Fondly remembered cars: manual (transmission) memories

Two weeks ago, I laughed when someone asked me if a manual transmission (MT) car would be OK for me to drive. The question brought back memories of all the MT cars I have owned ever since I learned to drive when I was in my 20s a century or so ago— when most of you readers weren’t born yet or just a glint in your father’s eye.

 

Some cars are fondly remembered, others not so fondly. I was taught how to drive in a surplus “owner-type” Eisenhower jeep which, of course, was MT.  Then I graduated to a third-hand 1951 six-cylinder Mercury coupe that had a steering column-mounted stick shift with three forward gears. I enjoyed driving the big American car until one day the engine overheated and caught fire.  We scooped soil from an empty lot nearby to pour on the burning part of the engine to extinguish the flame.

DUNE BUGGY. My next car was a fiberglass dune buggy with an air-cooled twin carburetor 1.5-liter Volkswagen Beetle engine mated to a four-speed MT. The stock carburetors were replaced with Holley and then Weber two-barrel carbs to enhance performance, but they needed a lot of adjusting and maintenance, aside from their being so skittish  that it was difficult to prevent the engine from dying when in full stop at a red light.  Nonetheless, I liked the dune buggy because it was light, airy and fun to drive with its short-throw stick shift.  Remember that at that time, air-conditioned cars were not as common as they are now.

 

After I got a full-time job in Makati City, a good friend loaned me her Holden Commodore, a six-cylinder General Motors midsize sedan from Australia shod with Kleber tires.  The Holden was a more appropriate vehicle for my daily commute from Quezon City to Makati’s central business district since a dune buggy would have been out of place in the corporation’s exclusive parking basement.  The Holden was by far the biggest, most powerful and most comfortable car I had ever driven.  It, too, had a manual gearbox and I enjoyed barreling it down Edsa when that thoroughfare was still a smooth highway with six lanes on each side untrammeled by the Metro Rail Transit.

 

ISUZU GEMINI. After a while, I gave the Holden back to my friend when I availed of a car plan and bought an Isuzu Gemini MT compact sedan. Although I knew that Isuzu is best known for its diesel engines, I got a petrol variant because I did not like the clatter and particulate-heavy, smelly exhaust fumes of diesel motors (this was before common rail direct injection turbocharged diesel technology or CRDi became popular.) What I remember most about the Gemini was that it successfully forded a deep flood on the northbound side of Edsa in front of Camp Aguinaldo.  The water covered the tops of the tires and entered the car, but the plucky little car never stalled.

 

When Toyota Motor Co. returned to the Philippines and began selling made-in-Japan cars before opening an assembly plant in Sta. Rosa City, Laguna province, I acquired a 1.6-liter, 16-valve Toyota Corolla, again MT. The Corolla, manufactured in Japan, was amazing because it was so tautly built and airtight.  It once floated forward through a fender-high flood on United Nations Avenue from Maria Orosa Street to Taft Avenue, never faltering and without any water seeping into the cabin. Another flood-proof car that I once owned was a 1997 Toyota RAV4 MT, also imported completely built up  from Japan.

 

FROM MT TO AT. In fact, all my cars in the past had manual gearboxes: a Triumph Herald estate wagon, a Ford Laser, a 1.3-liter Toyota Corolla, a 1.6-liter Opel Astra sedan and a 2.4-liter Honda Accord. Among these, only the Ford Laser gave me problems with its shock absorbers. It was only in 2005, when I purchased a Hyundai Tucson 4×4 CRDi diesel compact SUV, that I got to have an automatic transmission (AT) car because no MT Tucson was being offered.  A few weeks later, I discovered that a lower-spec gasoline-fed 4×2 MT Tucson had become available. Nonetheless, it took me six years to let go of the Tucson as I grew so fond of it because it was engaging to drive, sturdy, versatile and reliable in all kinds of weather and road conditions.  Above all, like the beloved 1997 RAV4, it never gave me any problems.

 

So did I return to MT the next time I bought a new car?  Although I still enjoy rowing through the gears when I get to drive an MT car like the six-speed Mazda Miata, the convenience and ease of driving an AT car has convinced me that AT is the way to go.  There is also the higher resale value of an AT car.  Besides, AT technology has advanced so far that an AT car is now more fuel-efficient than an MT.  And many AT cars these days are manu-matic, offering a manual shifting option, while the high-end and high-performance ones have steering column-mounted paddle shifters. So good bye, MT and hello, AT!