Manuel or Automatic for the City boy

  • Thread starter Thread starter NewYorkerRacer
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Antonisbob
But, you live in the USA.

I wouldn't honestly buy anything but American built automobiles, I support domestic manufacturers!
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Not going to touch the original topic, so I'd love to know your reasoning behind this.
 
McLaren
Not going to touch the original topic, so I'd love to know your reasoning behind this.
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I love, huge, massive, RWD, V8 powered, gas guzzling, comfortable cars. With fender skirts and white-walls. I would buy an Aussie muscle car but importing one... too much $$, not going to happen.

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SagarisGTB
American living in Canada?
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You could call me that, though I've only been in the US once, for a few hours. I live up to none of the "stereotypical" Canadian traits.
 
Nice.

But no, ...I'm not saying that. Those are all for rich people, and I don't really care too much for newer automobiles, '90s and above is the "meh" zone. I'd also like to be able to fix the car myself if the need ever arises.
 
Antonisbob
No... not saying that. But those are all for rich people, and I don't really care too much for newer automobiles, '90s and above is the "meh" zone. I'd also like to be able to fix the car myself if the need ever arises.
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I'm pretty positive the English & the Australians have built the same kind of cars you seem to be referring to.
 
But, I'm never around those cars, they're not popular here. No one I know owns one... Hence I pay no attention to them.

& as I said above I would like to import an Australian muscle car, but that will never happen.
 
Antonisbob
But, I'm never around those cars, they're not popular here. No one I know owns one... Hence I pay no attention to them.

& as I said above I would like to import an Australian muscle car, but that will never happen.
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I'm kind of with Antonis here. I grew up with a certain type of car around me, mainly what he is describing and that's partly why I took a likeing to older vehicles. As he said anyhting newer than 1990 is rather "meh". I'd rather have something older. I think they were build better and styled better. That's just opinion though.
 
Find the car that you like the most and that is in the best condition and get it. In my opinion the only negative a manual transmission is it limits the number of people that can drive it for you. A manual has always been more involving to me, if you don't know how to drive one you should learn either way.

edawg456
Auto all day for city driving. Trust me on this. I burnt out my transmission in my volvo (which is a manual) do to city driving. After months of stop and go traffic in a big city for college, my transmission finally went out. I would highly recommend a automatic for city driving.
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It's likely the way you drove or your car already had an issue.
 
You live in a huge city, if you really think you need a car then get some small, cheap and automatic. It'll be easier for you to drive in traffic and park it while you're learning how to drive on your own. Once you get the hang of driving and had you accident, then maybe think about a manual for your second car if you so desire.

I've only driven around NYC twice and both times were in a Chevy Van, it was horrid. Chicago is the same way, although I didn't find it nearly as crowd. As for Detroit, well no one lives there :lol: .

You probably don't need a car though, I have friends that live in big cities all across the US and only two of them that live in Chicago have cars, they also make insane money so they can afford the cost of parking it downtown. With that said be sure and look at the cost of parking a car in NYC too.
 
If you're planning to stand in traffic jams 90% of the time then why are you even considering buying a car? Way to be a part of the problem. A bike would be 10 times faster, infinity times healthier and you can park it anywhere. Also I don't understand what's the deal with "OMG you must drive an auto for a %years before you can try a manual". Everybody I know passed their tests with a manual and are driving manual cars without dividing by zero. Me, a newbie driver, also drives a manual without dieing instantly. I'm not saying that everybody should drive manuals no matter what, but all the hype about a driving a manual being some sort of quantum physics is beyond my understanding. Just WTF, people?

You push the left pedal fully down, put the shifter in the upper left position, put the handbrake down, then using the rightmost pedal you rev the engine a tad, start slowly releasing the left pedal and BAM! You're moving! HOW COOL IS THAT??

I guess it depends on the person. I like to challenge myself to various tasks. One of them is driving a manual smoothly. It gives me an emotional reward when I can start smoothly, change gears without the car jerking, even when I stop precisely right behind the STOP line on intersections. For that reason I even used to enjoy standing in traffic jams with a manual as I could practice starts and stops. To each their own I guess.

Whatever.
 
You already have a lot going on when learning to drive and especially driving in a big city. You're better off not trying to learn a manual and how to drive through the city at the same time I'd think. It can be done for sure, but I think it's probably better to master city driving in general before adding in another step to the process.

Also having a manual in a large city can't be fun I'd imagine. I think driving through NYC I hardly ever went over 30 mph.

One more thing too, learning to drive a manual in the city would be a pain too. I'd be pissed if I was in heavy traffic and the person in front of me kept stalling out they're car. Plus with cars that right together a newbie could easily have a problem and lurch the car into another car. NYC driving is vastly different then many other places, at least in my experience.
 
That is why you first learn to control the car in a closed lot and only after you don't have to ask the instructor which pedal does what you go out to the traffic. Atleast that is how it is in this part of the world - start/stops, 90 degree narrow corner forward and in reverse, slope, snake around cones forward and in reverse, parking, 3-point turn. Once you're familiar with that you go out to the city though coming back to the lot from time to time to improve your skills, especially on parking, snake and reverse turns.
 
Given that the OP was a former banned member (who is once again in that category) I'm locking this one.
 
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