cars: manual (stick) or auto

[The Rogue Wolf]

I'm capable of driving a stick (learned how while working at a car lot) but I much prefer an automatic. Most of my driving is short-range urban travel, so a manual transmission wouldn't have much benefit for me.

Also, for my fellow Yanks, "saloon" is another term for "sedan" for the Brits and Irish.

Also do you guys need a seperate license for a stick. In UK if you got your license in an automatic you are prohibited from driving a manual

No state I've ever held a driver's license in (New Jersey, New York, North Carolina) required a special license for a manual transmission vehicle.

 

[Abomination]

I prefer manuals for long-distance trips but on my commute I tend to need an extra hand free to deal with some work related issue.

That just sounds like a euphemism for wanking at the wheel.

OT: British, so learnt with a manual and will very likely drive a manual in 300 years when I can afford an automobile.

I can assure you, "work" is the correct description when one must handle something very large.

 

[thesilentman]

Manual! Even though I drive auto, manual gives a power that I can't quite describe. Maybe it comes from my motorcycle skills in India.

 

[gim73]

Manuals are alot like vacuum tubes. Modern electronics have made them obsolete but a portion of the population likes to use them anyways. Now personally, I could drive a car without air conditioning or a heater as well, but I choose the luxury of living in the 21st century.

 

[wfieldb]

However, I always like manual as it always has better performance than its automatic peer as well as better fuel efficiency and control.

Years ago this all would have been true but nowadays automatic transmissions are coming with many more advanced features (that are being improved upon every year it seems) like computer controls, lock-up toque converters, Dual clutches, and an infinite number of variable speeds which allow them to match and sometimes best them in almost every category. Now don't get me wrong, driving a manual is fun as hell but they beginning to be outperformed by their automatic and hybrid counterparts.

 

[frizzlebyte]

I drive an automatic, and I don't care to ever learn to drive a manual. I can concentrate on actually keeping the car on the road if the car does the job for me.

 

[Kolby Jack]

I never learned how to drive a manual. I'm sure in the future my life will depend on driving stick and I'll just have to die. Oh well. I get that if you know how to drive stick there's plenty of good reasons to do so, but I've met people who have actual disdain for people who DON'T know how to drive stick, and that I just don't understand. It's not a useless skill, but it's not exactly a "survival" skill either.

One of my favorite jokes ever though is from Red vs Blue: "Caboose, can you drive?" "Yes, but not an automatic, only stick." "How is that even...? Never mind."

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

There is however a stigma attached to using a vehicle with very little power of any kind behind it, regardless of its size. The local culture likes vehicles that can heft a large load, and vehicles that go fast. vehicles that kind of putz around are somewhat ostracized, even if they are more efficient. Its an attitude that I find rather annoying a good portion of the time, especially when it leads to some schmuck roaring around in a hummer that has never even seen a dirt road.

bah i hate this. if it gets you from point A to point B, then awesome, they could probably barely afford that car as it is, give them a break if they don't have the biggest car penis on the block.

ALTHOUGH, that being said, fucking fart cans attached to the backside of shitty cars is the most annoying thing in the world, even more annoying than ridiculously loud motorcycles.

They barely go 10 mph accelerating and it sounds like someone just played all 6 fast and the furious movies at the same time. seriously, don't waste money on a shitty fart can when you can get a better muffler that will help the enginer more than your shit can is.

OT: automatic, i have learned manual and i know of a friend who prefers manual, but mostly everyone else prefers/defaults to automatic, due to traffic and other needs, i could not imagine driving around with all the other things i'm doing and having to switch gears all the time. it's just an annoyance for a VERY slight in city gain in efficiency.

 

[Gardenia]

I learned to drive manual, but I have driven automatic from time to time, and frankly, I don't really care. When I drive manual, it's nice to have the extra control. When I drive auto, it's nice to not have to change gears.
Although I will say that I sometimes feel a little sting of panic if I forget that I'm driving an automatic and cannot find the clutch.

