DD fairly new driver - should she get an automatic car?

[Dietingalways]

DD hasn’t exactly taken to driving very easily, she passed her test last November but hates driving and will literally only go 2-3 miles around our local village and that’s only if she has to.
Ideally she needs her own car due to work commitments. She thinks an automatic will be easier as it’s one less thing to think about (gears).
Im not sure it’s a great idea, she’ll lose the skill of manual driving surely?

any thoughts? I’m tempted to let her do what she wants and get an automatic if it means she’ll get out and drive more

I live in Argyll & Bute, plenty of hills and remote places, my auto manages just fine.

Mine isn’t.

Also have a manual AWD fun car. No way could you drift/get the back end out in an auto. And how boring that would be.

DD will be doing the young driver course just as soon as she is 13 and I’m already talking to her about gear ratios. Intend to keep the above cars on the road for as long as possible so she gets the chance to experience the “real driving” which is so sadly being phased out.

I’m at the opposite end of the spectrum - I’m getting an automatic next (in my 60s) because I tend to keep my cars for a long time, so I’d rather get the knack now than when I’m in my 70s or 80s, by which time probably the majority of cars will be electric.

Having driven a manual for 40 years I’m pretty confident I won’t ever lose that ability!

Automatics are awesome and way easier to drive. Manuals are harder and will be phased out one day but they are much cheaper and good if you can’t afford a 3-5 yr old automatic. My first 3 cars were manual, but now I can afford automatic I’m never going back!

Basically if she can afford a fairly new automatic as her first car she’s unlikely to ever need the skill of driving a manual. If however the only automatics she can afford are 10 yrs old then she should stick wirh manual cars, because around 9-11 yrs of age cars with automatic gearboxes tend to need expensive repairs (like £3-5k).

I live in the US now and automatics have been standard here for years, I think it’s quite difficult to find a manual unless it’s a sports car. Automatics are fine on hills, etc., I’ve driven up mountains around hairpin bends in them!

I can still use a gear stick but I tend to hire an automatic now when I’m visiting family in the UK.

As PP’s have said, automatics will be standard everywhere at some point so it’s not a big deal really.

she obviously passed her test as her driving met the required standard 🙄a
Why is it a terrible idea?

People are so weird about driving automatics!

Her confidence will come on leaps and bounds in an automatic, and this will make her a better and safer driver, she should go for it

Once you drive an automatic you never go back!

Once you drive an automatic you never go back!

i fucking hated it! Had one as a courtesy car and just couldn’t get used to it. Kept pressing both pedals at once like I do with the clutch and couldn’t understand why I kept stopping randomly in the middle of the road 😂.

that and it makes me really twitchy when I can hear the engine needs to move up a gear and it’s slow to change.

You're being completely ridiculous.
"Real driving", is done by millions of people every day in automatics, because quite frankly it's just driving, it gets you where you need to be which is the whole point on a day to day basis

Why on earth are people so weird about autos?
What exactly can't you do in one if there are no extreme conditions?

Only ever driven them in the states and can’t wait to give them back and get home to my manual!

I have a track racing licence.

I like to control what the car is doing rather than it control me. On every drive.

I already gave you the drifting/stepping out on roundabouts example. May not be important to the majority but I drive for more than just necessity and don’t really appreciate that the world is intent on losing that.

I shall have to get a pilot’s licence to actually enjoy some freedom at this rate.

If she won't drive outside of a tiny area at the moment then people saying that she needs to drive a manual to hire a car in another country are away with the fairies. She will NOT be wanting to do that.

99% of her driving needs is getting herself from A to B, like work, shops, friends etc. If an automatic will make that more achievable for her then she should go for it. The 1% of her driving that might need the ability to use a manual (eg courtesy car from garage) can be replaced by taxis.

We take my Audi A3 auto to the Isle of Skye via Glencoe each year and manage just fine with it.

Then you don't have a decent 4x4.

Absolutely no way would I drive a manual again.

I started learning to drive in a manual and I hated it. I didn’t enjoy it at all, I’m not sure why I didn’t enjoy it but I just hated it. I started doing lessons in an automatic and fell in love with it. Obviously did my test in an automatic which was met with a plethora of shitty comments from friends and family. Half of which can’t even drive themselves!

My favourite comments were my brother, who had failed his test 8 times and given up, calling it “embarrassingly unskilled” (yet felt safe enough asking me lifts every weekend…) and my friend telling me that I was making a huge mistake because if I was held at gunpoint and asked to drive a manual I’d be shot. Bit dramatic love.
My father said automatics were “slow” and that a snail could beat them in a race. Well, he never said it again after I’d caught up with him at some traffic lights, pulled away a good few seconds before he did, he couldn’t manage to overtake me on the dual carriageway and I got home 2 minutes earlier than him. He said I only beat him because he’d stalled at a roundabout and it slowed him down😂😂

In 8 years, I’ve never been in a situation where I’d have to drive a manual and I’ve had no issues buying or hiring an automatic car (here or abroad). I’ve also never been held at gunpoint and been instructed to drive a manual car. I guess there’s still time though…

Also what is this “real driving” nonsense?
Like a manual driver, I’m still in control of a huge metal box that has the potential to kill someone. It’s not like I’m going to Tesco in a Little Tikes Cozy Coupe.

Define decent. 12 years old and it’s done everything I’ve ever asked it to, in some extremely difficult conditions and almost always on steep hills. (That’s more about tyres than 4x4 but being able to choose myself whether it’s 2WD, 4WD or 4WD with locked diffs is yet another option taken away in more modern cars.

Utterly reliable, safe, responsive, doesn’t beep at me for changing lanes or try to steer me into parked cars. I’ll take that.

Well, she might get more confident about driving in the future though.

My DD, who passed in April, is a confident driver, and I barely see my car now. Luckily I can walk to work.🤣

Why is it terrible? Genuinely asking. If her DD is happier in an automatic, then use one!

Well, she might get more confident about driving in the future though.

She might. She might also win the lottery and have a professional driver to take her around in a huge comfy car. She might move to Sark and not have a car. Civilisation and cars might be wiped out by a huge asteroid. Anything might happen in the future. What is certain is the present, and she needs to get herself to work, preferably without anxiety. Driving an automatic car is not an irreversible decision, she's not getting a tattoo or having a hysterectomy. If she did want to return to a manual car and was unsure about it she could always have a few driving lessons. I

I became a confident driver because I switched to an automatic. OP's daughter might do the same. What's so wrong with that?

I’m agreeing with you, @BlackAmericanoNoSugar, Get an automatic now and let her get on with it. I was just saying that once her driving confidence increases, she might be more inclined to go further.

Where we live, teenagers have to do a minimum of 60 hours of supervised practice with a parent/responsible adult before taking their test, ( in addition to lessons), which really helps build confidence. Not sure what the current UK requirements are.

Sorry Chameleongirl I mistook your tone.

Depends on the car, my nissan note, goes as slowly backwards as forwards, total control

My fiat 500, which I gave to OH as its so awful, you touch the accelerator, nothing, bit more, nothing, bit more, nothing, bit more BANG

Bloody awful car

Anyway both autos

that and it makes me really twitchy when I can hear the engine needs to move up a gear and it’s slow to change

Hybrids don't do that because they work on continuous variable transmission.

However we did have an automatic that used to forget to change, it was annoying. However, it had a clutchless manual option so I used to drive it like that and avoided the issue. Some automatic gearboxes can be a bit annoying but not the newer ones.

As for "real driving" why does everything have to be automated including sat nav, windscreen wipers, headlights etc but you are not a real driver if you don't use gears? You make driving easier in every other way but one. It doesn't make sense.