New car needed

If god had meant us to drive manual cars he would have given us three feet!!!

 

Tracking might be way out.

 

What did you buy loofah ?

 

But we have got three feet over here!



Seriously though.....@longk, how reliable are automatics now? I haven't owned one since the '80's. During the winter months here we get a fair amount of ice on the mountainous/hilly ground and I'm wondering whether an automatic will get me out of trouble if needs be, it's often better in these conditions to be in complete control with a manual gearbox.

 

On the whole it goes like this;
Front wheel drive autos are generally more reliable than in the eighties. Rear wheel drive autos less reliable than they were. The reason is that it used to technically challenging to make a durable FWD auto but it's now easy. So most auto faults will be related to the electronics. And expensive! I'm scrapping 8 or 9 year old Golf autos now.

 

So do you think it would be wise to buy an automatic knowing what the conditions can be like here in the winter months or should I stick to a manual gearbox?

 

Using an auto manually gives you the same amount of control. So yes, if you want/need an auto go for it.

 

I have a Honda and can't recommend them highly enough. Mine's a CRV not a Jazz but it's ten years old with over 120k on the clock and it's still going great guns and I've had very little outlay apart from the usual bulbs, etc