 

[RicoADF]

Im from britain and ive only ever driven a manual (stick shift) and automatics are most unliked. It got me wondering about america as you guys are the opposite not many drive a manual. Also we tend to prefer small hatchbacks where as you guys prefer a big saloon or 4x4

Is this true? Do any yanks here drive a small manual hatch and do any of our brits drive a big automatic saloon. If so is there any sort of stigma attached to the car you drive e.g people in britain with an automatic are sometimes seen as people who cant drive a "proper" car or if you drive a big saloon or a 4x4 you seen as a [insert chosen swear word]

Over here in Australia I had to look high and low in February to find my new car (new as in brand new), I got a Mitsubishi Lancer 5spd Manual, but it showed me how hard it was to find manuals now as they don't even sell them much. Manuals are now only available in basic models and sports cars. The only other option was the Falcon and Commodores but they were abit big for what I wanted, I was after medium rather than large car.
I must say though the slogan Mitsubishi use is correct, I do "love that car!"

EDIT: Side note, I mostly hate autos, don't like not having full control of the car and well the other nice bonus points.

I never learned how to drive a manual. I'm sure in the future my life will depend on driving stick and I'll just have to die. Oh well. I get that if you know how to drive stick there's plenty of good reasons to do so, but I've met people who have actual disdain for people who DON'T know how to drive stick, and that I just don't understand. It's not a useless skill, but it's not exactly a "survival" skill either.

One of my favorite jokes ever though is from Red vs Blue: "Caboose, can you drive?" "Yes, but not an automatic, only stick." "How is that even...? Never mind."

I would be one of those people per say, while I don't hate people who don't know how I encourage everyone to learn and think it should be required to get a licence. It's not just a status thing, when you learn manual your learning how the car works and drives, when you learn just auto theirs alot you aren't taught and don't know that I believe is critical to being a safe driver (and just good stuff to know how your car works in case something goes wrong). Manuals are safer there is no debating that, and at a time when driver stupidity is at a all time high knowing how to drive manual is the easiest way to tell if someone actually knows how to drive (rather than just someone doing the minimal possible).

 

[triggrhappy94]

I only know how to drive automatic.
I have a pretty good idea how to drive stick, but I've never done it in a real car. I'm kind of afraid to try, because it seems easy to break something.
Driving stick and parallel parking are two things no one ever taught me how to do.

 

[AD-Stu]

Australian here, I drive a manual car by choice - autos just aren't as much fun

When you first get your licence over here you need to specifically get a manual licence to drive a manual car, but once your probationary period ends (after 3 years or whatever it is) you can drive whatever... which I find kind of a scary thought.

As for how many people over here learn to drive manual, I don't have any hard figures but I feel like it's declining ab it. I'm the oldest of three siblings and I strongly felt the need to learn to drive manual, but neither my brother or sister ever bothered. At work, only about half the people that work for us can drive a manual. Most (but not all) of the ones that can only drive auto are younger than me (I'm 32).

 

[Hap2]

Depends on the environment. I live in a particularly icy and snowy part of Canada, so manual comes in handy for control reasons. Years back, I swapped a 3-speed automatic for a 5-speed T5 transmission in my Chevette. I prefer manual for fuel economy reasons too, but if the automatic is a 6 or 7 speed, the automatic is often the better choice in that category thanks to the higher gears.

 

[RicoADF]

Australian here, I drive a manual car by choice - autos just aren't as much fun

When you first get your licence over here you need to specifically get a manual licence to drive a manual car, but once your probationary period ends (after 3 years or whatever it is) you can drive whatever... which I find kind of a scary thought.

As for how many people over here learn to drive manual, I don't have any hard figures but I feel like it's declining ab it. I'm the oldest of three siblings and I strongly felt the need to learn to drive manual, but neither my brother or sister ever bothered. At work, only about half the people that work for us can drive a manual. Most (but not all) of the ones that can only drive auto are younger than me (I'm 32).

Sadly your correct, I'm 27 and few of my friends know how to drive manual and I only know perhaps 3 that have manuals, it's a scary concept that there are so few that really know how to drive :-/ As my above post said finding a new manual car (not semi manual crap) is an exercise in itself.

 

[Chemical Alia]

I've had both automatic and manual cars before, and I could probably go either way, but it depends on where I live. When I got my new car in November, they only option that was available was an automatic so I went with that. In ideal conditions I do prefer a manual as it's more fun, but around here with the traffic it just ends up being a hassle. I also hate stopping in traffic on hills (not that they have those here) and seeing that the guy behind me has pulled up to an inch from my bumper when driving stick shift, so that's one less thing to worry about with automatic.

