Manual Transmission

Caddy

So, I've been thinking about cars and trucks lately. I went with a friend to look at cars, she wants to find something that gets better gas mileage. A very good thing, but I think mostly it's about saving money. My friend drives a mini-van now and it does fairly well around town 15-20 miles per gallon, which for a van with a fark load of room is good, is it great? Nope, but not too bad. She would like something that got around 30 mpg around town. Cool, what get's that kind of mileage? Small cars, really small cars. Want to have some fun? Go look for a car and tell them that you want something fuel efficient. We had 2 different sales people tell us about the Chevy Impala and they said it gets good mileage around town. True, but low to mid 20's isn't that great. And to be honest the Impala ain't what it used to be, it's a boring front wheel drive slushbox, not the cool ass mid 90s Impala's. Oh, Chevy what happened? Well that's another story. So we end up looking at a bunch of tiny cars, in comparison to the van.(Note: I drive a Ford Contour, which is small, but not the smallest car out there). Well, we test drove a few cars and even one truck, a Ford Ranger, and I don't think there was anything that really impressed my friend. Me either. A bunch of slushbox, beige cars. Slushbox? Yep, an automatic transmission. When did it become so hard to find a manual transmission? Yes, I know that the automatics have come a long way and they are getting close to the same mileage as a manual transmission but you lose a lot. Where is the excitement? I love rowing through the gears. Yes, some of you hate them because, oh, I'll get stuck in a traffic jam, I do a lot of intown driving. Guess what I do both of them. So what! If you don't ride some ones bumper in a traffic jam you actually can do quite well. I like to play a game of see how few times I can push the clutch in when I'm in bumper to bumper traffic. I don't want to have to push the clutch in and come to a stop but if I have too? No big deal. To me there isn't much I like about driving except shifting gears and really feeling like I'm in control, revving the engine, taking turns, and coming out in a low gear and stomping it! So, driving an automatic is boring to me. I am very glad my parents taught me how to drive a stick shift, and I learned lots of new words and sayings driving with my Dad.

So, now that I've completely and utterly bored you with that diatribe I'll finish up with what I was thinking about the other day driving along. 

If any of you are familiar with the Flying Spaghetti Monster, bless his noodly goodness, you'll know that the planet has been warming as the number of pirates in the world has gone down. My thought was that, in the USA we've seen the number of manual transmission cars reduced to few and far between and at the same time we've seen a skyrocketing obesity rate. Coincidence? I'm not sure. In conclusion, I like to shift gears, even in the old Ford truck with the 3 speed formerly on the column transmission. Now there are probably a lot of other factors in my crazed conclusion but keep in mind, if you sat in bumper to bumper traffic 5 days a week and had to push the clutch in and out, in and out, you might get sick of that shit and move closer to work, get home sooner, and have time to walk, exercise, play in the yard with your kids or dog or maybe cat, or you know do things with you significant other.(Ultimate Frisbee). And you would get exercise with out thinking about it. So, lose weight buy a stick shift. I've heard good things about the Fiat.

MetalArtDude receives no compensation for any mention of any of these vehicles but if your company would like to send me something it would be appreciated, a lot. ;-)

And some pics from one of my last hubcap hunting trips!

Chrysler

Dodge Truck