retirement

Damn! You took the word right out of my keyboard.

Our two new bookcases arriving today on the Argos lorry. I get to drag them home and then we can assemble and fill them tonight. Can't wait!!

The weekend.

Getting my car back at the weekend.
Courtesy car isn't left hand drive and I've got to do the gears myself. Effort.

serves u right for buying lazy american cars with auto gearboxes I will be having to put up with 8 gears yet again soon

The best cars usually have an auto box. Just saying.
</troll-ish>

No they don’t. </troll v2.0>

I asked some Americans why they prefer automatics over manual. The answer was interesting. It’s because it was easier for the semi-illiterate working class fathers to teach their children to drive, and it became normal. Remember that the Ford Model T was a manual, and had a different pedal for each gear.

I happen to like manual. Yes, more effort, but there’s this connection to the car and driving that you get with it. Just happen to like it.

What am I looking forward to? Dunno -though I hope be going to Fingringhoe* with my sister to photograph/video wildlife this weekend if the weather permits.

*Yes, this smut-laden name is a genuine place in Essex, between Colchester and Mersea. It’s an old gravel quarry which has been reclaimed by nature and is a site of scientific interest. So it’s full of camera and spotting scope nerds in hides.

The last three cars I've had have all been auto. No real reason, I didn't set out to look for an auto, but I didn't write them out either.
If you're driving in town, then give me an auto any day. The constant 1st-2nd-1st-2nd-1st-2nd around London did my head in.

On a job a few years back, I was driving a minibus full of 'merkins about London.
'Oh my God! They make you drive manual?' was the producers first response.

Now, consider how many top flight luxury cars expect you to shift manually. If you can afford to be driven, rather than drive yourself, the car you'll buy won't have a manual box.
You won't have the quality of your ride interrupted by a poor gear change or poor choice. The car will just get on with it, and you shouldn't notice it.
Don't get me wrong, I like to stir the gears with a stick from time to time. Perhaps the next car will have a manual box.
Then again, studies have shown that as an automatic driver, I suffer from considerably less stress when driving than a manual driver.
It's ultimately a matter of taste, and of course we don't all want the same thing from our cars. In Europe, 80% of cars are sold with a manual gear box. I actually can't think why, beyond personal taste.

+1, today's just been a 'WTF?!' day...

I don't like automatics, you have to keep your foot on the brake at lights, you can't use engine breaking on a steep hill, it's easy to select reverse instead of neutral for expensive consequences. And the car judders when you put the car in gear, also it sometimes doesn't quite select the right gear and you end up labouring up a hill and slowing down unless you floor it, which doesn't feel like you're in control when it suddenly changes gear and rapidly accelerates. maybe it's all from lack of experience with autos, but it doesn't feel like i have enough control over the vehicle.

No you shouldn't - you put it into N and use the hand brake like a manual. Never leave an auto in D at the lights. With a manual I'd often stick it in neutral and use the foot brake instead of the hand brake anyway, and some people I know will simply hold it on the clutch. And how safe's that?



The institute of advanced driver's present policy is that you shouldn't do that, but besides that you can anyway, by shifting into a low gear. My owners manual even tells you how.



It's simple to make expensive things happen with a manual box too.



I've been in plenty of manuals where the driver does something similar with each change...



I think that's down to a poorly matched box to the engine. Some CVT boxes do sound like they're howling away, but it'll almost certainly be the more efficient gearing.

There's no handbrake in the pickup truck I'm driving so flicking it in to neutral doesn't seem necessary, I'd have to brake either way, either to stop me driving forward or stop me rolling.

I don't tend to make the car judder when changing gear or setting off in a manual, and in a manual reverse is a very distinct position on the gear box, while in an automatic the lever looks to be in a very similar position to D (on my truck, with a broken gear display on the dashboard granted).

I take your other points though.

Oh wait it does have a "hand brake" but it's an emergency steep hill parking sort of pull-out lever, probably more dangerous to use as a regular brake while you're driving. The consensus seems to be that shifting an automatic transmission in and out of neutral would cause more stress on the transmission (rather than less) than simply leaving it in D.

My mum was taught to use engine braking on long steep hills, she's an IAM driver, why have they changed this advice?

Not true. you can put it in neutral (and apply the handbrake). At least you don't have to keep the clutch depressed.


Not true, you can downshift most automatics (CVTs often don't have the option) and the Prius and Auris Hybrid have a special downhill mode which retards the speed and charges the battery at the same time.

My Toyota Verso has an automatic the paddles on the steering wheel, for when I want a bit of fun. To be honest, I use them very rarely.


Never had that problem, although on an old Sierra manual, I tried to dump it into reverse instead of 4th a couple of times...


I've never noticed that on the cars I've had over the years.


Again, with the cars I've had over the years, I've never experienced this.


Which it will only do if you "tell" it to. It might change down automatically, to stop the engine labouring, but unless you press the accelerator, it won't suddenly accelerate.

Acceleration is much smoother, if you want it to be and it is generally a smoother ride. Overtaking is a doddle and you can concentrate on the overtaking manouver, without having to think about the gears, just floor it, wait for the kickdown and you rocket off (depending on engine size/power, obviously).

You have, generally, the same amount of control as you do in a manual.

I've probably driven around 750,000 miles in manuals and another 250,000 - 300,000 miles in automatics. I prefer automatics, but it isn't a "must have". I prefer the "feel" of the automatic, it makes me feel like I'm driving a "real" car; maybe it was because my father always took automatics, when I was a child, that it feels like an "adult" car or I feel closer to my father. And he was an ex-rally driver.

As Alex says, for driving around town, an automatic is much more comfortable. For driving on the motorway, there isn't any difference. For tight country roads, a manual can be more fun, although modern automatics, with their paddle change on the steering wheel can swing it the other way.

When I was younger, I had a lot of fun driving manuals across country, but as the miles grew (I was doing between 40,000 and 60,000 a year on business, plus another 10,000 or so private), I grew to look at driving as more of a chore and was always glad, when I could wangle an automatic from the leasing or hire company.

Re. the putting it into N at the lights.
If you don't, you're loading up the torque converter. The engine's working against the transmission.
It'll also idle faster, meaning the coolant's being sent round the block faster too.

If it's causing grief on the auto box by moving it in and out of Drive, there may be something else going on.