It seems over here in the States, over half the automobiles on the roads are automatics. Me, I think that manual transmissions are the best thing ever in a car (and yes, I am aware that my own car is automatic but that will change real soon). When we went to Hungary a few months ago, I realized for the first time that I had never ridden in a car in Europe that had an automatic, so every now and then I would peer inside parked cars to see the transmission lever. And sure enough, every single car I looked in was manual. Even the taxis (and, presumably, the police cars). "Wow, Europe rocks," I thought.
So, over here, occasionally I'll inconspicuously (or not so inconspicuously, depending on what kind of car it is) glance inside vehicles for the same purpose. Even though some cars sold in the USA are not available as manual to begin with, I still see a great deal of manuals over here! Especially with the cars where automatic is an option and not standard. And, I didn't expect to see many manuals in pickup trucks but quite a few people drive them. With SUVs (Jeeps and the like), though, automatics seem to be much more common, and it seems there is no such thing as a van or minivan that is not automatic.
So, which one do you drive? And which is more common where you're from?
Benjamin [inactive]
Automatics are very unusual in the UK; virtually everyone uses a manual.
I can't drive, so I don't use either.
Josh Lalonde
I can only drive automatic, so that's what my (parents') car is. I think automatic is more common here, but it depends on the type of car. Sports cars of course only come in manual, and I think SUVs and minivans are mostly (all?) automatic.
Julian
Personally, I prefer the power of manual transmissions, but driving a stick shift in perpetual stop-and-go traffic in cities like LA and NY is an absolute bitch. I own a manual and an automatic and I tend to drive the automatic more often whenever I have to drive long distances.
Porthos
Julian wrote:
Personally, I prefer the power of manual transmissions, but driving a stick shift in perpetual stop-and-go traffic in cities like LA and NY is an absolute bitch. I own a manual and an automatic and I tend to drive the automatic more often whenever I have to drive long distances.
Yeah, manual is fun to play with, and maybe on the open road, but for everyday purposes, I definitely prefer automatic.
Uriel
Automatic, baby!
I learned to drive on a stickshift (manual), and two of my cars have been stick -- my '80 Toyota Corolla and my '79 Mustang. I don't miss 'em. I was the queen of flooding the engline, stalling it out, and I did have to learn how to push-start the first one the hard way. No thanks.
When I was looking to buy my lastest car, I actually test-drove a stickshift version -- and decided that A) I was pretty rusty, and B) if I was going to spend over 10 grand on a car, I might as well spring for the extra to have an automatic. You know, join the 21st century! Automotive engineering has come a long way-- why not enjoy it?
fab
In Europe, at least here in France, almost all the cars have manual transmission. I think it is mainly due to the fact that driving here is somehow more "sportive", with few trait flat roads. automatic cars are not enough reactive for this kind of driving.
I don't think automatic is a goog technology. the real modernity in car industry would be non-pollunting cars. I actually don't have a car, it is unusefull here in PAris where it is impossible to park it anywhere, it is taking a lot of place in the streets and it pollutes.
Uriel
I've driven a lot of twisty mountain roads in automatics. They handle just fine. It used to be that manuals were better and more fuel efficient, but that was decades ago -- computers shift your gears now. Why that myth persists in Europe is beyond me -- seems more like they consider stickshifts more "macho". (Given that you will spend much of your time in the car clutching a phallic shift lever in your hand, i can see why men love them so... )
My mother has a Prius gas-electric hybrid, and it's an automatic....
Loic
I am trained on manual but largely drive automatic. The last time I drove a manual was a good two years back when a mate invited me to take his Subaru Impreza for a spin. I engaged first gear and released the clutch too abruptly and the car came to a shuddering halt. It prompted a volley of swear words from my friend, many of which are simply unprintable in a family-friendly forum.
I would say that up to 90% of cars hare are automatic. I'd say, blame it on the wives/mothers/girlfriends. Cars are very expensive here and any car purchase is typically a family decision. Now, every marketer would tell you that it is the women who hold the purse-strings and as such make the key purchase decisions. I know that when my family made the switch from manual to automatic 5 years ago, it was my mother's doing.
I do remember that talking on the phone whilst driving a manual is an absolute bitch. Same goes for smoking. That's where automatic holds an edge over manual. In fact, I would go so far as to say that most automatic cars can actually accelerate faster than manual-driven ones. Motor technology, as Uriel said, has come a long way.
I do know that I wouldn't be too confident driving a manual today. I am not very good at balancing my clutch on a slope. I suppose this is lamentable: you can say that being weaned on an automatic gearbox erodes our driving skills.
All taxis, lorries, buses and military vehicles are still powered on manual transmission. Some things never change.
Walker
Uriel wrote:
You know, join the 21st century! Automotive engineering has come a long way-- why not enjoy it?
No thanks. Handling a shiftstick is part of the experience of driving a car.
Uriel wrote:
Why that myth persists in Europe is beyond me -- seems more like they consider stickshifts more "macho".
Maybe not macho, but it takes more skill to drive a manual.
Deborah
Walker wrote:
Maybe not macho, but it takes more skill to drive a manual.
So why would you deliberately choose a way of driving that's more difficult?
I had a roommate who said she preferred driving a manual because, since she drove a lot of long distances, having more to do helped keep her awake. Other than that, she couldn't see any reason for it.
Uriel
Deborah wrote:
Walker wrote:
Maybe not macho, but it takes more skill to drive a manual.
So why would you deliberately choose a way of driving that's more difficult?
You took the words right out of my mouth, Deborah! More difficult and outdated, in my opinion.
As for manuals being a guy thing and automatics being a girl thing, I don't know that I agree with you, loic. My mother clung to manuals long after automatics became popular, and my old secretary at another job deliberately chose a six-speed for her new car (daddy was paying, he just told her to pick something out).
