Taking a driving test in auto?

IronGiant

My recollection from back in 1978 was that I picked up clutch control and gear changing quite quickly. It was Road Craft that took the time to get right.

noiseboy72

Interesting thread!
I think it's probably a few years early to limit anyone to auto only if they are capable of learning a manual. I do agree that before long that autos will become the norm, but for cheap first cars I think it will be a while yet.

mjn

Manual, just so that you can drive one. You never know, she might fancy owning and driving a classic car in a number of years time.

dmpzsn

I learnt to drive in a Reliant Regal in 1965 on an old airdrome so didn't matter to much if I made a few mistakes and didn't affect any other drivers. Although I've driven autos I prefer manual every time. The last time I had a courtesy car it was an auto, my wife had a drive and drove for about half a mile, got out and swore never to drive an auto again, she hated it.

mjn

Old skool autos with 2 or 3 gears are awful, but the newer 6-8 speed with DCT are pretty damn good.

Over by there

Then there is that time you need a hire car and the only option is manual..... (yes, asked for auto and none available).

Manual ticks all options once learned. Millions seem to pass on it ok (i know some would never be let out but a pass is a pass).

I have manual and auto, different disciplines with different approaches to control. But worth it.

True Romance

Clearly you've not met our daughter

Worth noting that it would be another 4 years before looking at buying a car. Got college and uni to get through first. No point until then. Would possibly have use of our cars in the mean time though (both auto).

The Dreamer

Interesting. As a new driver, my lad cannot get insured on any of our own cars, even as a named driver, it’s simply too expensive (it might be possible if we had a black box fitted - but that’s not going to happen).

So we bought him his own. It might be worth your while checking out how much it’ll cost to put your daughter on your own vehicles - if the cost is prohibitive, then a cheap-ish first car might be an alternative. Certainly, I wouldn’t have had half the fun I did at Poly, if I didn’t have wheels - relying on public transport would have severely hampered what I could do.

Something like this might be cost effective?....
                               
edit: Just had a look at how much it would cost to add him as a named driver to my 11 year old Saab - the lowest cost option was £2350 , and climbs rapidly from there!! A roughly 2000% increase in premiums! Halfway to buying him his new car (and we certainly could have bought cheaper) - Insuring him on his own car for just over £900 a year also starts him accumulating is NCB (assuming he doesn't drive like I did as a kid)!

To add him to all our cars would be North of £7K! - more than buying him his own car and insurance costs combined!

AMc

I'd go for a full manual assuming you're paying someone to teach her in a dedicated car.
I imagine switching back from your autos to an instructor car could cause some confusion.

As others have said I know people who have auto only licences and discovered that this is a problem with courtesy cars and hire cars.  Book an auto and discover they don't have one when you collect it.
My favourite was the US guys coming over to the UK and discovering our pool cars were "all stick!".

My kid is only 18m away from 17 and we live in a village where the bus service has disappeared.  I can't see it being sensible to try and insure her on with my GTi or the Mini Cooper S so I guess we'll be buying something for her to drive and start her NCD.

I agree that manuals will eventually go the way of manual choke cars but we're not there yet.
It won't be that long before you won't need a licence at all as the cars will be doing the driving by themselves

True Romance

Thanks guys. Some interesting feedback. Oh and we will be paying someone to learn her to drive. Never going through the nightmare that was my dad learning me, so many full blown arguments!! Let someone with plenty of patience do it