On Tue, 2007-02-27 at 11:11 -0300, Gerhard Fiedler wrote:
> Martin Klingensmith wrote:
> 
> >>> In Germany, you are (or used to be?) allowed to drive only automatic
> >>> transmission cars if you made your driver license test in an automatic
> >>> car. For a general license, you have (or had?) to do the test in a car
> >>> with a manual transmission.
> >> 
> >> I believe this is the case in other countries too, certainly New
> >> Zealand.
> >
> > In the US, people who only drive automatic cars do not drive manual
> > transmissions. 
> 
> This is pretty much universally valid (talking about tautologies :)
> 
> But I don't think that people who only want to drive automatic cars never
> drive manuals (think about driving a friend's car in a special situation,
> for example). In any case, people who never showed that they are able to
> drive a manual are allowed to go on the road with it in the USA -- which
> seems to be different in other countries. 

Well, I can tell you in North America that having a manual car means the
chances you car will be stolen are FAR less (assuming it's not a car
KNOWN for having a manual, i.e. a Vette).

People don't drive stick here. Almost every car you get here comes in
automatic (and the few that don't are for a reason, i.e. the Subaru
Impreza STI only comes in stick, because it's a drivers car and putting
an automatic in it would be a sin). MANY cars don't even give you the
choice of stick (especially domestic, many of the imports at least give
the option on some/most models). The only ones that do on a common scale
are the REALLY cheap ones (choose stick to save money), the REALLY
expensive ones (because an auto in a performance car is a sin), or some
of the "niche" ones.

Of the people I know very few have ever driven stick. I myself hadn't
even seen a car with manual transmission until I bought one with it (I
specifically WANTED a car with stick).

On the flip side, in the parts of Europe I've been in almost nobody
drives automatics. Aside from the power loss through the torque
converter (important because people actual look for cars with reasonable
horse power numbers in Europe), and the less control an auto gives you,
the auto's they DO have in Europe SUCK. They are rough shifting and FAR
less refined then the autos in North America. One thing the North
America manufacturers are superior to everyone else is building
automatic trannys, especially GM.

TTYL

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