I agree with B Nystrom… I was able to disable the autocorrect on the traction control in my 2009 Forester after it nearly killed me. I had the car sliding around a corner in a nice skid with the rear end braking a little loose… From behind the snowbank there looms a plow stuck across the travel lane… The car was determined it ought to go straight and ergo right into the side of the snowplow truck… Fortunately I was able to turn it to the right to pass in back of the plow truck on the shoulder.
All this electronic crap is not a DIY job for you to fix either. Gone are the days you could literally climb in the engine and maintain it yourself.
I still hate the ABS in my truck. When it comes on, I used to think something had gone wrong. Now I recognize what it is right away but I still instantly take my foot OFF the brake when it happens. I used to pulse the brakes instead, similar to braking a mtb on an extremely loose, steep, tight turn downhill. It worked well and I avoided skidding.
The ABS has never stayed on long enough for me to estimate whether it would be better than the old pulsing method. But sometimes it kicks on for something that is of no consequence, such as a tiny bit of gravel on the road, in a very small spot. Without the ABS, any skid from braking on that would stop in a split second anyway.
Manual transmissions can be fun, but for daily driving, which usually includes in-town driving, I much prefer automatic transmissions. Clutch usage tires my calves and ankles. Traffic jams really suck with manual transmissions, at least it did with the 1970 models that I drove. Modern manuals may be less demanding of the legs than older models, but I haven’t driven a manual transmission in over 20 years and I don’t miss them.
I also prefer the shifter on the steering column, rather than on the console. Consoles are for drink holders and clutter : )
I learned to drive in a pickup with a “three on the tree” manual shifter.
As we age, not that any of us do, the newer safety features can be very helpful. My wife insisted that her new Camry have them. I don’t think she needs them yet, but who knows?
A friend’s wife has had 4 minor collisions over the last few years, all her fault. So far her new Camry has prevented any . I can’t imagine what the insurance cost must be.
String, I went from almost zero of these new safety features to a fair amount of them in one car change, partly because I wanted to lurch my wreckers along until they had a chance to smooth out glitches in the new stuff. So I skipped the early issues that I have heard from other drivers.
But one thing that it took no more than a couple of weeks to find out, in general the sensors on the car see and respond to a problem sooner than me. The car will see a car inappropriately stopping in front of me when I have not seen the brake lights due to sun glare for ex. This is I think a good thing as we get older. You can then choose to disagree with the car, but at least you were alerted.
I do talk to the car more. Most frequent is what the hell is your problem when it won’'t lock because I have left the keys inside or pushed the wrong button. Still not slick with the push button start. The second is what the hell are you doing when the collision system starts to kick in or the side or rear camera sensors make the car start bleeping. Latter couple happen a lot, because they can see around corners backing out and I can’t.
I leaned very quickly to just stop the car. Even if I haven’t sussed it out yet the car is correct, there is something there. Granted it is occasionally a neighbor’s garbage bin. But better to know.
I’ve always been a good driver (as in attentive, defensive and strategic) thanks to my Dad’s instruction – he was a jeep and truck driver during the European campaigns in WW II and really knew how to handle any vehicle in snow and ice. Other than being rear-ended a couple of times by inattentive other drivers, I have had no collisions in 52 years of driving which I calculate has equalled over 700,000 miles. At least 500,000 of those miles were with manual transmission vehicles, ranging from a Beetle to a BMW to a full sized pickup truck.
I will say that it wasn’t until I took a couple of weekend long high-speed driving schools during my mid thirties that I really gained full control and awareness of what a car would do and how I could control it. My boyfriend during those years was a gear head and sports car club member and the club would sponsor these training sessions with professional instructors on a rented road racing track (unlike the standard oval track, these have multiple curves and “chicanes” (linked turns) combined with straightaways, more like driving a winding country road.) The turns had piles of old tires alongside in case you skidded off the road and you wore a full helmet and had the tire pressure adjusted to improve grip. You drove with an instructor in the seat beside you who had first driven you through the course several times at increasing speeds while talking you through what they were doing.
Being in a situation where you can legally drive your car as fast as it will go and being shown how to choose a line and control it safely in tight turns and skids tunes you to the feel of the vehicle in a way you never could safely in daily driving on public roads. NO, it did not tempt me to drive faster in the aftermath, just more confidently and safely. I’ve been able to avoid a lot of what would have been collisions or off-the-road skids since then.
If you can find a high speed driving course in your area, I highly recommend taking one. Local SCCA chapters tend to offer them (Sports Car Club of America).
My father was a boat driver in WW II in the South Pacific. From the late 40s to retirement he drove government cars with interceptor engines. I forget how many, but over a million miles on the job . No wrecks. My only wreck was hitting a deer at 60 mph in college because I got sleepy.
We had good teachers.
