Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Manual or Automatic?

So I picked up my rental car this morning. Nothing special, but acceptable replacement for mine while it is in the shop. Only one problem, it is an automatic transmission and I am pretty much a manual kind of guy.

My problem with the automatic transmission is that I want so badly to grab the shift and change it. My body yearns to push into the clutch and change gears. This does not bode well for the automatic transmission.

I was thinking about it this morning as my foot went to push down the non-existent clutch. I must not be the only person who has this transition problem, but they make the problem worse by putting the shift for automatic right where it is for manual transmission. Why? Remember when the automatic transmission shifts were on the steering column? No mistaking them there. Now they sit right in the middle, so that it looks to my eye and feels to my arm just like the manual transmission shift that I have to grab and pull regularly throughout the driving experience.

I keep wondering when I am going to slam on the brakes when I am thinking I am hitting the clutch. Pray for me people.

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