For the last few years of my time in the Fire and Rescue Service where I responded to incidents in a car fitted with blue lights and lots of loud noises to make people aware of my presence, my car of choice was a BMW 320d with a lovely auto box (eight speed I seem to remember although I never counted them). Weaving through towns and also motorway traffic was made immeasurably easier with the auto box taking the strain and allowing me to concentrate on the road, road hazards, and of course whatever I was driving towards. That said, I just love the MX5 'box in my Plus 4 which is a joy to use. I would have to disagree with the Guardian journalist however in that I've never considered changing gear to be a source of any particular pride, or a perfect gear shift to mean anything to anybody else except myself.
