Comment by kriro | Hacker News Reader

Comment by kriro | Hacker News Reader

I have a license for manual transmission as that's the default in Germany. My US license is expired now* but I only drove automatics there. I always thought it was curious that the default in the US is automatic and in most other countries I've been to it is manual...in fact there's an ego thing at play here, too. A lot of people in Germany think automatics are for people who can't drive properly.

My next car will be an automatic, the convenience is nice and I doubt that I can get any extra performance out of my mediocre shifting habits. Automated or semi-automated driving (lane control and whatnot) is also a lot nicer with automatics (I've seen a manual that had the features and it was a usability nightmare).

There's a couple of use cases for manuals most notably driving on icy roads and possibly mountain regions but that's rare here. For everything else I'm assuming automatics are optimized beyound my abilities (saving gas by motor-breaking etc.)

*Random sidenote: German licenses don't expire. Not sure if it's different by state in the US but I could renew my US license by paying some money, there's no renewal test AFAIK

> A lot of people in Germany think automatics are for people who can't drive properly.

In a country that overwhelmingly drives manual that is a reasonable assumption.

Many Americans seem to get quite defensive about driving automatic. In America, driving manual is a choice, and a weird thing to do. Therefore driving manual there has many value judgements associated with it. It is "macho" or something for driving elitists and gearheads to do.

In overwhelmingly manual countries, this is not the case. Here in the UK, your 85yo grandmother drives a manual. Your 16yo daughter drives one. Everybody but everybody drives a manual, nobody goes around thinking that driving a manual is novel or macho or in any way notable.

The very few people that I have ever known who drive automatic were truly awful drivers. They took the easier automatic-only test because they kept failing the manual one. It is not an unreasonable assumption to think that someone driving an automatic who chooses to do so, is a poor driver - but only in a country that is strongly manual.

Ego thing? Maybe, but for me it's more of a fun thing. I currently drive an automatic and would love to go back.

Random addendum: German licenses do expire for larger classes - I have a license for BCE (aka 'up to 40t/max') that expired a while ago. Legacy licenses in that class expire at the age of 60 I think, current licenses expire every 5 years from the day you got one.

And of course there's the whole public transportation license thing (cab, bus).

Just take a look at some of the replies in this thread and you can see that for a lot of people, it's an ego thing. "You can't drive properly on dirt roads with an automatic". "You can't drive in the snow with an automatic." "You can't adjust weight distribution with an automatic."

Nearly everyone in this thread fancies themselves a proper rally car driver because they have a stick-shift Vauxhall Astra diesel.

Right. I cannot even comment on the whole 'stick is better for rally cars' debate, because I don't care about that sport and certainly don't qualify as a driver.

For me it feels closer, more direct, more fun. And .. that's about it. If someone provides convincing evidence that it's less fuel efficient (maybe?) and that automatic transmissions accelerate faster (a given?) then I shrug and say .. "But this is fun!".

On the other hand: Given that I drove manual most of my life and only drove really crappy automatics so far (Smart occasionally, Prius now) I might be biased twice. Both because manual's the norm and everything else feels off by default and because probably not every automatic transmission is created equal.

(Advanced challenge: Drive a Citroën 2CV - still one of the cars I love the most. 4 gears, unusual layout, weird stick position)

German licenses also have an expiry date, at least since 2013. Your license without expiry date will also need to be replaced in 2033: https://www.adac.de/infotestrat/adac-im-einsatz/motorwelt/be...

Thanks for pointing that out. I wasn't aware of it. Seems like it'll be a simple 24 Euro payment in 2033.

> German licenses don't expire.

It's effectively this in the U.K. (mine will expire in 50 years), but in Italy they do expire - so it's not an EU wide thing.

Except that you will be fined if you don't renew your photocard every 10 years in the UK - so for anyone with that style license, it does effectively expire.

> but in Italy they do expire

They do expire but you don't have to take a new drive test. It's more about periodically checking you're still physically fit to drive (e.g. you need to take a mandatory eyesight test every few years).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com