Re: Do most VW drivers in europe drive stick?

My wife is originally from Germany. She said some 10 years ago that most

> drivers in europe drove 5 speed stick. Are most VWs today in europe > still driving 5 speed stick? >

Yup. Most cars are sold in Europe have manual transmission (stick/shift). Also, most performace cars are sold with this type of transmission as it's a thing for the driver, if you see what I mean. I prefer manual - it gives a better feel and gives you so much more control.

Larger heavy/luxury barges are generally sold with auto-boxes. I think they're viewed as a luxury. I guess it depends on whether you view your car as just a form of transport, or if you enjoy the full driving experience.

A mate of mine has a small family saloon (sedan?) which is automatic. He's went for auto as he wasn't (isn't?) confident with driving. Not sure how widespread this particular view is.

Cheers

The Admiral.

Reply to
The Admiral
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They even sell the Pontiac Transport with a stick, try to find that in the US!

And for Remco, the European version of the Touareg also comes with a 6-spd. Well, it's prices far out of my range anyway, so why would I care I can't have that here.

Reply to
Baudolino

If I recall correctly, Subaru tried a CVT transmission in thier Justy...silly little 3cyl compact silly car. It wasn't very good though. Didn't hold up well, didn't last long, etc. How does the Audi do now that they've had a good 10 or 15 years of improvement?

--Andy P

Reply to
Andy Pronobis

Interesting. When we rent cars in Europe, the rental charge for a stick is about $100 to $200 cheaper than the auto trans. When I bought my Jetta TDI in the US, the auto trans had a higher resale value than the stick.

Tom R.

Reply to
Tom R.

my $.02...i love me stick...i hope i never have to own an automatic vehicle....only way i'd consider going auto is if i'd move somewhere where i would face major gridlock on a daily basis. cheers andy

Reply to
Agingric37

As an example, a new Golf IV with 5 spd tiptronic auto box with the usual extra's such as climatronic will set you back for around 27000 euro's here in the Netherlands... (31000 US $)

Remco

Reply to
Remco Meeder

...snip...

Didn't DAF have CVT transmissions 20 or 30 years ago? BTW, I've heard that VW is going to put the Multitronic (isn't that the new CVT that Audi uses?) in the Passat.

Bill snipped-for-privacy@cvm.msstate.edu

78 Rabbit...10/77 - 4/02 82 Convertibles(s)...since 93 95 Golf GL...since 11/99 02 Passat 1.8T Tip GLS...since 4/02 (Remove the CAT to email me)
Reply to
William Maslin

Oooh. I wish I'd known that before I bought mine back in November.

-- Mike Smith

Reply to
Mike Smith

I heard not long ago that the ratio is something like this:

Europe - 80% manual / 20% automatic US - 8% manual / 92% automatic

Scary if it's true.

TOE

Reply to
TOE

Ach, that is an old misconception that is simply wrong (even though magazines help spread the myth). Acceleration at a given speed is the highest at peak power, not at peak torque. At peak power, we take advantage of gearing and produce the largest torque at the wheels. If we only look at acceleration in a given gear, acceleration will follow the torque curve and be the highest at peak torque. This is why diesel engines have impressive in-gear acceleration numbers, but weak 0-60mph times, due to high torque but "low" power. With a CVT, we can program it to keep revs at peak power at any speed, so we get the highest available torque at the wheels at any speed and the highest acceleration at any speed.

In the A4 too.

Espen

86 Golf GTI
Reply to
gshok

Reply to
skydivertu

**On Halloween 2003, I turned in my 03 Jetta GLS 2.0l auto for a 03 Jetta GLS 1.8T manual, so this girl now knows how to drive manual :) My sister drives a BMW 325i manual and vows never to go back to an automatic. My Mom can drive stick and gave me pointers but she's one of those old Italians driving a big blobby Buick.

I think manual trannies on American cars are becoming a rarity unless it's a sports model. Must be we can't multitask (put on makeup, read the paper, eat cereal, chat on the cell) if we have to shift.

Re: gas mileage. How much of a difference do you think manual transmissions make? I was very surprised that my 1.8T got much better gas mileage (city) than the 2.0l. On the highway, it's about the same because I, uh, drive a bit more quickly with the 1.8T :)

kaboomie

Reply to
kaboom

I think the reason most americans drive automatic is so they can eat, talk on cell phones, do their makeup, read but not DRIVE!!!! At least it so appears in Houston... One of the reasons I drive manual is so I can keep myself awake while driving in rush hour.

Reply to
spiralingcrazies

IMO, you're partly correct. Most Americans consider a car a utilitarian device. Many Europeans still consider driving a car to have some sporting aspects.

Driving instruction may contribute to this. Essentially no understanding of the workings of a car are required to be licensed in the US, and our citizens don't care what goes on to make the car move. The European driving instruction guides I've seen go into the physics of operation and stopping in somewhat more detail.

The difference in fuel consumption is becoming less and less, but Europeans may be conditioned by the past when it was substantially greater.

I have never owned an automatic transmission in over 50 years of car ownership, may well buy one in my next car. ========== A counter-example. My first real boss was one of the German brains "drained" at the end of WW2. He drove a Dynaslush Buick. He claimed that cars should be like shoes - get a new one when they break. He claimed that the repair kit he carried was a screwdriver to remove the license plates when leaving the dead car beside the road. He DID have a sense of humor......

Reply to
R J Carpenter

One reason manual transmissions still are prevalent in Europe is that cars sold in Europe often have much smaller engines than those sold in the US (probably because of both high fuel taxes and high car taxes). The new Golf is available in Europe with a 1.4 l 75 hp engine. The Audi A4 can be had with a 1.6 liter. The low end Polo has a 54 hp 1.2 liter. An automatic transmission gets quite sluggish with those tiny engines (except perhaps for CVT automatics). I realize that all the above referenced cars can be had with beefier engines, there is a good number of cars sold with the smaller engines.

Another po>

Reply to
Randolph

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