Faster

Get your full driving license fast when you choose automatic driving lessons

Learning to drive is complicated. You have to get to grips with positioning when driving straight or turning left or right. Steering, speed management and all the different manueorves have to be mastered.

In a manual car all of these things will require skilled clutch control and correct gear selection. But when you learn to drive in an automatic worrying about the clutch and changing gears are gone. And all things then being equal it means that you're going to progress faster and be ready for the driving test sooner.

And that means you'll most likely have that full Irish drivers license in your hand sooner than if you wer're leanring in a manual car.

And while we're on the topic of speed here is another question many people ask about automatic cars?

Are Automatic Cars Faster than Manual Transmission Vehicles?

The answer is yes. At least with newer automatic cars. After decades of supremacy, manual transmission cars have now lost not only the efficiency battle with automatic vehicles, but also the right to claim faster acceleration capabilities. This may be a surprise to some, but at Autobility our instructors have known this for years.

It’s easy to see why this speed myth persists. In the past, manual transmission cars had much faster acceleration from a standing start than automatics. Early automatic vehicles often felt sluggish, especially those with heavy engine loads. In America, where the automatic has become the vehicle of choice for most people, the most popular manual transmission vehicles now tend to be sports cars. This has probably helped create the illusion that ‘stick shift’ cars are faster overall.

Since the turn of the 21st century, innovations have helped automatic transmissions become more efficient. Now they easily beat the manual in terms of speed. To get technical for a moment, what are called Continuously Variable Transmissions (CVTs) and automated manual transmissions shift gear or select the right gear ratio even more quickly than a traditional automatic. Now a lot of car manufacturers are bringing in CVTs as their standard gearbox. This is especially true in those models that are advertised as having good petrol mileage.

Any Autobility instructor will be happy to explain this phenomenon in plain English. A full acceleration test with an automatic vehicle results in what is called a ‘throttle kickdown’, which is triggered when the driver ‘floors’ the accelerator to get the most torque and the best possible acceleration. This shifts the gears into the lowest possible ratio for the car’s current speed. Then as the car accelerates, the gear ratios will increase until a maximum speed is established.

Not only are the new automatics faster, but they are also more fuel efficient than many manual cars. In the past, it was taken for granted that vehicles with manual transmissions would be more fuel-efficient than their automatic counterparts. Now that automatics are more advanced and have gained additional gears, they are now overtaking manuals in terms of fuel economy. For example, the new Ford Focus six-speed automatic version outperforms the manual vehicle, getting 50 kilometres per gallon combined. That translates to 42 city kilometres and 59 highway kilometres per gallon. With the ‘Super Fuel Economy’ option package for the Focus, which also uses the six-speed automatic transmission, the fuel economy rises to 53 KPG combined. The manual version of the same car can’t beat the automatics, as it gets just 48 kilometres per gallon combined. This is just one example of the rapid gains automatics have made in fuel economy.

That leaves the issue of cost. Again, the perception is that manual transmission cars will be cheaper than automatics. While generally true today, this is no longer always the case. The cost of automatic vehicles will continue to fall in line with standard manual transmissions. Given the advantages we have explained above, it is easy to see why more and more new drivers are asking Autobility for Essential Driving Training (EDT) and pre-test lessons in automatics!