I don’t mind some of the high tech stuff on the new vehicles, but one thing they haven’t figured out yet is how to deal with a back seat driver who really doesn’t even sit in the back seat. My wife is always on me about something as if I’m not aware of what is gong on. If I’m going one mile per hour under the speed limit, I’m poking. If I don’t use the turn signal when there isn’t another car within ten miles, I’m breaking the law. If I don’t burn rubber when the light turns green–what am I waiting for? Believe me, I am a very cautious and very good driver–if I do say so myself. I learned to ride motorcycles when I was very young and still do and after 63 years of riding–only one minor mishap. You learn to ride very defensively, or you don’t survive.
I don’t mean to say that my wife isn’t occasionally helpful, but she doesn’t seem to know the difference between being helpful and being an irritant. The good thing is that she can’t stay awake very long when we’re taking a drive. It must be a complete mystery to her how I manage to get around without her supervision. One thing that should be mandatory in vehicles is a compass on the passenger side, so the copilot would have some notion of direction. I’m always getting instructions to turn here, or turn there, when I know which way is which, but she obviously has no sense of direction at all. The great wonder to me is why she hasn’t learned after all these years that I do know where I’m going, or at least have a good idea of which way is north, south , east and west.
I had a conversation yesterday with a friend who had rented a new Camry. It had all the new bells and whistles. He said he had no idea that he was such a bad driver. The ‘smart’ Camry ‘corrected’ him a LOT.
Rex, for most of these features you can set them to high, medium or low sensitivity in addition to turning them off. You can even turn off traction control in my 2018 with one push of a button. It is possible that the rental place or a previous driver had set them all to high sensitivity. For ex I have to set my lane sensing control down if I am going to be driving winding, narrow country roads. I won’t make it more than several miles before the car tells me to take a rest and pops up an image of a coffee cup. I set it back up for long highway drives.
If all you are doing is using a car for a rental, the incentive to go thru the manual and find out how to reset them is obviously limited. And if you aren’t used to such chatty cars, even the beeps you probably do want to get for cars approaching on both side are going to feel like a lot. Unless you are enough of a senior citizen to turn off your hearing aides.
I guess I am different than most here. I love automatic transmissions!
I am probably the oldest here and there was no such thing as automatic transmissions when I got my license and I was stuck with manual for many years.
I got my automatic many years ago and as far as I am concerned I wouldn’t have any thing else and you couldn’t pay me to have a stick shift.
With that said: I hate all the electronic useless computerized extras and the fact that the entire vehicle is being run through the radio and I also hate that it is impossible to find some simple item in that stupid two inch thick manual that has five chapters on “safety”, and another five on the radio.
In closing; why is it that every time we find the perfect canoe/kayak/bike/ski carrying vehicle when it wears out we can’t replace it with the same ??? (showing my age!)
Hey Jack, Don’t get me wrong. I don’t hate automatic transmissions. The problem is that I’m a miser. I’m way more an MPG guy than an MPH guy. I drive little 2.0 to 2.5 liter four-bangers to save on gas. When you marry those little engines with an automatic it feels like you need to get out and push sometimes. We also had a bad experience with a car we had with an automatic. I think the problem was mostly due to it being a Chrysler product rather than the automaticness of the transmission.
Don’t laugh, but that choice has occurred to me when pondering how to get around after I am not safe to drive. No public transit goes to or near my home.
There are so many agricultural properties here that riding a donkey into town would not be totally weird.
I doubt the donkey would help lift the kayak to the launch, though.
@Rex said:
Hey Jack, Don’t get me wrong. I don’t hate automatic transmissions. The problem is that I’m a miser. I’m way more an MPG guy than an MPH guy. I drive little 2.0 to 2.5 liter four-bangers to save on gas. When you marry those with an automatic it feels like you need to get out and push sometimes. We also had a bad experience with a car we had with an automatic. I think the problem was mostly due to it being a Chrysler product rather than the automaticness of the transmission.
Probably that first “Fluid Drive” that the old Dodge came out with. It was just before the auto transmissions
It’s nice to know that I’m not the only one who feels the way I do. Unfortunately, we don’t have much influence on car manufacturers or the idiots in the government who mandate this crap on new vehicles. My current car should be good for at least another 5 years, but I’m not looking forward to dealing with this nonsense when the time inevitably comes. I suspect that there is much more disabling of features and pulling of fuses in my future.
I understand from personal experience that “slushboxes” are a significant convenience in urban areas. Fortunately, most of my driving is suburban, rural or highway, where I can benefit from the advantages of a manual transmission.
Don’t laugh, but that choice has occurred to me when pondering how to get around after I am not safe to drive. No public transit goes to or near my home.
There are so many agricultural properties here that riding a donkey into town would not be totally weird.
I doubt the donkey would help lift the kayak to the launch, though.
A donkey with a kayak trailer, or better yet, a mule. Sounds like you live in a nice area.
a friend ask me if I wanted a supercar experience at our local NASCAR track for xmas. Choice of the likes of late model Ferrari, Porsche and Lambos after I thought about it I declined as it would take me all the laps figuring out how to work the car and those were not my dream cars… Now if they offered Shelly Cobras or c1/c2 Corvettes I would jump at it as at least I would know how to shift them.
Why do they shift with paddles and what are those?
Old School… The poster on my wall was a '50 Merc… Remember “Rebel without a cause”
