[ErroneousBosh]

I honestly can't say I notice any difference between driving a manual or an automatic car.

If we were in a car right now and I was driving, I'd have to look at the gearstick to tell you if it was auto or manual.

I genuinely don't get the USian obsession with driving manual gearbox cars being somehow "elite".

[sudonanohome]

When you have a small fuel efficient engine, you can tell and feel the difference. With a V6 under your hood, you probably don't care. US is mostly big engines

[qball]

You will still care that you're wasting a bunch of your engine's potential, even with a V8.

Autos (not DCTs) don't generally let you rev the engine as high as manuals do, they don't really let you take advantage of engine braking, and they may ignore your command to manually shift them into a lower gear at will (DCTs can do that too).

[ErroneousBosh]

> You will still care that you're wasting a bunch of your engine's potential, even with a V8.

You're not really, especially on a long run. If you're doing motorway speeds there is no difference in economy and performance. An auto will be a bit worse in slow driving, when it's using the torque converter which is quite lossy.

> Autos (not DCTs) don't generally let you rev the engine as high as manuals do, they don't really let you take advantage of engine braking, and they may ignore your command to manually shift them into a lower gear at will (DCTs can do that too).

They will let you rev the engine as high as you like and will engine-brake just fine if you select a lower gear. They might not shift into a lower gear if you've got a gearbox that's smart enough to stop you money-shifting the engine.

[ErroneousBosh]

Not really, although I guess the least powerful automatic I've ever driven was a 1.7 litre naturally-aspirated diesel Citroën Xantia. It was very economical on long runs but acceleration was really something for very patient people.

Most Xantias had a 1.9 petrol making roughly 50% more power, although with appreciably less torque.