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If you have a lot of money, you can have both

I like the way my shift is... I can put it in 1,2,3,4 or 5th...if I put it in 2 it will start in 1 and auto shift to 2 but no higher, so I think its the best of both really

i'll be the first to admit i dont even know how to drive a stick. my car does a funky thing where you can electronically control the transmission if you want... i played around with it, but 99% of the time i drive it in auto. and that the hell is sport auto for?

Many modern automatics will easily last the life of the car

Um, no.  Do you consider the life of a car the length of a lease agreement? 

My '92 lumina is on its second auto tranny at 178,000 miles, they are notorius for clutch slip. I had a friend who had a 98 stratus, and went through a couple transmissions in 3 years.  The clutches burnt out.
When it comes to automatics, nothing holds together as good as a GM TH700R4 or an old GM 350 turbo, but those are for rear drivers.

That is the nice thing about driving an older car, there are plenty of spare parts in the junkyard.  I got my new tranny for $100.  Try getting a transmission for anything '96 or newer for that. It also helps when you do the repairs yourself, so you don't get screwed over.

Manual transmissions have their quirks, usually clutches and worn out synchros.  My dad's truck pretty much has no synchromesh left, so you have to double clutch it sometimes.  My honda occasionally refuses to go into gear, unless I double clutch it.  Both of them have worn throwout bearings, and sound like they will rattle apart any day now.  I plan to rebuild the honda's transmission some day, but parts are hard to find for the 4 wheel drive version.

Replacing clutches is a pain too, I did it on my honda without an alignment tool, which made it even worse. 

I'd only seriously consider an auto if it was one of Audi's new Direct Shift Gearboxes.

"Inside the gearbox there are two shafts, one inside the other. The innner shaft handles the odd numbered gears and reverse, the hollow outer shaft takes the even gears. There are two clutches, one inside the other. As the revs build the outer shaft and outer clutch will pre-select second gear. it takes 1/1000 of a second to change ratios. Then third gear is pre-selected on the inner shaft. And so on, unless your decelerating, in which case it works the opposite way. The flow between the engine and wheels remains almost unbroken."

Stick all the way! It's what I learned on so there's really no issues with driving it. Sometimes when I'm in traffic I find myself wishing I were in an automatic, but I do certainly enjoy driving stick a lot more. It's more fun and there's just so much more you can do with it. I would never buy an automatic car over a stick.

I prefer manual. When I was in high school, my best friend had a '74 Nova with a three on the tree. That was wicked fun to drive.

Stickshift, for ease of use in performing the J-maneuver

Currently driving an automatic, but I prefer manual.

I don't know much about cars, but wouldn't an automatic having a stick defeat the purpose of having an automatic?

Tell me, shoeman, how are you going to move your automatic out of park and into drive without a stick?

I was thinking of the stick that specifically shifts gears.  I guess it would be called a "gear shift".

Yes. Like an auto that has a stick that shifts between gears such as park, neutral, drive, one, two, etc.

i'll be the first to admit i dont even know how to drive a stick.

It's really quite easy. You put it between your legs in a straddling position, then either pretend you are flying and make cackling noises, trot around, slap the back of the stick and make neighing and clicking noises or make vroom vroom noises and run around pretending you're on a motorbike.

I don't know much about cars, but wouldn't an automatic having a stick defeat the purpose of having an automatic?

Tell me, shoeman, how are you going to move your automatic out of park and into drive without a stick?

I was thinking of the stick that specifically shifts gears.  I guess it would be called a "gear shift".

Yes. Like an auto that has a stick that shifts between gears such as park, neutral, drive, one, two, etc.

humm... alright then.