No, I’m not talking about manuals as in books of instructions, I mean manual as in transmissions. The first car I ever learned to drive on was a stick-shift, and it drove me goddamn bonkers. I could never get the hang of depressing the clutch at the same time as the accelerator, then making sure I didn’t accidentally press the clutch when I needed to brake. I had such a difficult time with it, my parents traded that car in for an automatic, where all I’d have to do is put the car in D and then go. My sister learned to drive on an automatic, because by that time, the old stick-shift had long since faded into memory. If my parents had to drive one again they could with no problems, but my sister and I would be utterly screwed.
For those of you that are car drivers, do you prefer manuals or automatics? If you don’t live in the United States, what kind of transmission is more common in your country? If you had to switch from one to the other, do you think it would affect your driving?
Designer Sophisticate 
Before my brothers and I could take our driving test, my father made us exit our neighborhood at a traffic light at the top of a huge hill. He figured if we were confident we weren’t going to roll into the car behind us, we were ready to drive.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I – and my 4 kid sisters for that matter – have all mastered the mysterious shift. I can’t speak for them, but I myself far prefer it over automatic. You can be so precise in keeping the engine revs in the sweet spot (the RPM range where the engine operates most efficiently). That’s very helpful when you’re on your way to the grocery to pick up a bag of onions and some milk because you can shift like mad and make the engine sound like it’s screaming around a race track and you KNOW you’re gonna get the checkered flag and the huge check and the trophy and the babes…and it makes going to the grocery store for onions and milk SO much more fun than a dumpy ol’ automatic 🙂
Oh, and since you asked: automatics are probably the single most common transmission in the United States, but a new style called the “CVT” (“continuously variable transmission”) is starting to gain ground. So you can now add a third choice to your considerations!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Automatics are cool for most cars, but when it comes to sports cars, its gotta be manual!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Automatic is cool, being that I do not know how to drive a stick shift except for the video game stimulations lol..
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hey, if you don’t mind spending $$$ you can get a real sports car (like a Ferrari) with steering wheel paddle shifters just like the shifters on game controllers! No clutch needed either. Gran Tourismo Real, baby!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Very Interesting I hadn’t thought about that!
LikeLiked by 1 person
learned to drive on an automatic but my first two cars were manual. Having a stick shift car was sexier then a manual but in the big city where there is traffic light on each block having a stick shift becomes a burden. Lately I reverted back to having an automatic for city driving….
LikeLiked by 1 person
There is no way I could drive a manual transmission. Way too complicated, I admire people who can.
LikeLike