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Colonel Olrik wrote:

jegs2 wrote: When you have a wife, kids and a job, a car becomes something to get you from Point A to Point B. Thus, the easier it is to drive and the less brain cells are required to fire, the better.

I know many older people who like to drive. My father likes to drive.

Fair enough, but any driving pleasure I get is generally on my Harley. Four-wheelers are just for transport.

jegs2 wrote:

Colonel Olrik wrote:

jegs2 wrote: When you have a wife, kids and a job, a car becomes something to get you from Point A to Point B. Thus, the easier it is to drive and the less brain cells are required to fire, the better.

I know many older people who like to drive. My father likes to drive.

Fair enough, but any driving pleasure I get is generally on my Harley. Four-wheelers are just for transport.

you can combine transportation and fun.
BMW M5 touring

jegs2 wrote: Fair enough, but any driving pleasure I get is generally on my Harley. Four-wheelers are just for transport.

That's your point of view. Many people think otherwise. I love my jeep. I love driving offroad.

I love my mountain bike. I love to bike.

But I would never buy a motorbike.

salm wrote: you can combine transportation and fun.
BMW M5 touring

Oh, I want one so much.. It hurts, it hurts..

RedImperator wrote:Your driver's ed instructor is an idiot. It takes about 3 hours to learn to drive a stick. After that, shifting is something you do automatially, the same way you don't have to think about what pedal to push when you want to stop the car.

Stick shifts give the driver more flexibility. This can be critical if you've got a car with a small engine. My Neon is four cylinders. When I'm in highway traffic and need to get into a tight spot, I can downshift quickly for more power and get it. If I had an automatic, I'd have to jam the gas pedal to the floor and hope the car decided to move in time. The same goes for dealing with hills and tight curves. Cars with manual transmissions cost less, weigh less, and a manual transmission is MUCH easier to service and, if necessary, replace. Learning how to drive a stick means there isn't a car on the road you can't drive. And frankly, they're a lot more fun to drive most of the time.

The three drawbacks I can see for stick shifts are:

1) The learning curve. You DO have to spend time learning it, and a little longer to master it. Nevertheless, I learned how to drive a stick in about 3 hours, and it took me about a month to get to the point I never stalled the car.

2)The clutch. In heavy traffic, constantly having to shift and hold the clutch while stopped gets tiring.

3) Idiot proofing: it IS possible to damage your clutch or your engine if you screw it up badly enough (for example, but shifting into first or second at 50 miles per hour). Newer cars, however, have engine cutouts that will kill the engine if they're pushed too far above the redline.

In conclusion, stick shifts all the way, baby.

That about sums up my opinion. Stick Shifts are for those who love to drive. You can do so much more and enjoy the driving experience so much more.

Anyone who wants a Sports Car quickly learns that a Stick is the best thing to use.

When I drive my dads 3/4ton Disiel, I am quite glad its a Stick. You can feel that power as your going through the gears.

Usually standard. But whey you just want to get someplace, auto.

Alyeska wrote:

RedImperator wrote:Your driver's ed instructor is an idiot. It takes about 3 hours to learn to drive a stick. After that, shifting is something you do automatially, the same way you don't have to think about what pedal to push when you want to stop the car.

Stick shifts give the driver more flexibility. This can be critical if you've got a car with a small engine. My Neon is four cylinders. When I'm in highway traffic and need to get into a tight spot, I can downshift quickly for more power and get it. If I had an automatic, I'd have to jam the gas pedal to the floor and hope the car decided to move in time. The same goes for dealing with hills and tight curves. Cars with manual transmissions cost less, weigh less, and a manual transmission is MUCH easier to service and, if necessary, replace. Learning how to drive a stick means there isn't a car on the road you can't drive. And frankly, they're a lot more fun to drive most of the time.

The three drawbacks I can see for stick shifts are:

1) The learning curve. You DO have to spend time learning it, and a little longer to master it. Nevertheless, I learned how to drive a stick in about 3 hours, and it took me about a month to get to the point I never stalled the car.

2)The clutch. In heavy traffic, constantly having to shift and hold the clutch while stopped gets tiring.

3) Idiot proofing: it IS possible to damage your clutch or your engine if you screw it up badly enough (for example, but shifting into first or second at 50 miles per hour). Newer cars, however, have engine cutouts that will kill the engine if they're pushed too far above the redline.

In conclusion, stick shifts all the way, baby.

That about sums up my opinion. Stick Shifts are for those who love to drive. You can do so much more and enjoy the driving experience so much more.

Anyone who wants a Sports Car quickly learns that a Stick is the best thing to use.

When I drive my dads 3/4ton Disiel, I am quite glad its a Stick. You can feel that power as your going through the gears.

Manual shift all the way. Hm and what they said.

Colonel Olrik wrote:I agree that for a middle age woman who is frightned of driving autos are better.

Or for someone who spends most of his time in heavy traffic and city driving in general, or for someone who just wants to get from point A to point B with a minimum of fuss ...

To an young, agressive alpha male.. Manual's are more fun, you feel the power and impress the chicks with your driving skills. In short, manual rulez.

When I want to demonstrate my driving skills to my wife, I'm not in my car

To tell the truth, the manual shift is something that would keep me entertained/awake on long trips or heavy traffic. If I didn't have it to play with every time I have to move forward and stop, I'd go postal.

Sorry, but nothing quite matches the feel of interactivity you get with a manual in a sports car. When I go driving with my dad in the Vette, it wouldn't be half as much fun if it wasn't a stick shift.

