Teaching (and learning) the art of the manual gearbox


I really like the Fit's manual transmission. It is silky smooth and so easy to shift. Apparently I am not alone. If only more young people would learn standard shift there would be less texting and using the fartphone and possibly more enjoyment for driving.

 

Good article, thanks. We bought a manual 5-spd CRX SI in Nov 88 and I fell in love with it. Our Fit reminds me so much of that car handling wise especially.

 

Had a '91 CRX 5 speed that was a smooooth shifter. The engine was so quiet you had to open the hood to hear it run. Loved that car.

 

The MT of the Fit is just such a joy to use. I was thrashing it in the rain here yesterday and couldn't stop smiling. You could spend twice as much money on a car and not get a trans this good. Thank you Honda for still making a manual trans.

 

Gonna join the dogpile, here...I love our '15 6spd LX....when the beater that i bought for me to use while my son used our Corolla to go to college and work gave up the ghost, the search was on to find something enjoyable to drive.....with a MT.....and, as luck had it, our local Honda dealer had only 1 manual on the lot, CPO ......wasn't looking for a black vehicle, but....tranny trumped color, and we bought it. Love the transmission..... love the car a lot!!! Progress rear anti-sway bar, Tanabe Medalion Touring axleback, and leather wrapped aluminum billet aftermarket shift knob (much nicer than the stocker), I'm a happy guy. This car is more fun than it has a right to be

 

Honda MTs are a cut above the rest, in their light touch and precision shifter feel. Gotta give credit to the shifter cable design as well as the 'box.

"You are preaching to the choir, son!" GRIN

 

2/3's of the world know how to drive a manual, yet in America everyone is spoiled/lazy with an automatic. I'll drive a manual until its impossible to buy one, or when my feet fall off!

 

I have an LX CVT, the first non-manual car I've ever owned. The Walter Mitty 6-speed was a disappointment to me.

When it comes time to teach someone to drive stick, I put them in my classic VW beetle. Easy, direct clutch, positive shift pattern without cables, and only 4 forward speeds to worry about. You have to be really ham-footed to stall a beetle!

 

I'm not getting the meaning of Walter Mitty. What does this mean? I don't watch many movies and I know I should go out more and see the world...

 

You know whats actually a downside...in Canada...for the 2017 models, the EX no longer comes in manual...only CVT. The gave the manual to the SE model.

Looks like I might have to snatch up a new manual 2016 EX while i still came.

 

What is a Fit SE? We don't get that one here.

 

GeorgeL gave away his/her age. Walter Mitty was a character created in a series of short stories written by James Thurber in the 1930s and 1940s IIRC. Walter imagined himself in dangerous heroic situations ... pilot, race car driver, fireman. In the mid 1950s a movie was made with Danny Kaye (?) as Walter. My 5th grade teacher was wild about Thurber, Walter, and Danny Kaye.

 

All true. BUT..
In this day and age, knowledge or familiarity with older films is available and possible for all ages. So you can be 24 years old and very knowledgeable about "old" films.

PLUS...a 2013 remake of "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" was made starring Ben Stiller.
Purists and those comparing it to the Danny Kaye original are apt to abhor it...but IMO it was a good movie.

We now live in a world where access to films, movies is so vast....making the connection that unfamiliarity with a title denotes the person did NOT live through that age...isn't really as valid as it would of been just 10 years ago.

I've lived long enough to look back...and I've been back long enough...to have forgotten a lot.

 

But it is kinda like someone telling you to look up the spelling or meaning of a word in a printed dictionary. How do you start? In this instance Google would help, but if you don't have a computer handy, how would you start? Me? I have a curious nature (in both senses of the term). If I saw Walter Mitty and didn't already know, Google or Cortana would be quizzed. The OP of this thread had a great link on the uses and teaching of manual transmissions.

My only criticisms of the Fit's 6 speed are the granny 1st and the spacing between 5th and 6th. (Keeping it on topic)

 

Can't argue with ya, both good points, but.....it is what it is, and yet it's still a fine manual trans compared to anything else even near this pricepoint. The granny doesn't bother me as much as 6th ...way too close to 5th....but I love it all, just the same

 

Drove up to Cookeville on the plateau a few months back, kept is between 70 and 80 on the roundtrip and got right at 40 mpg. Now that isn't any where near my mother's hometown of Bull's Gap, but fairly hilly. Without traffic, cruise control, in traffic my very steady right artificial foot. Went to TTU before the interstate was finished in a GTO ... 19 mpg vs 40.

That was 1964 and the Goat was a 4 speed manual and Tri-Power. Keep it on that center carb and it got good gas mileage for its day.

 

Walter Mitty was an ineffectual man prone to daydreaming. A Walter Mitty 6-speed is a transmission for people who like to daydream that they are in a race car that needs 6 speeds to keep the engine on the powerband.

In reality, the Fit engine has a broad powerband that would be just as well served by a 5-speed or even a (gasp!) 4-speed. In this car, all a 6-speed does is make you shift more.

Figuring out who Walter Mitty is is a quick Google away. Wikipedia has a good article on the book and movie.

I'm not quite old enough to remember the movie in its first release, but it's a fairly common literary reference. I am into old movies, but to me they aren't very old if they have sound!

 

Your need to disparage the great manual transmission in the Fit sounds to me like a feeble attempt to rationalize buying an automatic.

 

Thanks for the explanation. I did look up Walter Mitty, but could not connect the guy to the Fit's MT. Now I know, and I agree that the Fit would be better as a 5MT, or the 6th gear being much taller. I usually skip either 4th (on the way up, or 5th (on the way down).

 

Can't say anything bad about the shifter or clutch, but the 6th gear on the fit is geared like the 4th gear on my old Civic DX 99 (and the 5th on the previous Fit)... That ruins the car for anyone doing some highway and even in town it's annoying to through all those gear to cruise at 50-60.