this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2023
389 points (93.5% liked)
Asklemmy
43945 readers
622 users here now
A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions
Search asklemmy ๐
If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!
- Open-ended question
- Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
- Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
- Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
- An actual topic of discussion
Looking for support?
Looking for a community?
- Lemmyverse: community search
- sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
- !lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities
~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Mad respect for my 60+ aunt in the UK; when I visited she drove me around various hilly roads for sight seeing and some stop and go traffic uphill. She definetly mastered the handbrake, clutch, gas combo for uphill stops/starts. Meanwhile my mom has smashed into a few storefronts in an automatic in flat Canada.
Amusing to read this as I'm in my 50s and my wife's in her 60s. Along with almost everyone in the UK we drive manual, and in very narrow and steep lanes like your aunt. Reversing for a long distance when you meet another vehicle is normal - most roads here (Devon) were made from sheep tracks and follow contours. We both also drive larger vehicles like a 3.5 ton horse lorry and big trailers around here. I say it's amusing because... everyone does it, it's normal.
As for why - I think it's because Americans (and maybe Canadians?) always have had cheap oil so have adopted very large engined cars. Automatic gearboxes on small engines like we had, especially before the 80s, are painful - always hunting for the right gear and tend to be uneconomic and high revving. Drive a 1 litre mini automatic from the 1970s and it's just horrible compared to manual.
Yeah I was also a bit confused about the "mad respect" for what I'd call standard driving :-D
If you have seen some North American drivers (in automatics) they are horrible, I can't imagine having them drive manual transmission
I agree, I had what is considered a relatively small Chevy S10 pickup w auto transmission ( a long time ago,) it had 4.3 litre engine.