Driving lessons - switch to auto?

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Currently I've just had 9 driving lessons with a manual transmission, and I am really struggling with clutch control. I hate trying to find the biting point whilst doing everything else. There is so much going on at once, it is sensory overload, which has led me to zoning out a few times. I have a great instructor, very calm and supportive, but I feel like it's time that I try an auto. I am 27 and have never wanted to drive. The reason I have started now, is that I want to live somewhere rural, and I realized I am going to need a car to get about.

Has anyone else been in a similar situation? How did it go?

I learned to drive and got my driver's licence on car with an automatic transmission. I learened to drive a car with a manual transmission later - long after I was comfortable driving an automatic.

Are you in the US?

I would work with automatic transmission from now on.

I would say at least 7 out of 10 cars here in the US have automatic transmission. The only drawback: it's more expensive to fix an automatic transmission than a manual.

If you're in the UK--stick to manual.

I'm pretty sure manual is more common than automatic in most places outside the US and Canada.

Yes, I'd suggest you switch to auto--it is much easier--I did both when I was learning.

You can't afford to zone out while driving.

ah still having trouble deciding. Had a nice long chat with my uncle about it, and although he drives an automatic and loves it, he told me to stick to a manual.

In the UK, and ye manuals are cheaper and more common here.

Do NOT do the driving test in a standard unless you are a professional.

The testing people score you differently on a standard. Hand positions, down shifting, etc. It's just much easier to fail the test on a standard transmission.

I did my driving test in a huge fullsized diesel van...... Got docked one point for cutting a left turn too sharply.

<--- van in question.

automatic is much easier

I suggest going back and forth between each transmission type while learning.
You really should be able to drive either when the training is over. Otherwise, keep training.

For vehicle choice, it is best to match the type of driving you will be doing most.

For in-city driving with lots of stop and go & traffic, then automatic is the best way to go.

For rural and highway driving, the manual transmission is the way to go, and most efficient.
If you're ever going to be towing anything, then manuals are best.

I've learned to drive with manual transmission. It stressed me out at the start, and it's something that needs quite a lot of practice (much beyond nine lessons to grow comfortable with it). My family used to joke about me switching to an automatic, but I stuck it out, I just needed some time.

An automatic is certainly easier, and maybe with less distractions it will keep you from zoning out. Does your instructor also feel like it will benefit you more?

If you think that driving an automatic will help you obtain your license faster, then do it. You can always learn to drive a stick after you get your license. Personally, I prefer a stick shift and I don't think I'll ever own a vehicle with an automatic transmission. I just feel that driving a manual puts you more in tune with your vehicle and in my experience, actually helps me from being distracted while driving.

Driving around New York City and the surrounding area, I spend a lot of time in stop and go traffic. This is torture in a manual. The whole thing about engine control is fine if you drive on open roads. In a busy city, it becomes an ordeal quite quickly.

I have some engine control in my automatic. I can turn of the enhanced stability program and shift up and down in drive. That really gives me all the control I want when I want it and I can forget about it and concentrate on moving with the erratic flow of city traffic and not hitting the random pedestrians and cyclists who pop out from every direction, deep in their cell phones and seemingly bent on suicide.

I have driven both and appreciate engine control, but I will never get another manual.

learn and test on an automatic, later on after some experience driving, then try a manual.

Nah, m8, driving in heavy traffic in a manual is the only thing which provides the slightest element of technical challenge/skill/interest.

But that said, any driver should find it piss-easy to do after a couple of years of passing their test, providing they drive in traffic fairly regularly. Admittedly, the initial learning curve is incredibly steep. There's no way round it, so you either have to practice for long enough to get past it or switch to an auto.

I'd also like to add that 9 driving lessons is hardly anything, really. Maybe an 18-year-old male can pass in 30 lessons, but I was in my mid-30s* and ill with Crohn's/anaemia/malnutrition when I was learning to drive, so it took me f**king forever. Got there eventually though. All the things I used to be terrified of (roundabouts, roads narrowed to a single lane, etc.) I can do with my eyes closed now - well, not literally. Definitely not literally.

*more like early 30s actually. I was 35 when I passed my test nearly 5 years ago...

Thanks for reply's. Think I will give it another week and ask my instructor what he thinks. Even though I had poor clutch control, I didn't stall once on my last lesson. Hopefully it will become muscle memory in due time.

Look wuvsy, I'm sure you are a female Lewis Hamilton, but there are other factors that come into play. To whit, many people think of cars as a means of transportation, not a thrill ride or focus of interest.

Having an extra pedal to push or knob to twiddle actually provides no extra enjoyment and merely makes one think, "if an automated system can precisely and accurately control the engine of an F/A-18 as it lands on the moving deck of an aircraft carrier, why can't the onboard computer of a car handle the gears? Oh wait, it can! And doesn't Google have cars that handle the gearshifting and throttle and braking with a perfect safety record? Yes they do. So why should I waste processing cycles of my mind which would far rather be writing code, learning about the universe, drawing something, listening to music, or--let's face it, almost anything than pushing this effing pedal so I can move this effing stick!"

Then the further thought arises: "Why then do they still make cars with controls barely evolved from the 1940s? Its a sop to the sad people who want to believe that pushing this pedal and yanking this knob is marker of some sort of skill and accomplishment and they are somehow "good drivers" because they are doing it. It's the same reason the overmonied pillocks keep buying Bugati's and Ferrari's and pranging them a few miles down the highway... because more engine control means more car control... Still if they didn't believe this rubbish, they would be depriving connoisseurs of so much fine schadenfreude"

I suppose I could mention that I am 6'3" and many cars are uncomfortably small for me to drive. I used to have a 72 VW Superbeetle, a very manual affair, and I had to adjust the position of the seatbelt bolt in the center frame in order to push the drivers seat all the way back on its tracks, effectively making the thing a three person car... in any case, my left leg would cramp after a few hours of constantly working the clutch on that thing in the summer heat in stop and go traffic in New York. I couldn't do it at all now--I can only tolerate a car with a decent seat the gives me real leg room and a pivoting steering wheel because I have degenerative disk disease and sciatica that relatively short periods of forcing my lower body into the wrong configuration causes to flare up for days or weeks.

But that's just agonizing pain, probably a great trade off for a little knob-pulling and pedal pushing, no? No, actually. I suppose if driving was the thing thing that brought me joy in the same way that astronomy or biology does, it would all be worth it, but since I think of driving as an experience that runs the gamut from boring chore, to dull task with briefly enjoyable moments, I would on the whole not risk weeks of searing pain for the sake of having a slightly more macho configuration in the car, that absolutely no one else will ever give a flying F about.

But there I am, going on about myself again, when this obviously about you, not me. If you are the sort of person whose mental life is enriched by controlling the clutch on a car engine, then you should by all means do the pedally-knobby thing as much as you like. To me it holds all the charm of watching ugly institutional paint dry, but if it's your cup of tea, bon apetit!

Hugs-n-kisses!

m8, I'm too tired to read that wall of text to find out why you're a rubbish driver.