paulr

I always thought auto's were for old people and to be avoided. However, as i get older, and having test driven a few, i can see the appeal. They are effortless, and my days of flying around are over.
Is it time to join the auto club.

mamoon2

I'm 27 and have had Autos before and planning on getting another soon. It's all about effortless driving, wafting down the road if you must

Spoon

Always had powerful autos and wouldn't entertain anything else. Manuals are utterly pointless on our roads now too.

RobsyUK

iTrader: (2)

I have an auto. granded its old but it is ****e. Manual for me..

what would scooby do

In another few years there will be no manual gearboxes. All auto's or double clutch units.

boxst

It depends on where you are driving. If you are dirving through towns then an automatic is great. If you like driving through twisty country lanes then the control you get with manual is much better.

In America automatics are a no-brainer as you have to stop every 100 yards on some roads.

Steve

what would scooby do

DSG gearboxes are faster and more economical - even in the twisties

Spoon

I have a new DSG box and to be honest I call it the comedy box. It isn't a patch on my other autos. Through the gears it is fine. On take off it is like a hesitant fárt, sometimes catching you out at roundabouts and junctions before it actually takes off. I now blip it before I want it to move to make sure the message of wanting a gear has been heard loud and blóody clear.

Then there's the rolling backwards on a hill, unlike a proper auto.

RetroMk1

iTrader: (1)

I used to have an auto and loved it, just so easy to drive and relax, going for another one as a daily driver. also depends on what car it is, mercs are a definate auto car.

Spoon

That is pub talk of the 70s. A decent auto even back a few years would drive the twisties like any manual, (as proved many, many times). There is no reason to keep the box in D when you can manually shift it up and down and use all the revs controlling the car on the throttle.

CREWJ

In traffic and on the motorway journeys auto is the way to go. If you want to have a bit of fun there's no better way than a manual

what would scooby do

Audi S3 perchance ? Or A3..

Spoon

Not a chance. I have more power in my footwear.

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

I kind of like Autos and they have a place if you do lots of miles but I find I get bored or pissed off when it decides to change up/down at an innoportune moment, driven a few and wont rule it out but for the miles I do not worth the trade off, depends a lot on the individual box, not all autos or manuals are created equal, horrible clunky, heavy Manual versus a modern 8 speed auto, no contest or possibly a brilliant six speed manual versus some slow witted three speed slush o matic from a manky old Granada.

Spoon

As the quality of cars differ so do the gearboxes on both manuals and autos. I suspect not many people have driven a good auto because it wouldn't be the first choice of many people. I rarely drive in D if I'm progressing so never get the unexpected changes. That said, a good auto on a powerful engine doesn't do that anyway.

Bubba po

Almost Freudian slip.

boxst

Really? Driving across the mountains north of San Francisco I ended up frying the brakes of the automatic car!

Speed up, Oh God can't slow down with the gears, ride on the brake, speed up again etc...

David Lock

Had a few years driving in London and big cities. Had an old auto Jag with comfortable leather and walnut dash, good music system and a pull out tray for my coffee In the circumstances it was great.

But an auto Mini, never

scud8

iTrader: (1)

I've got the DSG box in my Golf and don't have any of these problems with it. The only problem I ever has is an occasional stall reversing off my drive (which admittedly is a bit steep) when the engine is cold. What car is yours?

Spoon

Without knowing the car but assuming it's American, I'd be inclined to say it was a bad auto/car combination. Underpowered, underbraked, overly heavy, sloppy handling car. Anything with an engine over there has an auto box fitted. That isn't a good advert for a decent auto gearbox experience.

Richy P1984

Try driving a Prius, thats an auto, and my god its ****. Changes down every time you blip the throttle and makes it sound like your red lining it, and it takes for ****ingever to change up again. When you want to over take you have to give it advanced notice. The only saving grace is it has engine breaking.

Spoon

Crap cars are crap cars, manual or auto.

TelBoy

Why is a broken engine a saving grace??

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Autos make me drive like an nutter. Its the lazyness of the set up that provokes me in to not giving a toss about how I drive, beacuse the part of my brain that's usually used for operating the clutch and select gears whilst thinking ahead of which one to use for the the approaching road conditions is now doing nothing, so ends up daydreaming about women with long legs and hotpants. The consequences are obvious, and its only by pure luck that I haven't crashed more often.

