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What type of transmission do you prefer?

I always drive stick shift. I don't think automatics are safe - they try to guess for you what gear is best in your current situation, and they don't always guess well. If you have a manual transmission, you can drop into a lower gear for more power and wait to switch gears until you're out of a potentially hazardous situation.

It is kind of vaguely formulated question, Lisa. Theoreticaly, if both manual and automatic transmissions are perfect, then it can be discussed, but otherwise, you can't really compare the best manual to the worst automatic and viceversa. Besides, there are also sequential transmissions, but they are expensive and do not fit in 99% of cars, so I guess they're out of topic.

Automatic transmissions have greatly evolved for the past years. For example, Mercedes, will soon put a 7-gear automatic transmission on all their V8 cars (standard). It is highly advanced and it won't only go down one gear, when you want to accelerate (for overtaking for example), it will go down 2,3 or any gears that are necessary. You must be familiar with kick-down effect in automatic transmissions, when a lot of power and acceleration is instanly gained when lowering the gear. Imagine this effect multiplied with new technology. Also, nowadays, automatic transmissions allow you to go up and down gear manually, there is no clutch involved, kind of sequential, only slower. So - for driving for everyday business, I'll choose automatic, for driving around city in traffic jams, etc. (Maybe in USA you drive a lot on highways, long, wide and not too busy but near cities and inside, it's impossible). You'll go mad shifting gears up and down all the time (also breaking your car).

Also, you maybe more confident in choosing the right gear when you need it. But what if you need to change it quickly (while overtaking)? You must be a professional racer to do it quickly and on right revs, otherwise your car will drastically slow down and jeopardize your safety on road. (Well, maybe not a racer, but a very experienced driver). It's more, american cars usually have quite low revs limit, as far as I know, meaning that you won't be able to be pushing throttle for a long time non-stop without changing gear, will you?

Having said that, of course, any cars enthusiast likes manual transmission. What can be more classic than a good sports car with manual transmission? But you must be good driving it, otherwise you'll be loosing a lot of speed instead of gaining it. In magazines, when they publish acceleration figures from 0 to 100 (well, from 0 to 60mph), manuals usually do better. But you have to be one hell of an ace to be able to do this, while with automatic, you just push the pedal down an observe.

Also, big sedan carsa re meant to be driven with automatic. Smaller cars work well with manual. It also depends on HP of the car. The more power you have, the harder it is to shift gears well manually.

My verdict: family car for everyday driving - automatic. Sports car for Sunday morning drive outs - manual.

Note: (all of above-mentioned is taken out of experience in driving in mid-scale busy European area, with both highways and narrow city streets full of traffic, using BMW's and a Mercedes)

You don't have to be a race car driver to drive a car properly. And really, if you say someone can't handle a manual transmission, then they probably can't handle driving in the rain or snow or other "not-normal" conditions either!

I really feel strongly that someone who steps behind the steering wheel of an extremely heavy hunk of metal and then goes out onto the road with other human beings must train and practice all sorts of situations. I am NOT fond of the excuse "Oh I didn't know how to drive in that condition". If they get behind the wheel, they are responsible for being trained and practiced.

How hard is it to go to the local parking lot in the rain and snow, and practrice braking and skidding and acceleration and turning? But how few people actually do it. And then millions die each year in traffic accidents because they never bothered to learn the skills.

When you think about it, it's pretty amazing that we let people into the driver's seat with so little skill and that we never bother to retest them. I'd be all in favor of yearly tests with a computer simulator that made them do all sorts of difficult situational handling, to really make sure they knew what they were doing out there. Not just because of their own lives - but because of all the other innocent people who they can slam into <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

A bit of topic, aren't you? <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Anyway, if it was depending on me, 99% of all drivers here would have their licences revoked and never be given again.

From the point of view of safe driving, I guess that automatic transmission is safer.

You do have to be good driver to hande manual transmission well under tough circumstances. I'm not talking about normal, start, stop, gain speed procedures. I'm talking about overtaking maneuvre (which is considered the most difficult and dangerous), when overtaking, all of your attention must be on road and you must sit tight, shifting a gear distracts and may cause problems. You need plenty of experience to be able to shift gears in absolutely any directions in absolutely any circumstances. It's so much easier to just press the pedal and watch the road.

As for practicing driving in tough weather conditions ... I don't know, sorry. I know that all cars I've ever driven had all the new fancy electronic systems and believe it or not - they do work. So rain, snow, tight curves, etc. don't make much difference, the car won't let you do anything bad (within reasonable limits ofcourse ... if you enter a 90 degrees curve at 100mph, then it's hard to expect the car to correct this ... but this means that you're just an idiot and should be isolated from people). Then again, I haven't actually driven the very basic cars, nor american cars, so maybe you could enlighten me somehow. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

What do you want to do? Drive or shift?

