Driving - Manual Vs Automatic

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Cook

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So how many Americans here can drive stick? As a Brit, it's standard to drive stick/manual. Whenever I see someone driving an automatic, I immediately think they're a bad driver (blame my dad for that!). My dad taught me to drive on a dirt track when I was 13 so although I've had my license 3 years, I've been driving for 7. So yeah, how many of you can drive stick, and what are some of your driving experiences?
 
Being a Brit as well i can drive any thing from a car with 4 +manual gears to a 26t lorry with an 8 speed split gear box .
I find auto's to slow on acceleration and change up to quick at top end on a hill
 
My first stick was the family tractor at 11 years old.
After that I drove everything from 3 speed vans and cars to 13 speed semi.
Now all of my personal cars are automatic.
 
I only buy manual. I tried to teach my wife, but that didn't go well.
 
Murican here, always wanted to learn how to drive stick when I was younger. Dad started teaching me slowly how to drive as soon as I could reach the pedals, which was around 12, but I only started really driving at around 15/16. Got my license at 18, and soon after, my first car, equipped with a manual. I've had very little exposure to manual transmissions, as I've only seen technical diagrams of it beforehand really, so when we (meaning my dad, since he didn't really consider any of the other options I wanted) bought the car on the side of a road near the swap meet, he gave me the title, the keys, then got in his own car, and went home. It took a few minutes but I got the idea down, then soon drove home. Replaced the clutch about 2 years ago and done a lot of work to her so far.
 
I learned on a stick and just got one for my economy car when I don't have all the kids. @USA
 
I can drive stick and much prefer it to auto. A lot more fun.

In America it's nearly impossible to find a manual transmission vehicle anymore unless you're willing to go very, very used. They put them in barebones, no-features compact pickups and some cars (which also tend to be featureless, or way too expensive and sporty).
 
Maxx said:
Learned on a '63 VW Kombi. Bought manual ever since. Except for Mrs. Maxx's car. She can driive stick, but she tends to be hard on things mechanical. I gave up and got her an automatic after she trashed the shift linkage on my van.

I like stick because it gives much better control in slick conditions, or under hard manuevering. On top of that, way better gas mileage.
You've got it in one Maxx about gas mileage as you change gear when you want and not having a box changing up and down all the time
 
Also on a manual Brake ware is less as you can use the gear box and engine to slow down rather than keep braking and i also block change
 
I tend to only drive manual as I feel it gives me a bit more control of the car. I have taught 2 of my 3 kids to drive manual and my wife drives manual fine even though she prefers automatic.

I notice now days though it might not be worth driving manual anymore though with the advent of extremely smart auto gearboxes that are more fuel efficient than the manual counterpart, hybrids that save all that energy by pressing down on the brake and since they no longer use asbestos in manual gearboxes which means they will burn out quicker.
 
I learned in a 1954 Ford 6 cyl 3 speed on the collum. That was the first year my high school had drivers ed.
There was no power brakes or power steering, although it did have a heater and defrosters. The instructor
sat in the passenger seat and had extended clutch and brake pedals. Over the years I preferred manual over
slush box trannsmissions. About the only times I liked an automatic was when I was in heavy stop and go
city traffic.
 
Learned on a stick, much prefer a stick. I like the control you have over the car's acceleration and deceleration, and it's more fun to drive it. Gas mileage, as already mentioned, is a nice bonus.

I've driven an automatic before in a rental car and it felt like it had no power at all.
 
The only Autos i liked driving was dustcarts
 
manual trannies for me, ta (from another bloody limey).

i've driven plenty of autos and you can appreciate the ease of use, but not the freeze when it's no use (like, being stuck in snow, ice or mud).
i'm fairly expericenced on FLTs and most CBs are auto with standard diffs, but no diff-lock. and while hands are obviously free to operate hydraulics, the traction at the wheels is woeful in wet or wintery (correct spelling, btw; some folk say it wrong and thus spell it wrong).
the semi-autos on modern wagons are similar and totally useless; and, i think, should be illegal, especially for articulated vehicles, for the reasons of a lack of control in various situations and, as what may result from that, the potential for damage to others and the obstructing of the highway (given their size and since they can't easily be pushed out of the way).
 
I've drove both but as a very keen driver/ car lover I'd say stick is far better, there's far better feel off the car and more control
 
But can you drive a 2 speed rear, split shift and double clutch? I grew up with mid size trucks from the early 60s, my last was a 66 Ford C-950 534 5+2 I gave up in 92. Sadly all the trucks around here are autos, they claim better mileage but I hate them. Ford doesn't even offer a 350 with a manual any more. We are becoming a world of pussys!
 
Na well I never drove trucks, all my exsperances are in cars... I'm s through and through petrolhead :)
 
I learned on a stick, a three speed Rambler. Ah...do you remember the wonderful Rambler? After that car, my parents gave me yet another three speed Rambler, stick. I used to take them out to a gravel pit in S. New Jersey and do donuts and put it up on two wheels. Man did I run through those cars.

Once I was on my own I had a '67 Pontiac LeManns convertible with a two speed slush-a-glide automatic. I pulled that and put in a three speed, Turbohydro 400 with a manual shift kit in it. After that I had a '70, 340 duster and put a Fairbanks manual shift. Even though it was an automatic, you had to shift it. The Fairbanks also reversed the direction in which you shifted.
 
Meh. I learned on a manual, but I drive an auto these days. As I see it, manual transmissions are for people who want to operate their car--who relish the strategy of getting started on a hill. I'd prefer to reserve as little of my brain as possible for that kind of stuff. Outside of "go", "stop", and "turn", I've got better things to think about. I'm also one of those ultra-lazy, so-easygoing-it-makes-passengers-mad drivers who changes lanes miles in advance of when he has to because he doesn't want to bother with merging. I also take the first empty spot I come to in a parking lot.

There are lots of things one can choose to bother with when driving. I'd rather that list be as small as possible.

Besides, manual transmissions are married to fossil fuels. You can't be a proper tree-hugger and drive a manual! All the newfangled electric stuff is here to laugh at your shift points.
 
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