After driving the same car for 16 years, I bought a new one!

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Thanks Mark, let us know when you are back in PS, perhaps we can come visit again if our work schedule allows.

Thanks Ralph, unfortunately when I clicked the link it wanted me to subscribe in order to see the article.

Thanks Dan. Fortunately with the Magna-Ride adjustable suspension, while yes it can be stiff on the “track” settings, fortunately the other settings are not, even with the 18” wheels/tires. The seats are firm-ish, but extremely comfortable, even when I drove 4+ hours each way to / from Las Vegas.
 
The Article

I hit my limit of NYT articles just now.  I copied this from the SJ Mercury on line since I'm a subscriber.  Proper credit given to Farhad Manjoo at the bottom.  I hope that's kosher.  Here it is:

 

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I’ve been driving for nearly 30 years, but until recently, I hadn’t ever changed my car engine’s oil by myself. Of course I hadn’t: By the time I got my first car, in the mid-1990s, cars had long since become reliable enough that you could go years without popping the hood. In Southern California, where I grew up, there’s a quick-lube place on just about every other corner. Owning a car meant pulling into one as regularly as you visited a dentist, catching up on old magazines in the lounge as a technician mucked about under your ride for a half-hour before you went on with your day.

 

But a month ago, figuring I may not have many more chances, now that oil-free electric cars are becoming the norm, I decided to jack up my car and do it myself. The process wasn’t nearly as messy as it might sound and, thanks to YouTube, was pretty simple, even for a lube noob. I was able to drain the spent oil, pour in new oil and pop out and replace the filter without a hitch.

 

I didn’t save any time or money doing it on my own — the equipment I had to buy was more expensive than paying to have the oil changed, and I’ve still got to take the dirty oil to a service station for proper disposal. But for the uninitiated, I’d recommend trying a DIY oil change at least once. Decked out with cameras, touch-screens and microprocessors, modern cars can feel like entirely digital devices, little more than iPhones on wheels. However, there’s nothing like replacing a stream of gooey sludge with a bottle of fresh motor oil to remind you of what anachronistic marvels our gasoline-burning cars really are.

 

The fossil-fuel-powered internal combustion engine is slowly on its way out — and good riddance. As I’ve written before, it’s long past time we replaced these inefficient, pollution-belching, climate-warming beasts with other ways of getting around. And even if electric cars are no panacea, they’re a huge improvement over their gassy predecessors.

 

But let’s not put gas-powered cars out to pasture without a proper farewell. Gasoline cars are among the last remnants in our daily lives of the pistoning industrial age — machines powered not by quietly streaming electrons but by noisy, fiery explosion, by sequential gears and timing belts, by the primal growl of thermal expansion. America’s overreliance on cars has been ruinous, but as we celebrate another national birthday, let’s remember, too, how the gas-powered car helped realize a quintessentially American idea of liberty: the freedom to roam just about anywhere you please.

 

Yes, I’m romanticizing the automobile, and yes, the poetic way the automotive industry wants us to think about cars is rarely reflected in the misery that is daily urban commuting.

 

But as critical as I’ve been of cars, I can’t deny loving driving and loving it in a primal way — loving the thrum of a revving engine, loving slaloming in and out of turns on a windy country road, loving simply going very far, very fast, conveyed by fire.

 

And here’s another confession: I’ve never felt anything approaching this sort of exhilaration in an electric car.

 

Electric cars are quieter, more efficient, less polluting and easier to maintain and generally even accelerate more quickly than their gas counterparts.

 

But boy, can they be dull. The fastest electric car I’ve driven, Tesla’s Model S Plaid, is also the fastest car I’ve ever driven. The Plaid can go from a dead stop to 60 mph in about 2 seconds.

 

Yet I’ve driven gas-powered cars half as fast that were twice as fun.

 

On a weekend road trip not long ago, I rented one of my dream cars, a manual-transmission BMW M3. The Bimmer isn’t nearly as quick as the Tesla — it needed almost five seconds to get to 60 — but because it’s lighter, more nimble and louder and its engine quivers like a purring cat as you slide from gear to gear, the M3 felt alive in a way unmatched by anything Elon Musk has ever made.

 

None of this is to suggest we should keep the internal combustion engine around any longer than necessary. I yearn for silent roadways and pristine air, for the end of oil wars and pump-price politics, for corner gas stations and oil-change shops to be replaced by charging stations, independent bookstores and Boba tea spots. (A coastal liberal can dream!) The internal combustion engine must die.

 

Still: Long live the internal combustion engine!

 

Farhad Manjoo is a New York Times columnist.

 
 
Hard to believe that GM is still putting out MT

But, glad to know they are - an AT in a sick ride like this would be like kissing your good looking cousin.

Are you keeping the Camry, or did you trade it/sell it/donate it?

