Can you drive a manual?

Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:

No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
Times and dates in your local timezone.
Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.

If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

**Alfndrate**

Fifty wrote:
I don't get this whole "nuisance in traffic" thing for manual gears. I regularly drive around in London rush hour trafiic, including right through the centre of town. I don't believe anything in US cities is worse than that. (Though I'll grant your "freeways" can be annoying) What are you so busy doing with your spare hand that you can't use the gear stick anyway? Chatting on your mobile? Applying makeup? I am constantly changing gear as I drive in London, and I don't even notice it most of the time. I think the problem is that because you have never become accustomed to using a gear stick, it does not feel natural to you, whereas it does to me. Infact, I get a little freaked when I have to drive an automatic. Is it a fear of not having both hands on the wheel at all times, perhaps?

As for hill starts being harder in a manual... WHAT?! You have next to no control as you are sitting on a steep hill in an automatic. In a manual, as long as you have enough revs and can find the bite on your clutch in first, you are sorted. And if you can't find the bite, you shouldn't be driving. Also, when coming onto a motorway, don't you like being able to accelerate into your lane?

Driving a car with power-steering, ABS and,worst of all, automatic gears feels more like being on the dodgems at the fair ground than driving an actual car.

List of justificable reasons for driving an automatic:
* Only having the use of one arm (true story - my Great-Uncle had a stroke, so had a car modified so he could drive it one-handed, with a weird 360-degree rotate-y attachment on the steering wheel, and fully automatic gears that he could change with one finger)

As Mann has said, it's not the hand shifting, in fact I find myself resting my hand on the shifter of automatic because it's so used to being there, it's the ankles that take the beating. Though to be fair, I have almost as much control in bad weather with my car as I did with my manual truck. It just depends on how you practiced. When I went for my driver's ed, it was wintery and snowy because I wanted the timid experience that comes with first time driving. I forced my instructor to spend a solid hour on ice driving (the instructor cars could lock up the brakes and simulate ice driving. I've not had a bad winter since then until this year, but I still remember what I learned. Also for those of us that live in areas of snow and ice, take your driver's test during the winter that way if you drive slower than expected you won't get points taken off for lack of confidence (sorry hotsauceman1)

**Frazzled**

Alfndrate wrote:
Fifty wrote:
I don't get this whole "nuisance in traffic" thing for manual gears. I regularly drive around in London rush hour trafiic, including right through the centre of town. I don't believe anything in US cities is worse than that. (Though I'll grant your "freeways" can be annoying) What are you so busy doing with your spare hand that you can't use the gear stick anyway? Chatting on your mobile? Applying makeup? I am constantly changing gear as I drive in London, and I don't even notice it most of the time. I think the problem is that because you have never become accustomed to using a gear stick, it does not feel natural to you, whereas it does to me. Infact, I get a little freaked when I have to drive an automatic. Is it a fear of not having both hands on the wheel at all times, perhaps?

As for hill starts being harder in a manual... WHAT?! You have next to no control as you are sitting on a steep hill in an automatic. In a manual, as long as you have enough revs and can find the bite on your clutch in first, you are sorted. And if you can't find the bite, you shouldn't be driving. Also, when coming onto a motorway, don't you like being able to accelerate into your lane?

Driving a car with power-steering, ABS and,worst of all, automatic gears feels more like being on the dodgems at the fair ground than driving an actual car.

List of justificable reasons for driving an automatic:
* Only having the use of one arm (true story - my Great-Uncle had a stroke, so had a car modified so he could drive it one-handed, with a weird 360-degree rotate-y attachment on the steering wheel, and fully automatic gears that he could change with one finger)

As Mann has said, it's not the hand shifting, in fact I find myself resting my hand on the shifter of automatic because it's so used to being there, it's the ankles that take the beating. Though to be fair, I have almost as much control in bad weather with my car as I did with my manual truck. It just depends on how you practiced. When I went for my driver's ed, it was wintery and snowy because I wanted the timid experience that comes with first time driving. I forced my instructor to spend a solid hour on ice driving (the instructor cars could lock up the brakes and simulate ice driving. I've not had a bad winter since then until this year, but I still remember what I learned. Also for those of us that live in areas of snow and ice, take your driver's test during the winter that way if you drive slower than expected you won't get points taken off for lack of confidence (sorry hotsauceman1)

Saying one drives around in Lond rush hour traffic is nearly meaningless.
HOW LONG do you drive in stop and go traffic a day? 20minutes? 45 minutes? hour and a half? Three hours? Thats what matters.

