Haha, I did that to myself once unintentionally. There was an accident on a very busy road, and I had LOTS of practice with first gear then.

Also, reverse is still really sticky for me...I have a tendency to hit stationary objects, like mailboxes and OTHER CARS.

Manual's the only way as far as I'm concerned. Driving an automatic gets boring fast; manuals allow for a bit more interaction, a bit more fun, and quite a bit more control.

Also, the fun tricks you can pull in manual make it worth it any day. See a cop but don't want to tip him off with your brakes? Downshift a gear or two. Same if someone's riding your ass - downshift and you'll slow down like you're braking with no warning to them and scare the hell out of 'em. And who can forget the ability to push-start your car.

I own both. Auto Civic, manual Opel

My preference is defiantly manual. It keeps me a lot more engaged in driving, otherwise driving just becomes another boring daily task.

I have never driven an automatic, and I never intend to. I prefer to be in absolute control over which gear I want to be in. And I have a love for driving anyway, so I guess it adds to the experience.

Has anyone ever driven a car that can be either manual or automatic? I drove one yesterday and the manual gears were on the steering wheel, which I thought was pretty strange. I wanted to test it out because it seemed kind of interesting, but I was afraid I'd break it.

Yea, my father just bought one last October without knowing it was equipped. It's fucking retarded. It's like...you know, people who don't know how to drive stick can say they have that capability in their new (retarded) vehicle! Even though they will never use it!

I mean, really.

O wait! Looks like Meth has one! Look at that shifter. Isn't that fucking adorable? "Hello! I am a shifter, but I am TOTALLY automatic. I'm just pretending!"

I actually don't have a car, but I drive my parents' automatic. I'm in the process of learning stickshift via my older brother's car, but it's still a bit daunting. I also can't practice like, at all, so my skills are definitely lacking.

When I buy a car, I do plan on getting a manual, since they're a bit cheaper and whatnot.

I gotta say though, people who drive stickshift look MUCH cooler than those driving automatics (almost at the same level crotch-rockets to me) Especially women~~

Aren't those paddle shifters equipped in F1 race cars?
The only thing I've driven is an automatic because that's what my parents drive, I do know how to drive a manual though, in theory. I plan on buying a manual in the near future.

I've actually been thinking about this a lot lately. I just bought a 2007 TSX automatic. However I recently have been thinking that I should have bought a manual. The cool this is that my car has a tiptronic shifter / semi automatic transmission, which is basically a computer controlled clutch.

I guess I have the best of both worlds.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paddle_Shifter
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiptronic

I don't think the TSX is available with manual...at least, the last I checked.

Automatics are a convenience. If that is your thing, that is your thing. It's wholly an American thing, obviously. My Chrysler dealer I work for hardly even sells manual vehicles, aside from big-ass trucks.

Manuals are, however, cheaper, less prone to failure, require less maintenance, and much more durable. Not to mention probably force you to pay more attention when driving.

They also, generally, benefit from greater gas mileages. But with the circumvent of newer, more efficient, computer controlled 5, 6, 7, and even 8 gear automatics, along with electronic throttle controls, that might soon be going out the window. Not to mention those mileage claims are greatly based on good driving habits. And when you have that many gears, automatics can accelerate between all the gears faster than manual input could, unless you're driving a Ferrari with electronic clutch....

I'd like to learn to drive a manual, but until then, I'll stick with my automatic.

They're optional in some high end performance cars, too. The Bentley Continental GT I had the great privledge of driving had the paddle shift system equipped, and boy was that a hell of a lot of fun.

I went from having 3 manual cars to driving an automatic and I can safely say I will never buy a automatic car again.

I pity the Emergency Rescue worker who will someday have to scrape you off your windshield.

Oh, don't worry. He's wearing his seatbelt. :p

As for me, I drive an automatic, always have. Every time I bring up even the POSSIBILITY of learning stickshift from my parents, they go all frowny-face and say "NO YOU DON'T WANT TO DO THAT. IT'S SO DAMN COMPLICATED YOU HAVE TO DO BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH."

Fuckers. :mad:

Been driving manual for almost a year now with my Del Sol. A bit awkward the first time and not to mention those freaky moments with the stalling and the car going backwards...

But I don't think I could miss driving automatic. It just seems too slow. Only thing I miss is power steering :D

Manuals in the long run are better for gas mileage and maintenance *replacing a auto transmission is not fun*.

I just bought a 2007 Nissan Sentra, with the CVT. You wanna talk about boring? You don't even feel the shifting at all, at least with normal automatics you can at least feel the gear shifts, and thus generally have a bit of feel to the car and speed. CVT... it feels so slow since there is no shifting, but then you look down at the speedometer to see that you are actually over the speed limit. It is NOT something i would recommend to those whom are used to manual *even some used to auto*.

