Oh, and I should add that I really, **really ** wished that I’d had my motorcycle (manual transmission, of course) on those twisty Alpine roads! 
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- You people are nuts. Automatic transmissions are one of the best things ever to happen to cars.
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- The only manual cars I’d care to drive are the newer ones with the “paddle shifters” on the steering column; requiring the driver to take their hand off the steering wheel to shift is lousy design, pure and simple. A pal drove one and said it was absolutely great.
…Of course, technically speaking these “paddle shifers” are really automatics that just let you flip gears conveniently and manually, so using the clutch isn’t required. And they have full-automatic modes as well, so you can bother when you want, and don’t have to when you don’t. I have not driven one yet; I think (in the US) only Ferraris and Porsches have them, maybe some other higher-end cars.
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These cars are proving quite a nightmare in areas like parts of Australia and the UK where passing your test in an automatic will restrict you to driving an automatic. They don’t know how to classify these cars.
You have a point (even if I think that manual gearboxes are incontrovertible proof that God loves us) but how many people do you see driving around with both hands on the steering wheel anyway?
I’m probably buying a Matrix next week, and I wouldn’t take an automatic if it were free. What do you do with one? I mean actually DO. I feel like just a passenger with one. Then there’s the fatct that a manual is cheaper to buy and repair.
Uh … drive. Accelerate. Turn. Slow down. Stop.
Accelerate appropriately. Turn properly. Slow down judiciously. Stop smoothly, or abruptly when needed.
Observe and take into account the dashboard instruments. Hear and feel how the car is responding. Observe and take into account all the cars, pedestrians and potential hazards around you. Observe and take into account road signs. Know and take into account the rules of the road.
Yup, that’s what passengers do.
That’s true.
Manual is the only way to go with a small engine.
I’ve owned two 4-cylinder Plymouth Voyagers in the past–one an '84 with a 5-speed manual( a rarity throughout its 7-year availabilty in Chrysler minivans) and one an '89 with a slightly larger 4 and a 3-speed automatic.
The '84 could beat the '89 off the line despite the’89’s 14 hp advantage. It got better highway gas mileage since 5th was overdrive. It got better city mileage, as well.Compression braking on long mountain downgrades was excellent (the automatic’s 2nd gear was always too high, 1st was always too low).
My present 4-cylinder Ranger is used as a work truck. It is sluggish off the line with both a full load and the AC going. With either one or the other going on, it performs just fine. It has a 5-speed stick.
IMHO, if I had an automatic, I’d have to tough summer out without AC in order to get any full-load performance at all.
I like a manual. But if I’m eating or driving in frequent stop and go traffic, I will wish that I had an automatic.
I’m a recently converted manual driver. I learned on Ardred’s car so I’d know how, and fell in love with it.
My dad drove manuals for years, but he has to drive automatics now because he’s got bad joints and gout. So, his 50th Anniversary Corvette is an automatic, sadly.
I really don’t care anymore. As long as your talking 5 speed automatics. I suspect my next car will be an auto.
Currently, I drive a stick. Most of my cars have been manuals. People make way too much of a deal about it.
I have a mild preference for manual. This is not a make or break thing for me when it comes to a car purchase, however. I currently like my automatic. I think people make too much of this issue. When I buy a car, I’d rank the type of transmission behind make, model, colour, safety, gas consumption, reliability record, storage space and umpteen other factors.
I believe this to be true. My '91 Sundance is a five-speed, and I would not get anywhere near the performance I get out of an automatic. We looked up the engine specs for Sundances, and my car has no right being anywhere near as peppy as it actually is.
My father was a big car buff when I was growing up, but out of the dozen or more cars that we owned during those years, only one–an old Chevy Van–was automatic. I learned to drive manual, by default, although I did take driving lessons using an automatic, and occasionally drove the van after I got my license. (While I normally drove a VW bug in high school, I also got to borrow my father’s Lotus Europa and my mother’s Morgan on rare occasions.)
As an adult, my husband and I both agreed that manual was better, so the first few cars we bought on our own were manual. However, when I had to graduate out of a compact station wagon into a “mommymobile” (aka minivan), manual was not an option. When hubby’s car finally died with 150k on it, he ended up getting an automatic because it was cheaper.
I hate driving the automatic, even after five years, and I would go back to a manual transmission in a flash. Part of it is control–I like deciding for myself when it’s time to change gears, and I have better control with a manual when I want to get the car in exactly the right place. Part of it is also experience. I grew up in the Applachian mountains, with lots of hills and curves. On my way to town one day, the brakes on the Honda Civic I was driving gave out. With manual transmission, I was able to gear down to slow down and stop the car, and even drove it the rest of the way into town to get the brakes fixed. (Stupid teenage thing to do, but my parents were out of town, and this was LONG before cell phones existed.)
Manual with a two speed rear-end. I likes to drive something big with 10 or 12 gears to mess with and, if it doesn’t have a synchronized tranny, I’d rather float than double clutch.
Manual–especially on slippery roads or off the roads–but there are exceptions.
I prefer an automatic when I’m driving in heavy traffic while attempting to eat an Egg McMuffin.
And it was a surreal experience when I rented a stickshift car in Scotland. Driving on the left side of the road was easy. I adapted in minutes. Shifting with my left hand really threw me off, because the pattern was the same (1st gear on the left) rather than mirror image (1st gear closest to my body), so the muscle memory didn’t translate to the other hand easily.
None of which is inhibited by having a manual. But you just push the gas, and then you sit there. I hate that.
I’m not the passenger. If I were the passenger, I could be reading. I’m the driver, baby.
After driving in Guernsey and South Africa, my experience is just the opposite. There are still times when driving on the left gets confusing, but I never had one problem with shifting. YMMV