need some help, auto or manual?

unwashed potato! · 22 Jul 2007 at 22:13

MrLOL said:
get some more lessons in a manual

come back to this once youve got a bit more experience. Honestly your reasoning shrieks "ive not driven cars a lot"

because to a non driver, it does seem a little stupid. Why do the work if you can get a car to do it for you ? its a bit like having indicators but still putting your hands out the windows isnt it ??

thing is, once youve got more experience you'll realise that theres more to driving an automatic than just a manul with less work. Its not just a question of "Im not changing gears so i can pay more attention to the road". With an automatic theres every chance you're going to get caught in the wrong gear and have an accident. Young drivers manage to have accidents through inexperience in manuals, and thats before they're in a car when they go to pull a manoevre they've not fully experienced in and find the car in the wrong gear.

You say "i wont do that" but every young male driver says that. Yet they still manage to have more accidents than just about any other age group. I know, ive been there done that, got the insurance premium. I had 3 of them. And how many others on this forum have done the same thing .. You say you wont but you will.

You've got enough on your plate being a young inexperienced driver let loose on motorways and NSL roads without supervision, without adding the complications of an automatic.

exactly what i needed to hear, you knew exactly what i meant and told me what i need to know.

ok guys you convinced me manual it is. Gota ring them guy up tmorrow i think and then take it from there. I'll let you know how its gonig in a few weeks.

thanks

s0ck said:
My old driving instructor said he charged 20 quid per lesson for his auto car versus the 16 on the manual; the automatic aint as economical as the manual so it made sense to me.

£16?!?!?!?! i was getting charged £25 per hour, where abouts are you as everyone i know pays ver similar to me, at most £3 cheaper.

[TW]Fox · 22 Jul 2007 at 22:14

Good choice. Nothing to stop you thinking 'sod it' and buying an auto when you pass your test but this way you get the choice.

Morba · 22 Jul 2007 at 23:00

s0ck said:
My old driving instructor said he charged 20 quid per lesson for his auto car versus the 16 on the manual; the automatic aint as economical as the manual so it made sense to me.

you think its fair to charge 25% more purely on the cost of fuel?

[TW]Fox · 22 Jul 2007 at 23:01

Morba said:
you think its fair to charge 25% more purely on the cost of fuel?

It's not about being fair - they are a business not a charity. If the market is such that there are not many auto cars around, higher prices can be charged.

Morba · 22 Jul 2007 at 23:03

[TW]Fox said:
It's not about being fair - they are a business not a charity. If the market is such that there are not many auto cars around, higher prices can be charged.

what has that to do with anything? he mentioned fuel being the factor for charging more, not the fact that there are not many auto instructors in his area.

[TW]Fox · 22 Jul 2007 at 23:19

Morba said:
what has that to do with anything? he mentioned fuel being the factor for charging more, not the fact that there are not many auto instructors in his area.

His driving instructor is hardly going to say 'I charge more for Auto becuase I can stiff more out of people as nobody else has an auto car, ha ha ha' is he?

Morba · 22 Jul 2007 at 23:24

[TW]Fox said:
His driving instructor is hardly going to say 'I charge more for Auto becuase I can stiff more out of people as nobody else has an auto car, ha ha ha' is he?

no idea, i knew my instructor well away from him being an instructor, who is to say this is not the same for s0ck?
s0ck clearly believed the person when they said it.

[TW]Fox · 22 Jul 2007 at 23:25

But as you point out, 25% extra is a looot of fuel..

[huzeeee] · 23 Jul 2007 at 00:06

I am learning to drive at the moment (all said and done i have worked on cars for a good 10 years so i picked it up quite quickley) and although i drove an auto ages ago and thought wow that was so easy, the hard part of driving is nothing to do with the gears, its to do with driver awareness, positioning and making sure you stick to the rules. After 3 or 4 lessons gear changes became second nature and the hard part started when i started learning how to pass my test. If i were you i would take the extra 3 or 4 lessons to pass in a manual than have to retake in 5 years because of the restrictions that you will have by only passing an auto licence.

daveyj27 · 23 Jul 2007 at 01:26

R124/LA420 said:
I now think he means auto / semi/ auto perhaps?

I dunno!

My wife learned, and did her test, in our old car which was a semi-auto (flappy paddles). Had she passed she would have been issued a license with an auto-only provision, according to the DVLA.

She didn't pass, so it was academic.

OpenToSuggestions · 23 Jul 2007 at 12:54

quite a fool to pass in an auto tbh. Do the manual, most instructers have manuals anyway

Adz · 23 Jul 2007 at 13:03

Definitely pass in a manual. If you later switch to an auto it's worth taking a manual out occasionally to 'keep your hand in' but there's really nothing to it switching from one to the other. You might just feel like you want to put your foot on a non-existent clutch pedal for the first few miles when you slow down.

What is really difficult for me is switching from a manual car to a plane

. It feels awkward and unnatural cruising with my left foot on the rudder pedal - I think my subconscious mind think I'm riding the clutch! When I do get the hang of the plane I'm going to end up with a large bill for clutch replacement for the car

.

I might also mention that automatics take a little getting used to if you want to predict gear changes/kick down (especially to 1st for pulling away).