Newsgroups: rec.autos
Subject: Re: FLAME! Only a Manual!
From: derek@nezsdc.icl.co.nz (Derek Tearne)
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 92 20:01:08 GMT
Organization: Fujitsu New Zealand

In article <5891@balrog.ctron.com> smith@ctron.com writes:
>In article <1992Nov8.211005.10020@nezsdc.icl.co.nz>, derek@nezsdc.icl.co.nz (Derek Tearne) writes:
>
>>>this is a real life example of what i have been stressing.  EVERYONE should
>>>LEARN on a stick, as they can then drive EITHER!!..at their WHIM...but, 
>
>>Yeah right, EVERYONE should learn EVERYTHING.  Lets not leave out any 
>>of those driving skills.  We might be stuck in the middle of nowhere and 
>>the only vehicle available is an ARTICULATED LORRY,  or one of those TRACKED

[lots of my own stuff in caps deleted]
 
>Look, Derek, calm down, okay?  I've haven't seen so many exclaimation points
>outside of sci.environment. 

Actually I am quite calm.  I just thought i'd try putting lots of stuff in 
caps seeing as everyone else in this thread was!  sci.environment sounds like
FUN!
I was really trying to point out the absurdity of this discussion.

>The original poster was making a point about
>the relative likelihood of finding oneself faced with a stick shift.  

The original poster (or someone) was saying that you should learn to use
a manual in case there was an emergency and you needed to use the vehicle 
at hand.  In an emergency situation you will improvise or die.  

>Even today, a very large proportion of cars have them.  Last I checked, 
>relatively few even had 4-wheel drive, and even fewer were articulated 
>lorries. 

What is the proportion of Automatics to manuals in the US.  I assume there
must be more auto's otherwise this thread could never have started.  If
you don't think there are that many trucks on the road look again - they are 
big things with lots of wheels.  In an emergency situation on a highway in 
the middle of nowhere the most _likely_ vehicle to come along is some sort 
of a truck.

>And it [knowing how to drive a manual] 
>widens the choice of cars.  When you can drive either, you can seriously
>consider getting one to improve the mileage in a econocar, _or_ you can decide
>to stick with the automatic.  

Too true.  But I see know reason to berate people because they don't want to
or don't feel the need to learn to drive an auto.  It will limit their choice
- especially if they travel to almost any country outside the US - but that's
their decision.

>Knowing how to drive any of the others confers
>no such wide range of choices.  I have _yet_ to find camels for sale _anywhere_
>in Nashua, and I doubt they can be licensed for the highway, anyhow.

Try the local cigarette shop.  They usually sell Camels :-).

Seriously though, in an emergency you utilise what is available - you can't 
know what will be available.  Learning a specific skill i.e. manual shifting 
may be of no use whatsoever.  This cannot therefore be used as justification
for suggesting that people should drive manuals.

Just out of interest. In the US, given a make and model which offers 
manual or auto on an identical car, which would be more expensive?

>Larry Smith (smith@ctron.com)  No, I don't speak for Cabletron.  Need you ask?
>-
>Liberty is not the freedom to do whatever we want,
>it is the freedom to do whatever we are able.

Yep, I would definately agree with that.  Of course the limits of what we are
able to do are defined mainly by our (lack of) imagination - Oh, and perhaps 
the law.  


-- 
Derek Tearne.   --   derek@nezsdc.icl.co.nz   --    Fujitsu New Zealand   -- 
Some of the more aware dinosaurs were worried about the environmental
consequences of an accident with the new Iridium enriched fusion reactor.  
"If it goes off only the cockroaches and mammals will survive..." they said.