Those of us with true understanding of the driving experience insist that NO clutch is the best by far. Paddles are cool.
-Tcat
My cars have had manual transmissions for more than 20 years. As featherlou said, you get so used to shifting that you don’t really even notice it any more.
It doesn’t bother me to have a manual even in stop-and-go traffic jams.
Automatic. I love driving, but I’m lazy.
I’ll take either though.
I drive the Capital Beltway almost every day, and I prefer manual… although I own one of each. The only time I prefer automatic is on very long drives (7 hours or so). After driving that long, I no longer feel like doing anything besides getting to my destination.
To this day, my left foot fishes for something to do in my automatic.
Gimme that gearshift!
I used to drive a stick shift, back in the day.
I prefer automatics.
When I get back into the Cherokee after driving the Herald, I always put my hand on the shift lever and try to step on the non-existant clutch. Even after driving the Cherokee for six years, it’s just more natural to use a clutch and manual shift lever.
Learned to drive on an automatic. Bought a pickup w/a stick, and had to get it home somehow - so I basically taught myself to drive a manual.
Much prefer the manual.
Yes, but you appear to enjoy driving as a means to relax and enjoy the scenery. I prefer to attempt to break the land-speed record and arrive at my destination with my brake-discs melting and the nose of the car glowing red.
(before the safety crowd starts shouting at me, there are plenty of roads around here where the only thing you’re in danger of running over is a sheep, I’m fully aware of when its appropriate to drive fast and when it isn’t)
Around here the speed-limit is 60 mph on B-roads and 30 mph through built-up areas, the one thing that drives me complete and utterly nuts is people who sit at a steady 40 mph whether on the main road or through a village.
Another thing which makes me wish I had bonnet-mounted heavy machine guns is people who overtake you before you get out of the 30 zone, if they then drive at 40 mph on the main road, where its sometimes next to impossible to overtake, I seriously consider ramming them off the road and down hill before machine-gunning their bloody burning remains.
…I have anger-management issues…
Generally I prefer manual and we currently drive two of these. If I had to commute in big city stop-and-slow rush hour traffic, however, I’d pick an automatic. That clutch foot gets pretty tired after a while in that situation.
I learned to drive in a car with manual transmission (these are by far the norm in the UK and if you take your driving test in an automatic, you’re not qualified to drive a manual) I prefer manual, in fact automatic transmission makes me feel like I’m not quite in control of the car (I feel pretty much the same way about cruise control, although at least you can turn that off).
Manual. My first car was a manual. Then I had an automatic for about three years. A couple of months ago I finally got myself into another manual, and I love it! Unfortunately, manuals are really hard to find these days (at least in the U.S.). I’m surprised that there are so many on SDMB who prefer manual. In my experience, very few people know how to drive a stick anymore. That’s okay. It cuts down on the number of people who ask to drive my car.
We’re looking for a new(er) car, too, and it is becoming difficult to find a manual. Anything a little bit cushy is only available in automatic, it seems.
Maybe all the automatic drivers just haven’t bothered to respond to this thread. I would say manual drivers are a little keener on it than automatic drivers.
Manual, for enhanced control and power. However, if I lived somewhere I had to be in stop and go traffic often, I’d choose automatic.
The other reason I like manual transmissions is that they’re cheaper to buy, to fix, and to maintain, and it’s about 20 fewer things to break in the first place, but those don’t apply to the OP’s “money is no object” clause.
it’s kinda’ funny though…
i prefer a manual in my vehicle (if i’m forced to drive a sludgebox, i manually shift it), yet i prefer my bicycles to be singlespeed, which is closer, at least in theory, to a scudmatic car in that there’s very little to no direct interaction with the transmission/gears…
i hate sludgeboxes, yet i like singlespeed bikes…error…error…does not compute…<head explodes>
Yeah. I agree with StaberindeMk2 that many people who prefer manuals also love to drive, while many people who prefer automatics see cars as a way to get from point A to point B. The transmission type will matter more to people who love to drive, so if the reverse were true we’d be seeing more posts from fans of automatics.
I am rather surprised by the outpouring of love for the manual. I definitely have taken to assuming automatics are far and away preferred (granted I’ve always lived within short commute of the Baltimore or DC beltways, and the one caveat that really seems to get most people to say “automatic” in this thread is stop-and-go city driving).
Personally? Give me stick. I don’t even care if we’re talking a lame four-cylinder Corolla instead of a racecar, I’m still going to want to drive manual. I feel more in control and more attentive. And when we do start talking about V8s, an automatic is just a sin against driving.
There will probably be an MPSIMS or Pit thread in the coming months from me when a company car is foisted upon me (for the low price of something between $100 and $300 automatically withdrawn from my paycheck each month), and it’s inevitably an automatic because they bought nothing but automatics so everybody would be able to drive them.
There is definitely a skewing of the sample set here. People who are interested in driving as an enjoyable activity will generally be interested in manual transmissions. People who are uninterested in driving for enjoyment generally prefer automatics. People who are uninterested in driving are unlikely to come to a thread to chit chat about what kind of transmission they want.
Ask people what kind of coffee brewer they prefer, and you’ll get a lot of French Press talk, even though FP represents a small percentage of what people actually use daily.
I’m glad I learned to drive here in SF… hills will never be a problem for me. But I really wish I’d learned on a manual.
No friends ever want to let you learn on their manuals, and I don’t want to spend money on a car that I won’t be able to properly use for god knows how long.
Is it really that hard to learn to drive a manual tranmission if you’ve learnt in an automatic?
In the UK and Ireland, as Mangetout says, almost everyone learns in a manual because if you take your test in an automatic, you are only qualified to drive automatics.
the only person I know who learnt in an automatic is my cousin, she learnt in Jersey (the Channel Island, not the state!), and now lives in London and takes cabs everywhere.