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<blockquote data-quote="bucky" data-source="post: 1291991" data-attributes="member: 10588">Counterpoint: the main reason to drive stick in current year is to brag about being able to drive stick.According to a few guys I work with who are car freaks, including one who drives a 2015 Subaru with a manual transmission and says his next car will be an automatic, there's no advantage to stick vs. a modern automatic transmission anymore. Reliability, control, and gas mileage are about the same or better on the modern automatic. Also, with many if not most new cars nowadays, you get adaptive cruise control, which is heaven in traffic and (I would imagine) also negates the advantage in less brake pad wear that you used to potentially get with a manual by downshifting. Seriously, adaptive cruise control is awesome. Now that I've got a 2019 Subaru, I've nicknamed my 2009 Toyota &quot;the horse-drawn cart&quot; because that's almost how primitive it feels compared to the new car when I have to drive it.Another rarely-mentioned advantage of an automatic transmission over manual is that you can operate the vehicle if you left foot is disabled. As I mentioned above, a friend of mine once broke her left foot and couldn't drive her car for months because it was a stick.Can someone who is an expert on auto mechanics comment on this? Maybe I'm wrong about modern automatics negating the advantages you used to get with a manual, but I don't think so.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="bucky, post: 1291991, member: 10588"] Counterpoint: the main reason to drive stick in current year is to brag about being able to drive stick. According to a few guys I work with who are car freaks, including one who drives a 2015 Subaru with a manual transmission and says his next car will be an automatic, there's no advantage to stick vs. a modern automatic transmission anymore. Reliability, control, and gas mileage are about the same or better on the modern automatic. Also, with many if not most new cars nowadays, you get adaptive cruise control, which is heaven in traffic and (I would imagine) also negates the advantage in less brake pad wear that you used to potentially get with a manual by downshifting. Seriously, adaptive cruise control is awesome. Now that I've got a 2019 Subaru, I've nicknamed my 2009 Toyota "the horse-drawn cart" because that's almost how primitive it feels compared to the new car when I have to drive it. Another rarely-mentioned advantage of an automatic transmission over manual is that you can operate the vehicle if you left foot is disabled. As I mentioned above, a friend of mine once broke her left foot and couldn't drive her car for months because it was a stick. Can someone who is an expert on auto mechanics comment on this? Maybe I'm wrong about modern automatics negating the advantages you used to get with a manual, but I don't think so. [/QUOTE]

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