[lini]

Practically everybody can drive manual over here - I usually prefer automatic, though. While the manual gearboxes in my first two cars (BMW 520 (4 speed), BMW 525e (5 speed)) surely weren't bad, the switch to automatic (first on an MB 250, then BMW 325e, then Honda Accord 2.4, now Mitsubishi Colt 1.6 - all conventional 4 speed automatics) to me was a big progress in terms of convenience - much like the switch from my first tv to the next one, which had a remote control. Lovely for city traffic, such an automatic thingy. Ok, granted, a plasma cannon would be even lovelier, but one can't have everything...

Greetings from Hannover!

Manfred / lini

 

[RickG]

Driving a manual was just part of the curriculum in Drivers Education when I was in high school. You had to learn both and you were tested on both. Of course, this was '71.

It was never a big deal for me (my dad had taught me to drive both from the time I was old enough to sit on pillows and see over the dash) but some kids really had a hard time with it.

 

[RYCeT]

I was learning to drive w/ stick however my last 2 cars have been a matic. It's just more convenient for everyday driving. I don't mind having a manual for weekend but I'll be pissed off to used one for daily commuting

 

[pbalcer]

I remember the first time I drove a car with automatic transmission: I wanted to turn so I changed lines and... hit the clutch (as you do when you want to shift down manual transmission)... only there was no clutch there - there was the stupid brake! Thanks goodnes nobody was driving behind me!

 

[shiggins]

Here in the UK automatics are rare; in fact, I don't know anybody who drives one. Actually, I do - the guy who crashed his car into mine while I was sat at red lights. Apparently, he usually drove an automatic but that day was in a manual - He pushed the clutch thinking it was the brake and then ploughed in to me.

Sorry to go off-topic, just going crazy 'cos I miss my Wilma:

 

[dvallere]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pbalcer I remember the first time I drove a car with automatic transmission: I wanted to turn so I changed lines and... hit the clutch (as you do when you want to shift down manual transmission)... only there was no clutch there - there was the stupid brake! Thanks goodnes nobody was driving behind me!

God, that's happened to me quite a few times...

Maybe we should have a Team Manual Transmission, lol.

 

[archosman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by virometal ...So perhaps it is best that the great American people, as they strive to do as little physical labor as possible, abandon the stick for for their own well being...

That's a rather pompous comment...

 

[cpw]

Just bought a BMW 330xi and agonized over the man/auto thing. In the end, i went w/ the Auto that has Steptronic shifting which is clutchless manual mode. It's pretty cool actually and the wife will drive the car (she can drive but hates stick).
CPW

 

[perplex]

yeh in UK, auto is very rare. though our family car is an auto. i heard auto is the majority in USA

 

[SunByrne]

Stick, all the way--I would hate to not have one. My wife drives stick as well, but she doesn't like to. It's a dying skill in the U.S.--heck, my wife's new car doesn't even have gears to change! (CVT).

 

[usc goose]

I can drive a standard tranny just fine. I find driving a motorcycle keeps me in practice. But my daily driver is an auto. Strangely the vast majority of people i know who drive stick every day are girls.

 

[n_maher]

[farm boy] learned how to drive stick when I was 8, when I started mowing the lawn with my dads tractor. Perfected the skill during ages 12-14 when I would go to work w/ dad during the summer and drive him around the job site in his truck (he was the project super for an earth work company). [/farm boy]

Have owned a mess of vehicles since I turned 16 and started really driving - mostly sticks w/ the occasional auto tossed in (only 1 now that I think about it). But as long as I'm riding the motorcycle at least one of my vehicles will have a manual transmission even if it doens't have a "stick"

. Currently daily driver is an 6spd Audi S4 which would be wretched if it was an auto.

N

 

[virometal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by archosman That's a rather pompous comment...

I agree. Shouldn't of typed it as I let some aggravations from earlier this week spill out.

I can drive standard. My father taught me when I was 14 on an old Ford short bed in the tall grassed fields of Kingfisher, Oklahoma.

 

[nikongod]

my ex girlfriend could handle a stick better than me.

all of her familys cars (save her moms, she had some weird walking problems) were equipt with the left pedal.... and she liked it that way.

 

[steel102]

i've been driving a manual for about a year now. Can you guys kind of explain all those double clutch/heel-toe shifting techniques? thanks