Automatic or Manual

jellyboy

Im buying a second hand car and looking at 5 series BMW or Audi a6
and the question of manual or automatic came up today between my son and i ..

So what is the difference between them?
Which is better for long distance driving and fuel economy

and a final question is what would you buy for 4,000 and why?

Thanks for any help in my quest to beat my know all son

deanlandon

I drive an automatic (Toyota), so I can't speak directly to your question.

The main piece of advice I would give is to ensure you buy an automatic car with creep fuction - otherwise it tends to roll back on hills!

Supergurrier

Manual, less chance of expensive hassle, improved economy and a more involved driving experience

eth0

This thread has never been done before on this forum.


(also I wouldn't go near a prundlebox with an infinitely long bargepole)

Voodoomelon

Supergurrier wrote: »

Manual, less chance of expensive hassle, improved economy and a more involved driving experience

Not true any more, not true any more and somewhat true depending on the car. Try and keep up!

Guy:Incognito

Supergurrier wrote: »

Manual, less chance of expensive hassle, improved economy and a more involved driving experience

That's all the clichés ticked off in one post. Kudos.

eth0

Are those manual gear change modes on prundleboxes or flappy paddle things any good or is it just something they put in to warm you up into leaving it into "computer says no" (D) mode all the time?

Stinicker

deanlandon wrote: »

I drive an automatic (Toyota), so I can't speak directly to your question.

The main piece of advice I would give is to ensure you buy an automatic car with creep fuction - otherwise it tends to roll back on hills!

Ha, I suggest you take your Toyota to a mechanic, Automatics are not meant to do this, possibly your car is ticking over too lightly to hold it on a hill. Also some autoboxes I think have a lock built in which should prevent this happening.

Supergurrier

Point's still stand, he asked auto versus manual not semi auto flappy paddle dual clutch versus manual

firefly08

jellyboy wrote: »

Im buying a second hand car and looking at 5 series BMW or Audi a6
and the question of manual or automatic came up today between my son and i ..

So what is the difference between them?
Which is better for long distance driving and fuel economy

and a final question is what would you buy for 4,000 and why?

Thanks for any help in my quest to beat my know all son

For driving around town the automatic obviously is a bit handier. As mentioned it won't roll back on hills so you can get away with the handbrake most of the time. Also, they typically last the life of the car with only oil changes...no clutch replacement to worry about.

But I would go with a manual for that budget.

Automatics try to guess what get you need to be in...personally I find that annoying. It works if you have so much power in any gear that it doesn't really matter what gear you're in...then you can just drive and let the computer do it's thing. But if you're trying to get the most out of a low or medium powered car, autos can be frustrating.