Automatic Jump Leads?

macman

My brother in law was asked to help start a neighbour's car the other day-flat battery. She asked him if he had any jump leads-he said no.
He then kindly offered to pop down to the local car accessories shop for a pair for her-the first question he said they asked him was 'is it an automatic or manual car?'-not clear if this referred to the 'flat' car or the 'live' car!
He is completely untechnical, so they sold him a pair of 'manual' jump leads.
Now he's asked me-what is the difference? I told him none, and it appears that they were having a laugh at his expense.
So-is there any difference? The only different ones I have ever come across were heavy duty ones, as opposed to normal ones-do automatics always have heavier duty batteries because they can't be bump-started?

vikingaero

I jump start plenty of autos with standard jump leads. I also have a set of Halfords ciggy lighter to ciggy lighter leads (plug one end into the cig lighter of the dead car and the other end into the cig lighter of the live car, wait 10 mins and start. In practice it's quicker to use normal jump leads.

The only automatic thingy I've heard is that you can't bump start an automatic car.

harveybobbles

They might have been trying to suggest bump starting it. Otherwise they would have asked if you needed a left hand screw driver to get the battery cover off...

andy111

Was it next to the tub of elbow grease ?