[Enigma]

Originally Posted by Anoree

And therefore all F1, NASCAR and other class racing cars have purely manual transmissions, right?
Sorry Max, your view about automatics is simply outdated. Modern automatic transmissions can actually help reducing fuel consumption (depending on the driver's habits), and help getting the power efficiently onto the streets. Go to a car dealer of your choice and ask for a test drive with a modern automatic. You might get the surprise of your life.
What IS a point, though, is the feeling of control. With a manual transmission you are in the power of the gear shift. The car doesn't do anything about it for itself. That is mostly psychological, I think, as there are so many assistance systems in modern cars already, that you don't simply drive on your own anymore - which is a good thing, because they reduce the number and fatalities of crashes.

Max, you simply don't like automatics and prefer to drive manual transmissions. That's ok and your decision. Just don't try to preach others into it with invalid arguments, please.

When I was deciding on what I wanted to have in my (now crashed) new car 6 years ago, I did a test drive with an automatic. I was impressed with the speed of changing and how easily it moved the car.
I decided against it because I had to carefully watch the speedometer with that and at that time the fuel economic still wasn't as good as it is now,. Also I like the feeling to be in control of what my car does, too. There were a couple of moments where I regretted that choice, though.
In my current car, bought 2 1/2 years ago, it was just a matter of costs. If I had a few more bugs available at that time, I would have had an automatic transmission built into it.



That is a point with growing importance. I doubt Rob is using his Veyron for every-day-drives but uses his more economic Mercedes for that.

~I have a manual transmission, I would move to an automatic tho, hate changing gear's all the time, being it trafic, and so on, so much better to have a automatic I would think.