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That sounds suspiciously like an underhanded compliment. 
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If you are not going to decide when to change gears you might as well take the train. 
(Actually - on a semi serious note - having to change gears does help keep the brain engaged which is a helpful thing for a driver)
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That made me smile, thanks! 
I drive a manual too, but the wife is, let's say... still learning. Sometimes I wonder if she'd have picked up driving an automatic quicker 
Cheers,
विक्रम
"We have already been through this, I am not going to repeat myself." - fat_boy, in a global warming thread 
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Are you in India? If so, automatics would certainly be more convenient, especially in metro areas with bad Indian traffic.
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Duncan Edwards Jones wrote: (Actually - on a semi serious note - having to change gears does help keep the brain engaged which is a helpful thing for a driver)
I've been driving a manual long enough that, at any time, if you ask me what gear I'm in I may not consciously know -- I'm in whatever gear is required for the situation. I have to put my hand on the shifter to figure it out.
With enough practice, manuals things become automatic. 
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I used to drive a Series IIA Land Rover - if you had that in the wrong gear your ears would bleed
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I still drive a (slightly more modern) landy. Things haven't improved hugely... 
Days spent at sea are not deducted from one's alloted span - Phoenician proverb
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My understanding is, people who deal with both automatic and manual have to not to forget changing gear. Since my only concern is manual, changing gear is not annoying option, so far.
Also I should mention, I just have started learning, at the age of XX(over 30).
I do not fear of failure. I fear of giving up out of frustration.
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Auto. Nowadays manual are basically like fax machines, getting redundant.
However I'm not a fan of some of these new breed my autos, dual clutch, cvt etc, The car we got for the missus has a dual clutch gearbox and it's a horrible piece of satan blessed sh*t. It's had to be rebuilt by the dealer under warranty. Never touch one of them again.
I like the plain old tranditional autos.
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In the US, very few (I'd guess less than 5%) drivers can drive a stick-shift (manual) car.
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@John-Simmons-outlaw-programmer : I know you are a big Mustang guy, do you drive a stick-shift or an automatic? If the latter does it have those optional paddle shifters?
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Manual. However, the new 10-speed automatics coming out have proven to be as good, if not better, than a manual on road courses. The down side is that automatic transmission raises the cost of the car by at least a few thousand dollars, so they're more expensive than their manual trans counterparts.
Paddle shifters are gay.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
modified 17-Aug-17 9:52am.
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Conversely, finding a used car with a manual will most likely drop the cost considerably. My sister purchased a 1 yr old S10 Blazer for 11K USD while the automatics were costing 20+.
Similar ability to driving with a carburetor on a well used car, you know the kind where you don't need an alarm because it takes a special combination of actions to start it and warm it up.
Bonus if you can get both a carb & a stick.
Director of Transmogrification Services
Shinobi of Query Language
Master of Yoda Conditional
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John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote:
Paddle shifters are gay.
Heh  I guess it gives automatic transmission owners the feeling that they are driving a semi-manual.
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im here in the us and drive one every day 
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Yay for me! Hopefully two of my three vehicles are 'out of scope' for potential car thieves. 
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My first car, an early 60's hilman I needed to double clutch particularly changing down - didn't know that that car was so far ahead of it's time.
These days all the things that were wrong with automatics (used more gas, needed repair more often, costlier) are no longer true. For ordinary driving particularly commuting (i.e. traffic jams) auto really is better - no longer young so way past the need to drop wheelspins at every traffic light. For driving between cities auto/manual same-o same-o (but consider for very long drives usually cruise control integrates better with auto).
One stage had 15 cars - mostly auto but had one well set up older manual (and well tuned muscle memory to suit) in which I'd beat any auto and most motorbikes off the line for the first km or so without even thinking about it (most fun was leaving idiots in brand new bmw's behind that tried to pass before lanes merged.) But at the time though most favourite when running local was a 50cc scooter (they called "auto" but in fact some sort of clv set up), could park it anywhere, bypass most jams, and it ran for a fortnight on half a gallon of gas. Top speed 50km/h (30 mph) - could do 60 down hill - fast enough on little wheels.
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Quote: These days all the things that were wrong with automatics (used more gas, needed repair more often, costlier) are no longer true.
While I broadly agree with you, the auto's still need repairs more often than manuals. A manual g/box can easily do 500000km while the auto one has to be opened up to replace the clutch-packs at 250000km-300000km.
The situation is a lot better than it used to be. In the past you'd need to replace clutch packs in an auto every 100000km-140000km, but it's hard to beat the simplicity of the manual g/box design with its external clutch (which gets replaced independently of the g/box).
modified 17-Aug-17 9:16am.
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I had to replace the clutch on my 2001 Golf after 300k miles.
From what I've seen, the "just as good" amounts to only getting 90% - 94% of the mileage of a manual, when you can find an equivalent car.
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My friend came back from Europe. He was stopped at a light in a rental.
And the car "stalled"... Later he realized, no, it just shut the engine off to save gas!?!?
It came back to life like a golf cart does, he said it took a while to get used to it, but it was different...
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And an automatic is somewhat like a wheelchair for idiots.
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That's harmless. You know you are sitting in the wrong seat when the parking brake has a twist grip for the throttle, like this.[^]
The user can't update the up: we update it for them (Choice in the CP poll)
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That's a helicopter! You are really in the wrong seat!
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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Finally somebody noticed that.
A parking brake with a throttle grip! And it's on the left side of the seat!
The user can't update the up: we update it for them (Choice in the CP poll)
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