Auto or Manual?

Choosing between an automatic transmission or a car with a gear stick and needing you to make manual gear changes is a matter for individual preference and during all my years of driving many different cars and reviewing their good and bad points, you would never find me lauding auto over manual of vice versa.

Well, at least not till now, and having spent a couple of years with an auto I am now thoroughly converted.

Let’s face it, a car gearbox has a pretty mundane job to do, transmitting power from the engine to the wheels, and depending on the ratio of gears to the wheels, provides the difference in capability.

With a manual gearbox, it is you as the driver who determines that ratio of gears to engine power and speed to the wheels. The auto does all that without the driver necessarily having any input, deciding for itself which is the most appropriate ratio.

Well, that’s the theory, but most modern autos allow you to take control of the gearbox, and frankly will often provide much swifter acceleration than a manual. It also comes into its own in urban driving where you can let the auto take over and do not have to be continually moving your foot on the clutch and with a hand on the gearstick.

So, having spent a lot of time just lately driving on congested urban streets, I will most definitely plump for the auto. But at the end of the day, the type of transmission you go for is down to your personal preference, measured alongside the type of car and what you use it for.

And where!