For ages, cars have been manually driven by different kinds of drivers, but nowadays most likely by old-fashioned ones, and those who are gear heads and car enthusiasts. 

 

However, since the invention of automatic cars in 1939 by The General Motors Hydra-Matic; these easy-to-drive vehicles have become common dramatically, and companies seem to gradually abandon the idea of manuals and so they are making tons of automatic ones, and rarely an equivalent manual one.

 

When buying a new or used vehicle, you face two common options: automatic or manual, but what are the main differences between them? And what should you buy? Continue reading to decide which one suits you best.

 

Pedals

Any car driven by a person controls its movements using pedals, and gears located inside the cabin so the gears will accommodate your speed, and every time you increase the speed, you have to change the gears, and this applies to both manual & automatic cars.

 

Manual cars have three pedals, the brake, the accelerator, and the clutch, so the driver has to press the clutch while changing the gears manually using the gearbox, whereas automatic cars models change the gears -obviously- automatically.

 

Automotive cars don’t have a clutch, but only two pedals, the brake, and the accelerator, with four modes, Park (P), Reverse (R), Neutral (N), and Drive (D), and they are too easy to drive because everything you need to think about is moving forward, backward, or stopping.

 

Cost

Manual cars are usually cheaper and more fuel-efficient, while an automatic car is more expensive and less fuel-efficient, but now after companies are improving their cars to achieve the utmost fuel efficiency, this is not true about automotive anymore.

 

Anyway, you can always get a free car valuation in UAE if you are worried about the cost drop of manuals in the market of automobiles.

 

However, automatic cars are harder to maintain when anything goes wrong, and although automotive cars’ transmissions are smoother and less likely to fail, they cost you more when they do fail.

 

Driving

Although shifting gears and pressing the clutch isn’t that hard, it needs practice so you can get used to it, and some people, especially beginners find that automotive cars cut the hassle of this because they have more torque, are easier to drive, and save time, and effort but they don’t necessarily offer a better driving experience.

 

On the other hand, many people still drive a manual car even when they have the privilege of having an automotive one, and the most popular reason for them to choose a manual isn’t that they can’t find a car buyer in Dubai to sell their manual vehicle and buy an automotive one instead, but because they like to drive such cars, and they do that for the sake of enjoyment.

 

However, automatic cars are much smoother to drive in traffic while manuals are more difficult to handle in traffic due to the need of changing gears.

 

License

People who learn how to drive a manual car can drive an automatic, but this doesn’t work the other way, and if you have an automatic driving license, you need to upgrade it to a manual to be legally (and practically) allowed to drive a manual one.

 

Eventually, it all boils down to what you prefer, what kind of a car you want to buy, and what type of driving you’ll be doing.

 

But if you are going for a car, it would be wise to consider some other things like fuel efficiency, safety features, maintenance costs, the cost of ownership, insurance, and more.

 

Enjoy driving, and most importantly, drive save!