Mindconnection eNL, 2005-08-21

• Upside: Increased fuel economy of 3% to 7%.
• Downside: Increased weight, loss of passenger space, increased cost, increased complexity, increased maintenance.

In the brainpower notes above, we addressed the idea of learning from others. When it comes to automobiles, Americans simply do not do this.

Europeans have already been using a solution that trumps these new transmissions, and they have been doing so for decades. Why are we so slow on the uptake? I don't know, but we are also the only "civilized" country with a federal income tax and a massive bureaucracy (larger than our combined Army, Navy, and Air Force) of psychopathic nincompoops who pretend to oversee it (while, in actuality, using their positions to brazenly rob the government and individuals--see the GAO reports).

In the USA, only 20% of cars have manual transmissions. In Europe, where fuel prices have long been much higher than in the USA, only 20% of cars have automatic transmissions. Hmm.

Automatic transmissions are fuel-hoggers, and they are also costly to buy and maintain. Unless you have some medical reason to have one (not likely) or are just too stupid to figure out how to shift gears (also not likely), it usually makes sense to choose a manual transmission over an automatic. Here's why:

• Upside: Increased fuel economy of 3% to 12%. Decreased weight, increased passenger space (possible), lower cost, lower complexity, zero maintenance.
• Downside: Lower trade-in value. But you already got your money, and then some, upfront. Another downside is you can't use your right hand to run your cell-phone, laptop, curling iron, or other distractions while in city traffic--bummer.

If Americans had manual transmission cars in the same ratio as the Europeans do, our gasoline prices would be lower because demand would be lower relative to supply. With some 100 million cars averaging over 10,000 miles a year, even a 5% improvement in gas mileage would add up. Think how thrilled you'd be if someone handed you a check for the cumulative savings in gasoline--it'd be a huge check!

100 million times 10,000 times 5% times 20 MPG times the price of gas at your pump....

It seems we manual transmission drivers should get a rebate for doing our part to reduce fuel prices. In fact, we already do!

Now, here's another way of looking at this. Suppose you drive a manual transmission car, and do the following:

• Every time you put ten gallons of gas in the tank, you pump most of a gallon onto the ground. That's about the fuel difference between an automatic and a manual.
• Every year, you whip out $50 and simply burn it. That's the annual fluid and filter change for an automatic (we aren't even counting the time involved to have this done). Of course, most automatic transmission owners don't do this. So they simply pay more in fuel costs until they get hit with that $1200 repair bill when the unmaintained transmission locks up when they are on their way to an important meeting.

I'm not saying everyone who owns a car with an automatic transmission is a fool. I am saying that doing so is a costly proposition and you can save yourself quite a bit of money by choosing a manual transmission. Further, the sheer mass of people driving automatics tilts the supply vs. demand curve toward everyone's detriment.

There may be reasons why, in your case, driving an automatic is worth the extra cost. I'm not you, so I can't say. But I can tell you that most of the "reasons" people have are not the result of honest evaluation.

For example, "It's too hard." Well, today's (post 1980) manual transmissions are pretty easy to operate and most have some form of powered assist (similar to power steering). I have driven manual transmissions after a hard afternoon of climbing, so hard that I can barely close my hands anymore. I've driven them with broken fingers, a sprained wrist, and inflamed tendons. The physical effort required to shift gears simply isn't very much.

So rather than plop down an extra $2,500 for a new-fangled 8-speed transmission, spend $2,500 less to get even better performance from a manual transmission. Use the money for something you enjoy, or invest it for retirement.

The cliché about "reinventing the wheel" hits really close to home, here. Don't pay for that foolishness.

When I was about 10 years old, I heard a tremendous "boom" late one afternoon. It shook our house. Shortly thereafter, we heard the fire trucks. My parents, being responsible citizens, told me to stay home and let the firemen do their jobs without having to contend with crowds of kids and other onlookers.

The next day, I got to see what it was. A few blocks away, where a house once stood, there was a pile of rubble and scorched cinder blocks. The original report was that a gas stove had caused the explosion.

As an aside, I think it's interesting that a gas stove somehow got so angry that it plotted and schemed until it came up with the idea of causing an explosion. Gas stoves don't cause explosions--people misusing gas stoves might, but that's let's not blame inanimate objects. The only exception, of course, is Congress. But scientists disagree as to whether Congressmen are truly inanimate, because they do vote themselves raises rather frequently. Further studies are underway.

These people had a gas clothes dryer, and they never cleaned the lint trap. This lint accumulated in the ductwork, and then ignited. Dryer lint is quite flammable (it's a great campfire starter, if you want to collect it for that purpose). When this lint ignited in the confined space of the exhaust duct, the result was a fireball and explosion that subsequently ignited the gas supply to the stove.

Two things, here:

1. Don't have gas appliances.
2. Clean your dryer lint trap.

Even if you don't have gas appliances, failing to maintain your dryer lint trap can prove deadly. Most often, the dryer duct work is inside a wall. So, you let the lint build up and what happens? You get a fire inside the wall, go to bed unaware of it, and never wake up. Some people consider this an even worse fate than a tax audit (they haven't been audited, yet, apparently), and it is rather gruesome.

This seems like such a simple thing. Just get in the habit of cleaning your lint trap before and after each load (this way, you won't forget). When that lint trap is clean, you'll be blowing unlinted air through the exhaust ducting and helping clear it.

When that lint trap is clogged, two things happen:

1. You have insufficient pressure to clean the exhaust ducting.
2. Your dryer is working extra hard, which raises your electric bill and prematurely wears out your dryer motor by overheating it (note that gas dryers also use electricity to run the motor and the controls).

Granted, this is not an urgent danger and we don't see homes blowing up every day from inattention to lint traps. But I have seen the results once and that's enough for me. See this issue's brainpower tip if you still wonder if you should make a habit of keeping that trap clean.