As a side note. I detest people who make idiotic and often irrelevant comments “about” youtube videos. I detest them. All it takes to get me to offer a prayer to the coming of Gozer the Destructor is a brief foray into the jungle of stupid. I hate it, and yet sometimes I cannot help a glance, as I find myself scrolling down to see what sorts of opinions the video of a cat playing a keyboard has generated. It's like Heroine, the shit is killing my soul, I can feel it wither away with each half-thought spatter of , and yet I keep going back. My foresight in creating this blog aside, I am clearly not bright enough to long survive the apocalypse. For I will be the schmuck who keeps visiting Barter Town even after being stabbed the first two times.
Anyways, I too lessons from Youtube. Some were actually fairly helpful and well presented. Check out the bandanned Hippy! But since this is youtube we're talking about, most of what I found was incompetent drivel.
In the states at least, so it appears, most cars made and sold these days are Automatics. Somewhere back in the past someone said 'manually switching gears in an automobile is quite tricky. Surely we can make this simpler for the masses.' and they are correct, driving a manual is tricky, it takes practice to acquire the timing necessary not to stall out. And there's always the worry, especially when you're stopped on a hill, that you won't move fast enough (see Bill Cosby talking about driving a manual in San Francisco). This is the same set of logic that gave us Operating Systems with the Graphical User Interface and mechanical machines to wash our clothing. The Automatic is a wonderful labor-saving device.
It's just not as fun to play with, as it removes some of the skill aspect from driving a car.
Driving a Manual is a dying art, sad to say, at least in the States. I have formed the opinion that Manuals should be made mandatory on all vehicles. Not out of any pretentious douchery on my part relating to the purity of the art of driving. No, this is more practical. I have observed that driving a manual makes it impossible to operate a telephone while driving. You can't put on makeup. One hand is busy with the stick while the other is glued to the wheel. Operating a manual forces you to pay attention to the act of driving, which is what you should be doing. That way, nobody gets hurt because you're acting like a dumbass.
Ok. There are a couple of definite benefits of a manual transmission in a post-apocalyptic setting. Fuel efficiency is the first. Manuals are usually more fuel efficient, by on average a couple miles to the gallon, than automatics. Though that margin seems to be slimming with the arrival of new technology. A couple miles per gallon can mean quite a distance over the course of months or years, especially in a wasteland where fuel is scarce. Even on a small vehicle, that's 20 miles of extra distance over the course of a tank. 20 miles makes for a long ass walk through zombie infested nuclear wastelands.
Reason two. You can push start a manual. In some cases of mechanical failure with the starter, the engine can be ignited by getting it up over a certain speed. Which is really easy to do if you're lucky enough to be parked on top of a hill, or have friends to help you. A moot point if you're alone on the plains. Time to get your bike out. Hope you brought it.
Three. Mechanically, a manual trans. is relatively simple device compared to its counterpart. It is smaller, more compact and lighter. And thus will be easier to replace if that part were to fail on you. Assuming you just couldn't find another vehicle (and were able to locate parts, etc.).
Four. In my experience, a manual can get up to top speed a lot faster than an automatic. Though this burns fuel quickly, it may come in handy during one of those tense scenes where you and your pursuers are stuck at a stop light, waiting for it to turn green so that you can renew the chase sequence. It really ramps up the excitement!
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