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I have a fuckin' dolt of an uncle who was trying to tell me that points ignition is better than electronically controlled ignition. Like??? Yeah dude I love adjusting my spark timing by hand it's so much fun 🙄
And more moving parts that wear out, yay!
I'm guessing here, but it could be the feel of direct control and accomplishment. If it goes out, you can fix it. If you adjust it, you control it.
Manual transmission gives you that feeling of complete control of the vehicle. If you keep it in 2nd, it stays in 2nd. Whereas drifting around in an automatic is possible, the feeling isn't the same. If you exceed the limited rpm, the system kicks in and shifts to 3rd.
It's more of a pride/accomplishment/feeling than a fact. The fact is, automatic vehicles are more efficient in most cases. But people (myself included) prefer manuals for the feeling of control.
Maybe that's the same with your uncle and his knowledge and skill.
So I actually prefer manual transmission myself, but there is no reason to prefer points. They're super frustrating. It would be like going backwards from fuel injection to carburetors. Like I'm a tinkerer don't get me wrong but some stuff is just... worse
Ignition, not transmission. In old cars, there'd be a contact that span round and touched other contacts to trigger the spark plugs at the right time. In a modern car, that's done electronically, and so doesn't start out and need replacing, and can vary the spark timings based on things like speed and temperature while the engine's running instead of just when you have the bonnet open.
I was using it as a comparison is all. But thanks because I actually don't know much about the ignition portions.
automatic vehicles are more efficient
I find that very hard to believe when I can keep my car from unnecessarily downshifting when going up a slight incline. Or putting it in neutral while coasting.
Hell when I first got my car the avg mpg was 21mpg and after driving it for a few months I've gotten it up to 30.
This is obviously anecdotal evidence so if anyone has more info on it that'd be great
There's a few articles out there. A search on Google scholar might show some more results but I just clicked one of the first ones for, "automatic vs manual transmission efficiency"
To the driver, a continuously variable transmission (CVT) operates a lot like an automatic. You don't have to operate a clutch, and you simply put the car in drive to go. Unlike manuals and automatics, however, CVTs have infinite combinations of gear ratios. What that means is that a CVT can always send power to the wheels from the engine in the most fuel-efficient way possible.
Are today's manual transmission cars more efficient than automatics?
At least based on fuel efficiency, an up to date automatic will be more fuel efficient. A manual will always be more fun and have a place in my heart.