Mainly a question for UK / Euro Dopers, (as I kind of know what you Yanks will say…
)
Does anyone actually PREFER to drive an automatic rather than a manual car? Can you give me any reasons why?
The only pleasure (if you could call it that) I get from driving is the constant gear changes, especially dropping down a gear to pass someone.
What will we Yanks say?
That automatic cars rock and manuals suck.
(Gross generalisation of course…but probably true)
This Yank says otherwise. I can’t imagine why anyone would want an automatic. Okay, that’s not true, I can imagine why, but I don’t agree with the logic. Unless the logic is that it’s easier to do things like talk on the phone and eat while you are driving, which you shouldn’t do whilst driving anyway.
I don’t drive, but my s/o prefers automatics and it seems a logical preference to me.
As with technology products, if something is easier to use while at the same time accomplishing the exact same job as its more complex competitor, then simplicity should win.
I think the continued predominance of stick-shifts in the UK is at least part due to idiotic machismo, ie “Real Men Don’t Drive Automatics”.
Nice insult. 
My point is that driving is generally boring, so why make it even worse by giving you even less to do. Gear changing is the only fun bit to a nice drive in the country, and the only thing which keeps me awake driving at night.
This yank also disagrees. I have a hard time driving an automatic, for the first half an hour any time I slow down my hand will be waving where the stick ought to be, and my left foot will be restless.
Most people I know can drive a clutch.
Reuben, an automatic doesn’t perform the exact same job as it’s competitor, and is significantly more complex and expensive.
I like driving automatic, but when I got pregnant, we bought an automatic. It’s too much to do to try to deal with a kid and shift.
When we were in the UK last summer our rental car was a manual… it was fun driving a manual with the wrong hand! I was worried about it at first but it came fairly naturally.
Hey, I try to make my driving time as productive as possible, so why waste energy with manual? I have automatic and cruise control so I can catch up on my reading or prepare my taxes while driving to work.
I heard a story about some artist who won the right, in court, (under some freedom of expression loophole) to paint nudes whilst driving. The model lay across his back seat while he drove, with an easel in the front passenger seat, painting his way whilst dodging traffic.
In the UK you can be fined for – eating a Kit-Katwhen driving, or even taking adrink of water at a stop light. How can you justify live painting…?
(Ok, the Kit-Kat guy got off, eventually)
You lost me right there. I find nothing boring about driving at all. I love going on long drives through some unknown city or wild countryside.
Manual or Automatic… neither detracts from nor adds to the pleasure of being behind the wheel with some good music and an interesting backdrop.
FWIW, my present car is automatic. My first was a manual. Both had their merit. Comparing the two would be the proverbial apples and oranges debate.
Driving in my car…
I tuwn on the wadio
I pull you cwoser,
you just say “no”
you say yo udon’t wiiiiike it
but I know you’re a wiar
'cause when we kissss
oooooooooooo
FIWAH!
I meant the mechanics of driving, the mundane sitting and stopping and starting and turning… etc… To this, having the added extra of gear chages brings a more involved feel to the experience.
Of course driving can be great through unknown lands - as can walking through them. But that excitiment is all about the place, not the method of moving through it.
If you drive the exact same 15 mile route to work and back every day for years, then that story may be completely different.
Hey! How’re us Yanks suppozeda aim our shot gunz & give da finger to the resta ya’ll if’n we gotta be gear shiftin’ all the time. Huh?
N’ if we aint a-shootin, then we gotta have a hand fer our Big Gulps. Duhhhh.
Rush hour traffic is hell on a clutch and it’s a pain in the ass to change gears constantly. I’ve driven both, prefer a manual, but I wouldn’t have one by choice here.
Canadian checking in.
I’ve never owned a Automatic. I specifically requested a “loaded” 5spd when I bought my new Cherokee a few years back and it was a pain in the ass to find but tracked one down eventually.
Reasons for me (my wife too, as hers is a std):
Better gas milage … although as 4-5 spd autos are becoming more common the spread isn’t so great.
More controlable when starting/stopping on slippery surfaces.
Usually, they are more reliable. Other than the clutch and oil changes every few years, a manual is pretty much a trouble free unit. Autos are generally more trouble prone. There are more components to go wrong in them, anyhow.
**
Yeah… I knew what you meant, but in that aspect, “the added extra of gear changes” just adds more mechanics. Heh… you said it.
**
I disagree completely. Driving through the backwoods of rural Kentucky is a totally different experience than walking through them. Each provides it’s own challenges and rewards.
Of course, I get the same feeling I described above when I drive to work every morning. Every one of them there’s something new to see or experience, even if it is only the way the sun is hiding or showing herself. To put it simply, for me it has everything to do with the way I’m moving through the area and driving is always an enjoyable experience. With or without shifting gears.
All I wanna do is to thank you.
Even tho’ I don’t know who you are.
You let me change lanes,
while I was driving in my car.
Throatshot,
At last a real reason to drive an automatic. I’ve never driven an automatic in rush hour traffic, but drive my manual through hell every morning. The clutch thing to me is no problem in traffic, but maybe I’m just used to it and an automatic would be way easier.
Simeta
I get the impression you are judging the journey by what you experience in passing, rather than relating to the process of moving the car from A to B.
It’s great for you if you can drive to work every morning and enjoy the experience every day. That would be ideal to me, if it were possible.
The only things I enjoy about driving to work is the control I feel with constant gear changing, the tone of the engine as it winds down to match the speed of the wheels, the acceleration available when dropping down a gear and flooring it to pass someone.
I think I might go crazy without this release. But my route to work is all city.
Weekend trips around Ireland are a whole different spectrum of enjoyment.
The only reason we have an automatic is that Angie has a problem with a standard when starting and stopping on hills. Except when I was in driver’s ed, all my learning was with a standard. I still have a bit of trouble taking turns too quickly with an automatic; with a standard I could downshift as well as brake to get the right speed for a turn.