Manual, baby! My truck would be hell to drive if it wasn't a stick. If I had a bigger plant, an auto would've been fine, but with a straight four you need to get as much power as your engine can provide, especially when you get stuck in bog about 6 miles from the nearest paved road.

STANDARD. It's what I learned on. And the two times I've driven auto, I wasn't all that much at ease.

Manual's a waste of effort. Impress chicks with your driving skills? Oh please you really think a girl is looking at you when you're driving and thinking about fingering herself the way you're moving the stick? How sad.

Vympel wrote:Manual's a waste of effort. Impress chicks with your driving skills? Oh please you really think a girl is looking at you when you're driving and thinking about fingering herself the way you're moving the stick? How sad.

If you move your hands in just the right way......

I learned to drive on auto. But for about ten years, the vehicle which carried me everywhere was an old 1970 F100 pickup truck with a 300 c.i. inline-six and a three-speed manual. I got it because it was an ideal combination of power and fuel economy, and maintaining it was simple. It was just basic mechanics.

It took me about three hours to learn to drive stick and good enough to not stall out with the clutch. After that, driving stick was just second-nature for me. Man, I loved that truck. I just drove everywhere in it, only had to fill the tank about once a week, and when I needed power, it delivered. I think I must have put 90,000 miles on that thing.

Another advantage was simplicity. A manual gearbox is easy to maintain and repair if you need to, and I had that truck in a transmission shop only once in the whole time I owned it —when it had been partially submerged in one of the big spring floods we get here. And all they had to do was drain the transmission, let the gears dry out, and fill it with new transmission oil. Drove out the same day —and I had been able to actually drive the thing into the shop in the first place. So many other cars were on the racks a week following that flood.

That truck also helped keep me fit; driving it was the major source of my physical exercise. It had manual everything —steering, brakes, and a hard F350 clutch. Most people who are used to driving a stick even wouldn't be able to easily get that pedal down.

Once you learn to drive manual, you can just about drive anything. My present car runs auto. But I could pick up on a stick again real easily. It's like riding a bike; you never forget how.

I learned to drive a stick from one of my coworkers. It was in a Ford Ranger belonging to the amusement park I worked at. We took it out after closing and drove through the park while delivering supplies to the various units.

Its funny looking back now, I made bigger deal out of learning to drive a stick than it really was.

verilon wrote:

Vympel wrote:Manual's a waste of effort. Impress chicks with your driving skills? Oh please you really think a girl is looking at you when you're driving and thinking about fingering herself the way you're moving the stick? How sad.

If you move your hands in just the right way......

If we're talking about image:

STICK = SEXY (race cars, James Bond, chase scenes, 6-speed roadsters, etc)

AUTO = TAME (station wagons, kids in carseats, carpools, etc)

Maybe that's just me...after all, I am a bit biased, since my dream car is a 6-speed manual. *shrug* It's just personal preference and what you're used to, really.

But if you drive manual, you can drive anything, literally. If you only drive automatic, you have limitations, and limitations are hardly ever attractive. Besides, it's impractical to not be able to drive some vehicles in case of an emergency or something.

Actually if you are in a car chase a la Bond and it involves guns then it would be better to use an auto. If you have to use both hands to drive it'll be a bit hard to use a gun now wouldn't it?

neoolong wrote:Actually if you are in a car chase a la Bond and it involves guns then it would be better to use an auto. If you have to use both hands to drive it'll be a bit hard to use a gun now wouldn't it?

Ah, but you forget —Bond drives a stick. What do you think that Aston Martin DB6 is?

Patrick Degan wrote:

neoolong wrote:Actually if you are in a car chase a la Bond and it involves guns then it would be better to use an auto. If you have to use both hands to drive it'll be a bit hard to use a gun now wouldn't it?

Ah, but you forget —Bond drives a stick. What do you think that Aston Martin DB6 is?

Yeah, but it's not like he has to bust out with an M-4 and then reload. You see, he's got style. And that beats physics.

Patrick Degan wrote:

neoolong wrote:Actually if you are in a car chase a la Bond and it involves guns then it would be better to use an auto. If you have to use both hands to drive it'll be a bit hard to use a gun now wouldn't it?

Ah, but you forget —Bond drives a stick. What do you think that Aston Martin DB6 is?

Yeah, but it's not like he has to bust out with an M-4 and then reload. You see, he's got style. And that beats reality.

neoolong wrote:Actually if you are in a car chase a la Bond and it involves guns then it would be better to use an auto. If you have to use both hands to drive it'll be a bit hard to use a gun now wouldn't it?

It's not THAT hard to drive with one hand.....hell, with a standard, it's almost necessary! Besides....that's whjy you always have a PASSENGER in these cases. Duh!

In my case, I prefer an auto right now. I have two pulled tendons in my left knee, and pushing in most clutches is not easy on my leg. Half an hour of driving is about all I can handle in a stick.

That said, I do enjoy driving a stick. It makes you feel more involved with the car, and while it is slightly more difficult, it makes you keep your attention on the road. If my leg gets better (a possibility, though the injury hasn't completely healed in four years), I will probably try to get a stick.

A stick is the only thing I like to drive.

That and it's a rtepair I can do myself if nessesary...

verilon wrote:

neoolong wrote:Actually if you are in a car chase a la Bond and it involves guns then it would be better to use an auto. If you have to use both hands to drive it'll be a bit hard to use a gun now wouldn't it?

It's not THAT hard to drive with one hand.....hell, with a standard, it's almost necessary! Besides....that's whjy you always have a PASSENGER in these cases. Duh!

That's only if you're cool like Bond. If it was me I'd probably have to do it myself.