Sometimes we just don't have the choice. More and more vehicles are only available with an automatic.
Over here auto is almost exclusively an optional extra. There are a few vehicles which only have auto and more weirdly a few that have manual as an optional extra (if that was a case and I was buying new, I'd go for that) but its generally a case of everything being manual by default.
this is probably another reason why vehicles in europe are more fuel efficient then vehicles in america, most people drive an auto in america, most people drive a manual in europe
Yeah, a stick shift prevents people from stealing just the whole entire fucking car, as my sister's dumbass boyfriend learned the hard way. He has a 2003 Honda Civic 5 speed. Went to a local park one day and left his phone and his wallet in his unlocked car and both of them got stolen. Glad to know that my country is breeding some highly intelligent people...
While I think it should be against the law to make automatic sports cars/muscle cars, I don't really have anything against automatic. If its not a car that I will only be driving to have fun in, I don't give a shit. Crown vics are automatic. Whatever. CUCVs are automatic. Whatever. But if its a sports or a muscle car, it's manual transmission or no transmission. - - - Updated - - - But about the side of the road: Right side. I think it depends solely on what you are used to, I've lived in the U.S. all of my life, so of course I'm more used to the right side. There are also certain traffic patterns that I'm not used to with the left side of the road. Sometimes if I'm driving in the UK in ets2 I'll subconsciously do something wrong just because I'm so used to right side of the road.
The way I see it from a logical stand point. If you are right handed then you should drive a right hand drive car and drive on the left as you keep your dominant hand on the wheel while shifting gears. Likewise if you are left handed it would be more comfortable to drive a left hand drive car and drive on the right as you would keep your left hand on the wheel while shifting gear. So as the majority of people are right handed it would be right hand drive cars that would suit the most people. This is probably why most American cars are automatics. This way all the right handed people don't need to use their lefts hands to steer the car. After all accurate steering ability is far safer than accurate gear changes, and it takes less coordination to move a gear stick vs steering.
This was my point. Most people are slightly stronger in their dominant arm, a gearshift is not a particularly fine/precise movement or one that requires much strength so can be done in the left hand easily. The slightest movement in the steering wheel of a car has slightly more pronounced effect than missing the edge of the grating on an H shifter by 5mm (it will just pop into place nicely still), plus on a car with either weak or no power steering it makes more sense to have the stronger arm on the control which requires more physical strength to operate (although on my shitty car with massively overpowered power steering, 1 finger from left hand is all it takes :/)
I can see how your dominant arm on the wheel might make a difference when there is no power steering, but in my truck I switch between using my left hand and right hand for steering (I'm right handed). Unless the window is down for me to hang my left arm out the window, I almost always prefer driving with my left arm.
I don't really see a point in this because both hands should be on the wheel all the time (9 and 3 on the clock) and shifting gears doesn't take more than 2-3 seconds so it's pretty irrelevant which hand is away for that time. For me at least I can't find any advantage driving only with my "dominant" hand as turning a wheel is a rather easy task^^ I can't write with my left hand but at the same time playing a solo on the guitar for example is no problem, so coordination=learning and practice.
I agree that you should only take your hand off the wheel for a few seconds while changing gears, but if you are having to accelerate up to motorway speeds quickly you will have your gear changing hand on and off the wheel quite a lot, and I know a lot of people would keep their hand on the gear knob until they have finished changing through the sequence and reach top gear. I know I would prefer to have my dominant hand doing the steering during that time.
I rarely have 2 hands on the wheel. Unless I need to make a sharper turn, I almost always have one hand on the wheel. The only time I even feel it's necessary for me to have both hands on the wheel is when merging onto the Interstate highways where they're super busy. It's rather unnerving trying to weave through traffic going 75 mph with one hand.
i've actually found that personally for me, it's easier to drive with my left hand on the wheel vs my right hand when i only have one hand on the wheel (of course, the only time i ever have one of my hands off the wheel is to fix my glasses or change the radio, set the AC/Heater (depending on outside temp) or opening/closing a window)
I don't know how anybody can have both hands on the wheel all the time. I usually switch hands every 5 minutes because my arms are frickin' tired from holding them up.
i've never noticed my arm's getting tired, at least not usually. sometimes my arms will be tired after i've reached my destination, but that's pretty much it
Nope, no arm tiredness here either. Only thing I've ever had is a sore lower back after uni commute while I was still trying to work out which seat position works best for me, nailed it now which is why it pisses me off when someone borrows the car and moves it.
My arms don't always get tired, but I usually like to let them rest on the armrests every so often. They mainly get tired because I can't really have both hands on the wheel in a comfortable position and still have my elbows resting on the armrests.
