The clutch gang!

[Truckn]

It's all about the manual...

I read a lot of nay-sayers about the manual transmission in this car, but I'd take a mediocre manual over an awesome auto any day.

Having said that, I immediately noticed the gearing is a bit different than I'd have chosen for this car but I adjusted my mental shift points after about an hour behind the wheel. I actually like it. No it's not a sports car, but the shifts are smooth and the clutch action is where I like it. 2nd gear pulls strong in town and 6th gear gets decent MPGs.

So why a manual?

Auto's are faster.
Auto's get better mileage.
Auto's let you drink (coffee) and drive.
...
Auto means the wife can drive it.
Auto means any kid can steal it.
Auto means it's just like everyone elses.

I've always driven a manual except for a few mistaken short-lived purchases.
It's just better. More entertaining. More control.

I don't know about you but when I look inside the car window of a cool car and I see an auto, I feel a little disappointed -- more so if it were my own. Am I weird?

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[Toycrusher]

It's all about the manual...

I read a lot of nay-sayers about the manual transmission in this car, but I'd take a mediocre manual over an awesome auto any day.

Having said that, I immediately noticed the gearing is a bit different than I'd have chosen for this car but I adjusted my mental shift points after about an hour behind the wheel. I actually like it. No it's not a sports car, but the shifts are smooth and the clutch action is where I like it. 2nd gear pulls strong in town and 6th gear gets decent MPGs.

So why a manual?

Auto's are faster.
Auto's get better mileage.
Auto's let you drink (coffee) and drive.
...
Auto means the wife can drive it.
Auto means any kid can steal it.
Auto means it's just like everyone elses.

I've always driven a manual except for a few mistaken short-lived purchases.
It's just better. More entertaining. More control.

I don't know about you but when I look inside the car window of a cool car and I see an auto, I feel a little disappointed -- more so if it were my own. Am I weird?

Yes your weird.

And yes I agree with you completely

 

[01tj]

It's all about the manual...

I read a lot of nay-sayers about the manual transmission in this car, but I'd take a mediocre manual over an awesome auto any day.

I don't know about you but when I look inside the car window of a cool car and I see an auto, I feel a little disappointed -- more so if it were my own. Am I weird?

I've always said I'd rather have a manual in anything. I just enjoy shifting, it made my 4cyl TJ tolerable on the road and made my Frontier feel sporty. I flew 4 hours a drove 10 hours so I could get a hard to find manual BMW.


It did take a while to get used to the gearing in this Jeep but once I did it became super smooth. I do kind of get a weird lurching/lunging feeling when driving through town at 25 mph that I can't figure out though.

My wife gets mad at me for looking in cars when I walk through parking lots but it's always a nice surprise to see a real shifter in a nice car

 

[DanW]

I've always said I'd rather have a manual in anything. I just enjoy shifting, it made my 4cyl TJ tolerable on the road and made my Frontier feel sporty. I flew 4 hours a drove 10 hours so I could get a hard to find manual BMW.


It did take a while to get used to the gearing in this Jeep but once I did it became super smooth. I do kind of get a weird lurching/lunging feeling when driving through town at 25 mph that I can't figure out though.

My wife gets mad at me for looking in cars when I walk through parking lots but it's always a nice surprise to see a real shifter in a nice car

How many miles on yours? I overcame the lurching with time/conditioning and I also think the engine breaking-in helped. I don't think its done much of that since 20k miles. It wasn't bad to begin with, but it would occasionally catch me off guard. Now it is non-existent at 40k.

 

[01tj]

How many miles on yours? I overcame the lurching with time/conditioning and I also think the engine breaking-in helped. I don't think its done much of that since 20k miles. It wasn't bad to begin with, but it would occasionally catch me off guard. Now it is non-existent at 40k.

I'm at 20k now and it doesn't seem as bad as it did at first. Other than that I really don't have any complaints about the transmission. Having two over drive gears is kind of overkill but I guess it's good for when I'm in a hyper-miling mood. With the 3.45 gears I probably won't go much bigger in tires but that's okay with me anyway

 

[nomographer]

Before reading all 66 pages in going to hop in and say no, the automatic transmission is simply not faster. Sure, an eight speed blowing off the line in the quarter mile, I could see that beating most manual drivers. But let's be honest here about how the transmission is actually used 99.99% of the time.

I test drove a Rubicon back in July. Sure enough the only manual was 60 miles away so I test drove the automatic. Even in a 20min mixed city/highway test it was second guessing me. Up hills, around corners, leaving stop lights... it was shifting all over the place. So we'll need a bit more power in a few seconds, one two three go! it hesitates, downshifts, gives 0.5sec of juice, upshifts, hesitates, ... Excellent, it's been two seconds and I gained 2mph. Meanwhile if I press the throttle some more you're going to do it again.

If I was pounding the throttle thinking it was some sports car, maybe I could see the computer drastically confused by that driving style. For a vehicle on a lot with 100mi, it shouldn't be so confused.

Why do I drive a manual? Because it's faster in delivering power and torque, and it's not going to come out of gear when I need it most.