In addition they annoy me (the gearbox, not the hotpants), as on the odd occasion when the part of my brain used for selecting gears isn't thinking about luscious long feminine legs, its ranting away about how the gearbox is doing it all wrong; They are always caught snoozing when I want to get a move on, 1st and 2nd gear ratios are often too tall (unless SMG/DSG). SMG and DSG type automatics have the clutch control of a learner driver. And regardless of the type of auto it is and no matter how clever, there is always a time when its caught out and can't make its mind up on which gear it wants - even on the intelligent ones that sense its going up/down a steep hill.

Not to mention the ones that refuse to 'lock-up' (that is lock up the torque convertor to give direct drive), until the car is doing above 50mph. So basically the car is guzzling fuel by aimlessly sloshing hydraulic fluid around a torque convertor instead of driving the wheels. Thankfully manufacturers now have cottoned onto the fact that average traffic flow rarely exceeds 50mph except for motorways so some now engages lock up at a more fuel-friendly 30mph....although add a hill and it'll get all confused again.

And don't start me on CVTs (rubber band drive). My dad had one, it broke, my grandad had one, it broke, my mate's wife had one...it broke. My mum had one....it didn't break, but it had a terrible habit of not moving when when you gunned the accelerator. Where it seemed full throttle actually engaged 'milk float with a flat battery' mode.


OK, so why not use manual mode and take the gearbox's low IQ out of the equation?....but hang on, this is supposed to be an automatic which by definition is not supposed to require conscious effort, so by engaging manual mode its admission that the automatic 'box is a hopeless failure and that a human* is far superior at doing the job of deciding what gear is needed. That fact that doing so is showing that some of the greatest engineers on the planet [ahem, maybe not] can't make a box of cogs pick ratios better than a human stig. I guess these are the same engineers that thinks its a good idea to have fly-by-wire steering (in a French car!), and automatic handbrake motors that burns themselves out if someone changes the brake pads and forgets to tell the computer (VAG).


*not all humans, some should not be driving a car full stop, let alone an auto.

However, I'm more adapated/submissive to the more old school 'dumb' automatics. You know ones without a computer. The ones desgined by engineers with a A2 sheet of graph paper on a drawing board and saw fit to make it strong enough to tackle 1000bhp even if its bolted to a 200bhp engine (try doing that on a modern ZF 6 speed auto), what hope could they have at getting such a device to work by plumbing together a maze of hydraulic valves and actuators. All these do is rely on speed and throttle position, the simplicity means they are quite easy to drive round their shortcommings, and are forgiven as they never pretended to be fully autonomous or 'intelligent' unlike the modern electronics ones that claim to adapt to your driving style. Some even clearly state in the owner's handbook to use the manual gears for given situations - Keep it in D for cruising, Knock it into 2 for round town/engine braking/overtakes and put it in '1' for doing donuts and burnouts. They are also superb for offroading; Impossible to stall, and it still works even when its filled up with mud.

Having said all that, the Jag's GM400 transmission's days are numbered; partially because some idiot at Jaguar thought it was ok to gear it for 120mph in second gear. As you can imagine, second and third gears are pretty useless at any speed bleow 60mph. One day, it will be binned in favour of a 5 speed Tremec manual with more senible ratios and a more intelligent control system (me ).

jonc

I find when driving an auto, my left foot is always trying to use the phantom clutch peddle!

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

I never drove an auto I didn't hate. However "good" they may be, an automatic gearbox can never change gear in anticipation of an upcoming event, so unless it's used in manual mode it's always going to be late changing down for corners.

Use it in manual mode and the debate isn't so much 'auto vs manual', as it is 'conventional vs clutchless'.

drb5

iTrader: (4)

Cracking post Ali.

bigsinky

Been driving a Lexus LS400 for 5 years now. So over engineered its almost laughable. They definately don't make them like they used to. Still less than 150K miles on a 16 year old car. 4 speed auto makes you so lazy. I don't know how I am going to get back into an Impreza with a 6 speed box and a twin plate clutch.

FurballPhil

I had an FTO GPx... Tiptronic... I loved it.... Would definatly have a car with similar gearbox again.... When I was younger, I thought I`d always hate Auto`s and never ever get one.

(I just said "When I was Younger")..... Oh My God, That means I`m OLDER and Liking Auto`s/Tips....... I Guess it Really Is An Oldie Thing...