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Original poster

To think most folk still drive manual cars

399 replies

Bambambini · 14/04/2015 13:23

Curious to know how many here drive manual or auto. Also how many have never even tried an auto. Sort of mini poll as having words with a yank on another site. Your participation will be appreciated if not rewarded!

OP posts:
BooChunky · 15/04/2015 09:41

I love my automatic... A lot of people I know drive one. Me and DH, neighbour, parents, best friend.

It's like driving a go cart, you can't really go wrong and never stall.

QOD · 15/04/2015 09:42

Both have manual licenses and currently both vehicles are manual
However, last 10 odd years have had automatics
Typically wish we had automatic right now as I've had major shoulder reconstruction surgery and can't drive for another 5 weeks and will still find it exhausting and hard to do the ruddy gears
Dh is waiting until I'm driving to have left knee surgery and again wishes we had a frigging automatic ... typical

FeijoaSundae · 15/04/2015 09:53

Square - you take your foot off the brake, and apply the accelerator. It couldn't be more simple. :)

Shamalamalam · 15/04/2015 09:59

Yes, I loved the fact that I could still drive when I buggered my left knee a couple of years ago.

With hill starts, it was a bit weird for a while, I was used to hill starts with a clutch so was a bit squealy about it for a few days. DH has an automatic handbrake on his car with a little switch rather than the big, normal handbrake. I still can't get my head around that

ane9987 · 15/04/2015 10:02

I drive a manual but my boyfriend has an automatic. I've never driven an automatic

cannotfindanickname · 15/04/2015 10:03

I am currently learning to drive on an automatic. My instructor thought i would find it easier not have to to worry about gears. From reading the discussion on here i don't see the point of manual. It seems to be about being in control.

sarah861421 · 15/04/2015 10:04

My OH and I both drive automatics, and I would never go back to a manual and cant see the advantage. My car is quite small and old, his is newer and bigger. Automatics are just easier. Especially for hillstarts and traffic

BiddyPop · 15/04/2015 10:06

My DFather got an automatic a few years ago, having spent a lot of time in the USA in recent years with hired cars. He loves it.

DH also used a hire car in South Africa a lot over the past 4 years, as well as on our trips to the USA and Canada (I have driven there too but he tends to do most as he's more comfortable with it).

Having loved it so much abroad, for his last car DH bought an automatic too.

At the time, I had my own car (manual) but we'd take the estate on big trips to see family. So I am quite comfortable driving the automatic too (we all get sent off to do things in DDad's car at times, so we've all been taught how to drive an automatic - "take your left leg and throw it over your shoulder - now just use your right leg while driving"!!).

Unfortunately, as DH was overseas so much, we dropped to a single car last year and changed both for 1 new one. I lost my little Golf, but as we couldn't get what he wanted in an automatic, we ended up with a manual estate.

I wouldn't be surprised if:
a) we get an automatic again next car if DH can find what he wants with that gearbox; and
b) our next family car is not an estate but a jeep-type car (up high off the road); and/or
c) I buy myself a runabout again now that he's not travelling so much again (or else a moped - which DH is terrified I WILL do!!)

BiddyPop · 15/04/2015 10:12

Actually, I just remembered how badly DH used to clash the gears and bunny hop around when he'd get home from overseas, and hop into my manual rather than his auto. Oooh, the wincing!!!

I find the autostart feature in the current car to be worse though than ever using the auto gears.

FeijoaSundae · 15/04/2015 10:13

The steering wheel controls the car, not the gear stick. Wink

emzii206 · 15/04/2015 10:23

I'm half Canadian, and when I am in Canada, my husband no longer allows me to drive....I tend end up with bruised knuckles by reaching down with the wrong hand looking for a gear stick that is not there and smash my hand into the car door Confused....let's not get started on me trying to drive on the opposite side of the road without freaking out Confused....My cousin had the same kind of problem when she moved to the UK from Canada. She has only ever driven an automatic, so when my dad attempted to teach her to drive a manual, the results were disasterous....so she ended up paying to have her car imported!

HazleNutt · 15/04/2015 10:24

I drove manuals for more than 10 years. Never a problem. Then got my first auto and there's no going back. Bought the car, then told the dealer that oh, by the way, I've never driven an auto before, what do I have to do? He said that nothing really, just drive. So I did, it's that easy.

When my current car was in for servicing, they gave me a manual. What a bloody nuisance! My commute to work is very short, but as it has traffic and several roundabouts, I don't even want to think how many times I had to press the clutch and go gear 1-2-3 and oh, stop again. Why on earth would anybody choose to do it, when they don't have to?

