I’d say yes, more of this. There’s hardly anything more yawn-inducing than another article about some $2.6MM hypercar that maybe a few dozen people will ever own.
Glad to hear it. đź‘Ť
Lastly, the article mentions the new Supra, seemingly in the context of affordable, fun cars with manual transmissions. It will not be available with a manual transmission, and probably won’t be affordable by most peoples’ definition.
Yeah, at that point I've sort of transitioned into the "fun to drive" part and less about the affordable. Had I mentioned the LFA, which I think had kicked off Toyota's enthusiast stuff for the last decade (at Akio's insistence) that would've all went even further out the window.
It's not like I expect Toyota to follow through with more of this, but the fact that they did it at all stands out. It's big news compared to apologies citing sales, or some lower-level company representative saying, "don't worry, we're not completely eliminating the manual from our lineup yet."
I mean, it isn't an apology: it's a reason. If a company is building manuals and nobody's buying, then that company is wasting money.
I'll expand on this a little later in the post, though, in response to Joe.
The anti-stall feature is twice as clever as rev-matching, though I personally like the implication from the article's wording that it's an opt-in function. In hindsight, it seems like something that should have been thought up years ago.
I'm glad I'm not alone! I thought that was far, far cooler than rev-matching, and AFAIK Toyota is alone in offering it. Yes, it's an opt-in, but I think that alone could be a huge help in getting people to learn. Starting off in a manual, especially on a hill, is the hardest part of driving one. If there's a safety net, then all the better. My suspicion is that it still would result in choppy progress, but I see that as a good thing too; ideally, it'll encourage people to want to smooth their approach.
Truthfully, driving a manual certainly does not prevent you from driving while distracted, but I believe the lack of engagement with automatics is one cause of apathy about driving. In relaxed settings, an automatic gives you little to do. Combined with how quiet and cocooning modern cars are, it's little wonder people who already aren't interested in cars or driving will seek out distractions.
I don't think making a car more comfortable and relaxing is inherently the problem. I think it's a multi-faceted problem, with the commute itself being part of it. Urban sprawl pushed people into the suburbs with the promise of quick transit into cities via highways, but that's increasingly turning out to not be the case, as people in general can't comprehend the flow of traffic.
It's routinely taken my girlfriend and I two hours to see my parents on weekends. It's not even 60 miles away, and almost exclusively a 400-series highway (60mph limit, usually 70mph cruising speed).
Truth is a majority of vehicles on the market are boring since enthusiasts make up a very small percentage of car buyers.
Really, there's no practical reason for anyone to drive a manual anywhere in the world if they are buying a modern vehicle. The only reason you'd even need to buy a manual is that you like it or you compete in some form of motorsports. Past that, objectively a modern automatic transmission is better than any manual transmission on the market.
Agreed. However, I think the manual can — and as this Toyota event highlighted, should — be looked at as a heart-over-head decision. I think there's actually quite a lot of people out there that would be driving enthusiasts, if the cost of entry wasn't so high.
Most people probably can't afford a commuter car and a fun car. So when they need to buy a new one, they side more with the former. That's fair, I get it. But if they got to really enjoy a good shifter, maybe even out on a track, or a good driving road, I think they'd understand what us weirders talk about. The Corolla acting as a stepping stone into the world of driving for fun is a good move, IMO — and that IM system makes it a more approachable one too.
Not quite the same, but close: everybody I know that's tried my sim rig has loved it, even if they're not fans of driving and/or gaming.
The thing about buying an enthusiast car, at least in Toronto, is that you really have to put in effort to get it out of the city to enjoy it. Sitting in traffic, never getting above 20mph, isn't fun — and I don't believe anybody who says it is. If the chances of having fun in a fun car equate to only about 5% of the time with it, that just might not be enough for some people to justify owning it. We all have different limits though.
I just got out of a (manual) BRZ this morning and while it was a peach from the driving seat, and traffic is light around 10AM in these parts of the city, I still don't think I'd own one if I had a long commute every day.
Clutching and shifting becomes more natural with practice; to me it's about as mindless as braking, accelerating, or steering. I find it comparatively distracting to negotiate a gearshift out of an automatic with the throttle pedal, or to maintain a speed given the slurred throttle response of a torque converter. I use cruise control liberally with automatics compared to manuals.