I don't think my ex ever drove anything but an automatic (I don't even know if he knows how to drive a stick) and with his parents, both drive automatics -- although his dad has a car and his mom has herself a shiny new V-8 pickup truck, while we're busy busting stereotypes. (Of course, around here, everyone loves trucks, men and women both....)
And I would think automatics would have to accelerate faster than manuals, as Porthos pointed out, because you don't have to pause to push in the clutch and yank on the stick -- the car just does it for you, seamlessly.
Walker
Deborah wrote:
Walker wrote:
Maybe not macho, but it takes more skill to drive a manual.
So why would you deliberately choose a way of driving that's more difficult?
I had a roommate who said she preferred driving a manual because, since she drove a lot of long distances, having more to do helped keep her awake. Other than that, she couldn't see any reason for it.
It's not a question of choosing, really. All cars here are manual. Automatics are for fancy show-offs. I've been in a such a car once in my life. Using a shiftstick is what's natural for me and everybody else here. A car has a shiftstick just as it has a steering wheel. Also, I do imagine that it's more fun to drive a manual because it takes a little more work.
Bashar
Quote:
Also, I do imagine that it's more fun to drive a manual because it takes a little more work.
I'll have to agree with that...I can't speak for everyone, of course, but I really think that when people buy a manual when they have a choice, it's because it gets you more involved with the driving experience, rather than being isolated from it. At least, that's why I'm going manual for my next car.
I think transmissions are like computer operating systems. Anyone here into computers? Think of it this way: automatic is like Windows XP, and manual is like Unix. Most ordinary people have Windows on their computers, and it is just fine for them. But if you're a geek, a techie, or a hacker, then Windows is pure evil and Unix is the way to go.
Deborah
Uriel wrote:
As for manuals being a guy thing and automatics being a girl thing, I don't know that I agree with you, loic.
I was talking with my roommate about this today. She said she's known several women, including her sister, who prefer manual. One, who lived in America's heartland, where they have real winters, said a manual works better in the snow.
Quote:
My mother clung to manuals long after automatics became popular, and my old secretary at another job deliberately chose a six-speed for her new car (daddy was paying, he just told her to pick something out).
My mother, who learned to drive in 1932 at age 12 and got her license at 14 (which you could do in California in those days) was a thoroughly experienced driver by the time automatics came out. She said she thought they were a great idea -- the less you have to worry about the mechanics of driving, the more attention you can pay to traffic.
Loic
I don't know, but I have the impression that both Deborah and Uriel are eager to assure me that girls can just be as gung-ho about a manual transmission when statistics point in the other direction. It is a fact that most girls are only interested in the functional purpose of a car. How many girls, for example, subscribe to motorcar magazines or avidly follow Formula 1?
Of course, there are women who are fans of manual just as there are men who find a manual transmission anathema to their driving philosophy. But we are talking about the average here and not some outliers who are otherwise irrevelant to the statistic. Of course, such a survey is only relevant in countries such as North America and Singapore where automatic gearboxes are very common.
My mother is pretty young; she's just 42. Maybe women who are older and who are so used to driving manual are a different breed altogether. What I do know is that all of my female friends drive an automatic. I know this subsequent bit of info is irrevelant, but none of them also knows how to change a car tyre.
Deborah
Loic wrote:
I don't know, but I have the impression that both Deborah and Uriel are eager to assure me that girls can just be as gung-ho about a manual transmission when statistics point in the other direction.
Yes, there are women who are adamant that driving a manual is preferable. But that doesn't mean that the majority feel that way.
Quote:
I know this subsequent bit of info is irrevelant, but none of them also knows how to change a car tyre.
Hmm....my father taught me how to change a tire when I was a kid, and I got to see my mother do it a number of times. (But maybe changing a tyre is different. )
Uriel
What moron can't change a tire? It ain't brain surgery.
What pisses me off is that nowadys car manufacturers don't want to give you a real spare tire. They fob off that crappy donut tire on you instead.
Formula What? We've got NASCAR here, buddy. Which has some 30 million female fans, including my coworker Deena, who not only works as a judge at the local racetrack, but never misses a Sunday broadcast, will drive the six hours to Phoenix to watch it live, and has raced (as an amateur) -- and won -- herself.
Clearly you have never heard of Danica Patrick.
Would that the rest of us were so lucky. She's a middlin' racecar driver, but the queen of shameless self-promotion -- they quipped on the local radio station the other day that she's been seen about everywhere but the finish line.
Akoni
I drive a stick shift and about 75% of all people that use a car here have a stick shift. :) I have never driven an automatic so I can't say what I like better.
Elaine
My first three cars were manual. The car I currently drive is an automatic, which has been a welcome convenience. I can now multi-task and do things like talk on my cell phone, do my makeup, change my top, drink my latte, and dig into my purse for a stick of gum.
Deborah wrote:
Hmm....my father taught me how to change a tire when I was a kid, and I got to see my mother do it a number of times.
My father taught me how to change and rotate tires, change oil and oil and air filters, flush a radiator, and replace old spark plugs and fuses. Of course, I did all of this back when I drove around in my dad's old '68 Mustang. Engines were much simpler back then. Now you look under a car hood and everything's either out of reach or too complicated to take apart. And now that I've got some money, why bother??
Bashar
I guess some of us just find changing gears to be fun while it's a hassle to others.
Rio
I have an auto, in fact, its the only car I have ever had. My parents forced me to learn in an auto, so now, as a result, I've never have had any contact with a manual. I resent my parents for making me learn in an auto.
)
More difficult and outdated, in my opinion.
)
We've got NASCAR here, buddy. Which has some 30 