Why do people buy manuals these days ?

ElkyElky

Gloomendoom wrote: »

Where do you stop? Ban the young and the very old because they have more accidents but then the next demographic group rises to the top of the accident statistics. Do we just keep banning every group in turn until nobody is allowed to drive?

Just think of the death, misery and money we would save.

No I just think there should be an upper age limit to drive and once you've hit it.. that's it. An 80/90 year old driving would be like letting a 10 year old child drive. Their abilities (or lack of) is hazardous and any deaths the older generation causes can very easily be avoided.

Would you prefer 70+ year olds killing road users/pedestrians, rather than being removed from the road completely?

Mark_Hewitt

The new Ford powershift looks pretty good. The advantage being that it uses a dual gearbox approach so the next gear along is already selected, thus you don't have the lag while it manually shifts from one gear to the next.

Shame it seems to put around £1,200 onto the price of the car!

Flyboy152

ElkyElky wrote: »

No I just think there should be an upper age limit to drive and once you've hit it.. that's it. An 80/90 year old driving would be like letting a 10 year old child drive. Their abilities (or lack of) is hazardous and any deaths the older generation causes can very easily be avoided.

Would you prefer 70+ year olds killing road users/pedestrians, rather than being removed from the road completely?

I would advocate for them to be re-tested, with a full medical examination, but not arbitrarily stopped from driving.

cajef

ElkyElky wrote: »

Great examples of why they shouldn't let older pensioners on the road. Screw the ageism issues, it's about life and death.

I wonder if you will think the same when you are an older pensioner, I suspect it may be a slightly different viewpoint if someone tried to make you stop driving at a certain age.

boyse7en

Would you prefer 70+ year olds killing road users/pedestrians, rather than being removed from the road completely?

It's true that drivers become statistically more likely to have an accident as they get older, but also true that the accidents are likely to be low-speed, damage-only incidents, not causing injuries (I'm not saying they never involve injuries/deaths, just that it is statistically less likely)
Unfortunately, young male drivers (and I was one, once) are still far more likely to cause death or serious injuries to themselves or other road users.

And I don't like automatic cars, but I haven't driven a modern one.

mikey72

"The Institute of Advanced Motoring recently published statistics showing that of 7,035 car accidents last year where a driver was either critically injured or killed, 550 of them involved an elderly driver (over 70). Representing 8% of these accidents, it makes the over 70's group more dangerous that any other age bracket.
The Association of British Insurers support the statistics, adding that drivers aged over 70 are 13% more likely to claim on their car insurance than drivers aged 40 - 50. "

Well, if that is true, we can look forward to insurance costing a minimum of £5k to £10K, if 70 year olds are becoming worse than 17 year olds. Probably even £20K+ if it carries on going up 25% a year.
Start saving.

jase1

ElkyElky wrote: »

Great examples of why they shouldn't let older pensioners on the road. Screw the ageism issues, it's about life and death.

You're approaching this from entirely the wrong direction IMO.

There are bad drivers littering our roads. Too slow, too fast, inattentive, careless, unthinking, reckless, dangerous, take your pick.

I don't think it's helpful to single out one group of drivers over another. There are some excellent 80 year old drivers out there, and some very, very poor 30 year old ones. And vice-versa, of course.

Everyone should be made to retake their test every 10 years. Every 5 preferably.

cajef

mikey72 wrote: »

" over 70's group more dangerous that any other age bracket.

Not according to this by the IAM

http://www.iam.org.uk/latest_news/youngdriversrunovermorethanathirdofpedestriancasualties.html

mikey72

Guess it goes to show statistics can be whatever the IAM want them to be.

catflea

Neither of my cars had an auto gearbox as an option.

I'm not adverse to autos, but I've never owned one, I just buy whats cheap as chips and run it till it dies. If a decent auto came up at a decent price I'd certainly investigate but I suspect the sensation of lack of control would worry me.