everything works. Mine has a V6 and 4wd. I’ve been looking at the Hybrid Rav4 and Honda CR-V.

I looked at both. Really liked the CRV.

Celia, Comparing a Subaru with a 4-speed to a 1-ton truck with a 4-speed misses the point. I’ve never seen a compact car or any passenger car with first gear being a “granny gear” needed only for starting a heavy load or off-road. My Subaru was no exception, and starting out in 2nd gear on level ground in that car would have been mighty hard on the clutch, and doing so on any uphill slope would not even have been possible. First gear was not meant to be skipped. My point was that having a first gear that’s a little bit lower than normal eliminates the difficulty most manual-transmission cars have with stop-and-go traffic.

When it comes to getting out of a tough spot in snow, I’ve found that using low gear works best IF you have really good control of your throttle foot to keep the wheels turning dead-slow in spite of their tendency to break traction. Starting in second gear in any normal car (not a truck with a granny-gear low) means that the natural speed of the output is far too fast unless you slip the clutch, but the clutch isn’t made for that. In my experience it’s far better to prevent tire-slippage with precise throttle control at a dead-slow speed of tire rotation than by using the reduced torque of the next-higher gear as a crutch, though you can get away with that with an automatic. This might be one case where modern cars with fancy computer control of wheel-slippage have an advantage.

For that example I gave of $2,200 for a headlight in Chevy/GMC pickups, that’s not a case of an inaccessible bulb, but a case where the bulb is not replaceable in the first place. As to getting brighter bulbs, sadly, the lights on my company truck are designed so badly that making them brighter doesn’t even address the worst of the problems, which include a minimally-effective high-beam pattern that puts most of the additional light at an angle that’s far too high above where the low-beam shines to be of any use, and failure to provide any side-lighting to illuminate the places where a deer might run from, or where you might need to turn sharply into (on that truck, turning sharply means driving blindly into blackness).

At least manuals are offered in more cars than they are pickups. I’m hanging onto my manual Frontier as long as I can. It is far better for mountain driving, not to mention just plain more fun.

I drove a new F150 with the 2.7L Ecoboost and 10-speed auto with “manual mode.” While it gets surprisingly good mpg for a fullsize 4WD truck—and the dual turbo makes it accelerate really fast—I would still prefer having a true manual tranny with a clutch.

Pikabike, ain’t it amazing that we are at a point where manual trannies are easier to find in passenger cars than trucks? I would have never envisioned that happening.

Guideboatguy, you just confused the crap out of me. In your higher up post it sounded like you were saying that city driving was not a problem because you could go right into 2nd of needed. In the one replying to me you said that was a bad idea. Unless you are saying a shift into 1st can be less gentle and harder on the driver if it is set higher? I will have to take your word for it, I never noticed an issue there across any of the cars.

Of course you would never try that on a hill. I don’t see where l advocated for that.

My truck thing was responding to what you said in the higher post, that there were cases where the gears were set lower and it impacted how you used then. Not sure l shouldn’t apologize for agreeing with you, but I won’t.

As to how to drive a manual, l am reminded of my experience on car lots trying to get a guy to take me seriously. I drove various standards for over a decade and my clutches were never the weak link in the car. I used them with minimal wear, enough to get comments from mechanics about it. I am still often the only one in a group who can get into any standard transmission car and figure out how to drive it, unless I have to double clutch. Had to do that three years ago when there was a medical emergency at a dinner gathering.

The headlights you are talking about then are the ones l have thus far avoided, like in the Prius, that cannot be dealt with by popping in a new bulb. Friends who have ,Prius have been hit with a 300 tab when one light goes, though they also say it takes a long time to get there.

Thank god for hill holder. In Quebec City traffic in snow and slush you need all the help you can get. When I first drove manuals ca 1967 in Ithaca NY there was no such help at all and you just hoped the dude in back of you would not pull to your rear bumper on one of the many hills… Of course then bumpers were real.

Hills… I was taught to use the emergency brake as a hill holder. It works great when the brake control is at your right hand. Trickier if it’s at your left foot. I disabled the dumb ‘hill assist-hindrance’ on my Crosstrek after it caused my car to stall. Cars behind me honking. Me swearing. It was unpleasant.

Trucks with manuals… my son drives a Toyota Tacoma because it has a manual. We weirdos who like station wagons and manual transmissions just get fewer and fewer choices.

Rex, I had forgotten until you said this, but me too. I was forced to improvise with such a tactic on my road test for my license, the examiner took me to a Stop sign at the top of a short but steep hill with lousy sight lines in winter. Some snow was down. I tried once to handle it normally and had to immediately abort, was risking falling back. So I vamped and experimented with toggling the brake with the gas, can’t remember now what brake I used. It worked but I was also certain I had failed the test for trying something out of bounds. Was utterly surprised when we got back and I had passed.

I never disabled the hill holder but my recall is I had to have it reset at least once as the car got older.

I’ve never heard of a hill holder but my last manual was in the 80’s.
Remember driving my mom around San Francisco in a stick Mercury and her asking why I ever bought that stick shift.
I bought that car in Roswell, New Mexico and back in those days unless it was a high end loaded model the dealers didn’t stock automatics.
When I traded it in (in Florida) the salesman call everyone around to look at a Monterey with a clutch.

I too was taught to use the hand brake on hill starts and had to demonstrate it during my DL road test. That was a standard requirement even with automatics.

Hey grayhawk. I think Subaru has had the hill assist for a long time. The car senses when you’re stopped on a hill and it locks the brakes so you don’t roll into someone. The brakes are SUPPOSED to release when you take off. Sheeeit. The car stalled. I disabled the thing as soon as I got home. I just continue to use the parking/emergency brake lever at my right hand if I feel like I need it. The computers and sensors aren’t as good as me yet. Not in the car I got.

If someone is too close behind on a hill, you could always shift into Reverse while holding the brake down…BACK OFF, IDIOT!

I don’t know if anyone has already mentioned it, but some vehicles have now done away with the parking brake handle and the parking brake is foot operated (it takes a foot to set it and release it). So the geniuses added the hill holder. Well at least that is the case on some brands on some models. There is supposed to be a 2 second delay between the time that you remove your foot from the brake and press the accelerator. If you fail to hit the gas in that time delay, you will roll back unless you hit the brake again–I guess.

I thought our new Tucson had this device, but after thinking about it, I don’t believe it does, because we have the regular automatic transmission, which still has a torque converter. The models with the dual clutch 7-speed, do not have a torque converter–thus the hill holder. This is why I prefer a stick. But these days even that can be a PITA. In some vehicles, the whole engine assembly has to be dropped out of the vehicle to change the clutch.

There really needs to be a car/truck maker who believes in the KISS principle.

My last manual was a german 5 speed, I liked it.
What I didn’t like was the front wheel drive under hard acceleration.

I had just gotten my '98 F-150 with a 5 speed when I went paddling with a friend. The put in was just off a 4 lane intersection with a steep drop to the river.
I was a bit spooked about getting back on to the highway. I got caught by the light on the slope and someone pulled up right behind me. Now I was a bit more spooked.
The truck had a foot brake . I revved the engine, popped the brake and burned rubber across the highway.
I eventually got better with the clutch.