Well, y'know, about 10-15 years ago I bought my first automatic transmission
car, not because I wanted automatic, but rather because the car was used, and
the rest of it was exactly what I wanted. (The car was a Honda Accord station
wagon.)
That said, I discovered after a few hundred uncomfortable miles that I enjoyed
the benefits of automatic. Few of the roads I was driving then needed to be
_driven_, or gave any particular pleasure when they were, and the benefits of
automatic in some of the traffic choke points I had to endure just made me
feel, well, better. For example, when driving an automatic, one is free to pick
one's nose with one's right hand in any traffic situation, not just when one is
at speed and there's no need to change gears for a span of time. <wink>
Now, I do automatic. I don't want to _drive_ my car. It's a conveyance to get
me from Point A to points thereafter and back again. Gas mileage differences
between manual and automatic are negligible, at least in my Scooby-Do. Same in
my wife's Toyota Yaris. She's got the auto version and it still racks up 40
mpg. And even Joan, who once swore to all the gods in all the heavens that she
never would drive an automatic, now realizes the pleasures and benefits thereof.
When you reach a certain age--at least when we did--all that driving stuff just
sort of floats away and it doesn't matter anymore. Auto is fine. When we went
to the UK, I made sure to rent an automatic because I wanted to take shifting
gears out of the driving-on-the-left equation. Glad I did. When I go back I'll
probably do it again, not because of the driving-on-the-left thing, but rather
because I'd just rather drive an automatic. Especially a TDI automatic, which
has all the get-up-and-go and olde faert like me needs.
Manual folks are free to look down their noses at me for preferring automatic,
but if they do, they'll see my middle finger wagging back at them. <g>
Now, with the motorcycle, it's a different ball of wax. Even though Aprilla and
Honda and others are starting to offer automatic transmissions, I wouldn't
think of it. Never. Never-never-never.
--Bob Whitmire
Certified (Non-Shifting) Neanderthal
On Nov 15, 2013, at 7:04 PM, Andrew Fildes wrote:
> Manual! Apocrophylly, BMW only started putting auto tranny's into their cars
> because murkin dealers insisted. They really couldn't understand why anyone
> would want to put an auto in a Beemer. Ever. At the time, they increased
> engine size to allow for it. And probably detuned them a bit. There should be
> an advantage in mileage but, of course, that's cancelled out by the fact that
> manual BMW's are driven…properly.
--
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