Hi All,
Recently my sturdy Camry got written off after being rear-ended hard so now I'm in hunt for a car.
I've been driving for about 7 years now and have never driven a manual car in my life. I'm on a full licence and I'm in Victoria, and I believe I'm no longer restricted to just auto vehicles by default.
I was thinking of taking the opportunity to learn manual and just buy a manual car as practice.
My question is if it is even worth learning how to drive a manual car in 2018? Cars are starting to veer towards automatic and technology has made some auto cars more fuel efficient than manual (which I thought was one of the major benefits).
Keen to hear OzBargain's thoughts on whether learning manual is a good time/money investment.
TL;DR - Is it worth learning how to drive a manual car in 2018?
Update: Thanks everyone for the responses so far - appreciate all the great insights given by all. I've decided to take a manual driving lesson and see if I enjoy it first, then make my decision on which route to go down. Thanks again!
Last week or so I've discovered a new advantage to a manual. My ute has been playing up, going into limp mode, stalling etc. Being in a manual it is a lot easier to get it to keep going, or to restart as I can push the clutch in and give the accelerator a jab between gear changes, or quickly turn off the key and restart without having to move the gearstick. In an auto it'd be more difficult.