[Ex Finn.]

I haven’t owned a vehicle with an automatic transmission for over 22 years.

I haven't owned a stick shift daily driver since my `86 Bronco, auto with my `90 Bronco and onward. With my traffic, forget the manual, it`s slush-box country here.

[Ratmagiclady]

Voice control has come long ways, kinda like it most of the time...

It's kinda like what's wrong with a moving part, though? "OK, now I gotta roll up the windows and turn the stereo down to ...tell the stereo to turn down, then interrupt the music saying, 'OK reducing volume,' " Computers just seem to mostly end up just involving you in computers so someone doesn't have to make a knob or a switch.

[Ex Finn.]

It's kinda like what's wrong with a moving part, though? "OK, now I gotta roll up the windows and turn the stereo down to ...tell the stereo to turn down, then interrupt the music saying, 'OK reducing volume,' " Computers just seem to mostly end up just involving you in computers so someone doesn't have to make a knob or a switch.

I hear you.
I am lucky to have knobs and switches as redundant controls when the windows are down. Also when the touch-screen does not respond because I am wearing gloves.

[Racer X 69]

I haven't owned a stick shift daily driver since my `86 Bronco, auto with my `90 Bronco and onward. With my traffic, forget the manual, it`s slush-box country here.

I've driven there, in big trucks. Actually I-95 from Miami to Skowhegan, Maine, around the beltways of all the major cities (DC and Baltimore suck), and pretty much all the interstates and secondary highways East to West and North to South.

It can be a real workout on the clutch leg if one doesn't drive so that stopping and starting can be avoided, as the clutch isn't used except to start and stop. All other shifting is done without the clutch.

But I have to admit that an automatic can have an advantage in smaller vehicles under those circumstances.

[monochrome]

I haven't owned a stick shift daily driver since my `86 Bronco, auto with my `90 Bronco and onward. With my traffic, forget the manual, it`s slush-box country here.

The first new car I ever bought was a 1984 6-cyl S10 Blazer with 4-SP (IIRC) manual. Best fishing vehicle ever.

[Ex Finn.]

DC and Baltimore suck

To put it mildly.
It took me 25 minutes this morning to get to work.
edit: it has taken over 40 minutes few times to travel that 3.7 miles.

[Ex Finn.]

The first new car I ever bought was a 1984 6-cyl S10 Blazer with 4-SP (IIRC) manual. Best fishing vehicle ever.

In the 80`s a manual was ok here and even around I-495 and 695. Not anymore, unless you are one of the young import drivers with the loud exhaust

[Ex Finn.]

Best fishing vehicle ever.

My most reliable fishing vehicle was the 1986 full size Bronco 5.0 with the 4-speed granny.
My most fun to date fishing vehicle is my 2019 Ram Rebel Hemi crew-cab.
The `72 AMX was it before the Rebel.

[monochrome]

In the 80`s a manual was ok here and even around I-495 and 695. Not anymore, unless you are one of the young import drivers with the loud exhaust

Yep. I very briefly considered buying a LT1 / Z-51 Corvette from a client who couldn’t deal with a clutch around the city. Then I realized I’m 63 and I couldn’t deal with a clutch around the city either - and who wants to park that much money 23 hours a day anyway?

Daughter #2 and husband bought a new Forester a month ago and bought their first tank of gas yesterday. That’s how little they actually drive in So. Maryland. Daughter #1 returned today from business trip to DC (and visit with #2) - didn’t even rent a car, just Taxis.

[Canada_Rockies]

I'm even less sure about all these dials and menus as in, pretty much don't want. Not to control the car, anyway. Even the stereo, probably, give me a knob or at least a button I can find with my hand and turn without looking at it.

My '02 Tundra doesn't have a dash screen. The HVAC controls are three knobs I can reach with my right hand without looking away from the road. Fan closest, temp next, air direction third. The radio has a volume knob that shuts it off when pressed and turns it on again. There are 6 station buttons that are tactile -- they are actual buttons, not touch things like my stupid microwave. I don't care for the automatic transmission, but there were no manuals available then (or now).

She has just over 302,000 Km (187,000 mi) so she's nicely broken in. The 4.7 V8 has plenty of power to get me into trouble with the mounties and tow my 1981 5th wheel trailer. The mechanics at the dealership where I have her serviced are lined up to grab her when I'm done and gone. I believe in preventive maintenance. The only two times she hasn't started was when I didn't close the door all the way and the battery went dead. Towed the trailer 1300 Km (800 mi) last fall to take snaps of bison and used 17.5 l/100 (16.1 mpg). She's good for 500,000 Km easily. I don't think I'll get there myself. I'm a 1940 model and we've done 300,000 Km in 15 years ...

