Why didn't you tell me automatics are so good!

[DaveNP]

Originally Posted by Bonefishblues

Mind you, the first time you press the non-existent clutch pedal's quite exciting

Been there, done that
Oddly I now drive an Auto truck and a manual car and can only recall one time in the past 5 or 6 years when I have forgotten to put the clutch down in the car as I stop, when I was in a manual truck and an auto car the left foot clutch-brake got hit quite a few times on the way home from work after a long shift, certainly woke me up.

[RonFleet]

Originally Posted by Bonefishblues

Mind you, the first time you press the non-existent clutch pedal's quite exciting

And trying to use the non-existent gear lever with my left hand...in a LHD car. Bruised my knuckles on the door on a few occasions. Embarrassing! Soon learned, though.

[baggy798]

Autotragics breed laziness and fecklessness. Same with feather light assisted steering, parking sensors, blind spot sensors, auto braking collision sensors, apps like grammarly, or 'assistants' like Alexa that can adjust everything in your house.

Use it or lose it, suckers.



Unless you've got a damn good excuse for needing an auto, such as you've got no legs or you're a taxi driver in a congested city.

[Bonefishblues]

Very good

[The Thong]

Originally Posted by baggy798

Autotragics breed laziness and fecklessness. Same with feather light assisted steering, parking sensors, blind spot sensors, auto braking collision sensors, apps like grammarly, or 'assistants' like Alexa that can adjust everything in your house.

Use it or lose it, suckers.



Unless you've got a damn good excuse for needing an auto, such as you've got no legs or you're a taxi driver in a congested city.

I go to AA meetings to try and beat my addiction to this lazy style of driving

TT

[XC90Mk1]

Originally Posted by cheshired5

I understand what you mean but it's still easily doable.

I've taken 3 vehicles from brand new to 230k miles and a truck from 600000km to 1 million km and they were used in all kinds of situations and more often than not fully loaded and none of them needed a clutch.
They weren't mollycoddled either but they were always driven with an eye on mechanical sympathy.

I do find that very very interesting yes! What did you do to get those sort of milages? I have never managed that!

[Bendolfc]

Originally Posted by cheshired5

Oh..... so there's no chance of a third reason where you don't mind or even prefer the experience of changing gear yourself and often enjoy better MPG versus the automatic equivalent?

These days the auto option is usually more efficient than the manual equivalent. Things have moved on a lot in the last 10 years or so.

[cheshired5]

Originally Posted by Bendolfc

These days the auto option is usually more efficient than the manual equivalent. Things have moved on a lot in the last 10 years or so.

Regardless of how equivalent autos and manuals have become closer, I doubt many large engined autos would be as economical as my old 5 cylinder manual diesel.
I've seen plenty of fuel economy discussions on the later models where things have moved backwards.
Probably down to increasing ratios of EGR.

[S60D5-185]

I had my 2006 S60 D5-185 with 6 speed manual for nearly 6 years and used it on several occasions to travel down to the South of France.

Keeping the speed to around 75mph I often averaged just over 50mpg ( real not computer ) and wonder how some with a similar set up manage to get abysmal figures,

[cheshired5]

Originally Posted by XC90Mk1

I do find that very very interesting yes! What did you do to get those sort of milages? I have never managed that!

I don't know really as it's just how I've always driven.
At one of the companies I worked for, the 5 drivers would get identical brand new vans every 2-3 years, all doing the same fully laden deliveries to the same addresses around Britain on rotation and the difference in the maintenance required for the vehicles was immense.
Me and another guy always had zero issues and the other 3 drivers would have really high maintenance bills outside routine servicing and would be in a hire vehicle every few weeks.
This was over 9 years, 3 cycles of different vans 3+ million miles across all the vans so a decent sample.

When I bought my current car with 150k miles, I never doubted it would still be running fine 60k later.