Where I live (where manuals are the "default") it seems like automatics are the fetishistic option. There's lots of hills, winding country roads etc round here, an automatic is a bloody nightmare because it doesn't "know" I'm approaching a hill, time to drop to a lower gear just here, I'm approaching the top of a hill, change up now, I'm overtaking on a road, I need high acceleration now. It completely fails at knowing all this and is less efficient as a result.
This is why I am sceptical of all the "automatics are more efficient these days" line. Maybe there's some volkswagen style dodgy tests that show that driving under predictable conditions on a motorway it is more efficient, but as automatics can't know upcoming conditions on the road or intentions I doubt they are more efficient in the real world. At least not round here.
Where I live (where manuals are the "default") it seems like automatics are the fetishistic option. There's lots of hills, winding country roads etc round here, an automatic is a bloody nightmare because it doesn't "know" I'm approaching a hill, time to drop to a lower gear just here, I'm approaching the top of a hill, change up now, I'm overtaking on a road, I need high acceleration now. It completely fails at knowing all this and is less efficient as a result.
This is why I am sceptical of all the "automatics are more efficient these days" line. Maybe there's some volkswagen style dodgy tests that show that driving under predictable conditions on a motorway it is more efficient, but as automatics can't know upcoming conditions on the road or intentions I doubt they are more efficient in the real world. At least not round here.