Yes only because I had to...they had no cars with fun transmissions the day I stopped by

 

This spottiness is why it's so frustrating! My friend in AZ's R53 was built the same week as mine in 04, and she's pushing 95K on El Diablo Blanco y Negro's clutch with no serious issues, just leaking master cylinder seals or something like that common it hot weather.

So yeah every now and then a decent one will slip through I guess, but I'm thru with any 1) BMW product (or otherwise) with an LuK d/t component, and 2)anything with Rover DNA lurking deep within.

 

wow rb did this thread vault U over 1,000 posts? when I did someone kudo'd me out of nowhere, so.. kudos to you

(poor OP. he's prob wondering WTF he unleashed here. )

 

Thanks man...what was this thread about anyway

 

I love my auto but had a manual loaner the other day. The one nice thing I noticed about the manual was that you can put your hands in the middle of the wheel without accidentally hitting the paddle shifter (and shift gears).

I didn't notice a big difference to be honest but if you're trying to hypermile, a manual will definitely be better. I'd prefer to have a manual in the snow to help going down hills but remember they both have hill assist.....

to each his own.

 

What is hypermile

 

Driving like a grandma.


Or driving most fuel efficient way as possible. Some people due some crazy stuff to get ever ounce of fuel efficiency they can.

 

Its a Mini...... Not a SUV. What like coasting and shutting the motor down at a light? Many dont know that you get better MPG coasting in gear than in neatural. Whatever floats your boat.

 

Yea. Some people shift 1,3,5 etc. Shutting down motor. Its all strange to me, i bought the Mini to enjoy and fly around in. And have been plenty happy with gas mileage. Driving slow and doing all that stuff to get an extra MPG isnt remotely worth it to me.

 

I agree....same here. Actually I am so impressed with the milage that I still can't imagine getting what I get and I drive my Mini really hard. This is by far the best MPG I ever got in a car. My Vette does pretty well at about 19 MPG but it does have 550 RWHP. Our MB gets about 21-25 MPG and I always was really happy with that. Sounds like a lot of work...not for me.

 

Although there are certain things that make a lot of sense with regards to hypermiling. For example, seeing cars rush to red lights makes you realize how some drivers put absolutely no thought into driving.

If it weren't for certain hypermiling concepts I wouldn't have realized some very profound things about how we very stupidly waste gas on a daily basis..

Oh and shutting down your engine makes a lot of sense in certain situations (e.g. waiting at a railroad crossing).

 

You could take to to so many ridiculous levels on how to save gas when driving....not a subject I am interested in but have at it..

 

Manual, of course! Automatics are for ladies

Just kidding....a little bit

 

I just wish the automatic had a FULL MANUAL CONTROL option.
Even with the identical transmission in my 2008 MCSa convertible, it WILL upshift for you if you hold a high enough RPM... say 5500-ish or so.

It also WILL DOWNSHIFT for you and you cannot "lock out" the kickdown on the gas pedal.

I really wish MANUAL MODE meant full manual mode, maybe with the exception of an up shift rather then bounce off the limiter...

I like the convenience of no clutch pedal and the paddle shifters, but I'm not sure if I'd buy it again... one can always hope for an SST style dual clutch transmission in the future though, right?

 

No your not

 

I drove both and loved both. Went with the manual though and I'll indulge you with my twisted story regarding why I did that.

Drove a manual car all my life and loved it, up until about 4 years ago when I got married. Wife hadn't learnt how to drive yet, so I sacrificed and bought an automatic Prelude with a sportshift option, so she could learn without too much stress and hardship, and I could use the sportshift if I needed to have some fun. 4 years later, and she still hadn't bothered to learn. Would rather I drive her about. So I thought I'd inflict a little evil punishment and get an MCS 6 speed. It worked. She's now dying to learn how to drive. So I've told her to go and find a manual car to learn on, get some lessons, and get back to me when she feels she's skilled enough to handle the Mini. Until then - I honestly don't mind driving her around in it!!!

 

I just drove home from work in another Cooper automatic loaner while my JCW is having the JCW suspension installed... B-O-R-I-N-G.

Red Bull, its me and you against these guys. Factory JCW FTW!!!

And I liked the "I take my meds before I go to bed" comment. I read that this afternoon and I am still laughing !

 

There are quite a few guys here who like to play with their sticks while driving......the others just dont know how to have fun

 

Can someone explain exactly why pushing a clutch and moving a lever is fun? I just don't see the entertainment value in that. Let's see I shifted 473 times today! Gosh Goober, can we do it again, he he? Let see, it's rush hour. Hurry lets go for a drive and count how many times we shift from first to second, back and fourth, and back and fourth. Owooo weee. Look, a curve, ohhh yeaa, we know we can outshift that automatic up ahead. Can't wait till we get some open road, then we can manually shift 567 more times!

 

Grid lock is not the best venue for driving a MINI.

