To book automatic driving lessons for DD

[driedapricots101]

Everyone I tell reacts as if we're mad, yet surely it's only a matter of time before all cars are automatic? It's like learning Russian with no intention of using it surely?!

Yeah I would now as eventually all cars will be auto and so many are now. My next car I am buying an auto.

I've only got an auto license. Don't regret it at all. I have no desire to drive manual and most cars are auto anyway. My insurance is similar price to my friends who have manual license as that's another thing I see people throwing around

My license is automatic and it’s never caused me any issues.

My DC will just have auto lessons. They are very environmentally conscious, like most GEN Z, and wouldn’t want to drive a car that wasn’t hybrid or fully electric.

I don't think it's mad, there are so many automatic hybrid/ electric cars out there now.

I suppose it depends if you are hoping to get her a 15 yr old Corsa after passing. There are far less older automatics that aren't big cars available

I have a manual license but would only ever drive automatic now. I think it's fine, just like you wouldn't show her how to use a mangle.

I have an auto licence. It's never caused me any issues.

I had the opposite 🤣
I only passed last year and a lot of people were asking why I was bothering with a manual.
The honest answer was, ‘I don’t know!’
Automatic just didn’t even occur to me.

Safe, quick and easy to pass the test. In the US almost all cars are automatic. Cars are now easily available and don't cost that much more .

My son passed last year, with a manual licence.
I thought about him only learning automatic, but whilst in the future most cars will be automatic, it would have really limited his choice of car (he had a budget of about £7k) as most older cars are manual. However, if you have the budget for an automatic, this makes perfect sense (I don’t think I’ll ever drive a manual car again!)

I passed my test last year, and even though people told me to just do auto as it’s supposedly easier, I chose manual for a few reasons :
if I was spending so much time, effort and money learning to drive, I wanted to be able to just drive/hire any car I wanted. A few times we’ve been abroad and only manual are available.
The ‘harder’ aspects of learning to drive are generally judgement, reading the road etc - I don’t think automatic is particularly easier to pass in. Appreciate this may differ from person to person though.
if you pass in a manual, there’s just more freedom in general I think!

Typo of the week because manual cars will soon be as obsolete as mangles 😊

I learned in a manual as everyone seemed to think it very important.
I then only bought automatics and will always do so.

Not sure why it needs to be harder, just go for automatic is my opinion

Up to your dd? I love driving manual (especially good for mountain driving) but my car is automatic. My mother only has automatic driving licence and she's mid 80's no issue for her

It does limit for car rentals, van hire, borrowing other people's cars etc in the future and makes no difference to the cost now.

I can't see the upside, it's not hard to do gears.

Learn both

Have you seen the price of insurance for learners? It cost £4k for my in his first year even with an old Peugeot 107. Youngsters are very likely to he the ones driving cheap old manuals for awhile yet.

I would. The US/Canada got rid of manual decades ago. It’s about time we caught up.

My DD passed 2 years ago. Automatic only as we only have hybrids, so wouldn't be the chance for her to practice in a manual. These are 10 year old plus self charging hybrids so not fancy.

Thing is, we aren’t there yet.

most cars in the UK are still manual. Especially the cheap small ones you’d get for a first car.

mil only drives an automatic. She is very limited as to what she can buy and tends to have to go top of the range models to get automatic.

so at this point in time I’d still encourage learning manual, unless she’s rich enough to go straight to an expensive car (and pay the insurance!)

Not a typo! I meant mangle, that was my point.

Not mad at all. When DH was looking at cars the salesman said that they're not making many manuals anymore.

I only have an automatic license, it hasn't caused me any problems. I must admit that some people are quite snobby about it but that's not my problem.

DD1 is learning manual atm and the only reason why is because she wanted to be a paramedic and you need a manual license. She's now changed her mind about being one and wishes that she'd gone automatic but she likes her instructor and she's come this far now so she might as well carry on with manual.

DD is 20 and has an automatic licence - she regrets it! Wishes that she had just taken the extra time + effort to learn manual instead of doing automatic for an easy pass. She’s now actually contemplating doing some manual lessons and retaking her driving test to upgrade her license.

Automatic cars with small enough engines for new drivers are hard to come by and much more expensive than their manual counterparts. She currently shares my car but would now like to buy her own - being restricted to solely automatic is making the search very difficult. It’s incredibly expensive to insure young drivers anyway these days, but an automatic only licence also happens to increase these premiums.

It has also restricted her at work as most of their vehicles are manual.

It's noone else's but yours. If you know she'll never want to drive a manual car, then it's not a problem. If she ever does want to get a manual car, she can just have some top up lessons / test, can't she?

I wanted my dc to take the manual test. I see it as not much more tricky to master and a potentially useful skill to have.

i also made sure their first cars were manual, to embed the muscle memory even if afterwards they move to automatic