Whe you go somewhere and the important thing is to get there in the most comfortable way, you just drive. When you want to enjoy a ride in a good car then you will enjoy shifting.

Ah but my point is you never "just drive". There is always potential for danger and you always have to be prepared for it.

I disagree completely that cars "drive themselves" in dangerous weather <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> I live in New England where there is a lot of rain, snow and ice. And believe me, if you put a 16 yr old in the snow, and they don't understand how to handle curves, or skids, or slick surfaces, they are going to crash. The car doesn't compensate for a bad driver.

I only drive automatics, live in the North East USA where snow and rain abounds, have had my license for 16 years (I'm 32...OMG, I just realized that's half my life! LOL), and have never been in or caused an accident.

Lisa, let us not cross the limits of reasonable. I'm not saying that anyone who gets into any car can drive it, and be safe in bad wether condition.

What I'm saying is that if you have a good car and normal driving skills, you should never have an accident due to bad wether. Ever. I have been to a circuit to test BMW's 3 series. And they have put plenty of different tests and had two different cars. One with desactivated ABS and ASC and one with both activated. There was a test of braking from 80km/h on a wet plastic (slippery, isn't it?), the car that had traction control and ABS braked slightly hiting a soft block they put in the end and the car without any controls almost hit the brick wall which was like 20 meters beyond the soft block. There also was a test of accelerating AND turning on wet plastic. The car with electronics on did it well and the other one had sent me spining. There also were tests of hard braking from high speed AND turning at the same time and in all the cases, the car with electronics behaved predictably and safely. And those were just the standard 3 series. If you take a more advanced BMW, which has DSC instead of ASC, it will be completely safe in any wether as long as you don't do anything stupid. So cars can compensate average driving skills.

Of course, if you take a 20 years old car, it will compensate nothing. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> And if you put a 16 years old with no experience, no car will compensate wreckless driving either. If you take both ... wait ... better don't. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I like stick shift because they are usually cheaper and they are fun to drive. although I don't drive stick shift very much so every once in a while I leave a big skid mark on the road from accelerating too fast <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

Personaly I prefer a stick shift, thats probably down to the fact I have grown up arround stick shifts and learnt to drive in one. I have driven company cars and still have to say that I much prefer the 'raw feel' of a stick shift, In a comparison the feel of driving a BMW 7 series or an aston martin vantage to a beat up white ford seria 2.4L rear wheel drive <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> nice. , and the seria wins hands down, it feels like a caged beast that I am aware of how dangerous it could be if I let it go, whist the BMW and Aston martin felt like a luxury living room on wheels. When driving an automatic more than any thing I miss the clutch. In terms of safty and ideal car yes I want ABS and traction control and all the computer gubbins to translate what I am telling the car to do into what I want it to do, yes I would like the car to perform what I ask of it as eficently as it can, but I want to be aware of the fact that I am driving a car, I want to be litening to the tone of the engine to tell what the revs, it gives me a lot of information about the car, how well its running and if there are any problems without distracting my attention from the task in hand.

an earlier comment was made describing that automatic was 'safer' as it was less distracting, I have to dissagree, I would say it is a task that keeps your attention to what you are doing and you dont have to take your eyes from the road to do it, which is alot more than can be said for checking your speed (one thing that concerns me about the safty of speed traps). Another reason I think stick shifts are safer is when something goes wrong at 70MPH and the engine cuts out in a stick shift you stamp on the clutch and cruise whist pulling into the hard shoulder, the one and only time this has happened to me in an automatic it stayed in gear and quickly started to grind to a halt before you fiddle with the stick to find nutral. Not pleasent for me or the person behind me I expect. Then how do you bump start a automatic... you can't and they are a heck of a lot more complicated to fix and look after yourself.

in conclusion of that essay I prefer stick shift.

enough of that, I am a Cat in a Hat

That's an excellent point - and I agree highly that driving NEEDS to be a constantly interactive task so you are always aware of what is going on.

A lot of people really do take driving for granted, and I have seen people with cruise control on eating AND talking on the phone while they sort of 'aim' the car with their knees on the steering wheel!! Now tell me that that person is prepared if an animal jumps out of the bushes or a car near them has to make a sudden lane change.

