Ugh why are so few cars manual now

@ArishMell Subaru currently uses a variable pulley technique in their continuously variable transmission.

But Toyota is very different. They use a system originally invented by TRW; planetary gears and two motor generators.


I've watched half this video; it's reasonably concise.
[media=https://youtu.be/jofycaXByTc]

@ElwoodBlues Interesting!

Thank you for that.

There is nothing new in any of the individual units, including the epicyclic gear-box, and of course, Diesel-electric railway locomotives go back to the 1950s; but what is new and very ingenious is how they are all combined in the TRW /Toyota system in a form suitable for hybrid cars.

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My first car had a unit called the Siba 'Dynastart' tacked onto its modified 2-stroke motorcycle engine. It was a motor-generator that acted as conventional starter motor giving forwards or revers "gear" then with the engine running, as a dynamo for the battery-charging and lamps. A far cry from Toyota's development!

@ArishMell My first car was a Standard Ten with no synchomesh on first gear. It was actually quite fun learning to double-declutch into first 😀. Another thing about that car - very low first gear, took you up to 15mph!

@IloveLucy you'll hate the escalade, especially after driving something as nimble as the miata. My friend had a ct5. Traded it for a range rover

@Lilnonames I don’t plan on crashing it. And I really don’t care to own anything without carplay

@come2gether I’m not necessarily ditching the miata, it would just be used infrequently

@Adogslife I had to read that again to see what you mean!

To me, "fuel economy" means as usually used, miles per gallon - the more miles the better the economy.

So do you mean the economics of the oil industry - the more fuel it sells the healthier its own economy? If so perhaps it and the motor manufacturers had every incentive to build very inefficient vehicles for so long, but I think those days are over, around the world, not only in the USA.

@HobNoblin Really?

Anyway, what has to do with the ability to drive a car with a manual gearbox?

@ArishMell Europeans want to be safe and taken care of by their socialist governments. They have that cuck attitude about life. You wouldn't think they'd be independent minded enough to want a transmission they had to take action and shift. Seems like they'd want a transmission that shifts for them so they wouldn't have to use their commie brains for that either.

@FairyDuster It's a shrinking choice too because the number of manufacturers has shrunk so much, and the differences between many cars now are purely superficial.

@ChipmunkErnie I know I’m in the minority but I’m frustrated

@HumanEarth from left to right
E Brake
Clutch
Brake
Gas

@Midlifemale Yup! I was the only one who could drive our rented car.

@Kiesel I’ll consider it

@IloveLucy as well as the Subaru BRZ tS

@swirlie @swirlie hi swirlit , the tractor dident have a starter, it had a hand crank and the kick back of the motor would kick back the crank,it was dangerous,

@jackrabbit10
My Dad had a vintage tractor on our farm which had steel wheels and a hand-crank starter! He told me that if I wanted to drive it, then I had to learn how to start it. But he showed me that there's a right way and a wrong way to hand-crank a tractor...

The WRONG way is to grab onto the crank handle like you were holding a baseball bat ..with your fingers underneath and your thumb over the top. You will either break your thumb doing that or break your forearm if the engine kicks back.

The CORRECT way to grab onto the crank handle is to 'cup' your fingers AND your thumb UNDERNEATH the crank handle and hold onto it like you were holding an egg in the palm of your hand.

If the engine kicks-back, the crank will simply fly out of your palm without taking your thumb with it, but never stand directly over the crank while you're cranking it... stand back and slightly off-balance so that if it 'kicks', you will fall away from the reversing crank.

@swirlie that i found out later on ,after getting lifted off the ground a few times,