On the subject of hatchbacks, I dunno why so many people dislike them around here. I got an Audi A3 and it's like my adorable dream car, but a lot of people scoffed at the idea (mostly guys). I also heard that the A3 will be a sedan in the US starting in 2014 and they've already stopped producing my 2013 due to them being less popular, and that just baffles me. Most sedans just look so ordinary to me.

 

[RicoADF]

*snip*
On the subject of hatchbacks, I dunno why so many people dislike them around here. I got an Audi A3 and it's like my adorable dream car, but a lot of people scoffed at the idea (mostly guys). I also heard that the A3 will be a sedan in the US starting in 2014 and they've already stopped producing my 2013 due to them being less popular, and that just baffles me. Most sedans just look so ordinary to me.

I don't get the hatchback thing either. Their cheaper to run, as long as you get a medium sized one their not too small (I can understand not liking small ones) and the good ones feel more like sports cars. For example my Lancer is what they call a sportback, and it's a beautiful car (reverse camera, sensors, hands free, USB/full MP3 support, talks to me (seriously it talks)).
Best of all with it being a medium hatch it has the bonus of nice sedan size plus the ability to put the seats down and use it like a wagon (I have a 1984 Commodore for when I want a sports sedan so the new lancer had to suppliment the commodore not simply be a newer car that does the same thing).

Here's some images of what my car looks like (same colour model and type, looks identical just not my one):
http://news.drive.com.au/photogallery/drive/mitsubishi-lancer-lx-sportback-20130103-2c6f0.html?selectedImage=3

 

[Serinanth]

Merican and I prefer stick, I learned how to drive in an old Chevy 10 pickup, it had three on the tree and was sloppy as hell (not the best learning vehicle)
My last car was an 96 Impala lead sled automatic, I loved that car even though it was not a manual and I was actually looking into the conversion to a manual transmission. Unfortunately people seem to enjoy crashing into me and I count myself lucky as the B-bodies were gorram tanks, the car still drivable had a bent frame. Due to resource and garage limitations I decided to sell it, after getting T-boned twice I was ok with letting the car go.

My current daily driver is an manual X-terra which I enjoy the hell out of. It seems to be getting much harder to find vehicles that even have a manual option. The doom-sayers predict a future with no manual transmissions and that makes me sad.

 

[RoonMian]

I cannot drive automatic... Every time I want to step on the clutch to gently glide somewhere I accidentally slam on the brakes because the brake pedal is as large as a frying pan... -_-

That said the newest automatic transmissions are more fuel efficient than manual transmissions. I've read someone writing that manual transmissions were more fuel efficient but a human being can hardly compete with a dual-clutch transmission with ten gears.

And regarding performance... The best performing transmissions are technically automatic transmissions as well. Again dual-clutch transmissions this time maybe with input from the driver (like tiptronic or those funny little up- and down-levers at the wheel). While the driver says himself what gear he wants it is drive-by-wire, so gears are switched automatically.

Here in Germany we have the rule that when you made your license on an automatic you're then only allowed to drive automatics. I'd say the majority here is still manual but the share of automatics is steadily increasing.

 

[Rocket Taco]

Manuals are alot like vacuum tubes. Modern electronics have made them obsolete but a portion of the population likes to use them anyways.

Really have to disagree, at least for performance driving. Unless it's a double-clutch auto or a CVT, there WILL be severe lag when you step on the throttle as the transmission downshifts; as a human, you know what's ahead and can set the right gear ahead of time. Proper drifting is also patently impossible with an auto, fluid couplings can't provide the direct control you need over thrust and slip. Classical automatics also eat a not insignificant amount of power until you reach cruising speeds.

The thing that most sport drivers really prefer about the manual, though, is the throttle response. There's an almost turbo-lag-like effect to an auto when you change power levels, due to the viscous coupling. My first car was an automatic 94 Corolla, and I thought I hated driving. Then I tried a manual CRX and that changed in a hurry. My current car was never even sold with an automatic.