 

[Petey]

do you have a JL with manual transmission? If you do, please say so and maybe tell why you still like to drive with a stick.
I’m just curious how many of us are left. It was very difficult to find my JLU with Manual transmission. Most dealers said they would not carry them for stock, that it had to be ordered.
10 years ago was the same story with my FJ Cruiser.
I love to be in full control of the gears. I guess I like driving for the sake of driving. A car to me is much more than just a mean of transportation. Just like I love analog watches, and mechanical ones even more.
And by the way, I really like the JL transmission. I believe it is Japanese.

I don't know how to drive an automatic.. i drove one once and got rear ended several times in the same day. on the serious side, push start is an awesome function to have when battery is dead and without options

 

[sf5211]

I don't know how to drive an automatic.. i drove one once and got rear ended several times in the same day. on the serious side, push start is an awesome function to have when battery is dead and without options

Lifetime manual trans guy here too.
I’m not sure if you can even push start these modern Jeep’s with the 2 battery systems anymore. Has anyone tried?

 

[Toycrusher]

Lifetime manual trans guy here too.
I’m not sure if you can even push start these modern Jeep’s with the 2 battery systems anymore. Has anyone tried?

I'm sure you could with a low battery, but if it was dead dead, probably not. Push to start key switch would probably be a nightmare

 

[Petey]

I have a confession to make. I’ll try to keep it short. I have not bent a fan of Jeeps. I’ve alternated between Land Rovers and Land Cruisers (there are Toyotas and then there are Land Cruisers). Back in the 80’s living in Costa Rica the Wrangler came out and I had to have one. It was a looker. Rode nice until one day climbing a volcano the darn thing would not go up steeper than 15%. the fuel pump wouldn’t feed the carburetor. With all buddies laughing I made the whole climb up the mountain in reverse. Swore never again to have a Jeep and went back to the Land Cruiser. Let me tell you, it is really hard to beat a 4.2 liter turbo diesel Land Cruiser. The USA missed one of the greatest engines ever. Any way, fast forward to 2018 and I shopping for a SUV. My wife says it has to be stick shift. The Cruiser is great but boring. I say, we are out of luck. There is no real SUV in the USA with a stick shift. She’s determined to find one. Then she says here is the list: BMW X? and Porsche Cayenne. Hum, both of them hardly what I would call SUV, and most important in both cases to get the MT you got to buy the most underpowered of the line. I said if I’m driving a BMW or Porsche it has to be the one with the HP that goes with the image.
Went to a car show and there was a crowd around the Rubicon!!! Got one and I’ll cross my fingers when I run into a 15%+ grade lol.

if u still live with the ticos it would not be recommendable to buy the german suvs

Lifetime manual trans guy here too.
I’m not sure if you can even push start these modern Jeep’s with the 2 battery systems anymore. Has anyone tried?

I wondered also. If that the case jeep killed it for me. I might try this one day when a good opportunity arises.

 

[DanW]

Lifetime manual trans guy here too.
I’m not sure if you can even push start these modern Jeep’s with the 2 battery systems anymore. Has anyone tried?

I haven't tried it but will do that as soon as I can. Very curious.

 

[intentsrig]

Lifetime manual trans guy here too.
I’m not sure if you can even push start these modern Jeep’s with the 2 battery systems anymore. Has anyone tried?

Pretty sure I saw a guy who had his Jeep parked on a downhill driveway and left it in first gear no parking brake. Started on its own slowly but surely by rolling forward. Compression started it. Ran into a shed or something.

Really wish I could find that video. 99% sure it was a JL.

It seems this guy did it in reverse. https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/stalled-m-t-would-not-restart.5586/

 

[eck]

Pretty sure I saw a guy who had his Jeep parked on a downhill driveway and left it in first gear no parking brake. Started on its own slowly but surely by rolling forward. Compression started it. Ran into a shed or something.

Really wish I could find that video. 99% sure it was a JL.

It seems this guy did it in reverse. https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/stalled-m-t-would-not-restart.5586/

You're probably thinking of when Fat Ninja got away from @chevymitchell and hit his shed

 

[chevymitchell]

Pretty sure I saw a guy who had his Jeep parked on a downhill driveway and left it in first gear no parking brake. Started on its own slowly but surely by rolling forward. Compression started it. Ran into a shed or something.

Really wish I could find that video. 99% sure it was a JL.

It seems this guy did it in reverse. https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/stalled-m-t-would-not-restart.5586/

That was me. It was in 2nd and the parking brake was on. This is how I figured out my parking brake was shot. That's what happens when you're the guy that jumps out on the trail to help everyone. My parking brake got pulled 10x more than it should have for its age. @mgroeger owns Fat Ninja now. Not sure if he ever did anything with the parking brake cable. I know it became disconnected in the center console one time, but that's a pretty common deal when you have the cables disconnected from the eyes at the brake assemblies.

 

[intentsrig]

That was me. It was in 2nd and the parking brake was on. This is how I figured out my parking brake was shot. That's what happens when you're the guy that jumps out on the trail to help everyone. My parking brake got pulled 10x more than it should have for its age. @mgroeger owns Fat Ninja now. Not sure if he ever did anything with the parking brake cable. I know it became disconnected in the center console one time, but that's a pretty common deal when you have the cables disconnected from the eyes at the brake assemblies.

Ohh ok good I’m not going crazy! Didn’t you have a video?

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