I owned my first automatic in 1998, a Mercedes CLK230K. I loved the power of
the machine (195bhp) and the 5-speed auto was lovely and smooth. Then came a
E300 estate and a ML270 with similar boxes and I enjoyed each of them. I
bought 2 BMW 320 Tourings after that, each manual and frugal. But when I had
the chance to buy an automatic BMW last year I jumped at it. There’s nothing
that you can do with a manual that you can’t at least emulate with a modern
automatic. I have a Sport mode and flappy paddles on my X1 (Xdrive230d), but
it’s a dream, and fun, to drive in the normal mode (and more frugal . . ).
Manual box users have nothing to be snooty about, Bob.
I had a semi-auto Honda 65 when I lived in Calcutta; does that count? :-)
Chris
On 16 Nov 2013, at 14:36, Bob Whitmire <bwhitmire@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Well, y'know, about 10-15 years ago I bought my first automatic transmission
> car, not because I wanted automatic, but rather because the car was used, and
> the rest of it was exactly what I wanted. (The car was a Honda Accord station
> wagon.)
>
> That said, I discovered after a few hundred uncomfortable miles that I
> enjoyed the benefits of automatic. Few of the roads I was driving then needed
> to be _driven_, or gave any particular pleasure when they were, and the
> benefits of automatic in some of the traffic choke points I had to endure
> just made me feel, well, better. For example, when driving an automatic, one
> is free to pick one's nose with one's right hand in any traffic situation,
> not just when one is at speed and there's no need to change gears for a span
> of time. <wink>
>
> Now, I do automatic. I don't want to _drive_ my car. It's a conveyance to get
> me from Point A to points thereafter and back again. Gas mileage differences
> between manual and automatic are negligible, at least in my Scooby-Do. Same
> in my wife's Toyota Yaris. She's got the auto version and it still racks up
> 40 mpg. And even Joan, who once swore to all the gods in all the heavens that
> she never would drive an automatic, now realizes the pleasures and benefits
> thereof.
>
> When you reach a certain age--at least when we did--all that driving stuff
> just sort of floats away and it doesn't matter anymore. Auto is fine. When we
> went to the UK, I made sure to rent an automatic because I wanted to take
> shifting gears out of the driving-on-the-left equation. Glad I did. When I go
> back I'll probably do it again, not because of the driving-on-the-left thing,
> but rather because I'd just rather drive an automatic. Especially a TDI
> automatic, which has all the get-up-and-go and olde faert like me needs.
>
> Manual folks are free to look down their noses at me for preferring
> automatic, but if they do, they'll see my middle finger wagging back at them.
> <g>
>
> Now, with the motorcycle, it's a different ball of wax. Even though Aprilla
> and Honda and others are starting to offer automatic transmissions, I
> wouldn't think of it. Never. Never-never-never.
--
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