I drove a normal car yesterday

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
Yeh, Volvo xc £65K

But the yaris comes in at about £15k

Gearboxes are normally matched to the engine torque.
But if its an electric drive then gearboxes start to become surplus to need.

I always liked the old variomatic mopeds with centrifugal clutch just twist and go.....even manual boxes with same power would struggle up to keep up to 20mph and beyond, from a standing start.

[reohn2]

It isn't not better. The problem arises that we become dissatisfied to the point that we have lost sight of what that efficiency represents. That's a philosophical/moral question - how we find happiness. On a more practical level, greater efficiency can create its own problems such as electronic waste, the inability of the user to repair the item, the Boeing 737 Max issue etc. These are more arguable. But the OP began with an expression of dissatisfaction which, in the wider context, is simply absurd.

I take your point, but it doesn't have to be that greater efficiency means more waste though I agree that waste is a huge human problem,but it will be so long as we(the species)hang on to unbridled capitalism as a virtue/solution.
It's a problem we're now being forced to face after many many years of uncaring and defecating in our own bed as it were,one hopes the bed isnt so dirty it we can't sleep in it without harming ourselves from the toxicity of our own defection,though we may well be swapping one huge problem for another,time will tell if we have enough of it .

[Spinners]

Yesterday, I was driving Daughter1's car. It's a Ford B Max with a manual gearbox.
Good car, drove nicely, and was comfortable. No complaints whatsoever ............................. except ....................

Having owned and driven a Toyota Hybrid for the past couple of years, it's surprising to me that all cars don't have a modern automatic system like ours. Driving a manual car seems very old-fashioned, having to depress a clutch and move a gearstick to the correct gear. This day and age, it should all be automatically operated.

Driving our Hybrid, all you have is a Go pedal and a brake. Simple and easy, and I would never go back to a clutch and gear stick.

Why haven't gearboxes evolved? They are no different now to when they were first invented. Synchro, yes, even on 1st gear these days, but still basically the same.

Even if I won the lottery I'd still drive a manual. I have driven an automatic (and a Beemer at that) but they're not for me.

[Lance Dopestrong]

I'd I won the lottery I'd let some other bugger to drive me about. It's a chore.

[ambodach]

My present car is a manual Peugeot and I considered the auto version till I checked with my insurance. They wanted to bump up the premium by at least 50% for the auto version. No idea why as I could not get any reasonable answer. Last auto I drove was an old Peugeot 505 And before that a Daf pickup. Both pretty primitive by modern standards.

[Mike_Ayling]

on dumbing down - about 20 years ago we did a safe driving course where the presenters suggested that auto allowed the driver more time to concentrate on the road conditions ahead without having to worry about when gear the driver should be in.

They also suggested that when driving an auto one could use the left foot for braking as it might be a milisecond quicker than removing the right foot from the gas and moving it across to the brake.
All our family do this now but I have no idea what is taught in the driving schools now.

Mike

[pwa]

I have always enjoyed driving unfamiliar types of vehicle, getting to grips with new controls. The same as I do with bikes. I used to like taking a 4x4 up rough tracks, for work, using the extra lever to select 4x4 then making use of extra low gears and locked diff to move across rough ground without making ruts. With cars on road, manual or automatic are all the same to me. It's not as if changing gear manually requires any thought or effort. I've been doing it so long that it is now a reflex action.

[millimole]

ⁿ.
All our family do this now but I have no idea what is taught in the driving schools now.

Mike

My wife recently returned to driving after a layoff of a couple of years now that we've changed to an automatic.
To help regain her confidence she took a few refresher lessons with a local instructor (she passed her test in 1974) and it was single foot driving all the time. Two foot driving was mentioned, but ruled as a severe error, likely to result in a driving test fail.
As an aside, I now find driving much more relaxed and slightly more pleasant without changing gears when in traffic (as someone who has come to detest driving)

I'm a trendy consumer. Just look at my wobbly using hovercraft full of eels.

[Bonefishblues]

I understand that, at least initially. Anyone who has also pressed the brake in lieu of a clutch in an auto may empathise!

[sjs]

Years ago when looking for my Ford escort replacement a local village garage had Astra estates and Ford fusion mini MPVs for sale. The fusion cars were 2 autos and 1 manual. The garage owner told me that the performance figures for the auto were better than the manual. Ford designed it that way. Have no idea if true. I bought a really decent and reliable Astra estate instead.

I've driven a grand Picasso with their semi auto / manual system. Didn't like it. I think I like giving my left foot something to do. If I got an auto I would still is accelerator and brake with the right foot. That's too instinctive to change without effort. Besides the citroen semi auto box didn't do well with the hill I went up from standing start on my test drive. Put me off. Obviously other systems will be better.

We have a Grand Picasso, and I agree the auto is terrible. I always use manual mode via the steering column paddles.

[Mick F]

….Why haven't gearboxes evolved?...

Nothing could be further from the truth. Today, there is a bigger variety of different transmissions on various different cars than even before.

Standard manual gearboxes are the same now as they were 50years ago.
Yes we have helical gears and synchromesh, but basically the same.

[RickH]

I have always enjoyed driving unfamiliar types of vehicle, getting to grips with new controls. The same as I do with bikes. I used to like taking a 4x4 up rough tracks, for work, using the extra lever to select 4x4 then making use of extra low gears and locked diff to move across rough ground without making ruts. With cars on road, manual or automatic are all the same to me. It's not as if changing gear manually requires any thought or effort. I've been doing it so long that it is now a reflex action.

It's not always a "reflex action" changing gear in an unfamiliar vehicle. There are a couple of instances that spring to mind.

I picked up a minibus to do a trip (probably taking a youth group out) & found it had the gear lever up in the middle of the dashboard & the handbrake between the seat & the door. For the first few minutes of driving finding the gear lever without looking was somewhat hit & miss.

First time I drove a lefthand drive car (hire car in France). For that the initial technique to change gear was - start to depress clutch, take left hand off steering wheel, hit inside of door with back of left hand, put left hand back onto steering wheel, remove right hand, find gear lever, change gear! That too got better after time but I still tended to do it for the first gear change after I'd got back in the car.

[Audax67]

In the late 80s I spent 6 weeks in the US, using rented automatics. Then I came home, got into my own new, manual, car and damn near put it through the garage wall.

[peetee]

.....Even round here with all the hills, we're getting 55mpg just driving locally. It's capable of 60-70mpg on main roads.......

That isn't that good for such a small car,I get 55mph out of our 2l diesel Cmax.

Years ago I was getting 60mpg from a 1996 Passat TDi estate. That was a fairly primitive engine system compared to what's available now.
When you make a bhp and torque comparison then and now it's clear what the manufacturers are prioritising. Some more frugal models are available, eg Bluemotion, but it's clear that performance has advanced far more than economy.

[Bonefishblues]

.....Even round here with all the hills, we're getting 55mpg just driving locally. It's capable of 60-70mpg on main roads.......

That isn't that good for such a small car,I get 55mph out of our 2l diesel Cmax.

Years ago I was getting 60mpg from a 1996 Passat TDi estate. That was a fairly primitive engine system compared to what's available now.
When you make a bhp and torque comparison then and now it's clear what the manufacturers are prioritising. Some more frugal models are available, eg Bluemotion, but it's clear that performance has advanced far more than economy.

Measures used to meet emissions targets actively militate against good mpg in the case of diesels.