MumsTheWordYouKnow · 15/04/2015 10:31

Always driven a manual, but now drive an auto and would never change back. Also think they're safer as you can't accidentally cut out pulling out in the wrong gear or of course stall!

Superexcited · 15/04/2015 10:32

I drive a manual and wouldn't buy anything else. The only person I know who drives an auto is my brothers girlfriend who failed her manual test countless times so had to resort to an auto.
I don't know why anybody would roll back on a hill in a manual car as most cars have hill start assist which prevents the car from rolling back. Every car I have had in the last 10 years has had hill start assist and they were not expensive posh cars by any means. Somebody rolling back down the hill just really can't control their car properly (even without hill start assist as it isn't difficult to find the bite point once you are used to the car).

PuntCuffin · 15/04/2015 10:33

Manual. Every auto I have tried, I hated the lack of control over the gears, they have never felt like they are in the right gear.

Also, as a company car driver, manual are cheaper, so lower tax, and have lower emissions, further lowering the tax. My next one, the difference between manual and auto is saving me about £1000 a year in tax.

MumsTheWordYouKnow · 15/04/2015 10:33

They're great for all traffic situations and much smoother, you just need to start breaking sooner before a junction as don't obviously have the gears to slow you down.

MumsTheWordYouKnow · 15/04/2015 10:35

Mine is a Volkswagen DSG never over revs like the old ones used to, not noisy and goes up to 6th gear and it's great on fuel.

ScrambledSmegsMP · 15/04/2015 10:35

Manual. Have driven both and find automatics dull - even the ones that are touted as being really good. Drove a top of the range one recently and couldn't wait to get back into my bog-standard manual.

The thing is, I love driving. It's not A to B for me, I genuinely enjoy it. Have driven amazing classic cars that need double declutching and only have 4 gears and they are probably the most enjoyable experiences I've had on four wheels.

Automatic is just a means to an end.

Superexcited · 15/04/2015 10:39

Don't automatics cost more to buy brand new and depreciate more quickly and use more fuel so give a lower MPG? If that is correct then it doesn't make financial sense to buy an automatic.

EmmaSP · 15/04/2015 10:47

Manual all the way, I like the whole mechanics of driving and would get bored easily in an automatic.

OutOfCigarettes · 15/04/2015 10:49

Manual. Can't stand automatics-sluggish and unresponsive-I like to be in control of my car.

That said I've spent the last two days in an auto because we took it in part ex. Be a lovely car if it had a 'proper' Wink gearbox!

MumsTheWordYouKnow · 15/04/2015 10:50

That's true superexcited, I think once you have kids in the car though which can be distracting it's a trade-off. My children talk to me a lot in the car and I even find pulling out at junctions tricky sometimes (they're quite little) so I have to tell them to be quiet!

ProbablyJustGas · 15/04/2015 10:55

It can make financial sense if you need a car to get to work, and the choice is between driving an automatic or taking forever to learn on a manual.

Or is that just me...

From a dirty foreigner's perspective, most cars in UK seem to be manual, still. Cars in the UK are just plain more expensive than in other parts of the world. As is fuel. So, the manual cars are cheaper off the lot over here, and the engines that were available in the automatics that most regular people could afford used to be crap. See Nissan Micra for info (horrible car).

There's a snobbery thing at play, I think. A manual driver's license is referred to as a "full license", whereas passing the driver's test in an automatic car gets you a restricted license (ie, it is illegal to hop into your partner's manual car and drive away, despite knowing the rules of the road). Because manual takes more time to learn, the people I know who can drive it take great pride in being able to do it. I have been equally laughed at and pitied for being perfectly capable in an automatic car, but mostly useless with a gear shift.

That said, DH the household manual car driver really likes my automatic Rav4. And he will probably invest in an automatic himself when he needs to upgrade his Golf to a 7-seater.

Miss60 · 15/04/2015 11:00

My American husband only drives manual, except when he is driving my SUV. Whoever said you cannot buy cars without manuel transmission in the US is talking trash ( and clearly, does not live or buy cars in the US) WE have five cars in our household and mine is the only automatic.

SprungHasSpring · 15/04/2015 11:00

2 automatics here.

We're recent converts (have manual licences, drove manuals for years) and I now would be very reluctant to go back to a manual. They're so easy to drive that you can give 100% concentration to hazards, directions, signs, screaming children in the back etc.

Many top end estates only come as automatics.

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