I still remember the gear shift coming out in my hand. This was not uncommon but when reinserting on the fly it got jammed in 4th gear. Ever try to stop and go driving IN 4th gear? Awesome!

**d3m01iti0n**

Its all I drive. 6 speeds or bust. Burnouts, brakestands, donuts, engine braking, heel-toe, speedshifts, brake boosting, its all old hat to me. Then again with a 460whp hot rod I better know what the hell Im doing

**Frazzled**

d3m01iti0n wrote:
Its all I drive. 6 speeds or bust. Burnouts, brakestands, donuts, engine braking, heel-toe, speedshifts, brake boosting, its all old hat to me. Then again with a 460whp hot rod I better know what the hell Im doing

Mmm... the pleasures of youth.

**Necros**

Never drove a stick.. don't want too.. too much to think about and I'm lazy.

Shopping for a new car though and I've been seeing some kind of manual paddle shifters on the steering wheels lately. I test drove a Chrysler 300 that had them and it annoyed the crap outta me. I kept hitting them by accident knocking the car into manual mode. Then we had to stop and put it back into auto. Really didn't see the point of having those things but I guess they're for those young kids that wanna drive fast. I need a bumper sticker that says "Yep, I drive this slow on purpose."

**d3m01iti0n**

Frazzled wrote:
d3m01iti0n wrote:
Its all I drive. 6 speeds or bust. Burnouts, brakestands, donuts, engine braking, heel-toe, speedshifts, brake boosting, its all old hat to me. Then again with a 460whp hot rod I better know what the hell Im doing

Mmm... the pleasures of youth.

Im 33 and no plans of growing up any time soon

**Frazzled**

d3m01iti0n wrote:
Frazzled wrote:
d3m01iti0n wrote:
Its all I drive. 6 speeds or bust. Burnouts, brakestands, donuts, engine braking, heel-toe, speedshifts, brake boosting, its all old hat to me. Then again with a 460whp hot rod I better know what the hell Im doing

Mmm... the pleasures of youth.

Im 33 and no plans of growing up any time soon

You're just a baby! (pinches cheeks, steals wallet)

**brainscan**

I have always driven a manual gearbox car, learned on one, took test on one and every car ive owned had one.
Ive gotta say i was very disturbed when i got a loan car with automatic gearbox as i was getting really stressed about hill stops and starts..

i guess the closest i get to driving an automatic is using the cruise control on my MINI...

**Lint**

I always end up knocking over my beer when I drive stick...

**Breotan**

I prefer a stick in an open road where traffic is light. However (as I mentioned previously) when traffic is dense, I run into my personality "anger management" issue and driving a stick is absolutely infuriating. Driving an automatic gives me so much peace of mind in the city where I do most of my driving that I really can't see going back to a stick. Unless I somehow end up moving to the sticks.

**Seaward**

brainscan wrote:
I have always driven a manual gearbox car, learned on one, took test on one and every car ive owned had one.
Ive gotta say i was very disturbed when i got a loan car with automatic gearbox as i was getting really stressed about hill stops and starts..

i guess the closest i get to driving an automatic is using the cruise control on my MINI...

Why were you getting stressed about hill stops and starts in an automatic?

**Breotan**

Yea, I don't understand the whole hill stops thing with automatics, either.

**Velour_Fog**

I thought autos don't roll back when you're on a hill. How can that make you stressed?

**Easy E**

I us to be able to, but it has been so ong since I have had to; I'm not sure I could any more.

Manuals are much cheaper to get initially, but I think that advantages is lost on maintenance when they start getting up in miles.

Your mileage may vary.

**Skinnereal**

My wife has to drive automatics, after getting rear-ended 3 times which messed up her gear-change shoulder.

When I got left an auto hire-car after a long day at work, I had to ring my Dad to tell me how to drive one. It's not obvious, despite what you'd think, after only ever driving manuals.

As for mine, it hates low revs. It really hates reversing.
Changing up is slow, and I can usually change far faster, which helps when overtaking.

**Mattman154**

I drive an automatic mainly because I was never forced to learn a manual. If I have the extra money I could buy a beat up manual car for learning purposes, but where I live it's hills and traffic and traffic on hills.

However if it snows I just go in to my faux manual "Sport Mode" for better control.

**d3m01iti0n**

Last time I had an auto was my Lightning (they were all auto) and while it was boring, the thing had such an absurd amount of power it didnt really matter. Burnouts were easier too

But it was nice to lounge out and get my lean on.