Manual or automatic driving lessons for today’s teens?

[TheWildRumpyPumpus]

Are your teenagers (or you) learning to drive manual or automatic? When I took my test 15 years ago it was suggested that everyone passed the manual test, but as a family we’ve ended up with 2 automatic cars anyway!

DS isn’t bothered and we if we go automatic they will be able to get practice in family cars. DH reckons manual will give more options in future. Anyone with recent experience with words of wisdom?

But this is a thread about teens learning to drive.

As a rule, teens don't buy new cars.
Nor do people in their 20s.
Nor do many of us who are considerably older than that.

So it is going to be many, many, many years before there will be no reason to hold a full licence if you are able.

DS1 automatic- he's autistic and dyspraxic so keeping learning to drive as simple as possible will be the priority over keeping affordable options open.

DS2 manual if that's still a simple option in 5 years. There will still be plenty of older, manual starter cars in 5 years. No point in narrowing options down if not necessary.

Manual's just much nicer to drive (if you don't have co-ordination/ processing issues). It's much more engaging and feels more balanced and controlled. I hate driving DH's automatic. It's like 2 tonnes of go kart, and the left side of my body is twitchy and lost with no purpose. Yuck.
The thought of being forced into automatics in the future is really depressing. Car design is getting less and less pragmatic too (blinding lights, trying to drag you back over the white line if you hadn't indicated...)

I passed in an automatic only, but its not restricted me in anyway. I can easily find small automatic cars to buy, although I've stuck with the Aygo for the last few years, and I've never struggled getting an automatic hire car when needed.

My kids have done automatic. They will never need to drive a manual so it made total sense.

I much prefer automatics. They are as engaging in my opinion as you can drive in manual mode too and both mine have steering wheel paddle shifters. They come into their own in shitty slow city traffic.

Automatic. I used to be a ‘manual all the way, it’s the real driving experience’ person but I’ve done a complete 180. The electric car I have now is way more fun to drive and more responsive than any manual I had previously. Never going back.

Dh is a terrible driver (probably dyspraxic) and always struggled with gears and clutch control. As a result, we’ve rented automatics on holiday for about a decade. It’s never been a problem, and we travel a lot, all over the world.

The future is electric, so in my opinion it’s a waste of time and money learning manual these days, unless you’re planning a career in international aid in developing countries or something like that.

We have 1 electric and 1 automatic car.

Teen who is 17 this year can decide for themselves but won't have access to a manual car to practice in.