response 78 of 120:

Nov 28 16:09 UTC 2003

I'd have rather ordered a car and gotten exactly what I wanted, 
however it would have taken a month, and I didn't want to drive my 
truck for another month.  I would have had to order a Saturn, 
according to the dealership.  They estimated 3-4 weeks for delivery.  
I didn't want to wait.  That affected my decision not to get a Saturn.

I don't know how much the fog lights cost, but whatever it is, it was 
too much.  I have had fog lights in other cars.  I have never gained 
anything from using them.

It gets foggy out in my neck of the woods; there are more 2 hour 
school delays for fog every year than there are cancellations for 
snow.  I've driven in every level of fog, including fog such that you 
don't want to drive more than about 20 mph and shouldn't drive at 
all.  I have never seen any benefit at all to having fog lights under 
any conditions.

I went for manual transmission over automatic because it's more fun to 
drive.  Also there's a slight advantage for gas mileage.  Also it's 
about $800 cheaper (but I'd have gone manual even if it cost the same).

In Michigan, if you drive in the winter, you are occasionally going to 
slide on ice.  Antilock brakes mean you don't have to pay attention to 
your brakes.  You can deal with keeping the car on the road and not 
hitting anyone, and just stomp on the brakes.

response 80 of 120:

Nov 28 16:50 UTC 2003

If I understand correctly, you can start a car with manual transmission by
pushing it down an incline, but not one with automatic transmission.

response 82 of 120:

Nov 28 17:28 UTC 2003

I buy only manual transmission cars for the various reasons others have
given above plus:

It is easier to rock the car to get it out of snow or mud; one gets better
engine breaking going downhill; my cars are less likely to be stolen; our
daughter discovered her "friends" at college don't ask to borrow her manual
("May I borrow your car?" It's a stick shift. "Oh...well, thanks anyway.")

In fact, I can't think of any advantages to an automatic shift. Why are we
having this discussion...?  8^}

response 84 of 120:

Nov 28 18:47 UTC 2003

Re #82: I've rocked an automatic.  It's not that hard, though you do
have to lead the direction change a little with the shifter to make up
for the time it takes the transmission to shift.  Check the owner's
manual first, though; the internal design of some automatics makes
rocking the car a very bad idea.  Some Hondas, for example, have a
rather unique automatic transmission design that doesn't tolerate
rocking well.

Re #83: I agree with you there.  Stop and go traffic gets tedious in a
hurry in a manual shift car.

response 86 of 120:

Nov 28 21:03 UTC 2003

I think the dominance of the automatic transmission comes about at the
stage of learning to drive. Shifting is a skill that needs to be learned
and practiced. This is frustrating for both the learner and the
instructor! Of course, the learner can't realize the advantages of a
manual transmission, while the instructor can finish the job more easily
(for the same pay) with an automatic. I learned to drive before there were
good automatic transmissions, and of course our daughter wanted to learn
to drive with what was available, which meant a stick shift.

response 88 of 120:

Nov 28 22:16 UTC 2003

I can "rock" an automatic transmission car out of the snow more easily 
than a manual.  I had practice during my time in Houghton.

On the other hand, I can get quick acceleration from a manual much 
more quickly and reliably than from an automatic.  (Just downshift.)

The only time I've had a problem with the emergency brake is when it 
wasn't used for a long time.  With a manual, you're always using the 
emergency brake.

response 90 of 120:

Nov 28 23:18 UTC 2003

I'm beginning to suspect that the purpose of fog lights is to make your car
more easily seen in fog, not to make it easier for you to see.  But I can't
recall approaching a car using fog lights, so I can't test the hypothesis.

(I put my headlights on earlier, and leave them on later, even though both
cars have daytime running lights, to make it easier for others to see me.)

response 92 of 120:

Nov 29 01:06 UTC 2003

Re #90: The idea of fog lamps is to get them low enough to get the light
under the fog.  There's often a clear area just above the ground.  A lot
of factory fog lamps aren't very effective, though; they're more for looks.

One of the things that annoys me about automatics is under situations
where you're using a lot of throttle at a steady speed (like climbing a
hill) they tend to 'hunt' between gears.  On the Ford van I used to own
I'd get into situations where it would lose speed in 3rd, downshift to
2nd, gain speed, upshift to 3rd, lose speed, downshift to 2nd...  I
ended up manually locking it in 2nd anyway, so I might as well have had
a manual.

response 94 of 120:

Nov 29 17:09 UTC 2003

IIRC, daytime running lights is also headlights on low-power as well as
parking lights, but not on fully.

response 96 of 120:

Nov 30 02:46 UTC 2003

re resp:94: I just found that out today.  DRLs are low-power 
headlights.  I had thought they were just the parking lights.

re resp:95: I agree with all you said, and have done the same things 
as well.

Have you ever found fog lights, specifically, to be useful to you, 
Rane?  

response 98 of 120:

Nov 30 06:30 UTC 2003

I've never driven a car with fog lights, so I cannot compare personally. 
I was speaking from things I've read and observed about other cars.

response 100 of 120:

Nov 30 20:40 UTC 2003

My car's headlights are on all the time but at lower power (DRL). This 
is good because I am the type of person who forgets to turn on my 
headlights on rainy grey days when lights probably do make a 
difference.