[dandellion]

Where I'm from most cars are also stick, but I got my license years ago but since then I've only driven twice: once with stick and once automatic, and I have to say, automatic is so much easier to learn that I don't know why we're all still getting licenses or buying manual cars. It must be stubbornness and the slight price difference because in reality automatic is just much more practical.

[mikrotikker]

I think manual gearboxes are more durable. Especially when most autos today are the CVT type which break quite often I heard. Mind you the newer manual gearboxes are usually 8 or 10 speed which is going to be less reliable because all the cogs are smaller thus weaker, and you have to change gear twice as much.

One of my vehicles even has the tranny cooler and the radiator in one unit and is prone to cracking, leading to running radiator fluid through your gearbox, destroying it. The first thing I did was install an external cooler, as the market was big enough for an aftermarket kit for such a part.

Cars are getting so much worse.

[Technotroll]

Honestly, for me, it's for driving pleasure, and for having the choice. If I’m kicked off the bus at some remote location, and all I get is an old Volvo Amazon veteran car, then I’d like to be able to drive it around. And where I’m from, you can only do that (legally) if you have the right license, which is the license for manual “stick” drive.

Other than that, it’s far less about logic, and more about the feeling of control and mastery that it gives you. True, this feeling is largely more inefficient and more prone to failure than an automatic system, but that feeling, man; that feeling is just so great!

I also live in a wintery country, with many winding roads, hills and mountains with diverse weather and road conditions. The argument was made that it’s better to drive “stick” under these conditions. However, I’m not sure the argument that manual is better for diverse conditions will hold for long, given the current advent of better AI.

I’ve already seen AI drive in very hilly and adverse terrain in the Hollywood Hills, rife with bushes hanging over junctions and pedestrians popping in and out of parked cars, and so on. Naturally, not much ice up there, but that’s a pretty difficult landscape for an AI to master, and the AI already masters it pretty well!

[neoromantique]

I own multiple cars and only one of them is an automatic, and I dread it to be honest. As in I quite often get thoughts about getting another manual instead of it, and arguably this automatic (BMW) I have is the nicest car I own, but transmission really makes it no justice.

To be fair, it is a bit older, so perhaps modern transmissions are significantly better, but any rentals I've driven were even worse, though they were lower class cars.