Just want to say, last night for the first time, i actually drove a standard out on the road for miles and didnt stall it or jerk it!!! i am SO PROUD OF MYSELF!!!! for years ive been scared of stalling, jerking, rolling back. i always have an automatic, and my husband always has a standard. i envied that he could hop in either vehicle and drive, but i was limited to just mine. i just didnt want to be bothered to shift and clutch with kids in the car, but last night i set my mind to it and i did it!!! i know its simple and sounds dumb, but i'm 30 and just figured i was resigned to having automatics because i just simply didnt have that coordination to get the whole thing down. well, once again, I AM SO PROUD OF MYSELF!!! ha ha im pysched and had to tell someone!!

That's great!! And it's definitely a valuable skill to learn. What if you're out somewhere and there's an emergency, and the only car there is a standard? I figure it's one of those need-to-know things like how to light a candle or so on <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Hi !!!!!!

I'm new to this board.
I've been a car nut from back in the 40's and became a hot-rodder in the 50's,at that time the average driver drove a stick shift car.

I really think everyone should have a basic know how to drive a stick shift car.

In fact that should be a requirement in learning to drive.

I have had a few opportunities to learn how to drive a stick shift car and I was lost. (How sad is it to admit that!?)

I am so happy just getting in the car and putting the car in drive and not having to worry about anything else. Call me lazy.

My husband drives a stick shift car. Never drive his car. No plans to. But I will try and learn maybe in the spring just to be able to say I can in case I have to move the car.

<img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Victoria

I have to admit the responses are all over the spectrum. The question was "What type of transmission do you prefer?". There are two types of transmission Manual and Automatic (The automatic that you can manually shif is still an automatic transmission!). That being said, I prefer an automatic when driving in the city or rush hour traffic. I prefer the economy (initial cost, repair/maintenance, etc.) of a manual transmission.

If you learn to drive an automobile with a manual transmission you will discover that they are no more dangerous or difficult to operate than an automobile equiped with an automatic transmission. However, you could use that as an excuse to avoid the embarrasment of stalling the engine, bucking through an intersection, laying rubber, etc while learning the coordination of applying gas while engaging the clutch.

Woo hoo!! I'm glad to hear that there are other women out there who prefer stick as well. I find that I am more in control of my driving with stick. However, for those of you who are city dwellers as well, I'm sure you can sympathize with the frustration of using stick for city driving...

id say go with a stick. @ 1st i was lost but i love it. a 5 spd is a pain in town but its worth it. also, i have a sayin that was told to me by my boys, real women drive sticks. (even if ure not good at it, u still made an attempt)

haha...like that one...I'll have to remember that saying

Also, u have to remeber that when u drive a stick guys drool. my girl bought a 98 mustang gt a few yrs ago. we sat at a red laight next to these hot guys. they had a low rider, which was a nice truck but please. anyway, they had it in Netural reving the engine, thinking they were hot Sh*t, my girl did the same. guess who peeled out and made it to the next red light before them. but remeber, whatever u feel comfortable with, is most important.

Hi, Living in the UK most cars have stick shifts. Don't know why, but i guess it gives more control. I had an automatic once and it was great for going about town in as you didnt have to change gear all the time. The gear shift mechanism worked itself loose eventually though.

I'm pretty sure that stick shifts have better gas mileage if driven properly. But many people in the US drive SUVs that both are gas hogs and harm other cars in accidents. So I'm not exactly sure what peoples' priorities are any more in choosings cars ...

I lived in Los Angeles with a stick shift - horrible and exhausting in traffic, even though you do have more control of the car. Just got an automatic.

i think it depends on where u live and all...i live on hte outskirts of town and out past my house its great except for those damn hills but in town esp w/our fair traffic and christmas boulevard id stick to my minivan which is an automatic but during the summer on hte interstae its all about the 5 spd racing and beating corvettes and mustangs.

I prefer standard. We've got one of each right now and I hate driving the automatic.

LOVE A STICK SHIFT!!!!! <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> Yes, I'm female and I love driving a manual transmission. I've driven both but by and large most of my driving life has been behind the wheels of manuals.
I have lived in the city and in the country and driven on interstates and it doesn't matter I love using a stick shift.
I don't understand the "in city" comments. It's not a big deal to me. I don't even think about it. Changing gears is just a part of driving to me and yes manuals offer much better control over the car compared to automatics, especially when in precarious situations.

I have to admit that I am a definite lover of the stick-shift. This is good, because I feel like I have more control in most driving conditions.

However, late this winter (Feb. 2005), I was driving in city traffic (Phila), where I was stuck in stop-and-go traffic for three hours. It took an hour to go 4 blocks! My clutch is rather tight, and I now have tendonitis in my left foot. Bummer!