--Chris
 
Congrats on the new ride!  We actually traded back in October.  As much as I loved our Volvo S80 that got almost 40mpg, I am getting to the point where I need something a little higher off the ground.  I love my commuter car, 2001 VW New Beetle TDI, but I feel like a sardine crawling out of a can when I get out.  For its fuel mpg I can tolerate it since it's just my work car.  But our vacation car...we've always had Lincolns and Cadillacs, a couple of Mercedes....we got an Acura MDX AWD and absolutely love it.  It rides as good or better than our Lincolns did.  Nothing like the smell of a new car.....happy for you.  I know how it feels!
 
Wow that is quite the change there... I'm not sure I could see it as a daily driver but it would be fun to drive one, especially on the track!

Interesting they add a 0-60 timer in the instrument cluster. Somehow that strikes me as a potential liability issue.

Years ago when I bought my 750 GSX-R I got a track day class as a spiff with the purchase. The cool part was at the time I was working as a mechanic for a local club road racer and we were racing at the same track (Brainard Int Raceway here in MN). I got to leave my shiny pristine motorcycle at home and was able to ride our GSX-R race bike for the class. Pity they had to put a chicane 3/4 way down the front straightaway, I couldn't get the last 500 RPM out of the bike so I topped out at ~150mph.

Congratulations & Stay safe!

I have kinda lost any interest in fast vehicles after owning that bike for years. Ultimately I learned that a slow vehicle driven fast is a lot more fun than a fast one driven slow. I have finally had all the tickets fall off my record lol. 0-60 in 2.6 seconds (in 1st gear) is a sure way to aquire paperwork from the PD...
 
 

 

Ralph, thank you for posting the article, I really appreciate it!

I don't agree with how he makes cars sound like they are STILL extreme gross polluters (like cars from 60-70 years ago) and if we make all of the internal combustion vehicles go away, then all global warming will stop (my words).

 

Chris, LOL actually the 10 speed auto they put in these cars are pretty good AND it will accelerate more quickly both 0-60 and 1/4 mile.   When I booked the V-Performance driving school, cars with the manual transmission were "sold out" for the dates I went.  Honestly I felt the auto was really great for the track as it allowed me to focus more on all other aspects of getting the car around the track as smoothly as possible.  But would I trade my manual trans for the auto?  Hell would have to freeze over first, LOL!  I still have the Camry and am driving this to / from work most week days.

 

Greg, Thank you!  I really enjoy the car!  I drove it to Las Vegas (4 hours each way) for the driving school, had the suspension set to "tour" and it was very comfortable.... tho not as cloud-like as a big Lincoln or Cadillac, but still very comfortable.  A friend of mine works for Honda and often has an Acura MDX Type S for his pool car.  We have ridden with them going to dinner and yes, at least the back seat is very nice and comfortable!

 

Hello Phil!  THANK YOU!   I drove it pretty much daily for the first month or so and I love driving it.  I could very easily drive it daily, but I haven't had the chance to get the ceramic coating for the paint yet.  As such I don't like it sitting in the parking lot as work, with all the industry around us and all the misc crap that falls out of the sky and settles on paint.  BTW... not only does it have the 0-60 timer, it has a G-force meter, line-lock for the front brakes and launch control!

Bikes: I have a GSX 1100 G (3 year only model), which is much more a"sports touring" bike, but still quick.  I ran it down a drag strip a couple times, with my big a$$ on it and trying to keep the keep the front wheel on the ground when I launched it... managed a 12.12 @ 118 mph.

 

For anyone interested, this is two of the many laps I did at the Cadillac V-Peformance Academy, via the PDR (performance data recorder) built into the car I was driving.

<span class="video-url-fadeable style-scope ytcp-video-info"> https://youtu.be/mZm6LnBVAto </span>
 
Camry Hybrid

I have mine still and it is 8 years old. Not quite as good as new, but still is a great car. People are always impressed while driving it. However, the same bug bit me. I ended up purchasing a new 23 4Runner Off Road Premium. Life is too short not to drive something you thoroughly enjoy, and especially something without as much personality! Enjoy the Caddy! I really like it!!
 
Not in the same league by any stretch of the imagination

Kevin, I thought you might find this interesting. The upcoming 2024 Mazda3 S Premium sedan will only be available with stanard transmission. The other trims in the Mazda3 will have auto transmissioon.
 
The main reason why manual transmissions are dying is there's just too damn much traffic, traffic lights, and stop signs. It's also takes more effort to eat/drink/talk/text. It gets old pretty fast constantly rowing through gears non stop day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, decade after decade in a daily driver. I bought manual transmission vehicles for reliability reasons when I was young. Treat them gently, change the oil every 30K miles, and they can easily outlast the vehicle twice over while achieving better fuel mileage. But if you're driving them hard and bangin' through the gears at redline (like most idiots do), expect clutch replacements and transmission rebuilds in your future. That doesn't include axle replacements (FWD) or U-joints/center support bearings/diff/axle shafts/bearings (RWD).

