I wanted to get some opinions on this.

I love driving my Manual Car, but I have found when the 401 is just constantly solid with traffic and crawling, and people in Toronto stop and start like they're trying to squish a bug, if its maybe better to switch to an automatic here?

I feel like people do not know how to deal with Manuals here. I stalled one time at a traffic light, on a hill in Toronto, and I got Honked at, Yelled at, and generally hated by all the driving community.

So what do you drive here? Manual, or Automatic?

One of each...

She drives the Automatic Subaru, I drive the Manual Honda.

If I had to put up with gridlock on an regular basis Id go with the Auto I guess.

How about best of both worlds, like the VW DSG manumatic?

Yeah I saw the "Triptronic" gears before! Right now I have a 2007 VW Golf.. honestly in Winter it beats the automatic hands down, I have never once been stuck.

I suppose I have been doing what you do, whenever I drive to Toronto now, I take my boyfriends car, but I find myself driving it like I would a Manual, and he gets pissed.

I like slowly roll up to a stop light, whereas he accelerates then breaks fast. I don't know, its just a different style I guess!

I drive an automatic. It's a turgid driving experience - but it does the job I suppose. Auto's explain why Canadians are generally poorer drivers as you really don't get the same connection with what the car is doing in one.

My next car will be a manual.

Love driving an automatic and not having any stigma attached to doing so.

Our car has triptronic and it works great, though it sometimes frightens me how quick the car slows down when gearing down.

I'm somewhere in the middle. If you roll too slow to the light you hold up traffic behind you and cause other drivers to get stuck behind the previous traffic light (due to the grid system) so it's something I generally try to avoid as an act of courtesy.

It always scares me that the car behind wont stop in time, always have a little mini heart attack as they screech up behind me!

I love my manual but I dont have much traffic in my daily commute. I like the added security too of knowing that not everyone that may wish to steal it will know how to drive it

Thats what I thought as well! My boyfriend cannot even borrow my car no matter how much he wants to!

Had both, currently an auto. I only use Drive / park and reverse, though hubby educated me on what the 1 2 and 3 gears were for. Still don't use them but he does.

Preferred the manual in the winter too.

That's pathetic.

Thanks for that.

After being a bit of a 'manual only' petrol-head in the UK, I had a couple of automatics here but then switched back to manuals.

One main concern I had was the auto gearbox shifting in icy conditions (even if you remember to try and put it into one of the gears, they still seem to have a mind of their own). Not much fun if you're half way up an icy hill, the auto shifts and you lose control as a result.

Being stuck in heavy traffic for a couple of hours with a heavy clutch can be a real work out (I remember being stuck in exceptionally bad traffic on the M25 one summer in a 968 for a couple of hours. I was friggin' knackered by the time I got home). There's really not much traffic around where I live now and I have no need for a stupid yellow sports car these days, anyway.

Cruise control for long highway trips is something I'd definitely recommend, too.

I used to have a manual when I lived in Calgary. I drove my sisters vehicles occasionally and they were all automatic.

If your getting stuck in traffic then manual can be a pain. But I prefer manual in the snow. I find I have much more control. Autos are nice but the lack of 'feel' in the snow I don't like. After a while I find autos get boring.
Nobody could drive my car as nobody in the family could drive stick. ha!

Oh yes, and AC and cup holders

I am gonna drive up to Sudbury this weekend in my Manual...worried about the traffic...can you get Cruise Control on a Manual?