I can hold mine in (or select) any old gear manually, I choose - with compression braking, etc. Any modern autos lock-up the torus quite quickly == no-slip ergo same or (yes) better mileage than stick. Myths from the early days of slush-o-matics persist, although there seem still to be many newish Murican auto-trans that have a hard time breaking 50K miles without a rebuild. {ugh} (OTOH My particular not-US model is known to go >200 K MILES if not mercilessly abused via dirty fluid, etc. At least one is at 300K on original.)

Final knell too - it can cost more now to fix a std. than an auto [!], at least here, and clutch replacement is a bear in too many designs, adding to the cost. Synchros seem to wear faster than all that stuff crammed into an auto-xmiss. Defies logic, that - but there you are.

As one who has owned most-all stds, I Love my 4-speed auto, even without many traffic jams as justification. It's also smart enough to change shiftpoints if I'm standing on it, and I can drop to 2nd at any speed - and have the xmiss shift right on down from 90ish at sane (but in that case: hi-RPM) points, as I brake. All-in-all, IMO best of both worlds. BUT

I wouldn't want one on any motorcycle, where the minute-feel of road surface is obv much more important.

My 3 NF


Ashton Manuel Fangio