Which do u prefer: auto or manual transmission?

[finley]

If you can drive a manual transmission, you'll know it's superior. The main irritation for me (with auto) is making a three-point turn, or similar. It's painful.

Perhaps Sulavaca knows otherwise, but I imagine a manual gearbox is also a lot cheaper to fix/replace if it goes wrong, and is less likely to go wrong in the first place.

[914]

Good topic, worth expanding on. Unfortunately, the op is a spammer and has been banned.

Ill move this to cars n wheels, maybe you guys want to carry on with the topic? Otherwise, cars n wheels mod, please feel free to do as you wish.

914, open mod

[StuartCa]

Before I came to Taiwan I'd only driven manual, but for most town work here an automatic is much more convenient. Sure there are times when I'd prefer to be able to change down and over take, and on hills it would be easier, but Taipei's traffic is so stop-start that a manual would be a pain.

[Super Hans]

I prefer driving a manual. The gearboxes and transmission systems are easier to fix (I can get by dropping a clutch on a manual, but fixing automatic? No way.)
Mountain driving and driving on roads with bends with a manual equates to more power on demand at exactly the point where you want it, and you can pin your vehicle nicely in the bends. Downhill with an automatic is a nightmare on the brakes.
Between an auto and a manual there is no contest for me.

[*monkey*]

Downhill with an automatic is a nightmare on the brakes.

Autos do have have engine braking, you know.

[housecat]

Manual is much more fun to drive. But I'd hate it here in Taiwan. Too much first and second gear.

[sandman]

Manual all the way. But I'm old school. I drive a bog-standard auto here. It works. That's all. I drove a rental Alfa last Autumn in the UK. Woohoo! That thing was FUN! Especially in sports mode. Guarantee you guys would like it.

[cfimages]

Another vote for manual.

[sulavaca]

I prefer autoboxes for city use, and manual for the countryside. If I had to choose one type for Taiwan, then I'd choose auto. My wife has a large influence there too.

[Ducked]

I drive a manual here now and, since I'm British, I hadn't ever driven an automatic before I came here.

I prefer a manual for the fuel economy, which I believe is likely to be better, but probably mostly because it is what I'm used to, which I think applies to most driving preferences, whatever the rationale.

I doubt that manuals are likely to be more reliable, as someone posted above, since on a used car they are more likely to have been abused.

While its probably true that a manual gearbox is cheaper to repair, at the bargain basement end of the market where I operate its unlikely that anyone will be repairing a gearbox of either type.