what is wrong with auto?

[11gbl]

i live just outside of new york city and also in miami. can someone explain to me how it is gay to have an auto mustang when there is nothing but red lights, stop signs, and stop and go traffic all ****IN DAY

i am sick and tired of the little freaks from 200 miles away from any major city talking about how gay autos are when they don't ever have to drive in a lick of traffic in their life. when you drive in this EVERY DAY, as a daily driver, then and ONLY then you can call my auto gay. i do not have the patience for a stupid stick shift when i am sitting in traffic every single day, horns being laid on, being cut off every 3 seconds

New York City - Night Traffic Jam - YouTube

Have a BEEPING Jersey Holiday!! - YouTube

 

[Noobz347]

Hmmmm... I don't think a Stang would be my first choice in the bumper to bumper traffic that you mention above. I'd probably have gone with an Acura or something along those lines. Something with LOTS of creature comforts that made me feel like a bit like I was sitting in my lazy boy at home.

--anyway--

You've chosen a performance car. As such, you probably try to associate with others who are performance car enthusiasts. As enthusiasts, they can often be caught doing many things to wring even more performance out of whatever platform of vehicle they're interested in. Generally, automatics are not an enthusiast's first pick. They're lovingly referred to as, "Slush Boxes". Part of the reason for that, is that a larger portion of that power that we spend so much time and effort making, is pissed away through one of these Slush Boxes and even further by the torque converter that accompanies them.

Now, there are certainly exceptions to these circumstances but those exceptions are RARELY found in a production automobile. The auto in a Mustang is not one of these exceptions.

Hope that helps.

 

[crazystang25]

well the auto's can be made to perform much better than in factory form. Things like a higher stall converter and doing the Jmod can help bring a lot of the performance back. Of course a higher stall converter will reduce mileage some but thats why we are enthusiasts. Also auto's have been proven to be able of quite fast times on the strip. Now would I use an auto on an autoX course or road course, certainly not although it has been done, but thats just not my cup of tea to use one in that situation. Just some food for thought. Also I wouldn't mind using an auto if my car was setup for the 1/4.

 

[Jhunter]

nothing wrong with one to me. I'm old with bad knees. Tired of shifting gears. I like to eat while I drive too, so an automatic is perfect for me. I have a mustang because it's fun to drive, not for racing anyway. If I want to race I'll buy or build a race car. My daughter drives my maxima, so I either drive the stang or my truck. The stang gets better gas mileage.

 

[Deleted member 38176]

I have a "gay" auto and I'm sure it can out-perform a lot of manual cars around.

I got a hell of a deal on my car and it just so happened that it had an auto. I wasn't going to pass up the deal just because of the tranny.

 

[Sonic04GT]

Setting drag racing and performance after modification aside...I think autos are "gay" because they take away from the true feeling of a sports car. I've been in stop and go traffic for hours and as much as it sucks, I have never regretted buying a 5-speed. If that's a problem then buy an automatic DD but V8 sports cars should be manual. Not to mention having more control over the car. Just my .02.

If it was strictly a track car I'd go auto.

 

[sneaky98gt]

I love the folks who I hear say that autos can't perform as well. I can't even BEGIN to count the number of manual cars that I've wasted on the track and street, many of them being a 'faster' car than mine. I don't care how fast you can shift, you cannot do it as fast as an auto can. Autos are much easier to drive/race as well; I can stay in and out of gears just as easily as a 5-speed can on a road course/auto-x. Also, being able to eat or talk on the phone while driving is much easier and safer.

The only real disadvantage to an auto is that they almost always have one (or more) less gear, and thus less gearing in the other gears to make up for it.

That being said, it's interesting to me that the new Ford automatic transmissions actually DO have as many gears as the manual. The new automatic's 1st gear is actually quite a bit steeper than the 1st gear in the manual (4.17 versus 3.66) with the rest of the gears being very similar. And if you search around a bit, you'll find that the new automatics are actually outperforming the manuals.

All of that being said, I don't disagree one bit that manual transmissions are MUCH more fun to drive. My granddad has a 94 5.0, 5 speed, HCI, 3.73s, etc., and it is just SO much fun to row through the gears heading up to 60 mph. No doubt, my next Mustang will have a 6-speed manual transmission, but if I was getting a Mustang to really race, it'd be an automatic.

 

[LarsD]

Setting drag racing and performance after modification aside...I think autos are "gay" because they take away from the true feeling of a sports car. I've been in stop and go traffic for hours and as much as it sucks, I have never regretted buying a 5-speed. If that's a problem then buy an automatic DD but V8 sports cars should be manual. Not to mention having more control over the car. Just my .02.

If it was strictly a track car I'd go auto.

I tend to agree. I like the extra interaction of a manual. That being said, my Dodge has a decently hard hitting auto in it. Even still, I find myself dreaming about banging gears in it (I can do this while driving since I don't have to shift).

