Manual or automatic ... which do YOU prefer?

Which do YOU prefer driving?


  • Total voters
    218
S

shadowritten

Guest
Let me start by saying I know there's a lot to be said for driving manual. But personally, I hate it.

All that unnecessary up and down through the gears nonsense - especially in slow-moving round-town traffic! Give me a reliable automatic any day and I'm much happier. As I am now, cos we've just picked up our brand spanking new Kia Picanto LX 1.1 Auto. Even the wife loves it!

Am I alone in this? Probably. Hopefully, this poll might help me find out.
 
I would take an Auto everytime myself. Some of the new auto boxes like the DSG from VW/Audi are just awesome. I can understand why you may prefer a manual if it is a real high performance car, but it doesn't make sense to me to have one on anything less.
 
Manual, autos are no good for performance driving (except in ridiculously priced motors)
 
i drive a 4x4 and go off road quite a bit - much prefer manual

the RR in auto is excellent - but i don't want to risk £50K plus on serious off road use :D
 
For me it pretty much has to be manual... i hate not feeling in control of the car (which is the feeling i get with autos).
Even my 68 Camaro had a manual shift box fitted to the auto TH400... which allowed sequential shifting.
 
What sort of autos are you guys talking about, sounds more like the 4/5 speed classic auto boxes that have around for years and years. The new DSG, SMGIII and CVT boxes are completely different to that, total control when needed and put it into auto when sitting in traffic or cruising.
 
gizlaroc said:
What sort of autos are you guys talking about, sounds more like the 4/5 speed classic auto boxes that have around for years and years. The new DSG, SMGIII and CVT boxes are completely different to that, total control when needed and put it into auto when sitting in traffic or cruising.
By "automatic" I mean a gearbox where the car decides which gear to select, not the driver. That could be a DSG in automatic mode.

By "manual" I mean a gearbox where the driver selects the gear. That could be a DSG in manual mode, using a sequential selector, or a plain, old-fashioned gearstick.

I have no experience of CVT - I think it would be interesting to try one out.

Cheers,
Liam
 
See now I think of an auto as any car that has an automatic clutch. The CVT is strange, you acccelerate and get to where all the torque is and it sits at that point in the rev range, very good though.
 
Don't mind either. Current car is a Ford Scorpio which is an auto and suits it perfectly, however for something sportier i prefer a manual.
 
lmccauley said:
I have no experience of CVT - I think it would be interesting to try one out.

According to Classic car magazine £600 should get you a good example of a car with CVT gearbox. see here for example

Wouldn't have thought it was quite your style though :)

Auto for me every time as there is nothing worse than sitting in a traffic jam after a hard day's work and having to keep faffing about with the clutch as you gradually inch forwards.
 
shadowritten said:
cos we've just picked up our brand spanking new Kia Picanto LX 1.1 Auto. Even the wife loves it!

Done any accelerating up a steep incline as you join a busy motorway yet? :D

Stick to town driving and you'll be fine - anything outside the city centre and I want a manual. :lesson:
 
Ian J said:
According to Classic car magazine £600 should get you a good example of a car with CVT gearbox. see here for example

Wouldn't have thought it was quite your style though :)
Yeah, the MPG is too low for my liking (and probably too high for your liking ;)).

Auto for me every time as there is nothing worse than sitting in a traffic jam after a hard day's work and having to keep faffing about with the clutch as you gradually inch forwards.
Yes, I used to drive the bosses auto on occasion when I lived in London, and I appreciated being able to drive by just occasionally lifting my foot off the brake, then re-applyng it...

Cheers,
Liam
 
my last 4 cars (and the wife's 3 cars) have all been automatic. I did like the Audi A4 cab and the Accord V-Type as they had the box that allowed a virtual manual switching
 
gizlaroc said:
See now I think of an auto as any car that has an automatic clutch. The CVT is strange, you acccelerate and get to where all the torque is and it sits at that point in the rev range, very good though.
So you think of F1 cars as automatic?

Maybe the OP should explain what he meant?

Cheers,
Liam
 
Depends on the auto - a good one (eg GM) is a delight to drive, some are terrible.

However you do need a decent sized engine - my car has a 3.0V6 :clap:
 
Depends what the car is & what I'm using it for.........nothing really fitted in the options for that so I put don't care.
 
shadowritten said:
Let me start by saying I know there's a lot to be said for driving manual. But personally, I hate it.

All that unnecessary up and down through the gears nonsense
Manual all the way, apologies if i offend anyone but auto is a lazy mans drive. Driving is meant to be exciting, a manual involves the driver much more.
Depending on how i want to drive, i can pick when to change gear to suit my mood, cars performance, road type etc, something not possible with an auto.
 
I wonder how many miles a year the auto choosers do compared with the Manual choosers?

I prefer auto and do around 30-40,000 miles a year. When I only used to do 12-15,000 I used to prefer manual as the car was more of a fun thing than a workhorse.
 
shadowritten said:
Give me a reliable automatic any day and I'm much happier. As I am now, cos we've just picked up our brand spanking new Kia Picanto LX 1.1 Auto. Even the wife loves it!

Depends on the car. I prefer manual gearboxes in general, but an auto is quite nice with a big, lazy engine. I also prefer manual boxes with diesel engines: autos don't seem to suit them well.

Does a 1.1 actually move with an auto box??
 
I would never buy a manual on a diesel, the short power band and huge torque suits a diesel perfectly. You are forever changing gear in a manual diesel when going round town, very tiring.
 
Manual, it gives me more control over the car and changing gear is instinctive rather than has to be thought about.
 
I'd like the option of 'Both'

I've never owned a car with an auto box but the one's I've driven have all been old fashioned 3-4 speeed autos which were fine around town but just totally crap everywhere else. So I like an auto for towns and a manual on the open road.

So I'd love to have a go with the Audi DSG gearbox which would appear to offer the best of both worlds - more so than the equivalent boxes offered by BMW, Ferrari etc.

CVT gearboxes don't appeal as they seem to turn your car into a vacuum cleaner with the way the manage the engine - the tone never varies. The engine just hums along at 4000 rpm everywhere you go.
 
Hiya,

I always used to prefer manuals, and was horrified when my father picked up an E-type Mk3 with an Auto box ! However i didn't realy drive in earnest back then. I'm now doing some long trips (750 miles over two days) and particularly with all the congestion these days an auto box is far easier, so much so that for a trip over to Eurodisney i'm borrowing my dads company run arround (x-type estate 2.5awd) which has an auto box over my 316i thats manual - Particularly when on the wrong side etc, not having to mess about with gears will be helpful.

New auto's have kick downs and sport modes - well the larger cars anyway, which i'd say you realy need for the power.

skap7309 - "Driving is meant to be exciting" you can still get exciting from an Auto...The Bentley GT i got to drive had an auto, and that was *exciting*....it also cost more than my house did though :eek: - It also does have padles but i was too busy grinning to notice !


cya,
Lee
 

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