re manual shift bigots in article dxp lut fi jahonen cc lut fi jarmo ahonen writes kissane black berkeley edu john g kissane writes as a matter of interest does anyone know why autos are so popular in the us while here in europe they are rare just wondering many cars sold here in finland are small and cheap cars at least when compared to other cars note that we have over car tax and you couldn t expect a good auto mated to a l engine most of the bigger cars are however sold with autos i would guess the high price of gas in europe compared to the us has always favoured cylinder manuals small engines with autos are a real bore but why not turn the question around why are automatics so common in the us my guess is that when they tried to couple manuals to the torque rich v s in the sixties the clutches turned out as real killers you had to use both feet to depress and that this has just lived on and also an automatic with a v engine can be real fun to drive markus chevy camaro th peugout speed don t ask what your car can do for you ask what you can do for your car