I was originally aiming for manual *the new sentra's come standard with 6 speed*, but ended up getting the CVT simply because i do a lot of city driving, and accidents/congestion is very common on the 417 hwy that i travel on every day. Stop and go traffic, I get sick of manuals fairly quick. Second being that Nissan actually claims that the CVT gets better gas mileage than manual, which i'm not too sure entirely, but I have gotten 940km to the tank *mostly highway*. Fourth being that I will probably only keep this for about 5 years, and automatics tend to have a slightly higher resale value.

Still, the biggest advantage is being able to drive and sip water from a bottle without worry, especially as i pretty much refuse to use the A/C unless there is dire need.

Do Americans take their driving tests in manual cars or automatics?

Us English folk always learn in manual cars and most of the cars here usually just have manual gears. Therefore, manual gears for the win. Having said that I've never actually drove an automatic.

If you have a shitty auto then sure, auto is shitty. Mine will upshift anywhere from 10,20,30 or 25,60,85 depending on how hard I gun it; for an auto it makes a pretty nice rice rocket. It mostly tunes mileage/power to my mood that way. My eclipse has sportronic (their name for it), and I use the hell out of the engine braking, and trips up/over mountains, but home in flat country I hardly ever use it for driving.

Sticks are nice if you have a sweet setup where you just tap the clutch and pull, or time it so well it needs none at all. I don't know, my friend doesn't let me touch his lancer. Not so hot when you have to shove the clutch on the floor, yank the fucker (still grinding a touch), and half the time you have to double-clutch or it stalls, even in high gears. Old jeeps are shitty for learning.

I've had a van and an early blazer, both shitty autos, but I'd take a shitty auto over a shitty stick still. I admit a decent stick on a crappy car might be better if you like to drive the hell out of it. (Okay, I will admit I killed Blazer's transmission and I had to drive it in some kind of auto-manual hybrid, using 1 & 2, which would kick up to 3 after a while. 80 mph in 3rd was deafening.)

I'd like to buy a CVT sometime, or at least test drive one. I know Toyota's experimenting with adding engine noise in; kitschy, but exactly for the reason that most people gauge speed that way. It's impossible to beat a properly tuned CVT's mileage, but I don't know if they're anywhere near the theoretical limit yet.

Xtreme, you take the test in whatever the hell you bring, as long as it's registered it can be a 1937 packard that needs crank-starting.

All this "eliteness" people associate with manual transmission and V6 engines is a joke. In the end, you're still only going to McDonalds or Circuit City. Assuming your car is in fine working condition, the only thing that ultimately matters is how damn good it looks.

I've never tried to drive a stickshift, but it seems like an unnecessary hassle to me. Why not have the car do all that for me instead of worrying about it myself? Maybe in 30 years when I hit mid-life crisis mode I'll learn for some fancy car, but I seriously doubt it.

Are you kidding, in thirty years a steering wheel will be old-skool. Discrete geared transmissions (auto or manual) will be as much of an anachronism as leaded fuel is now.

Automatic is for pussies. It's horribly slow, it's more expensive and it's hell to maintain.

I'll drive with a manual transmission only, thank you very much.

Oh, so your allowed to take your own car then? That's pretty cool. As far as I'm aware we just have to take the test in the instructors car, which could be anything.

One thing about CVT's Koifox is that they greatly depend on the company and how they implement them. An example would be my 2007 Sentra and my father's 2007 Caliber. Both have CVT , and Dodge is even licensing that technology from Nissan. You would figure that because of that they would be fairly similar, but far from it.

The Caliber has a "elastic band" feel to it, in that when accelerating from a stopped position, the engine will rev, but the car won't go anywhere right away. It will also rev all the way to redline if you floor it, and stay there until you reach the speed you want, and then the rpm will lower to the optimal level for that speed.

The Sentra on the other hand, does not have that elastic band feel to it, and when floored, will rev to about 4000rpm until the speed catches up, and then gradually increase or decrease depending on your speed.

CVT's are very odd to drive though, as many people feel like they are accelerating slowly, when in actual fact they gain speed at a descent rate. While you can of course get more acceleration and control out of a manual, in constant stop and go traffic, it becomes a hassle. But then again, I just drove a 92 sundance 3 speed automatic for 5 years, so everything seems better to me =/.

Some drivers education companies will give the instructors vehicle to take the test with, but not all of them do, and not everyone takes drivers ed. When i took mine though, I know that it was an extra $200 if you wanted to do the in car hours with a manual.