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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Learning to drive... automatic vs manual

53 replies

poppymango · 28/11/2024 11:24

I'm very late learning to drive and am frankly terrified of it, but I finally got my provisional license this year and really wanted to start lessons before Christmas.

I had planned to learn manual. It made more sense to me, even though apparently a lot of new cars are automatic.

The problem is the availability of instructors near me who teach manual. They only seem to have slots in the middle of the day when I’m at work, or very sporadically in the evenings - and I know if I only have a lesson every 2-3 weeks I will forget everything in between!

So I have booked myself in with an automatic instructor, just for one lesson. I have to admit I’m a little less scared of this anyway as it does seem less intimidating… so I wondered whether it might be good to do the first few weeks like this just to get myself used to being behind the wheel, figure out my spatial awareness, get used to the road signage and rules etc. I will probably switch to manual at some point as I do still think it makes sense to have the full license if possible.

Am I being daft? (Or, indeed, unreasonable?!😂)

I really just want to get on with it and get over this first hurdle!

Thanks in advance.

OP posts:
ErrolTheDragon · 28/11/2024 13:01

@xILikeJamx - well for sure don't get an old fashioned auto with a crappy gearbox. Electric cars don't have gears, and the Toyota planetary gear set is a thing of beauty Grin

ErrolTheDragon · 28/11/2024 13:02

poppymango · 28/11/2024 13:00

Thanks all, this thread has made me feel loads better! I will definitely learn in an automatic for the first couple of months, and then try a few lessons in a manual next year to see how I get on.

Hopefully this won’t be quite so scary once the initial anxiety of being in control of an enormous death machine has worn off, and I have some spatial awareness and confidence. I’m really looking forward to the freedom it brings, and having the weight of it all off my shoulders.

Good attitude op!Smile

KimberleyClark · 28/11/2024 18:33

xILikeJamx · 28/11/2024 12:39

Plenty of autos have crap laggy gearboxes. I have a 2022 plate Hyundai and the gearbox is a nightmare at busy junctions. Foot down - nothing; foot further down - nothing; foot all the way down - loads of wheelspin and still not really going anywhere! Was much the same with the 2018 Volvo I had back then.
Also had an auto BMW around 2014 and that gearbox was great. 2020 Audi was somewhere in between the two

Edited

The gearbox on my 2014 Audi A3 TFSI is great..

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