I think judging by the replies the brits are having most trouble with automatics, see we do not have many here in England, and the norm is to drive a stick. Infact if you pass your driving test in an automatic you can not use a stick, but if you pass your test using a stick then you can drive both. That is or was a rule here.

Janice

I guess it depends on how you feel about driving, I love it, and a manual transmission gives me more control over the vehicle, my wife has a sports van with an automatic transmission, when you put the foot down it sounds as though the transmission is about to fall out, it changes at too low RPM for getting speed up fast, or for overtaking, while it has the option to drop gear there are many driving techniques you simply can't use in an automatic, my other complaint about automatics is the ebrake (at least in the ones i've driven) being a small pedal on the far left of the deck, handbrakes for the win ><

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I think it's better to get someone you're not related to to teach you stick. I taught friends to drive on sticks after their parents had given up on them. It's easier when you don't love the person. They don't get so hurt when you yell at them.

I needed therapy after my dad taught me to drive a stick.

I think judging by the replies the brits are having most trouble with automatics, see we do not have many here in England, and the norm is to drive a stick. Infact if you pass your driving test in an automatic you can not use a stick, but if you pass your test using a stick then you can drive both. That is or was a rule here.

Janice

In my opinion using an automatic transmission is not driving, its like using a go kart, albeit heavier and faster (sometimes ) of course it gives you a free foot to rest on the dash or something

so manual.

In Brazil it seems like they don't like automatics also because they don't have them. Actually when I left there were a bunch of commercials on TV for some new automatic cars and it showed lots of people having trouble learning to drive their car and said something like "there will be a lot of new automatic drivers soon" so who knows...

Exactly how I feel. The same about cruise control, I really enjoy driving, what's the point in sitting my a$$ there and have the car doing everything, it's like when I used to drive those bumper-cars when I was 8


Actually we have automatics. It's the opposite than here that when you buy a car you have to ask for it to be stick, because they come automatic, in BR they come with stick and if you want you have to ask for automatic. Of course not all cars have that option, since we're used to drive stick we see automatic cars as a feature for old people to drive cuz they're too tired to change the gears...

Alex can't drive stick!! Alex can't drive stick!!

..ok, childish moment has passed

Actually we have automatics. It's the opposite than here that when you buy a car you have to ask for it to be stick, because they come automatic, in BR they come with stick and if you want you have to ask for automatic. Of course not all cars have that option, since we're used to drive stick we see automatic cars as a feature for old people to drive cuz they're too tired to change the gears...

It's true. Someday maybe I'll learn...

I guess that is why people from my fine city are so grumpy.

It's true. Someday maybe I'll learn...

Don't bother, sticks are stupid.

Would you buy a TV set without a remote? Sure, it's not a big deal to get off the couch
every time you want to change a channel, but why would you do it to yourself?

That's kind of how I feel. Also, I'm kind of an airhead and incapable of anything requiring spatial intelligence and also 100% klutz so manual tasks are difficult for me (everything from cutting vegetables to breaking boxes can end in disaster). I've been wary of complicating the driving process, since it's already a miracle that I can operate an automatic car.

I think the stick-shift snobs need to get off their high horses. They like to brag
how they are "in control" (control freaks, anyone?) and that their cars are more
fuel-efficient (ain't so), trying hard to justify driving a manual transmission car.
The fact of the matter is, manuals are not THAT much harder to drive than
automatics -- once you get used to the up- and down-shifting, the habit becomes
more or less ... automatic, except of course you're the one doing all the work
instead of the car.

is so - more gears to choose from

Hi I thought this would be interesting, I was always used to using a stick until I lived in the USA, my husband has an Automatic. One day I went to work and parked in a parking space, I could not get the keys out of the car ignition, I started to panic, I sat there nearly in tears wondering if I should phone the AAA for assistance, well this fella parked next to me and I plucked up the courage to ask him if he know anything about cars, he looked in the car and said " mam it helps if you put the thing in park" I could of died, right there and then I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me, so I much prefer to use a stick.

I think the stick-shift snobs need to get off their high horses. They like to brag
how they are "in control" (control freaks, anyone?) and that their cars are more
fuel-efficient (ain't so), trying hard to justify driving a manual transmission car.
The fact of the matter is, manuals are not THAT much harder to drive than
automatics -- once you get used to the up- and down-shifting, the habit becomes
more or less ... automatic, except of course you're the one doing all the work
instead of the car.

There are six-speed automatics.

I don't believe manuals are any more difficult to drive than an automatic. You just can't be as lazy with one.

if you got the money to buy one
an example - a z28 with auto has 4 gears, but 6 with the stick

I'm lazy

Definitely stick. I hate the "lurch" when an automatic changes gear and the ones I've driven never seem to change when I would using a stick. I hate not feeling like I have control of the car.

Automatics are the best all i ever owned.

Nope not me no stick lol tried to learn once then never went back i am too lazy to be shifting gears all the time lol.

can you at least walk and chew gum at the same time?

I can't ... but I can handle a stick ...

Of course i can lol. Maybe if i buy another car down the road ill try a stick. or second car for the wife will be a sick.

just had another old thought ... or should I say ... lyric run through my mind. remember this?
"don't spit into the wind..."

YOU DON'T MESS AROUND WITH JIM
Words and music by Jim Croce

Uptown's got its hustlers
The Bowry's got its bums
Forty-second street's got Big Jim Walker
He's a pool-shootin' son of a gun
Well he's big and dumb as a man can come
But he's stronger than a country hoss
And when the bad folks all get together at night
You know they all call Big Jim "boss"
(Just because ...)
(They say ...)

CHORUS:
You don't tug on Superman's cape
You don't spit into the wind
You don't pull the mask of the old Lone Ranger
And you don't mess around with Jim
(Ba-doo-da-doo-doo doo-doo-doo-doo doot)

Well out of South Alabama come a country boy
He said I'm lookin' for a man named Jim
I am a pool-shootin' boy, my name is Willie McCoy
But back home they call me Slim
He said I'm lookin' for the king of forty-second street
He's drivin' a drop-top Cadillac
And last week he took all my money, and it may sound funny
But I come to get my money back

(And everybody say, Jack -- don't you know that...)
(CHORUS)

Well a hush fell over the pool room
When Jimmy come boppin' in off the street
And when the cuttin' was done, the only part that wasn't bloody
Was the soles of the big man's feet
He was cut in 'bout a hundred places
And he was shot in a couple more
And you better believe they sung a different kind of story
When Big Jim hit the floor
(And now they say)

You don't tug on Superman's cape
You don't spit into the wind
You don't pull the mask of the old Lone Ranger
And you don't mess around with Slim