Some people advance with the times, others stand still and watch the stampede into the future. I'm the latter. My fate was sealed when I did my first engine change at 17 with hardly any tools. That's been my continuing pleasure ever since. I don't chase fashion, and I don't chase the plug and play mentality of today. Happy to watch others embrace complexity!
I've driven plenty of rental autos and didn't like any. Passengered in plenty of SUV's.....guess what? Didn't like any. Passengered in a Golf E. Love my diesel Golf. That E Golf was so dull I hardly remember the journey!
As technology advances, one has to be careful that one doesn't throw the baby out with the bathwater, but at the same time recognise life can be made easier and more accessible to one's partner who now only drives auto's. In her day she used to wring every ounce of performance out of her Peugeot 106GTI's,, but at 5 foot nothing was never comfortable driving a larger manual car or a car with heavy controls especially steering and gearbox Morgan. We both loved our Morgan Roadster 4 seater but once I couldn't drive it comfortably, it had to go as it was far too heavy for Sue to handle, even I struggled with the heavy steering at slow speeds and the gearbox, clutch and handbrake balancing was crude and difficult on occasion to balance.. But as they say each to their own, too many years and too many miles stuck in a manual car in slow moving traffic quickly taught me the advantages of automation. Of course a lot is dependant on what type of roads and mileage you drive, for a while I used to do 100k a year mostly motorway where you don't really change gear much and urban driving, were you are constantly up and down the box, edging forward. I might think differently if most of my driving was on empty twisty country lanes or open roads.
