I prefer an automatic on my work trucks. Pulling out of mud, uphill, with a heavy load, is a pain with a stick.
However, all of my cars have been (and are now) manuals. Honda Prelude, several Mustangs, classiv Camaro, Honda Accord, Subaru 4WD, etc… as a stick, all are just so much more “driveable” to me for a variety of reasons, some of those reasons are intangibles.
All this is true, however, I now drive an automatic after years of standard driving. Why? It’s more difficult to get a good remote starter on a manual, and boy do I love the remote starter in winter time. My car’s warm by the time I get in it.
Yeah. To me, I can’t imagine paying a couple of thousand extra for something that is slower, less fuel efficient, more likely to be stolen, and less fun.
Automatic technology, as people have staded above, has advanced to the point of equalling or bettering manual transmissions in terms of performance and economy but only at the top of the market. It will be a while yet before your average Toyota will perform better as an auto. And one thing automatics can’t do is anticipate. It’s nice to enter a curve in the correct gear, rather than have the auto box suddenly change gear on you halfway through.
I also don’t understand the “no good for city driving” or “it’s too much work” arguments. I prefer a manual in stop-start traffic, and can usually tackle those low speeds just by using slight pressure changes on the clutch. It’s no great mental effort. In any event, that type of driving is dull at the best of times, so I welcome something to do. You use three of your limbs to drive an automatic, and you don’t consciously think about it as you do so. Introducing the left foot into the equation is no big deal, and anyway, when you’re driving, you should be immersed in it. If a manual stops you getting on the phone or drinking coffee, that can only be a good thing.
I used to think exactly the same as the OP, back in my ignorant youth. “Why the hey would
someone go thru the hassle of driving manual?”
Well now I know. Last vacation was swooping around the curves of mountain roads in North
Carolina (yes incl. the Blueridge Parkway). When you absolutely nail a heel-and-toe downshift
there’s no other feeling in the world. The amount of control I have over the car is as I currently
want it. And it also keeps your head in the car (situational awareness and all that).
And unless it’s literally stop-start, you don’t have to use the clutch at all. Leave a slightly bigger gap and you can crawl along in first without ever touching the clutch.
The things I really notice when I have to drive automatics are the unnerving lack of engine braking, and how underpowered they feel for their engine size. I don’t advocate engine braking as a primary means of slowing down a car, but it’s nice to have that subtle slowing effect available merely by lifting the right foot a bit. As for automatics’ lack of power, I presume that is due to the power going through a slush box rather than a clutch. Maybe recent autos are better in this regard, I haven’t driven one for a few years.
My Saturn recognizes if I’m braking downhill and downshifts.
I drove sticks until automatics caught up in fuel mileage. At 55 mph my engine is turning at 2000 rpm. Having a torque converter makes 1st gear launches fun. I would much prefer an automatic for daily stop and go driving as well as extremely hilly terrain. I still have a stick shift sports car for the occasional romp although right now it’s in pieces.
I also prefer to drive a manual. I like the extra control. I hate driving along at a steady speed and slight extra pressure on the gas for a hill or to speed up causes a downshift. Then when you really do need to step on it, it takes it a second or 2 to finally shift, and it usually goes down 1 gear too many.
I also hate cruise control in an automatic. God what a waste of time. A slight incline and your car drops 3 or 4 MPH before finally starting to pick up speed. Then you get to the top and it goes 5 MPH over your set speed before finally slowing down again. In my manual Mazda, cruise control is rock steady until you hit an incline large enough to require a downshift.
Modern automatics have locking torque converters and are computer controlled so none of these problems should exist. My car acts like a manual transmission on the highway.
I don’t mean downshifting, I mean allowing the engine to retard the car while staying in the same gear. You hardly get that in an automatic.
Frequently better mileage.
More of a sense of control. An ex-coworker of mine, who happens to be a really hot chick (not that that has anything to do with it, but I hadn’t thought of her in many a moon and her legs are a pleasant image) told me this was her reason; she enjoyed driving a stick more because it was fun to be in that much control.)
On the rare occasion a vehicle comes with both options, the standard transmission is cheaper, everything else being equal.
Better chances of picking up hot chicks.
I got your meaning. My 2000 Saturn transmission was obviously programmed for economy so the torque converter stays locked until the engine is absolutely dragging. It also seems to recognize braking situations going down hill because it will downshift and then lock up.
How long are you talking about being in stop-start traffic for? Ten minutes? Several hours? I can understand your point if it’s just for a short commute, but my left calf is twinging just at the thought of riding the clutch all day long.
How modern? The wife’s car is an '03 Mazda Tribute with an automatic and it does all that stuff I mentioned. Maybe you need a bit higher end vehicle.
As most everyone else has said, it’s more fun. If your car is merely a way to get from Point A to Point B, then by all means, go auto. If you want to have any fun on the way, drive a stick. And as John DiFool pointed out, a perfectly executed downshift makes you feel like the greatest driver in the world; conversely, if you screw up a shift, you have nobody to blame but yourself.
To quote my father, “Real cars are manual.”
Meant to include this in my post…
The “manu-matic” transmissions that I’ve driven (Lexus IS250, Porsche Boxster S) are pretty decent compromises. They can shift faster than I can smoothly, do decent RPM matching on the downshifts, and can still be driven in fully automatic mode if you’re in heavy traffic. Deffinitely not as much fun to tug on a level as it is to actually clutch and shift yourself.
It took me about 2 months to find a Matrix XR manaul in red.
I’M the driver baby, not some hydrolic slushbox.
To turn the question back, how can you sit there, hardly participating in the driving experience? Don’t you just get bored? I almost asked if you were a woman, but I checked first.
What GorillaMan said. Besides, changing gears manually is not really any extra work at all - once you’ve been driving a while, you don’t even know you’re doing it.
Cheaper. More efficient. More engaging. Keeps other people from wanting to drive my car.
Plus, I learned to drive on a stick - it took a lot of work to get the hang of it, and the hell if I’m gonna let that go to waste.
I’m from Spain, so I learned to drive stick.
When I bought a car in the States I was pleasantly surprised to find that sticks were a lot cheaper. Yay!
Learned to drive on an automatic.
1st two cars had automatics.
Bouight a Nissan pickup in 1984, with a stick. Had to figure it out myself to get it home. Never looked back, and don’t want to go back to automatic (in fact, it feels WEIRD when I’m forced to drive one [ie rentals, or company vans]). Have to agree with pretty much all of the pro stick answers already posted.