I’m stuck on this personally. I love my manual, I have a tiny little Mazda 2 and I have driven that thing absolutely everywhere because I can control it better than any automatic I’ve ever driven. But I’ve been casually looking for a new car and I’d love to have an electric, but I don’t want to lose that level of control and everything I love about a manual.
What do you all think? What’s your take?
If an electric vehicle:
- Wasn’t an SUV or CUV
- Didn’t have a giant touchscreen with a Big Brother OS
- Didn’t cost over $40,000 for a good one
I’d buy one. As it stands I’m buying a used GTI tomorrow, mainly because it’s a stick shift and I miss that, and also because my GF got a job and needs to use my other car to commute. It’s basically the car I’ve wanted since I was sixteen so I’m pretty stoked.
We have a 2013 Leaf. Cost us $8k seven years ago, battery’s as good as it ever was, great around town or commuter for a 50 mile round trip commute (longer without defrost the whole way). Seriously the most fun car I’ve driven since our old manual bmw. The newer ones have bigger batteries if you drive more each day.
Used Polestar 2 fits except for the screen.
They might do well with a “classic” version with less tech inside.
Can I get one for under $12k. Because that’s what I’m getting my GTI for.
Na more like 35k for a 2022.
But you just moved the goalpost from 40k to 12k 🤔
I was being extremely generous with my budget to attempt to include at least one electric. I’m not honestly in the market for any car that costs more than $15k.
Though I’d add that the Polestars I’ve seen look a lot like CUVs to me.
No way. The 2 is a fastback/liftback. Looks nothing like a crossover or SUV.
My car had always been a stick shift. I bought an electric car and am very happy.
As a consolation, EVs can be considered “manual”, they never shift gears of their own accord. They just only have one gear… So it’s a one speed manual transmission…
Having owned a manual for a long time and also a bunch of different automatic cars but never an electric and also having been an enthusiast and participating in motorsports. I would honestly prefer taking a train and riding a bike than driving. I hate driving on the road. I hate other drivers and having to pay attention while I go somewhere. I hate driving long distances and l hate dealing with car issues and I used to be a mechanic for awhile. The whole thing is stupid as hell. I like driving go-carts, that’s fun. Cars are dumb as hell.
I wish my town (typical mid-size USA) was safer for bicycling. I’d actually get my bike out and use it for short trips for beer or whatever.
For now I walk or drive and I feel shitty every time I drive short distances
Just open carry an Ar-15 on your back. People will go around. But seriously, you can get a Garmin radar thing that will tell you if cars are behind you and how fast they are going.
I didn’t know those existed… but I kinda hate that they do. Can the Garmin radar delete a car that’s about to hit me?
But really, for $300+ it should also photograph the license plate of the car that hits you and automatically SOS when it detects an impact.
I mean, doesn’t that sound like a ridiculous product that shouldn’t need to exist?
I disagree with the premise that it’s the responsibility of the cyclist or pedestrian to avoid being murdered by a 2-ton vehicle. Having something like the Garmin radar on your bicycle seems like yet another thing that would make it EASIER for a driver to argue that it’s the cyclist’s fault in an accident, right? “They had a radar, it’s not my fault they were in my way!” Just like the “it’s their fault they’re dead because they weren’t wearing a helmet!” Argument.
In the worst timeline I could see a municipality trying to require these on ebikes for “safety” while in effect making non-equipped bikes illegal to ride. Which would be great for the car companies.
I absolutely understand this. I’ve been traveling to Vancouver, BC a lot and my god, it’s so easy to get around without a car. I’m sure it’s not the golden standard, but it’s sure great
We occasionally zoop to Chicago on the Amtrak. Buy a 24 hour transit pass for $5 and we’re good to go for the weekend. I’m much more relaxed, it cost less than driving and parking. No worries about the car getting broken into. It’s pretty great.
The thing with a manual is that they’re great when the road is twisting away in front of you and you can really engage with the experience, but let’s face it, most of the time you’re stuck in traffic with an aching left foot. I’ve also driven many different kinds of autos, some great and some truly terrible. Even the best automatics are in no way comparable to driving an EV.
Sure, sometimes I do miss the feel and engagement of a manual when the conditions are but I stick the EV into sports mode, which gives a decent approximation of engine braking, and use the instant torque that you only get with electric to make my own fun through the corners.
The rest of the time, when I am stuck in traffic or just going from A to B, it’s so relaxing and smooth and so much less stressful than anything else. I wouldn’t go back.
The only issue I can foresee is that unless you want an SUV your choice of EVs is very limited. I certainly can’t think of anything Mazda 2 sized.
Yeahhhhh, it’s such a pittance that everything is so big. I saw a Mazda 3 ev I think? And there’s a VW golf EV but only in the UK I think, and that’s way too much of a hassle
There’s the Mazda MX-30 if that’s what you mean? But it’s yet another SUV.
There are some options now that I think about it, but whether any of them are available in your country is another matter.
Renault Zoe - probably what I’d choose if I wanted something Mazda 2-esque.
Homda E - Really expensive for the limited range. Maybe good deals to be had second hand?
VW ID3 - Golf sized. Possibly your best bet in terms of availability.
Fiat 500e - Or the nutty Abarth 500e with its fake (and very loud) engine noise.
Mini electric - Anything but mini.
MG4 - Very popular in the UK. Cheap, decent range, albeit a little ugly.
In the UK there’s also the Vauxhall Corsa E. Might be available elsewhere under the Opel brand?
