I was told to keep practicing my Amerkin accent.

I'm going to work on aloooooooooominium next.. damn nearly got it that time.

Part of driving, yes. Operating a steering wheel, a throttle, and a brake may at times also come into play along with operating the shift lever.

Regards, JEff

BS! Automatics tend to get sloppy (at least the older ones did, after as little as a couple of years, Mrs P assures me), whereas my Accord is still on its original clutch and is currently over 256,000 miles!

Maybe I just had bad luck but my TR4-A clutch went out at 30,000 miles and my Nissan 280Z went out at 50,000 miles. My Toyota Supra, Nissan 300ZX, and my current BMW are ok but neither had more than 70,000 miles before I sold them (still own the BMW).

I'm suspecting that somewhere you picked up some bad habits, there's no way a clutch should go at 30,000 miles!

Clearly you need to take some driving lessons from Pulaski.

Regards, JEff

Neither should brakes go out at 15,000 miles but a friend of mine had a Mercedes and they went out at 15,000 miles. My BMW also isn't good on brakes and they go out at 30,000 miles and cost an arm and leg just like all the Mercedes and VWs which use thin routers that can't be turned.

There were a lot of things that happened with my TR4-A that shouldn't have happened in 30,000 miles but it wasn't the most unreliable car I ever owned, that was my VW Posche 914 which I got rid of after 20,000 miles.

My Ford Sierra (low end Merkur) had 101,000 on it when it developed more issues than it was economic to fix. The clutch was not one of the things needing replacement.
The Honda dealer told me the Accord needed pads at 80,000 miles, which surprised me. However the replacements must have been good ones, because they're still on there almost 180,000 miles later!

I had a well-loved '87 manual Civic that passed 200k before it developed a fuel leak inside the frame that couldn't be repaired. Brakes were replaced once that I was aware of in the last 100k or so (they completely failed, making me drive 40 miles with only the handbrake to the nearest shop). Bits and bobs in the engine were repaired/replaced, but nothing terribly expensive.

One of the work vehicles my dad bought after the company lease was up was a '99ish Tahoe that hit 250k and was still running last I heard. My family have also had various Hondas, Toyotas, and Chevys - most autos, a few manuals. My dad insisted that we take our cars in for an oil change every 3000 miles, and our garage would always let us know if anything was looking worn or needed replacing. Most of them had no serious issues aside from the 12-passenger van I learned in, which drank a pint of oil every 2 hours of driving time. Didn't smoke, didn't leak - the garage never did figure out where it went!

In terms of comparing manual vs. automatic, I definitely prefer manual simply because it's more fun. As has been well discussed by more knowledgeable people above, I don't see a huge mpg difference in modern cars, so I wouldn't use that as a reason to buy one over the other.

Kristi

Who actually enjoys driving here?

I just find it a chore.

Even on our summer roadtrip, some of it was a chore. Out in Indiana, 70mph speed limit, but $1K speeding ticket signs over big stretches, so barely saw anyone actually doing 70.

Motorway down my way, big stretches on I-95/495 and the MA Pike are 55mph.

That added with shit roads and massive potholes and shit drivers, I just don't care any more, plus the traffic is tedious and all the stop signs every where. Much easier to just suck it up and get a auto.

Not seen the driving around where I am then

I did see someone try to pull out of a dealership on a test drive once. Stalled it, stalled it again once they made it to the road, then stalled it at the lights a few metres down the road and at that point got out and had the dealer bloke get in and drive it back into the next entrance to the dealership

Me! I love it! I have Big Sur half an hour down the road, an area I'll never get bored of driving.
The potholes in my part of the world are nowhere near as bad as the UK, I guess California doesn't get the harsh frosts that other parts of he country and back home gets. Always loved cars, always loved driving and always will.

I don't mind it, really. I don't have a lot of variety in where I drive but I guess I drive through nice enough areas to make it ok.

Speed limits are kind of shit though, I'll agree with that. I remember seeing those signs on I-65 on the way to Kentucky in the summer but I thought they were only in construction zones. In general, I was doing 75-80 most of the way down as soon as we were off 94. All I got were people up my arse the whole way down!

It's something I've only done since I was prevented from riding bikes by a non-attentive car driver. Not a patch on bikes (sports not choppers) but as I do a fair bit of track driving as well it keeps me interested.
I prep a couple of race cars and run a team (admittedly it's only me and the driver).
I have track prepped road car and others just for normal duties.
When in the US I thought nothing of doing 500-750 miles a day.

but I understand where you're coming from, when I spend more time over there I'll need to hunt out some decent back roads to stir the enthusiasm as the nearest track is 150 miles away. Most roads do seem a tad boring.

Yah like driving through the mountains and costal highways. Driving to Tahoe on I-880 is not fun but highway 80 is if you don't mind taking an extra hour. Driving to Livermore via 680/580 isn't fun but driving via highway 84 is. Driving Niles Canyon to Fremont is fun but driving I-680 isn't. Driving the back roads on the east and west hills can be fun.

However one day were we on the west hills and only about 15 miles from highway 17 and decided to take the back roads to the highway. After getting lost (took the wrong fork) and 45 minutes later, we decided to turn back and get there the easy way.