Transmissions: Automatic vs Manual

This article on transmissions is brought to you by AAA Automotive and Transmission

Manual and automatic transmissions have always been in a heated battle to see who is the better. While they both get the job done, which one is the better one? That depends on the category you are looking at. Here are a few different categories to see which transmission type is better.

Overall Cost

Buying a car is always an expensive venture. Over average, a manual car over its automatic counterpart is roughly $1000 cheaper. Although this is not always the case, majority of the time it is. With this, manuals can typically use less gas, making a smaller yearly cost for fuel. So in terms as costs go, manual transmissions are the winners.

Maintenance Cost

Your car works hard to take care of you, so it’s only right that you work hard to take care of your car. Maintenance is a fee that will keep your car running. Unfortunately for automatics, automatic transmission care is a bit more pricey, and typically need servicing more times than manual transmissions do. Most mechanics will also agree that manual transmissions are easier to work on than automatic transmissions. Manual wins again.

Heavy Traffic Operation

Heading to and from work in high traffic areas can be quite the hassle. Being stuck bumper to bumper and reaching a max speed of 10 mph just sounds frustrating. This is automatic transmission utopia, as the constant stop-and-go traffic doesn’t affect the driver as much, as with manuals, it’s a constant shifting nightmare. Automatics win this round.

Cruise Control

Cruise control is perfect for those long rides, so you can take your foot off the gas and relax. Almost every automatic comes with a standard cruise control. Although some manuals have a cruise control option, it’s not very common. Because of its high popularity in automatics, automatics win this round.

Concentration and Safety

These two will go temporarily hand-in-hand, as it requires focus to operate a manual, and that focus causes less accident inducing behavior behind the wheel. Manual transmission requires the driver to have one hand on the wheel and one on the shifter, leaving no hands idle for misbehavior, like eating or texting. The comfort granted by automatic transmission gives the driver a false sense of security while driving, result in accident inducing behavior. Manuals win this round.

Although the manual transmissions won most of the rounds, over 67% of cars made today are automatic transmission. Although today’s winner is manual transmission, it all comes down to personal opinion.