Hello all. Let me tell you a bit about myself. I am a 16 years old, and get my drivers license at the age of 17. The one car i want more than any other is the Rx8 6speed. However, there is one major concern: my father who is purchasing the car for me is against buying me a manual transmission. He believes that the car is not as safe because you need to focus more on what your doing inside the car than watching the road ahead. He has basically agreed to get me the rx-8 in an automatic, however, i know that car is meant to be driven as a stick. I need your help.

I was wondering if anyone knows of a website that compares driving a manual transmission to an automatic transmission, the advantages and disadvantages of both. Or if you know of a reason that makes manuals better please let me know, but a website of a major car magazine or company would be a greater help. I myself know that manuals are faster, but thats not something i can really tell him because he wouldn't want me to get a faster car. The thing i really need is safety advantages, or any other advantages of driving the Rx-8.

Any help you could offer would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

I'm not sure I know how to respond to this thread

 

The Automatic is possibly safer, I think your father is probably right. When you have friends in the car, your drinking a soda, or whatever else, you don't want to worry about shifting

 

don't worry about it snap-on i'm quite sure that very shortly he will have many reponses.

 

Why don't you just learn how to drive stick. You got a whole year ahead of you. By the time you're 17, shifting will become second nature to you.
IMO driving stick is safer than driving an auto. You have much more control on the car as You decide when to shift. Especially true when going round corners, and you need to shift down. Auto boxes usually don't shift down until you accelerate out of the corner, often causing major oversteer.

 

One advantage of a Manual over an Automatic is that trying to eat/drink/talk on the cell phone while driving a manual is such a bother that it is less likely you would do these things with a stick. Hence, you're paying that more attention to your driving that would have gone to your food/drink/cell phone. It is arguably much easier to get away with eating/drinking/talking on a automatic. Then again, it doesn't stop some people from driving while eating and yapping on the phone and slurping drinks and rowing gears at the same time....

Another advantage is that you just pay more attention to your driving when driving a stick than when your driving an automatic. With an auto, you're more likely to doze away in boredom while doing the accel/decell thing in traffic, while with a stick, it keeps you on your toes as you have to shift.

 

I can't think of one safety advantage of a manual transmission for a new driver (an experienced or professional driver is another matter.) A manual is harder to start moving on an uphill incline with another car behing you. I've seen newbie manual drivers panic while trying to shift in a stressful or dangerous situation, and almost run into an obstacle. A novice could mishandle the clutch or gear selection, and stall the car at a left turn with a huge truck coming at you. I think stalling the car is the biggest danger but it never happens to experienced drivers. When I learned on a manual, left turns in fast, busy traffic was my greatest fear.

All that being said, most 16 year olds have great reflexes so they would become experienced very quickly. The safety advantage of an automatic would only last a few months at the most, until the manual tranmission became "automatic."

Your dad's concern is your safety (also public safety and insurance.) Give your dad a reason to calm his fears. Make a deal with your dad to get the manual transmittion, because the manual is FUN, especially for a youngster full of youth and energy. TELL YOUR DAD YOU WILL ENROLL IN A SAFETY/DEFENSIVE DRIVING COURSE: ANY RISK OF DRIVING A MANUAL TRANS WOULD BE OFFSET BY THE EXTRA MARGIN OF SAFETY GAINED IN A GOOD SAFETY COURSE. That's my best idea.

Tell your dad you will drive only with another driver in the right seat (USA) for at least a month: he can "ride shotgun" looking out for pedestrians, etc until you learn the manual transmission.

Good Luck, you lucky kid! I wish my dad had given me a car like the RX-8.

 

www.hotjobs.com

 

Personally, I'd recommend getting a junker of a car, pay around $800 for it, beat it to death. Learn how to drive stick on it. In December, when the 2005 models are out, but car sales are super slow (due to holidays), you can get a steal of a deal on a new RX-8 and be ready to drive it properly.

Nothing worse than being a newbie driver and beating up a great car.

 

i def have to agree with this one

also if ur dad is buying you a car, acept it, thank him and realize he is trying to calm his fears.
Put yourself in your dads shoes, if u convince him to get the manual, in the begining he will be nervous every time u take the car out. In his mind it is no safer. thats the bottom lines, facts are there but whats in a persons mind will supercede these facts.

now lets looks at it from ur angle. ok so you got the manual, you love the car and want to drive it all the time, DAD on the other hand is nervous and tries to limit ur driving, now u got an unecessary arguement.

with those reasons, I agree Jason, get a beater, Learn Manual and prove to your father you can drive stick. then get a manual rx8.

i was in a similar situation when i was 16.. basically i got an Automatic and at the age of 22 I got my stick :-) and theres no LOOKIN BACK.