I think that’s about it. It’s such a shame that the EV market is still very much dominated by SUVs.
My car’s a stick, my wife’s is electric. One of the reasons I don’t really like automatics as I don’t like how it always felt the car wanted to “drive itself” as soon as I let off the brake, and the ability to still gear down it up for conditions.
My wife’s car pretty much covers most of that. It doesn’t go until I hit the gas.
The thing has a huge amount of torque and acceleration for a passenger vehicle, and engine braking actually recovers power on downhill.
It corners very nicely. The balance is more towards center than my car due to the battery weight in the bottom-middle.
If I have to give up my clutch, an electric is probably the best choice IMO
I have an EV and a truck with a manual. I love them both.
Every time I swap back to my EV I’m shocked (no pun intended) by how immediate the response from the accelerator is. There’s no delay for air to flow, revs to build, nothing… Just instant, push you back into the seat torque.
That being said, I also fully expect my Toyota to outlast my Tesla lol
Yes. In fact we did. PHEV, but still electric part of the time.
Love the hell out of it. Being able to cruise around town for weeks and use zero gas. We charge at home, so no $$ charging subscription.
For context I’m a Gearhead. Built muscle cars myself and with friends, work on my own vehicles as much as possible, love the sound of muscle and high-rev exotics…and I have no problem with electric cars. People in my hobby group tend to be bass-ackwards and stubborn, they dislike change. I find their whining about electric cars to be louder than a straight cut gearbox. Hell with that. EV power and performance is astonishing, we just gotta get the charging and range sorted out. We’ll still have gas-powered muscle and exotics, but they’ll be specialty cars and not daily drivers.
Times change. Move forward, don’t cling to the past like painting a brand-new Porsche GT3 RS in a 55 year old ‘68 Gulf livery. SMH.
Had an ex-friend of mine say electric cars would never have the torque of ICE. That sounds exactly backward to me. FFS, don’t we drive warships with electric engines (in some cases)?
I know nothing about cars, but I’ve fiddled with DC motors since I was a child. Torque seems off the chain to me. Apply power, get scary force, instantly.
Am I misunderstanding something?
They write multi-page articles extolling the virtues of performance in ICE cars.
EV outperform ICE in many performance metrics, especially torque. Suddenly ICE fans: “Performance doesn’t matter!”
It’s just missing that sound. There’s no doubt about, or getting around, that.
I don’t love manual, I just hate automatics (at least in small cars). Automatics in my experience shift gears when you least want it, giving you unexpected changes in acceleration.
As electric cars are not geared, they should just give you an expected output continuously.
EVs are not like combustion engine automatic transmissions. You can actually control power pretty accurately, which is the weakness of automatic transmissions. I prefer manual (assuming I don’t get stuck in traffic) but EVs are fun to drive tbh
My last car was a 2005 VW Golf 1.6 manual. It was a fun little car. It looked like trash, and i treated it like trash. We had many fun adventures together.
I went over to an EV after being tired of paying a fortune in petrol. My current car is a BMW i3, and i LOVE it. It’s rear wheel drive, cheap to run and cheap to service. I live close to the arctic circle, so it’s snowy about 5 months of the year, and this little thing with its skinny wheels is superb on winter roads.
Looking back, i don’t miss driving manual. Driving an EV is completely noiseless and calm. No fiddling with the stick, no clutching, just pure pleasure. The rear wheel drive makes it equally fun to drive, and skidding around in the winter is really fun.
I can say I am a stick shift driver (S2000 fun car, Elcamino other fun car, IS300 time attack car) and I also own an electric car (Polestar 2). They are all fun in their own ways. The Polestar is our daily driver and saves us a shit load on gas. Also it is fast AF and will embarrass my racecar off the line, but it is driven for different reasons. Also not worrying about a hill start in traffic with a heavy clutch is nice.
People sleep on the Polestar 2. I have one so I’m biased but they’re kickass.
Look at all the comments here saying “they’re all SUVs or micro cars”… Uh, what?
I prefer manual (probably only because I live in the UK and autos are much less common here) but I’m not so precious about it that I’d prevent myself doing something that’s objectively better for the environment.
Funny you ask, I was thinking of just this lately. I love driving manual, I would never buy an automatic ICE vehicle. That being said, if there was an affordable electric option I’d go for it in a second even though they don’t really have transmissions at all from what I gather.
We call them manuals here. I’ve only had one automatic and it was awful. But it was a cheaper car than I normally drive. I prefer manuals as I have more control over the car.
Electric is very different to an automatic combustion engine. I’m absolutely fine with electric.
Electric > manual > automatic.
Manual’s only advantage over automatic is better control over shifting for staying in the power band or downshifting for long slopes. A proper CVT electric can always have the optimal power band for the speed and regenerative braking takes care of the long slopes.
I’ve never seen an electric car that used a CVT, normally they are just direct drive. Like the motor spins a reduction gearbox, which is directly connected to the wheels. There is only one gear, not even a reverse, the motor just spins backwards to move the car backwards.
That is also why smaller electric cars typically top out around 80-120mph, and you need a very powerful one to go 150+ like a Tesla.
The issue is that at low speed the motor has to spin very slowly which requires immense torque. This is generally overcome with a reduction ratio. The less reduction the faster you can go, but if your motor is not powerful enough then you won’t have enough torque on the steepest hills etc.
I’ve never seen an electric car that used a CVT, normally they are just direct drive.
Potato, potato.
