I've mostly driven manual trasmissions all my life. Multiple times the manual transmission bailed me out of a situation that would have left me stranded had the car been auto. My first car was a real junker, I had to hit the gas every time I hit the clutch or it would die in the middle of the road. Occasionally it wouldn't start and I had to pop the clutch. On another occasion I managed to break the linkage in the transmission, but was still able to get it home in one gear. Manuals are definitely more robust than autos.
But the number of people that know how to use that advantage are dwindling, as, I believe, are the number of people that enjoy driving manuals. New drivers are in the US are laregly driving automatics, and many of them won't see the point of learning to drive a stick.
Moreover, driving a stick can be a major hassle, even for someone who knows how to drive them well. I hate driving my RSX-S in traffic, something I have to do often here. I also don't like that the wife will never drive it voluntarily - even though she has her own car, that matters.
Our automatic bothers me on occasion, especially with cruise control in hills where it has a tendancy to freak out. But there are times when I prefer her car to mine.
Yes, it would be lovely if we all had enough money to dedicate a car to ourselves simply for joyriding, but most of us are using our cars for more than that. Most of the people talking about the joys of the MT in this thread are driving them to work every day.
Honestly I have to say that I don't enjoy my MT so much more than an auto. Yes, autos irritate me occasionally with a poorly placed shift. But is it really that much fun to row through six gears? Occasionally it is, but every once in a while it sucks too, especially when you stall in the drive-through. Or when you forgot that you were coasting in gear and you dump the clutch expecting the car to be in neutral. I also really hate going from 5th to 6th in my tight gearbox and wondering if I accidentally fell into 4th. Not to mention that I have synchro problems in 2nd and 3rd which make the car feel a hell of a lot less smooth than it should.
If someone like me can grow up learning how to drive on a manual, and despite really enjoying cars and driving can decide that it's worth it to switch to automatics, do MT's really have much of a future? I'm not so sure.
At the moment, I think our next purchase will be a BMW 330i... and I think it'll be an auto.
Wolfe
I stand by my opinion that automatic-equipped cars (see above for trucks) are for people who are either lazy, don't care about driving (thinking about it as point-A to point-B and nothing more), or physically incapable of using a clutch and gear shifter (war veteran?). Not even navigating stop-and-go traffic is an excuse, because aside from the obvious possibility of buying a car with a sequential manual or DSG (assuming they'll be more widespread in the future), maintaining a long-enough distance from the car in front of you can enable you to rarely use the clutch.
That technique doesn't work in places where people like to take the fast lane and then jump into a traffic-filled turning lane at the last second. Those people love MTs because they always leave a nice space in the traffic. I'm well aware of the technique, and it has weaknesses.
Wolfe
Does this mean that I hate, or even dislike people who drive an automatic? Not at all. If you want to be lazy, that's fine by me (I'd willingly drive a DSG-equipped Volkswagen in automatic mode, say, after a tiring day at work). Just don't deny that you are being lazy.
Yup. It's lazy of me not to want to screw around with the clutch every 10 seconds for a hour of traffic. It's also lazy of me to use a remote instead of getting up to change channels on the TV. I don't get any enjoyment out of either one.
She loves Nissans.
