Manual or Auto towcar
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I had an Auto with the T bar shift for a couple of years but I went back to Manual shift, I dare say I’ll try Auto again in the future but I do like shifting gears, it keeps my brain active👍🏻🤷🏻♂️
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These days I’m grateful that my brain has one less thing to think about🤣🤣🤣
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For me it depends on how I'm feeling, I like both. It is more relaxing to use the auto especially in heavy town traffic but then sometimes I prefer to have more control on which gear I'm in for a given situation. But if I had to choose one to use for ever it's probably auto.
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I considered one of those ‘depends how I’m feeling vehicles’ C, upon researching them I realised they cost twice as much so I swerved the idea & stuck with my mandraulically operated option👍🏻😂
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Forty years ago when they weren’t so common I bought an automatic car I loved it but I got so much ‘stick’ from friends and colleagues, ‘the gear box will need replacing and be costly’, ‘you are not in control’, etc etc. I’ve continued to drive an auto for all these years and now it seems most people do like them. Don’t think I could drive a manual now.
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Only auto I spent any time with was a hire car in the USA about fifteen years ago, driving from Charlotte NC to Orlando FL and back. Took a little while getting used to but the downside when I came home, I'd forget to depress the clutch when stopping. I've always had manuals as that was the car I was looking at. No real preference either way. We'll all be auto's once we've gone electric.
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I do the opposite when coming to a stop in the auto my left foot can't stop pushing a pedal that isn't there.
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full respect there then. I've never been able to master left foot braking and nowhere near as accurate as using my right foot.
I used to drive my dad mad by double de-clutching in his car, it didn't need it but I though I was being sporty and clever. I can still hear him saying do that in your own car and ruin your own clutch.
To my shame when I did get my own car I never did it
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Auto every time. We have been towing for 47 years. Initially we towed with a manual, but having driven my then Boss's auto company car, I persuaded OH to give an auto a try when we were trading in, and we haven't had a manual since.
It makes towing effortless and is a boon on long journeys. Because we have a small caravan, there are 2 necessaries in a cars spec that we must have, storage space and auto. Currently looking at the Honda CR-V.
I really appreciate it more than ever these days, as I have arthritis in my knees, and I couldn't manage a car with gear change.
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Thanks for the reply. I might try again but I think I've lost the mental and physical coordination to do it now!
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just stick with 2 pedals .... 😉
A few years back I drove Emily's manual car a mile or so home after a fault meant there was no clutch. Emily was amazed it was even possible .... just a case of matching revs & road speed. 😉 Guess who had to fix the clutch fault! 😂
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We'll all be auto's once we've gone electric.
Not quite - BEVs (almost all) are not automatic - they simply don't have gears at all. It's surprisingly different to driving an auto, and actually an even more relaxed (or engaging depending on how you are driving) experience.
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I don’t think it’s splitting hairs. The question wasn’t about licences, it was about the usefulness of manual vs auto for towing. I was pointing out that from a gears perspective an EV is quite different to an automatic gearbox in the way power is managed and delivered. CVT transmission are different to an auto gearbox scan. And indeed dual clutch auto boxes are different to torque converter boxes.
They all have different properties for solo driving and towing. The autos I have towed with were variably successful. The Chrysler Grand Voyager 4 speed column shift was terrible. The XC90 6 speed was good. My V60 PHEV has more or less the same 6 speed box as the XC90, but adds an electric axel which made it even better for towing. But the Polestar blows them all away. I have not towed with a CVT or dual clutch. How do they fair?0 -
I know the question wasn't about licences .. Of course they're all different inside .... but they all use 2 pedals, which make them 'automatics'.
I've not towed with CVT or DCT, but having driven cars with them I'd only tow with a proper slush box auto
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If a manual or Auto option was available in an EV it would make sense because there needs to be a distinction ED as in an ICE vehicle. There is no need for a distinction. Plus the AV(Autonomous Vehicle) I guess is the only true Automatic EV👍🏻
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So - answering the OPs question, "Manual or Auto" - seems very valid to differentiate between torque converter (slush auto), CVT, DCT and single speed (EV)
. Not splitting hairs at all 
. EV single speed is good. Many torque converter autos are good (XC90) some are not (Grand voyager). CVT and DCT are open for more feedback?
Two pedal driving vs three pedal driving (manual) is nice, but down to personal preference.
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Once driving schools are all using EV's, there will soon be a generation that will be precluded from driving manual vehicles.
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in answering the original man vs auto, I agree with you. I've linked to an Ozzie version of Clarkson a few times re his Youtube describing how to break the various types. However I said you were splitting hairs when you said that BEV were not auto because they don't have gears.
Off to look for the video .....
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But there will be so few manual cars it is likely to be irrelevant and perhaps the requirement to take a specific test in a manual car.
Factoid. When the B+E test was a thing. If you took the test with an automatic vehicle. Then it entitled you tow with an automatic, but it upgraded your licence to drive a manual car solo . Go figure.0 -
... If you took the test with an automatic vehicle. Then it entitled you tow with an automatic, but it upgraded your licence to drive a manual car solo . Go figure.
I knew that if you took your 'towing test' in an auto, you could only then tow with an auto.
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The powers that be seem to have thought about that .... 😉
https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/355275/driving-test-update-preserve-manual-gearbox
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Fair enough, it's true that they have a similar driving model (two pedals and a "shifter"). But that is pretty much where the similarity stops. The shifter doesn't shift, you only need one pedal much of the time, and the gears - well just aren't.
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