Another thing that makes Baby Jesus cry ... automatic cars
 

I saw the most beautiful 300ZX today. Utterly mint body, pristine red paint, and gorgeous interior. There was only one thing wrong.

The gears were all in a straight line.

I don't know about everyone else, but I've already taken an oath to teach my kids how to drive M/T.

I drive a manual, and i have a automatic vehicle. they both nave up sides and bad sides, it all depends on what you're gonna use it for. ie: minivans are auto, semis are manual, it all depends on intended usage.

All depends on the car as mentioned. Sure, most street cars (at least modern, smaller displacement cars) can and will perform better with a stick. But try finding one excluding the clutchless manuals that will hold up to 1000+ ft/lbs of torque regularly, and you're shit outta luck. For smaller sportier cars like my RX7, the stick is the only way to go. But for my strip cars, gm 3 speed autos are the only way to go.

the only thing i will drive in automatic is an suv or a minivan, the rest (or a muscle/drag car, but that doesnt really count).....my maxima is a manual and i wouldnt trade driving it for the world......it is 9 times as fun, and it is a true shame to see power like a 300ZX go to waste on an auto..........

I love having a manual on my weekend fun/sports car. But if you drove as much as I did on the highway with my daily driver an automatic is a must (I drive about 300-900 miles a week).
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Actually thats a very good thing...you never know when you might run into that situation where you have to drive a car thats a stick in an emergency also makes you options for car shopping wide open...plus if they ever want to drive a motorcycle it's easier to pick it up if you know how to drive a manual car.

I got a Auto in my van right now, mostly because there isn't enough room for a stick or there would be one in it, but Im getting a new car next month and it has a stick in it!

My truck has a stick and my car has an auto. If I had my preference then both would be manuals, an auto seems like the lazy way to shift, no thinking.

If I were haulin stuff in a bigger truck I'd prefer an auto, but for daily driving and fun manual is the only way to go. I spend lots of time in traffic and the manual only bugs me a little. I don't look down on those that prefer Auto by any means, it's just what they prefer. I started teaching my girlfriend how to drive manual a few days ago. She's gunna get a jeep with a manual tranny.

Plowing with a truck, with manuel sucks some serious ass. Traffic in a manuel sucks. But for everything else, manuels the way to go.

Its all I drive.

My X didn't want to learn how to drive a stick but I just said what If one day you really need to drive one for one reason or anyother!

It always good to know how to drive a stick!

This is my policy:

sports coupe = manual
SUV/Truck = auto
Sedan = auto
Performance Sedan (e.g. M5) = manual

No SUV's are auto but truck should be a stick!

living in crowded cities.... I'm an auto person.

it's hard to get a BJ in traffic when she has to keep stopping to allow you to shift from 1st to 2nd....

LMAO. leave that to the freeway, you stay in 4th or 5th and she can go crazy!:lol:

I've always preferred manual. Our Maxima is the first car that I've had that's automatic, and while I am used to it now, I do miss the stick. A lot.

Eventually when we can afford another car, perhaps we'll sell the Maxima and get the wifey a minivan. She can have her automatic... Nothing wrong with it and it has its plus side, but I still am a M/T man all the way.

Manuals and automatics both have their place.

My '88 T-Bird has a manual. It's definitely better suited to that car and its turbocharged 4-banger. It makes the car more fun to drive, plus the manual lets me more easily keep the revs up so the turbo can spool more quickly.

The '93 Lincoln Mark VIII has an automatic, which feels more appropriate in that car. Plus with its V8, it can pull decently regardless of which gear it's in.

Interestingly, despite weighing 300 pounds more, having ~80 more horsepower, a slushbox, and twice the displacement/cylinders, the Mark gets slightly better gas mileage. Go figure!

who is Manuel?

Man, you don't know what you are missing, the manual Maximas are great fun to drive.....I have a 96 SE 5spd and I love it!

Manual is great...except in a traffic jam. ooh, my aching foot! ;)

What's really funny is watching someone who has always driven manual try to drive an auto. "Dude, you're stomping on the floor again"

I'd rather have a manual, I rarely need a free hand that can't be when I need to shift. The autos I've had were quite unimpressing. My mom's Town Car could have hauled ass with a 6-speed. With the auto, it just hauled asses.

I just spent the weekend driving an Audi Allroad, 2.5 TDI, and a Mercedes Convertible, I forget the number, not an SLK, but the fullsize droptop. They both had automatics, and I usually drive a manual golf. Now The audi kicks ass in the sportmode, but I still find it disconcerting that I can't tell it when I want the different gears. So on straight sections, bring on the Auto, but in twistiness I get scared that it'll shift at the wrong time and I'll lose grip. The Merc just has a crappy 'box. It seems like the kickdown only works when it feels like it, not when I eant it. And there's quite a great deal of lag, so you floor it...and then you sit around for a while (1-1 1/2 sesc.)...and then it boots you in the ass and takes off. Once again, a little disconcerting that I can't overtake with confidence...

I'll take a stick any day. Just my 0.2$

Humm that trans in the merc is like my old Pontiac(83' Bonnie) you step on it and the engine would rev up then boom you take off! but the trany was screw up. I that car has a newer trany like my van when you hit the gas it would take off when you hit the gas!

I'm all for manuals, well I was untill I took an M3 with SMG II and the Golf R32 with DSG out for a spin. Both of these systems will rip almost any manual shifter to pieces. DSG takes 8ms to upshift, SMG II upshifts in 80ms. Pretty impressive if you ask me.

Had one automatic in my long life-never again-now have 2 PT's with 5 speeds(spouse constantly borrowing mine went out and got his own). I have dragraced against other PT's and have won with just the 5speed in my favor while the others had all kinds of gadgets. And i was the first at the dealer to order the manual! I want to DRIVE not just ARRIVE!!! There used to be rumors that American carmakers would get rid of manual trannies for all but the most basic of cars...thank goodness there are enough of us to keep them from making that huge mistake. And, my father had the same thought-all kids must drive the manual then we could choose when we got our own and I will be doing the same.

Sounds just like the S430 I drove.

I've noticed that the more high-tech an automatic tranny is, the worse it behaves. Old cars with hydraulically controlled transmissions seemed to know how to behave. Get on the gas a little, it drops a gear. Floor it, it drops 2 gears. Simple.

With the newer electronic pieces of crap, it's anyone's guess. Get on it a little and maybe it downshifts by one gear, maybe two. Or sometimes it gets creative and decides to just lock up the torque converter and bog the engine instead. You never know!

And I really love it when you floor it and it kicks down one gear for a second or two, then drops another gear and stays there for about 0.2 seconds before redlining and upshifting again.

I taught my daughter how to drive with a manual transmission while she was practice driving a year ago before she had her license, even though we had a vehicle with an automatic transmission. Now she drives the car with the stick to school and when we replace it (a '90 Accord) she wants us to get another manual transmission rather than an automatic.

I would love to get a stick but the traffic in my hoem town is nuts and I think my leg will lock up like it always does, so I might hae to go with a auto, but I still know how to drive a stick!