Originally Posted by
CDTraveler
- streets are old, heavily potholed, narrow and full of gawking tourists. It takes a hell of a lot of concentration to just avoid the the human obstacles! You'd quickly wear out a clutch with the need for constant shifting.
I've driven through many touristic, old city centres in Europe and never had issues with driving a manual. The clutch pedal isn't that heavy to operate. We're talking about a normal car, not a 80s super car. Very small roads in old city centres are a nightmare to navigate through. Automatic or manual doesn't make a huge difference.
(Driving a car in SFO or any city with tons of up-/downhill is obviously more challenging for the clutch.)
Regarding same cars: I've driven VW Polos with petrol engines and VWs baby DSG (double clutch gearbox with dry-running clutches capable of handling up to 250 Nm worth of torque) and VW Polos with diesel engines and manual gearbox: The petrol Polo with the DSG is at ~60mph more economical than the diesel manual as it has 7 gears vs. 5 gears. Above that speed, the diesel manual becomes more fuel-efficient again. IMO VWs has set up the gearbox too much on fuel efficiency. The gearbox is constantly shifting (6th at 30mph).
The difference in weight makes quite a difference. The diesel feels more planted on the road. The power-steering is less perceivable and it feels slightly heavier (which I like).