It's Okay for Drivers to be Shiftless (or is it?)

[four.rings@MCIONE.com]

Pete wrote:

>Mastering manual shift is an admirable but wholly unnecessary activity
>that doesn't make the average driver any safer or more attentive and
>may render the marginal driver even more of a menace.

I beg to differ here. In my observation the ratio of bad drivers to the total
amount of drivers among automatics is an order of magnitude higher than among
manuals. The lack of any mental labour involved in driving an automatic somehow
promotes the growth of a brain-dead breed of drivers we see on the roads today.
Fewer in CA, more in MD. PA being closer to MD.

In my book automatics are evil. The manuals are not as much about fun as are
about safety. My wife simply refuses to drive rentals during our vacations coz
she's afraid to drive automatics. In the US one can not rent a stick shift
unless one is renting a Ferrari in LA. BTResearchedT.

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Igor Kessel
'89 200TQ -- 18psi (TAP)
'98 A4TQ -- mostly stock
Philadelphia, PA
USA
http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Garage/8949/homepage.html
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