Do you drive an automatic or manual transmission vehicle?

[MichaelCorfman]

This week I am at the SBC conference in Lisbon. With hotels in the city booked up, the GPWA crew mostly booked rooms in a hotel outside of the city, and rented a car for transportation between our hotel and the Feira Internacional de Lisboa convention center where the conference is located.

We had a choice of cars to rent, and I chose an SUV with a manual transmission. There were more manual transmission choices and the prices were generally better. That is a different situation than the states, where these days almost all rental cars have automatic transmissions.

This led to a discussion of what types of vehicles folks generally drive and prefer, and so today I decided to use that question as the basis for this week's poll.

Besides voting in the poll, please share your preference for vehicle and transmission types and your views of the pluses and minuses.

Personally, I grew up driving a vehicle with a manual transmission. And, living in the Seattle area with many steep hills at the time, I had to learn to use a manual transmission on such roads during heavy rush-hour stop-and-go traffic, which was not always so easy. So I'm comfortable with both. Today, I don't actually have a car of my own, and generally walk where I need to go, sometimes using uber and sometimes renting a car. In the states that has always meant an automatic transmission. So driving in Portugal with a manual transmission is almost a treat. The only time I really don't like a manual transmission that much is in the UK and Malta. Driving on the opposite side of the road I am used to, with a manual transmission is one too many things to keep under good control at the same time me.

Michael

[NoDepositCasinos]

I don't own a vehicle, I don’t usually drive, and I intend to avoid it as much as I can. I know how to do it, but with the rise of motorbikes zigzagging between cars for fun, it has become a very stressful experience for me.

[Cash Bonus]

I drive an automatic transmission car, although I also have a little bit of experience in driving in manual transmission. I struggle with manual transmission and that's why I'll always just stick with automatic instead. For sure automatic takes the leg work out of it and it's so much easier to stick with automatic cars.

[allfreechips]

Both and my son loves manual as well, its making a comeback! 1995 Eclipse GSX with the manual anti theft tranny!

[Sherlock]

I am driving both. I was sceptic to buy first car with automatic, but the experience was great. But later I found out that it was because the car was good. So sports car with automatic is awesome, but diesel pickup not that much.

The only disadvantage by automatic is going downhill. Even forcing gears down by paddles does not brake that precisely. What I especially like about automatic is going through a rough terrain, where automatic allows you to hold steering wheel all the time (and diesel with the torque is another advantage there).

Most of the time I drive backhoe loader nowadays. The gears are changed by lever left of steering wheel. In a place where you normally switch on lights or indicate sidelights. So when I sit into the truck afterwards, I always start to meddle with lights when I just want to change the gear.

[newcustomeroffer]

I've only ever owned a manual car, until quite recently that's been the norm here in the UK. Automatic is certainly becoming much more prevalent nowadays though over here.

I rented a car in France a couple of years ago and specified a manual, however when I arrived they only had automatic. For me, driving on the wrong side of the road and in an automatic took some getting used to at first but I got there in the end, although I did get a speeding ticket arrive via the rental firm a few weeks later!

[Sherlock]

I am from right side driving countries normally, but for some reason the left side driving seems more convenient after short time of adjustment.

However IIRC I had problem in Japan. Because, although they are driving on left like UK/Ireland, they have blinkers on the other side of steering wheel. Maybe in Isles some cars have blinker stalks on right side as well, but I think they were always on left. So it is fun at Japanese crossroads with wipers...

Btw. one hour ago I won auction for car I need badly. https://www.klaravik.dk/auction/prod...s-unimog-1000/
Now I just need to figure out how to transport it from Denmark to South America.

[Pokerface]

I drive automatic and really enjoy driving manual. In Canada manual is not so popular anymore and since very few people can drive manual is the best anti-theft device there is.

[iso2009]

I drove manual for 20 years, switched to automatic some years ago and really enjoying it. All cars should be automatic.

[Cash Bonus]

I drove manual for 20 years, switched to automatic some years ago and really enjoying it. All cars should be automatic.

It's so much easier with automatic cars and manual cars take way too much effort. Don't get me started on even going up small hills or just hills in general. It's such a nightmare.

[Mattbar]

I have a van and a car both manual. I enjoy the feedback and control from a manual. For me an automatic is just a large go-kart - I've driven plenty of automatic rentals but never enjoyed driving them. I get that for many driving is a functional thing and I understand why most people want automatics but they are not for me.

I also own a vintage mk1 Golf cabriolet for Sunday driving, which has a brilliant engine and one of the best manual boxes ever built, I will never ever give that up even when I am forced eventually to get an electric for the day to day

[PaulEchere]

I originally learned to drive on a manual transmission car and I've actually never driven an automatic one for the first 3 or 4 years of having a license.
Now I have had manual and automatic ones, in reality I see no substantial difference, but I do prefer (for whatever reason) to drive a manual car and the car I own at the moment is manual.

When I rent out a car on vacations / trips, I also go for manual in most cases purely because of the price difference.

[Sherlock]

There is one more reason why to drive manual: a right leg problem.
I have somewhat totally destroyed my right ankle. Driving automatic means that the toe is occupied almost 100% of time, so I get spasms. Driving manual brings some relief, because one can rest while going downhill with shifted gear or letting the car brake slowly on neutral before towns. It is a big difference, when driving long distances.

But for people with bad left leg is an advantage to have automatic. So, if you can choose which leg to destroy, destroy the left leg.

[GPWA Nicole]

I think Manual transmission cars can be fun, especially if it is a fast sporty car.

But I drive automatic on a daily basis.

[VladS]

I drive a car with an automatic gear.
I can easily drive with manual one, but prefer auto. And think that people just a bit nostalgic when they say that manual one is better.

But surely, the manual one has a few pros.
1. Less fuel consumption.
2. Cheaper repair.