When we were prospecting for a new car some years back, there was a debate on which is the beter car – automatic or with stick shift. Our old car was a conventional one and I was used to that stick shift gear. But my wife is not comfortable with that and she desires the automatic. The automatic is more expensive by 50k pesos ($1,000) and the gas consumption is definitely more than the car with stick shift. But when we analyzed and evaluated the traffic in Metro Manila, I had to agree that an automatic car saves a lot in terms of stress. So that is a health aspect that we were saving on. Okay, we have 2 automatic cars now.
I have driven both automatic and manual cars. I started with manual and then shifted to automatic. I am comfortable with both but find that manual drive is best for long and rough roads. Manual is good for tarmacs. I would anytime choose manual over automatic for safari purposes. Fuel consumption wasn't much of a difference in my experience. Just that automatic cars are more costlier than manual. Curently I have both types.
I have driven both, in fact I have both cars and I am used to drive both of them. Back in India automatic transmission is not much in demand due to oil consumption and people not willing to spend extra but here almost every one runs a car with auto-transmission. The driving with auto-transmission is certainly easy and lesser tiresome but you spend extra on fuel.
Some people say the conventional transmission is more fun. It probably reminds some people of driving a race car. Nonetheless, though, due to practically reasons, most people have automatic transmission. In fact, conventional transmission is going the way of the dinosaurs. Note, myself, I'll admit, I've never learned to use a stick shift, as a conventional is called. However, I'd like to just for fun sometime. Log In
