On Fri, 12 Sep 2003, Kim Brennan wrote:

> When the snow gets to be more than a couple of inches deep, you may
> find it difficult to get moving (especially uphill). A manual
> transmission is easy to switch between 1st and reverse...and do it in
> time with the natural rocking of the vehicle. All automatics I've
> driven there is just enough of a delay to make this extremely difficult.

Nonsense.  I've rocked an automatic -- the trick is to lead the direction
change a little with the shift lever, so the vehicle is already in reverse
when momentum wants it to go backwards.  It's actually not that hard once
you get into the rhythm, though doing it for too long can damage the
transmission. It seems like rocking a manual would be tough without a
synchronized reverse.  None of my manual transmission cars will go into
Reverse unless they're at an absolute dead stop.

>   In an automatic you are at the mercy of the transmission as to what
> gear you are in (while you can specify a LOWER gear, you can NOT
> specify and get a HIGHER gear).

Yeah, this is a problem.  I would like to complain in particular about the
Ford transmissions that have no "2" position.  (Their pattern is P R N OD
D 1.)  You can downshift to 2nd by putting it in the "1" position at a
higher speed, but if you accidentally slow down too much it will lock into
1st.

David Brodbeck, N8SRE
'82 Diesel Westfalia
'94 Honda Civic Si