[stihlmania]

Even though I live in central Texas, most of my family and relatives live up north or in Canada ( Ontario) so I am still familiar with driving in adverse conditions. I always have complete set of tire chains in my Wrangler and Durango , both 4x4, when I visit El Norte! A few years ago, driving back from Michigan in a fierce snow storm, I found myself being the only vehicle on the interstate somewhere in Illinois heading south for many hours at night. Around 2:30 am, with gale force winds and drifting snow, headlights appeared in my mirrors. Some fool other than me was trying to outrun the nasty Canadian storm front gusting into the central US. After about an hour of driving, I was averaging 45 mph without the tire chains, the other headlights finially caught up to me. Of all the things I could have imagined, never did I expect to see car haulers. 3 of them, hauling of all things Jeep Rubicon's! Since I was in my Wrangler they one at a time passed me with a air horn blast as they slowly went by. As the last one finially had room to return to the right lane, which I signaled with a headlight flash, did I mention I use to haul heavy equiptment, the last hauler moved back to the right lane then bang! Crap, something hit my Jeep. I was 2 hours driving from needing fuel so I just kept driving. It was -10 out with blizzard conditions and 800 miles to home. Gas stop was needed in 2 hour anyway so no stopping to see what happened. When I stopped for fuel I found the source of the "bang"! Damn Jeep hauler had flung something off one of the tires and cracked my fog light lens. It still worked, but the blizzard was still on my donkey so I just kept driving! The front seemed to stall around Dallas so my journey to the Canyon Lake area , 250 miles of rain, was mostly tame after that.

[lesmore49]

I got my license when I was 16, but didn't get an automatic until I was 30. I owned quite a few vehicles between 16 to 30. Five motorcycles which back then and I believe still today have manual transmissions. But I also had a lot of cars in this period, all of them standard transmission. I like driving a standard and given the long, cold, snowy winter we have up here, I liked the extra control a manual ...and also rear wheel drive..(but that's another story ) ...gave me.... ....on snow packed roads.

I finally bought an automatic at 30, as I was commuting back and forth to work a fair distance in heavy traffic, daily. After awhile...clutch out...first gear...clutch in, clutch out...second...clutch in, brake... repeat the process.... got tiring.

So I got my first automatic. I've kept with automatics since then, about half of my immediate family don't drive manuals, my work continued to be in the middle of a city and I was commuting from the suburbs...so automatic it was...and remains so, even though now I'm retired. When we went to Europe for holidays, I did the driving over there and we rented a manual car, as I still enjoy shifting.

[ThorSanchez]

To put it mildly.
It took me 25 minutes this morning to get to work.
edit: it has taken over 40 minutes few times to travel that 3.7 miles.

I've left St. Mary's County at 0700 for a 1000 meeting in Rockville and I was late. 86 miles, three hours... that's an average of 29 mph.

What's most frustrating to me is a commute that wildly varies in time. My commute is 16 miles. On a Friday when a lot of people are off, especially in summer with no buses, I can make it in 20 minutes or so. The other day something changed on the way home, the base was doing some exercise that closed a gate and re-routed traffic, and it was an hour. It's hard to plan on getting kids off the bus when you don't know if your drive will be 20 minutes, 30, 40, or even 60.

---------- Post added 02-13-19 at 10:29 AM ----------

Daughter #2 and husband bought a new Forester a month ago and bought their first tank of gas yesterday. That’s how little they actually drive in So. Maryland.

How do they not drive in Southern Maryland? Public transportation barely exists and is essentially unusable, and almost nowhere is walkable, at least where I am an hour south of DC. Are they very close to the city?

[monochrome]

I've left St. Mary's County at 0700 for a 1000 meeting in Rockville and I was late. 86 miles, three hours... that's an average of 29 mph.

What's most frustrating to me is a commute that wildly varies in time. My commute is 16 miles. On a Friday when a lot of people are off, especially in summer with no buses, I can make it in 20 minutes or so. The other day something changed on the way home, the base was doing some exercise that closed a gate and re-routed traffic, and it was an hour. It's hard to plan on getting kids off the bus when you don't know if your drive will be 20 minutes, 30, 40, or even 60.

---------- Post added 02-13-19 at 10:29 AM ----------



How do they not drive in Southern Maryland? Public transportation barely exists and is essentially unusable, and almost nowhere is walkable, at least where I am an hour south of DC. Are they very close to the city?

😃They’re in College Park which I guess isn’t really Southern.

[ThorSanchez]

😃They’re in College Park which I guess isn’t really Southern.

Ah... yea, no. My brother and sister-in-law lived in College Park for many years and got by with one car between the two of them. SoMd is typically St. Mary's, Charles and Calvert Counties.