So, I heard the majority of cars in USA are automatic and not manual? Is it true?

I just don't want to believe it srs

If it is true, whats the reason?

Probably because driving an auto is less hassle in traffic and most people don't give a chit about being connected to the car or about the driving experience, they just want to get to work in comfort with as little drama as possible.

I personally have an auto for daily, and a manual my 'fun car'.. but i'm in the UK.

It's not a surprise, automatics are becoming more popular in Europe too and in England now we probably have close to a 50/50 split auto to manual... You better believe it, because it won't be long before the majority of Europe and the world drive autos, especially as they have gotten miles better in the last 10-15 years and can now compete and even outperform manuals in performance.

Because women

I've learned to drive with a manual (Hello France, here it's 80% manual) and had my first cars as manual but now that I'm driving an automatic I won't go back to manual transmissions.

Just lol at thinking that you're the next coming of Ayrton Senna just because you shift gears and barely know how to use a clutch (must people end up fukking up their clutches because they don't know how to use it properly).

Auto gearbox is perfect for comuting and going on long trips, I would reserve manual for old cars and tracks days for fun.

How the hell... in my entire life Ive seen around 5 automatics here. (Not that I'm checking every single car that I see...). I would say 98% of the cars here are manual.

Couldn't believe when I heard about it. Can you pass the exam driving an automatic?I love to drive but I think it comes from the human-machine connection you get when you use a manual. I would loose all the interest if everything I needed to do was to press gas and brakes.

Yes, the reason being that the US has a lot of land. Many people drive many miles when commuting, and road trips are very common stretching over 100s of miles. For this reason it is more convenient to use automatics, and why Americans like big, heavy, spacious, cars that “destroy the environment” (they really aren’t that inefficient when cruising). The only downside to this is constantly getting retards who text and drive.

probably because it's more convenient. Usually when it comes to technology people tend to move towards things that are more convenient.

Where is 'here', where do you live?

Automatics are everywhere in Europe now, especially in German cars. Something like 85% of new BMW's, audis and mercedes are sold with automatic transmission.

What you have to understand is, for a lot of people driving is a chore, they don't care about the 'human machine' connection, it's really a very small subset of people that do. I love driving and i would still far prefer an auto in my daily.. i've always had manuals till my current daily which is a 3 series automatic, and i wouldn't want to go back to a manual in a daily, which is why i have a manual car just for 'fun'. Driving a manual around a long twisty country road is fun, having to sit on the clutch in bumper to bumper traffic is not fun.

I believe you can pass the test in an auto, but you can only drive an auto. It's not common here and even though lots of people drive autos, in the UK nearly everybody takes their test in a manual.This reasoning doesn't make sense to me.

Long highway journeys are the one time when actually it really doesn't matter if you have an auto or manual, because you're gonna be cruising at a constant speed in the top gear anyway. I'd argue that autos are much more useful in traffic than on long road trips.

I think they just drive cars to get from point a to b cuz if you really like cars there's no way you can drive an automatic your whole life.

Yes, same in Canada.

For regular cars, I’d say at least 95% are autos srs.


I think it had something to do with American car manufacturers not having a manual option for their cars so people just got used to autos.


Also yes driving test you can do in an auto car. I did lol, but I know manual because European dad.

The reason being there is no point in driving a manual car just to get from point A to point B. Why do any more work than you have to especially in rush hour traffic everyday. I think people would be much better drivers though if we all did drive manual as it seems to at least keep you semi aware of what you're doing instead of just being a drone.

Well then you’ll have to accept my second reason. Americans have lots of room for cruising and have big cars (excluding chitholes like CA’s traffic problem). Europeans have sad little cars and expensive fuel, so manuals are lighter and thus more fuel efficient.

We test and drive while driving manuals... not an automatic driver's thing.

I accept the second reasoning, i.e Americans have big cars for long journeys, that makes sense. But the thread is about autos, and again autos really add no extra benefit on a long cruise, so accepting your second reasoning has no real relevance to the topic.

And our 'sad little cars' in Europe outperform your cars with half the engine capacity, and also turn about 50x better if you really want to get into things, and your fuel is much cheaper but again, has chit tier standards compared to ours although fuel cost may have played a part historically i agree with this, but now there's not much between manual vs auto fuel efficiency in modern cars.

It really just comes down to the fact autos are far more convenient in traffic and most people don't give a chit about driving.

I agree that it can be a pain in the ass to drive a manual car in bumper to bumper traffic, but once you are used to it, it is not that bad.

And yeah, a manual car is driven like an automatic one when you are in highways... so argument is not valid

I've spent 10 years driving manuals till i bought an auto, it's not that bad i agree, but auto is just better in traffic and for most people who don't care about driving, they're gonna pick an auto 100% of the time.

I think I’d commit self die if I had to daily drive a compact car squishing me to death with no power and no fun. Yes yes they corner better than a 4000 lb V8 RWD, but I wasn’t arguing about that.

Yeah, the thing is in Portugal even people who don't care about driving have manuals... but we can't make the exam with automatics so thats probably the reason.

The new autos are fuking amazing, especially if your car has a dual clutch.

Remember the abominations that were the older models of auto tranny? Not sure how anyone drove those... the up shifts would give you whiplash.

Have you actually been to Europe?

Majority of commuters are driving 2 or 3 litre German diesels these days, and whilst they aren't that fun being diesels (neither is a big truck really..), they have bags of power, they are comfortable and they aren't really little and will most likely wipe the floor with your v8's in performance, whilst using half the fuel.

And you can drive what you want, you don't 'have' to drive anything lol... you have a weird view of Europe.I agree, i was always so against auto's which was the status quo in the UK for a long time, then i tried a good auto with a double clutch and i was sold on an auto for a daily.

Move to a first world country then

German v6/i6 turbos routinely beat American v8s on 0-60 times and on the straights

Honestly aside from the corvette, you guys got nothing. Even that compared to German variants of sports cars like a 911 turbo... lol..



The Germans have the car making down boyo. Buying America just for the sake of buying American is pure cope.

So much this. My first car was a manual and it was definitely fun. But it was also a pain in the azz sometimes. The double clutches in the newest cars are absolutely superior in their shifting ability and virtually no ordinary person is going to be able to keep up with what they can do. Then you couple that with the paddle shifters, which gives you control of the shifts. When someone tries to convince me that a manual is better than the new double clutch transmissions I look at them like they just tried to sell me on why chop sticks are better.I have a feeling you haven't driven the cars he's talking about.

I live in a 1st world coutry, *******.

Chopsticks are better than a fork. I dont care for driving a manual though.

Will never own a supercar or sports car so automatic is fine with me.

Most of the people I know, including myself, drive SUVs (Toyota, Mazda, Hyundai) or pickups (Ford, Dodge). All auto.
So many people driving bigger vehicles nowadays, and they mostly come with auto transmissions.

When I had a car tho, it was a manual.

how else can you drive and drink beer

So OP has never driven an automatic?



I think a big factor is the length of the average American commute. We're vast and spread out. Not abnormal to have 40 miles each way for work. A road trip will be hundreds, if not thousands of miles. Shifting for that amount of time would be taxing.

You can easily drive manual and drink a beer at same time.Yap, never.

You don't need to shift in highways... you go always on 5th or 6th (depending on the car). The slower you are driving, the more you use the gear box.