If, as zenaissance, you CAN drive MT and you simply choose AT, that's cool, more power to you. But anyone who chooses AT simply because they don't know how to drive MT and are too frightened to learn, well, you're just cheating yourself. That's not particularly about this or any other particular car, it's about MT in general being more fun to drive. Not a universal opinion, granted, but most people who can drive both prefer MT. I, for one, will never go back to slush-box.

 

MT is great during my early driving years. Many people didn't know how to drive MT. Now a days all my friends knows how to drive MT. The last one to learn to drive MT in my group of friends couldn't learn to drive MT years ago for some reason. But sometime during the summer of 05 he finally learned to drive MT on his gf's WRX wagon. I was able to teach every other person who asked me, except for that last friend. Funny thing that happens to my friend is that whenever he drove his gf's car, everyone was always saying "nice car" or "cool car". And he always says, "its not mine, its my gf's" and they ask "so do you drive the sedan" and he answers, "no.....I drive a........civc." LOL!!!! true story omfg...that cracks me up everytime. hahahaha

 

I know how to drive MT but my girl dont.

 

= time for a new girl

 

That was my first thought too. But on reflection, there's something to be said for having a car that your girlfriend *can't* drive...

 

AT can be very cool. a friend of mine with a modded Evo said he was running vs a AMG CLK55 and ended up even. except my friend was in his car working up a sweat shifting through his gears, being nervous about mishifting and scrambling him self while the benz guy was chilling with a cup of coffee in his other hand with a smirk on his face.

 

To each his own. An example.... my dad is perfectly efficient at stick and still drives an AT because now that he's older he says it's too much of a hassle for him. Stop trying to convince everyone MT is better, it's ridiculous.

 

normally I wouldn't mind an AT or MT...actually, I might prefer the AT over MT, just for the convenience of it (especially when most family members don't drive a MT)...

But in the case of the RX-8, the difference, to me, is too much between an AT & MT...(4 gears vs 6 gears & ~40HP)...

 

It's not ridiculous, it's accurate, and I stand by what I said. To each his own, absolutely. I can cite a good friend of mine who can drive stick but prefers automatic, and that's fine. And my uncle, too. But it remains true that EVERYBODY else I know who CAN drive stick PREFERS stick, and so I think it is appropriate, reasonable, and fair to encourage anyone who might be even remotely considering learning stick to do so.

 

I agree. If someone is curious and has the desire, they should certainly learn how to drive stick if only for emergencies.

The part that is ridiculous is the tendency of many on the forums to make sweeping statements/generalizations that MT is always better than AT despite other variables. I could see this thread moving in that direction quickly.