Question about UK market

Swansen

Swansen

The Ninj
Are manuals more common than automatics? (gearbox) And does that go for luxury cars as well?

In the US, manuals are rare, they are more common on certain makes/models, but you'd still be able to find an auto easily. Also, autos are always in higher demand (general populous). I pretty much hate autos, on all fronts pretty much, but they do make a lot more sense in luxury cars.
 
In all the years ive been jumping in and out of cars ive come across 3 automatics.

My aunt bought a banger from an auction when I was about 10.... A VW Golf
A mates dad (registered as disabled) got given a Ford Focus by the government. Auto cos he was disabled.
And my girlfriends dad has a top of the range BMW 5 series, Auto.

Basically, people that drive Mercedes, high end BMWs, Bently, Range Rover and the likes are more likely to buy autos. Bently and Range Rover being the most likely. Oh, and hearses. They are automatics usually.

Persoanlly, id never buy an auto. They make perfect sense but I prefer to pretend to be The Stig on my way to work. Id imagine given that you can choose to use a lower gear in a manual that you get more control when going round the bends whilst going down the lanes. I hate "rolling" round a tight bend in a gear which is 1 gear too high. I live in the middle of nowhere and the roads are like a slalom. Only with tractors and mud thrown in the mix. Going over the white line could mean going under a tractor wheel!
 
Swansen said:
In the US, manuals are rare
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That's because it fits into the US culture; eat burgers all day and don't use your body too often, like switching gears :D

But to be serious, most cars in europe are manual. But automatics are getting more popular. There are even some cars, like BWM and Mercedes that give you the option to choose between automatic and manual while driving.
 
Yeah, I like the look of those semi auto cars. Even the Vauxhall Corsa introduced it a few years back. Plus the gran tourer Ferraris.
 
Yeah, its just a difference in names. The vauxhall nova is the old old opel corsa which surprised me. I think Vauxhall started using the name "Corsa" around about 1995. (uk m reg... i know that!) long after opel.

I think its pretty bad really. I used to have a Fiat Scudo... which is also a Peugeot Expert and a Citreon Dispatch. (I think the Peugeot was the original) Then theres the Renault Trafic, Nissan Primastar and Vauxhall Vivaro.... I dont know what Opel call it.

Seems daft when I say id buy a Vauxhall but never an Opel, Renault or Nissan. Same with the Scudo/Peugeot/Citreon. Id get the Fiat but not the frech ones!

Madness. None of which are auto!
 
I think buses are automatics too. I'm learning to drive a manual at the moment, it's nowhere near as hard as I thought it was going to be, and you can rev the car engine a lot :D (Although it's a Ford Ka 1.3 Petrol I'm learning in, so no matter what you do, you still look like an arse in it :D).

Oh and it's purple :D
 
Ive got a 1.4 Fiesta... and assuming they are a similar engine I agree. You can rev them a lot. It gets a little tired around 6000rpm. Red lines at 7000. It will happily go to 5000 everyday.... or at least it has done so far. Its the Zetec S Ghia X and again I agree, you'll always look an arse.

Ive only ever driven 3 vans, my motorbike a 1.6 meriva hire car and this Fiesta and its the Fiestas engine which surprised me the most. Though 13000rpm on a bike is fun :) The Meriva was slow slow slow.

I drove my girlfriends Peugeot 106 for about 3 mins... maybe 4. Drunken, stoned, dark wet lanes, right-left-right-left-left in quick succession, dukes of hazzard jumps, 8ft hedge rows, sheep escaping. Write off. I took out 5m of 2.5m high hedge row. Luckily no aches, no pains, no police, no on-lookers, parents-in-law on holiday and a man with a van carrying a tow rope.

My left wheels went up the verge on a left bend (which does happen when there are tractors on the lanes, then I hit a storm drain before I could get it off the verge and the wheels jumped about a foot in the air (felt like a metre!) and the car span into the hedge. I was literally in the car for 3-4 mins. On the way to the off license for fags, skins and wine. Hence my mums rev happy Fiesta is now outside my house.
 
There are more manuals than automatics in the UK but that trend is changing I’m seeing more people buy automatics cars especially now companies have introduced that annoying paddle gear change thing which is sort of semi automatic ewwwwwwwwww :doh:
 
Hes gonna get pimped ;)


BTW i know I've been on the forums for quite a while but i still don't know how to do a off topic quote???
 
Pimp said:
Hes gonna get pimped ;)
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ok, i'll leave it to you then


Pimp said:
BTW i know I've been on the forums for quite a while but i still don't know how to do a off topic quote???
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an off topic is done with the off topic tags
[noparse][ot]<text>[/ot][/noparse]
and that returns[ot]<text>[/ot]for a full list of BBcode look at bottom of every HWF page or click here
 
donkey42 said:
ok, i'll leave it to you then


an off topic is done with the off topic tags
[noparse][ot]<text>[/ot][/noparse]
and that returns[ot]<text>[/ot]for a full list of BBcode look at bottom of every HWF page or click here
Click to expand...

I see thank you my friend :)
 
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