• Please make sure you are familiar with the forum rules. You can find them here: https://forums.tripwireinteractive.com/index.php?threads/forum-rules.2334636/

Manual vs Automatic transmission.

in video games or real life?

I've always liked mafia 1's manual transmissions, it made driving fun. something that a lot of sand boxy games mis out on now.

IRL my Jaguar has an automatic transmission, but I intend to be putting a manual in as soon as I can afford one and the proper conversion bits and pieces to mount it to the straight six engine...
 
Upvote 0
Definitely manual. Not sure if you meant fuel usage in the performance argument but older auto's use a hell of a lot more fuel than newer ones.

Autos are great when on a motorway, so you can just rest your foot nicely but I find them jittery in heavy traffic if the gears are not German made plus they have a nice kick down :) which adds quite a nice turbo effect.

There are other advantages to manuals, especially with braking, if the brakes go on an auto, watch out! where as with a manual you can use the gears to slow yourself.

Also, you cannot bump start an auto ;)
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0
Depends what your goals and needs are. And the lines are blurred in any case. I own cars with both (or all three, depending on your level of pedanticism): Auto (torque converter), auto-manual (computer controlled clutch), and traditional manual. I prefer the interaction of the manual(s), though the paddle-shifters are amusing, and certainly faster/easier to use when lapping. For 'drag' racing, the auto can be the quickest: the 'tiptronic' auto Porsche turbo accelerates slightly more quickly than my full manual model - the turbocharges can work against the torque converter to be on-boost rapidly.

For gas mileage - manual rules when properly used.

Pick what you like...
 
Upvote 0
in-game: manual, getting bored without it (just press W and sometimes A/D)

IRL: Manual, it's muscle-memory automatic anyway, so it's not really easier to have auto (except for 1km/h traffic)
Also I like to have the control a manual gives me, I drove 3 automatic transmission cars (all my dads) and (e.g.) I hated it when I wanted to get some rev and it gears up:(.
But I guess modern fancy ones are very good at that.

Think it is the same as auto-reloading in fps games, I just want to press R myself:D
 
Upvote 0
Manual both in real life and in sims.

Unless it's a DSG double clutch auto by VW. Still, having to crank in gears is very satisfying for some odd reason, and driving without that lacks a certain something.

Exactly, DSG is ok, but I still prefer manual

automatic was always for people who could't learn how to shift in Europe, up to recently >90%of the cars were manual, the last couple of years you see a little shift in that because of the improved fuel consumption (and lower CO2 emisions) of modern automatic gearboxes.

But still after 28 years of driving manual I don't think I would easily go for an automatic
 
Upvote 0