 

[04torktech]

I understand people get their feelings hurt when you say "An automatic is gay". The obvious rebuttal is that at the track you can get more performance out of an automatic. I guess that it is true with a shift kit, remapped shift points, or a higher stall but what is the point of driving? In my opinion it's to be one with the car. You can take a 1000rwhp car and it will run horrible times with a bad driver. A perfect example would be the R35 Skyline. Sure it is fast as hell but you're basically playing a video game. Set the launch control, foot to the floor, off the brake and go. That is pretty hard to **** up. Now obviously an automatic Mustang does not have the same technology as the Skyline but you are taking away a huge portion of the driving experience. Nothing feels better than going through the gears whether you are in 3rd playing on the back roads or taking off from a red light. I am sorry but anytime I see a cool car I have to look in the window and when I see PRNDL I think LAME!

 

[007]

Gears and a tuner transform the auto stang. That said... I have a complete 5 speed swap about to go into my car. Its just not the same.

Traffic is miserable if its your daily driver tho. An auto is way better then.

 

[68stang351]

Damn, even my wife made me take the aod out of her fox and do a 5 speed swap.

 

[Crzyhrse]

Only two vehicles I've owned have been an Automatic. The rest all manual shift. I just think stick shifts are more fun in both muscle cars or passenger cars. I've never heard anyone say an Auto is gay . That's a new one to me.

 

[mransr]

nothing wrong with an automatic...

...but I've driven close to 1/4 million miles in SoCal bumper to bumper traffic (210/91/57/60) with a manual in my GT...the shifting actually helped to keep me sane in heavy traffic and I kinda miss it in the Ranger

 

[03_TrueBlue_GT]

I DD my 5 speed everyday, it only gets annoying if you think about it honestly. I get in my car and I don't even think about shifting, I'm so used to it I do it without thought. Now I understand that autos are great for drag racing but I go to the track every once in a while so the remainder is on the street and the car feels more enjoyable to drive. I drove my friends 02 GT auto and it was different, it felt more like a car to go cruising in not for spirited driving, it was odd feeling while punching it up to 90mph and not hitting the shifter lol. I know that you can get the auto 4R70E's to respond better with some mods which is great but I like the feeling of being able to control the cars rpms, which comes in handy when you have an o/r x pipe and have to keep it "quiet" around the fuzz.

Btw Im not bashing automatics Im just sayin driving a stick everyday isnt that horrible, heck the Europeans drive standard cars still in places like Paris and London.

 

[Deleted member 38176]

Install a manual shifter into an auto. Problem solved.

 

[Kornnut]

I would love to have triple black GT vert with an auto in it. All of mine have been stick shift cars, and all of my wife's have been auto. I really enjoyed driving her 06 GT. The 03 GT she had wasn't a bad car to drive either.

 

[Stark77]

Pshhhh, nothing wrong with auto. I know lots of drivers with a 5 or 6 speed that can't come anywhere near cutting consistent 1.7 and 1.8 second 60 foots. Now, a stock GT with an automatic isn't too much fun. But I think can think of many more things that are "gayer". Doesn't matter if it's on the track or on the street, unless it's AWD or running slicks, I feel confident that 9 times out of 10 I'm going to dust whatever it is off of the line. Now, from a roll, that's a totally different story haha.

 

[Sonic04GT]

Damn, even my wife made me take the aod out of her fox and do a 5 speed swap.

Hands down, if you race, get an auto. If it's a daily driver and you want to enjoy driving your car and look forward to it every time, get a manual. If you're too much of a pansy to deal with it in traffic, get an auto or a different daily driver. For a leisure car, changing gears is half the fun.

 

[04torktech]

Install a manual shifter into an auto. Problem solved.

No! Completely missing the point. If your automatic has a "manual" mode it is not manual! You need a clutch for it to be a stick. It is part of the driving experience.

 

[usaf_branham]

I wouldnt say that auto's are gay... However, I could NEVER bring myself to own an automatic sports car. Auto's are great if you are in to bracket racing for money, but imo it takes the fun out of driving. I am one of those people that if an automatic (even paddle shifters) was the cheaper option on a car, I would pay extra just for the manual. I love my clutch and shifter.

If I were stuck in bumper to bumper traffic all the time, I would want to drive something comfortable, small, and automatic as a dd. Definitely not my mustang, the clutch is way too stiff, and I would have a heart attack if some one came to close to hitting me.

When I was younger, I used to get in to arguments with people about auto vs stick. I have realized that its really up to a person's taste. I suppose that if an auto was J-modded, high stall torque converter, ratchet shifter, and a set of gears (4.10 to 4.56), it would probably be sort of fun to drive if the option was not there for a stick...

To the OP: just remember, opinions are like *** holes, every body has one.