 

For 20 years, my work was 3.3 miles away but I hit 19 stop lights and 2 stop signs to get there, both directions. Most of the time, I used the freeway....which increased my distance to nearly 8 miles but it cut my stops (and aggravation) down by 70%. Even then, it still got old constantly shifting 6 days a week through town.

 

 
 
Yeah Dan, I commuted from Los Gatos to San Ramon for several years in a '97 VW Passat VR6 wagon with 5-speed stick.  I loved driving that car, but not in stop & go traffic.  I'd leave long gaps between myself and the car ahead of me on I-680 so I could crawl along in 2nd.  Fortunately, I had a cush job and a cool boss who let me work a 7-3:30 shift to avoid the worst of the traffic.

 

I had to rescue that car from Dave, who was murdering the clutch among other things.  It's still among the favorites of cars I've owned, though.
 
I agree with both Dan and Ralph about driving a stick in the heavy traffic in the Bay Area.  The last manual transmission car I owned was a ‘96 Toyota Tacoma with a 5 speed. I really loved that truck!  But driving the 10 mile commute home every night on Hwy 101 in the heavy stop and go traffic was too much for me.  My left hip was just starting to go bad, although at the time I didn’t know it.  But my left leg just ached to the core with the constant shifting in that bumper to bumper stop and go traffic and this was in ‘96, the traffic is way worse now 27 years later.

 

I traded the Tacoma for a ‘97 Honda Civic coupe with an AT and I haven’t owned a manual transmission car since.  Frankly, I think that 4 forward gears are plenty for a manual shift car.  Now there are manual transmissions with 6 speed transmissions and that’s just too damn much shifting.  My favorite manual transmission car that I ever owned was a ‘71 Ford Maverick with 3 on the three.  This car was easy as hell to drive in heavy traffic because I only needed to shift between 2nd and 3rd in heavy traffic, I could drive it in 2nd down to 10 mph without having it lug.  And I could easily adjust the clutch myself.  

 

It would be fun to have another old car with a 3 on the tree to drive just for the hell  of it, but my days of driving in heavy stop and go traffic with a 5 or 6 speed manual transmission are over.

 

Eddie
 
TMGPS

I'm a member of The Manual Gearbox Preservation Society

https://tmgps.org/

They have an active Facebook group as well.

I appreciate the control and the mechanical simplicity of having a non-automated transmission in my vehicles. My current 2010 Honda Fit has been the most reliable and really most fun car I have ever owned. Pity that a year or so after my model they added a 6th ratio to the box. I'm saddened that Honda has elected to drop the Fit model for North America so as to push sales of the Compact SUV HR-V model which is built on the same platform. America loves short wheelbase high CoG vehicles to make driving more dangerous, I digress...

This may be my last manual gearbox auto I fear as I really have no interest in sport model cars anylonger. Time marches on, I'm just glad I don't have to turn the crank on the front bumper to get the car running.

Photo of the spiffy TMGPS Sticker my car wears. They have logos in all common shift patterns so as to match the vehicle!

kb0nes-2023071713185608693_1.jpg
 
I would pay to join the TMGPS if they had a sticker with the column shift H pattern.  That's what my '50 GMC has and I really enjoy driving it.  So simple and easy, even without syncromesh.

 

I can't say the same for my 2003 Subaru Baja's 5-speed manual.  Even a rebuilt clutch didn't help much.  The gearbox is balky and the engagement is uneven.  It's fine in the upper three gears but getting there is annoying.  Per Subaru forums, that's supposedly just how their sticks are.  Still better than an automatic that won't allow the car to get out of its own way when attempting to accelerate up an inclined on-ramp to the freeway, though.
 
The only time I drove a vehicle with a manual trans was when I worked at that hardware store the summer of '77. It was a '69 or '70 Ford F-100 truck, and I hated driving it. Once when parking it by the dock, I let the clutch out, and it went forward and hit the wall. The manager wasn't very happy that I bent the grille and headlight trim.
 
I had several MT cars and loved them. Really a lot more fun. You feel more connected with the car.

But an MT in stop and go traffic gets really old, really quickly. No thanks.

But it's a moot point, really. If I continue with my present mileage I'll probably have my Cube with its CVT forever.
 
Traffic near any city has taken away all the fun...

and my old knees won't tolerate a stick anymore anyway, but when I want manual shifting fun I can still shift my '71 2 stroke Kawasaki bike with my foot, no problem.
And while our next (and last) car will be a Toyota electric SUV when they have just the one we want, the bike and our '69 Cutlass V8 will still be in the garage when I croak!

firedome-2023071911524902230_1.jpg
 
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