Questions and Answers

Standard Transmission Still Standard? Q. Enjoyed your article on learning to drive a car with a manual transmission, but wonder if your nomenclature is still relevant in this era. I grew up in the era when a manual transmission was truly the "standard transmission" but maybe it is time to say manual transmission when you mean manual transmission, since the automatic transmission is the "standard" transmission in many cars now.

I stuck with manuals until quite late, but after enduring hours of stop-and-go driving on the world's longest parking lot, the Tomei Expressway between Tokyo and Nagoya, I finally went auto in 1991.

Harley Ferguson
Okie o' in Tokyo

A. You're probably right, the manual transmission is not the "standard" transmission any more. But with us old farts old habits die hard and I guess the manual transmission will always be referred to as "standard transmissions" until we all die off and the new generation takes over.

And by the way, the Tomei Expressway is NOT the worlds longest parking lot. That dubious honor belongs to the Long Island Expressway in New York City.