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Automatics, even those hybrid race track autos with the computer aided shift kits, always seem to lose a bit of performance. But if I lived in an area with heavy traffic and little room to allow the car to stretch its legs, I might prefer an automatic.
I also prefer Detroit muscle over those little egg-shaped scoots with high-tech brakes and computer controlled suspension and steering. I want real gauges, no idiot lights, and I prefer the thunderous roar of a big block V8 over the angry mosquito sounds of the current car-craze crowd of cars. I've never owned a car that needed a whale tail, (not sure any street car needs one), but I have owned a few that needed wheelie bars.
There's something very satisfying about taming a large number of horses with a simple shift of gears.
Overall, I like to drive the car, not be driven by it.
For the sake of not having to worry about burning up a clutch and having to pay $$$$$$, an automatic is great. Going from automatic to manual, you realize driving becomes a lot of work.
And stop lights on hills are never fun.
Of course if you get a used car with an abused automatic, it'll cost you big $$$$$ to get it back into good shape.
Get a horse and buggy I think! ;)
To my knowledge there is only one motorcycle that was an automatic and they stopped making that about 20 years ago.Come to Japan...there are tons of them coming out now.
eeeeek! duck n run for cover ;oP
Ska
I live in the country where there are many windy fast roads that are so much more fun in a manual(til the tourists get here and clog the roads up! GRRR! Shed tow-ers). Even more fun on the motorbike. I can appreciate that in traffic an auto is easier. But then it just becomes a form of transport rather than an experience.
Ska
Automatics are nice for things you shouldn't be doing while driving anyway. Eating, yakking on the cell, putting on makeup. Manual transmissions are for driving a car in the most fuel-efficient (TMK) way possible and effect the most control over the drive train.
All kidding aside, let's get down to maintenance: a manual transmission is great if it never malfunctions, but if it does, look out wallet.
Drive pickup through a creek, thinking hey, it's a truck, it will handle it. Until an ounce or two of water finds its way in. Water is deadly to an A.T., it decomposes the clutch pads and in about a month the tranny will self-destruct. Even if serviced immediately, some shops have a machine they put the tranny on to drive out **most** of the contaminated fluid, but even at that it only gets about 60% without dissassembly. It still goes. It just takes longer.
So you don't drive through creeks. I had an auto go once by simply changing the radiator. This brand new radiator had a leak between the auto-fluid cooling side and the water side. Same result. "Oh, don't worry about it, the tranny fluid puts positive pressure on the chamber, it won't allow any water in." Why do I ever listen to them. $800 later . . . .
Then there's simple mis-maintenance. An auto relies on correct hydraulic pressure throughout. Any leaks and the level begins to drop unnoticed. It will still run if this pressure drops, but it begins to wear out some of the internals. Then one day you're at a stop light and hit the gas, and little or nothing, you're just sitting there, so you rev it up all at once and suddenly it kicks into gear and burns rubber (so much for that smooth ride huh? :-) ) and from that point forward is slowly begins slipping more and more until one day, you find yourself driving in reverse two or three miles to limp the now-hated car home, so you don't have to pay for a tow.
Manual, manual manual. They have their problems too, but they aren't in such a high number and are far more reliable.
my first car was an automatic, second was a manual, third automatic and fourth automatic. i think it depends on the car you are getting.
the manual i had was a sports car. my last two cars have been suvs. no way would i want to drive a manual tahoe. i live in NY now and don't even own a car, so driving either for me is a treat. new manuals are different these days as well. whoever mentioned jerking with a manual doesn't know how to drive a manual. i was recently in Austin TX driving my friend's manual Audi a8 (i think). think its a 2004 and was extremely smooth and i had a lot of fun driving in through the hills. had a little problems finding reverse (new there was a trick, took me about 10min and a lot of cussing to find it - he wasn't around). i will probably always drive tahoes, but if i ever get a car, i would like to get something similar to what my friend has and i would probably get a manual.
it's all a personal decision though and there are a lot of things to consider. i do think, however, that everyone should know how to drive a manual.
It mostly depends on what kind of car I'm driving. My own car, a run of the mill diesel estate, is great with the manual. It goes reasonably quick when I want it to, I can still have fun driving it, and it uses almost no fuel (55mpg).
My dad's car, an E320 Merc, is auto. It suits the car. You don't care what gear it's in, because it has enough power to pull away from just about anything. When I drive that, I'm normally cruising for comfort.
My mum's car is a C200 Merc, and that's a pain. The box always wants to start off in second, but the engine doesn't have the power to do that. I've got stuck in the middle of junctions far too many times trying to get the damn thing to kick down so i can get out of there.
I drove a Peugeot 206 auto for a while last year, with the same complaints as the smaller merc. It doesn't have the power to do comfortable cruising, was incredibly jerky when kicking down to overtake, and would hold on to lower gears for far too long once you'd finished overtaking. A software upgrade made it better, but not perfect.
So... if you've got the power to smooth out an auto box, it's fine but not as fun. I suspect the big-ass American V8's would cope fine, but think of the oil those things burn...
If you need to be driving around in a major city in traffic all day, get an auto.
Both have their place, it depends on what you want you want the car mostly for.
Anyone in this thread that has said "manual definitely!" come and try driving around in central London for a day and I'll change your mind ;-)
TJ
.... I don't need to know how it does it. I want a good stereo, some good cds and the air-conditioning to be cold.
What make and model of car do you have? A red or blue one? :-)
Just kidding you, that was irresistible. :-)
Anyone in this thread that has said "manual definitely!" come and try driving around in central London for a day and I'll change your mind ;-)
Add steep hills to your London traffic and you have San Francisco. If you think your leg gets tired of clutching all the time try a motorcycle hand clutch. And still I prefer manual. I am opposed to being stuck in a cage with no control over which gear it is in.
added-
I also don't think you can sterotype automatic to americans and manual to brits. A lot of american's drive manual.
What make and model of car do you have? A red or blue one? :-)
Right now I have a blue one. Two weeks ago I had a white one. I think with the new incentives that came out this month, I'm going to get a 2005 version of the original white one tomorrow. But this one will have cold air *and* XM Satellite radio. I wanted an orange one, but they're all out of orange fusion in Nevada. Maybe I'll get some spray paint.
Manual for all other situations.
shak