It aint the 1st - 2nd - 1st shifts that are fun, unless it is track day. It is the 6th - 5th - 6th that get you a faster pulse.

 

Most drivers enjoy the shift....those who just drive to get from one point to another get an auto

 

It isn't merely the physical action that makes it fun.

What makes it fun is having total and complete control over what gear you are in and when.

See... even with paddles on an auto, there is still a computer that watches every move you make, and may override your choice. In addition, there is an inherent delay between the time you push the button and the time it happens. Sometimes the delay is short and minor... other times it is long and painstaking - especially when you wanted to shift right now dammit!

Driving a manual transmission just gives that much more direct, unhindered control over what gear your car is in, and when. Not to mention that you can skip gears if you like (6th to 4th, 6th to 3rd even), whereas on an auto, you always have to step through them, hitting the button/pushing the lever once for each gear... and then still wait for the car to "catch up" with your decision.

The auto has its place, and yes, driving an auto can be plenty fun for many people. Some of us just don't like it much, that's all. Drive what you want to drive... and just understand that not everyone else will feel the same way you do.

 

Well said....with that I can bet that most AUTO drivers do not do track events...I am sure many wil say yes I do....but it is not as effective. Driving the stick makes you more connected to the car...period

 

No consensus, but just my way of thinking.

1. I like manual.
2. If 1 is not true then people just go automatic and there's no discussion.

if 1 is true then, if I have to own automatic for severe traffic conditions or some other reasons (I think one car in the household should be auto - just in case) - I'd just buy a basic MC. If I buy MCS - that's manual only.

The reasoning for me is very simple - if I have power - I have to have control over that power.

I beleive Minis have pretty good automatic trans and a bunch of guys will tell you (if not already) automatic car even accelerates faster than a manual one. Not sure if that's true or not. Because who cares of stupid straight acceleration? Buy a Mustang in this case. This number is in the manual and in all magazine test drives - 6 plus something seconds 0-60.... why even check this out on your own?

But I like some inspirited driving sometimes. I do autocrosses. This turns driving from just a driving into something like skiing. And when I do the curve and the car drives at its traction limit I use the gas pedal to steer the car fine-adjusting it from under to overstter, and - imagine - at this very moment the AT suddenly switches gears... because it just does not know what's going on and what you really need at the moment... that's just not good. Or when you go out of turn and start applying some gas, and your front axle is at the traction limit again and the AT does the gear change again ... this just tells me - I'm not controlling the car... BMW programmer does... but he is in the office drinking coffee, he probably never did autocrosses, he might not even like his job and is looking for another one... and I'm at the autocross course right now... this power is useless... I cannot even use such a car for spirited driving.

So I better have just a cooper with AT for commute if I had to go AT.

Even my buddy who has VW GTI with DSG says its manual mode is absolutely useless for autocross - because it still upshifts on its own when you are close to the red line - and you loose a track of what gear you are in right now and there's no time to watch the gear number at the dash so it's just best to let it work automatic way. And I drove DSG and I have to say I really really liked it - the fact it does not have torque converter makes its shifts very close to manual gearbox feel. I was pretty happy driving that gearbox at streets. I hope this type of the box will be avail. not for VWs only so I will be able to enjoy automatic world eventually.

By the way, one example from my real life, and my other FWD AT car. It has some funny algorithms to determine whether you go uphill or downhill and who knows what else and does some optimizations based on that just like probably any other AT car at the market these days. Again - it just follows some programmer's team way of thinking. So here's the example - we drove mountain roads back home from Lassen Volcanic Park. Evening already and we wanted to get home rather sooner than later, so I drove relatively fast, but definitely not at the limit. And the car is just 100hp plus something loaded with 4 people and luggage, in the mountains it was underpowered, overloaded so don't think I was doing something extraordinary... So when I drove dowhill in the long curve (not even touching the gas pedal so I used the engine for braking) the AT absolutely correctly identified I am going downhill and I am using the engine to slow the car down. What it didn't account for - the curve and my speed. So it just downshifted turning my turn from just a turn into a turn at the traction limit. Car's weight shifted towards the front axle giving the front wheels more traction and doing the opposite for the rear wheels, and the car oversteers. I have to apply some gas to correct this unwanted situation but even here I do not get the immediate response because instead of just accelerating which would immediately took care of things the AT decides it needs to upshift first and takes its time to do so.

If things like this would not bother me - I'd just go AT. But I would not try to convince somebody to go AT way based on 0-60 numbers, because I, probably, do not know what is power and what it takes to drive the car at the limit.

I do not care about TV thing much - I just care of screen size and colors displayed nice way, but there are guys who care much more, they spend time checking the screen pixel by pixel, running some crazy tests that take hours, then return the thing back to the store and try another one... I'm not saying they are crazy. It's just me who doesn't care of TVs. And those guys are great source of information so often I base my choise on their opinion to save my time

But I care of MT vs AT thing for example

 

Well said..interesting read Let the AT guys start the bash