there is nothing as satisying as driving an automatic so i have a free hand to put around the woman i love.

I call them Femamatics.

Manuals all day, all the wat.

All the way, I meant to say.

^…why don’t I just got and eat some hay. I can lay by the bay, make things out of clay, I just may, what’d ya say?

Personally, I stay awake by paying attention to where I’m going and what the traffic around me is doing. Maybe this dizzy chick can write more columns about the joys of mowing lawns with a rotary push mower, cutting trees with an axe and hand saw, and washing clothes on a rock by the river.

Let her drive in LA rush hour traffic, and then let her orgasm over the joys of driving a stick. Manuals have their place – in sports cars. A luxury or family car is best with an auto. As for sticks – there are probably fewer and fewer of them around as time passes. Heck even Ferrari sells more cars equipped with those F1-style transmission then true manuals.

You can do a lot of things without them. and i prefer the automatic so you don’t have to worry what you’re up to a transmission whenever you’re out of your mind while driving.

Try clutching in and out of first in stop and go bumper-to-bumper traffic for half an hour straight.

How does your left leg feel? How about after a couple of weeks of it?

I just wish it were possible to make a stick with a clutchless first gear for those of us who are stuck with stupid traffic on a daily basis.

Auto = Lazy fat people, who just want to go from A to B.

Manual = Young fit people who like to drive. and enjoy it.

End of.

James your leg should feel great after a couple weeks of it. Are you eating properly? You also need to stretch before you exercise. You might want to try the movements with heavier weights at the gym, then go back to doing high reps in the car.

Do I need to remind the people here that the new 500 HP V-10 BWM M5 doesn’t come with a manual, just SMG? There are a number of other similar cars that are also not for lazy or fat people who just want to go from A to B.

Actually, the E60 M5 is coming out with a stick either this year or next. That has always been the plan.

BTW, what does fat/fit have to do with clutching? My uncle if fat but he drives with a clutch just fine.

MMmm traffic with manual tranny, I’ve done it for a couple years now, just get a good shifter and a fun car and you’re set, unless you don’t like driving…

As for the M5, the 7-Speed SMG III was designed specifically for that engine (V10) and it Will be faster than the 6-Speed slushbox, however, just because there’s no cluctch pedal doesn’t mean a car is an Automatic. If you do your homework you’ll learn that the M5 has a manual transmission, but the clutch is mechanically operated since this way shifting is faster, and the car can (more easily) have more than 6 forward gears. Strangely enough Europe etc. wants only the F1-Style SMG, and the Americans want a manual for a change, somewhat surprising.

But the greatest thing about cars is that each person likes different ones, and no one car or transmission is best at everything.

What a bunch of nancies you people are. I drive in bumper-to-bumper traffic everyday. The rare time I am punished with a slushbox, I still want to pull over, throw it in ‘Park’, and walk away.

“Manuals have their place – in sports cars”? You probably think that’s the only place for rear-drive, too? Utterly clueless.

Tell us again why you people are browsing a car enthusiast website. Maybe you should try http://www.consumerreports.com

North America – Home of the worlds most ill-informed automotive consumers. We could learn a lot form the Europeans.

What a bunch of elitist snobs posting here who consider anyone who doesn’t want an automatic to be unworthy of owning or driving a car. People like you are a tiny minority and you will stay that way. The car companies make what sells, and automatics vastly outsell manuals in almost all non-sports cars. Deal with it.

Not only are sticks more fun, they also have some real quantitative advantages over automatics. Manual transmissions, more often than not, get better mileage because the driver can keep the engine in the fat part of the power band. This is so the engine doesn’t have to strain, which will happen while an automatic might be hunting for a gear. Manual transmissions also decrease brake wear, for you can downshift and use the engine to break instead of just slamming on the brakes. And as so many other advocates of manuals would say, it just makes driving more interesting and fun. Granted, clutching in and out in heavy traffic can get tiresome. When you get to the open road, though, there is nothing more glorious than watching the tach climb and hearing the engine race up to the redline and then shifting at the right moment. This leads me to the third advantage: faster acceleration times. That may be critical when you have an 18-wheeler barreling down the freeway while you’re merging out of a not so long onramp. So maybe that might not save fuel. But you can if you don’t have a lead foot. Oh, and I dig a chick who can drive a stick.

Oops, I meant fourth advantage in the line fourth from last.

The choice between automatic and “normal” transmission is highly dependent on culture. In Europe most of the cars don’t have an automatic transmission.

Sometimes (and I say sometimes) driving an automatic is like sleeping on the way to your destination. When I had an automatic I’d get to work in the morning and not remember how the hell I got there. What roads I took, what cars passed me, how long it took me to get there. It was robotic. Stickshift or “memory stick” I like to call it, keeps the brain active during what would be a horrific time to lose focus.

I think for the driving enthusiast manual is such a clear winner. For those interested only in getting from A to B, and not concerned about the “experience” (so to speak) automatic is fine. As for all the comments about stop and go traffic, shifting / clutching becomes second nature fairly quickly. Manual is just more fun – after recently buying a 5-speed I regret I didn’t make the move sooner!

If you buy a sportscar with an automatic, you just want to look like you can drive it, not actually drive it.

On the M5, a stick was not ALWAYS the plan, it was added when the enthusiasts here complained about the lack of manuial availability.

James, #9, you should know that earlier in the decade Nissan did make a Sentra that would stay “on” while in 1st gear without giving it any gas (except for the idler) or pressing the clutch.

Stick all the way, unless you live in Chicago, Houston, NYC or LA.

I think Manuals should be optional in ALL cars, I hate to say it but I haven’t learned to drive a stick (I’m only 18), but I know they are fun from what I’ve learned. BUT I wouldnt want to mess with on all my life. I mean with iPods, Cellphones, Navigation Systems, TVs, etc in cars nowadays… That’s dangerous in a way. But Like I said making it optional on ALL cars would be the best way to satisfy the mauals and automatics.

Autotragic transmixers are for lazy people. If you don’t know how to drive a stick, then you don’t belong on the road.

-he who stacks pork