ONE LAST THING.. if u are thinkin but a beater is not cool, you have ur whole life to be cool, and u need to be safe first!

theres my .02 and some

 

well i dont think that buying a beater car would be necessary, becuase one of my 21 year old friends that goes to college out of state lets me drive his Jeep Wrangler, so i'll have plenty of time to practice on that. But thanks for all the advice...keep it comin.

 

I just don't feel as though I'm fully in control of an automatic transmission (I've never tried the auto in the 8, but my impression is it might help in that regard). If you need to get out of a tight spot, or merge in fast traffic, or whatever, you can make the car do what you want it to do instead of hoping the auto transmission does it for you. Plus, shifting for yourself keeps you focused on the act of driving.

Definitely find a way to learn to drive a stick before you get the 8 if possible, then show your dad you can handle it.

 

My thoughts as a driver with 26 years or experience behind him…

Get something you can beat on and drive it for at least a year. Like it or not, the odds are that you will do some damage (perhaps a great deal) to your first car and I’d hate to hear back from you later with pictures showing your baby all mangled. I know very few people who have not had some kind of accident in their lives and it seems that all of them have happened in the early years of driving. Aside from the learning time on the stick, you will pick up all sorts of little accident-avoiding skills that can never be taught ahead of time.

That said, the only thing I can say about the 8 with regards to a manual is that I’ve never driven a car with so wide a power band. So, while trying to do other things and shift is not an easy accomplishment, with 9000 rpm’s, the 8 is much more forgiving than other cars. I have never driven a car that can be in 2nd from as slow as 15mph all the way up to 45-50mph. You don’t want to be doing it all the time, but if you need to delay a shift to get the soda back in the cup holder, you can.

 

why don't you just have your dad buy you both? you can use the auto for your daily communte and pratice on the 6sp on the weekends.

 

I'm of the opinion that everyone should know how to drive a manual transmission, even if it isnt your primary car. Anyone can sitdown behind an automatic and point the car where you want it to go. However, once you acquire the skill to drive a manual, you can sit down in any stock car on any lot by any manufacturer and can drive it. Also, consider the worst case scenario - a friend needs you to do X in his manual tranny car because he cant do it for Y reason. If you cant drive the manual, you're both in trouble.

I highly recommend following the advice here and by a beater (mid 90's honda/acura/toyota with a MT) and really learn how to drive the manual. Definitely the best bet, and if you show your pop how well you learned and keep up with that beater, then maybe he'll spring for a few options

 

He is incorrect. First, shifting a manual transmission is a reflex operation, done by feel - you never look down to shift, you know by feel (gear lever position) what gear you're in and thus where to move the lever. You NEVER look at the shifter when you're shifting!

Second, I agree with zitch - driving a manual trans car actually keeps you MORE focused on the driving, as it increases your awareness of what the car is doing, and your involvement with it. There's much less temptation to be eating, drinking, chatting on the phone, etc. when you're driving a manual trans car - and those are the real distractions that remove focus from the road ahead and your situational awareness.

Promise to never eat, drink, or use a cell phone in your car, and explain to your Dad that you understand that those are key unsafe distractions and that you will avoid them. Explain that shifting a manual does NOT distract from watching the road ahead. Get some performance driving books like those by Bob Bondurant and Skip Barber, and read the chapters on road awareness and anticipation - then show those to your Dad ("No, I'm not going to go racing and speeding around, I wanted some tips on being more aware and safe when driving" ). Be pro-active on this issue, and demonstrate that you are serious about being a safe driver, regardless of transmission choice.

Regards,
Gordon

 

I think the manual is safer than the automatic personally, shiftiing requires your attention so you are forced to pay more attention to when you are in an automatic and you can just lay your foot down and go.. Plus like was said earlier, it's such a pain to talk on cell phone or god forbid driink something while trying to shift you're less likely to try.

 

Man, I wish I had your problem when I was 16. :p

 

Say that it's better to have a manual because your friends don't know how to drive it. That way, you don't have to give your friends test drives.