Asked a while back for thoughts on diesel vs petrol cars. Now I'd be interested to know your thoughts on manual vs automatic?

The general opinion (years ago) used to be that they were more costly to repair if they went wrong but I'm not sure if that's still the case?

I'll be living back there later this summer and will be shopping for a smallish used car and would appreciate any advice before I buy

If you enjoy driving, get a manual. They are also more suitable for British town roads. Automatics are less economical though these days not as breakdown-prone as they once were. There are now alternative transmissions, such as CVT or electrically-operated clutches (semi-automatics). Basically, I'd say take a few different cars for test runs and go with what you like most (and I don't mean the colour). Check out anything you're thinking of buying at www.honestjohn.co.uk CLICKY - his used car reviews are spot on.

You'll be shocked at the price of fuel here compared to the US.

PS. If you value your spine, choose something with sensible amounts of rubber on the wheels and a suspension that will ride out the potholes - the roads around here are getting worse by the minute.

If you have difficulty or are lazy with clutch and gear changes, then get an auto. As I see it they are the only advantages to having auto.

They are less economical and in my eyes are just another (expensive) thing to go wrong. The automatics I have had I enjoyed, but would have preferred a manual.

Personally I would go for a manual with cruise control, I have not tried a clutchless gearbox so can't say either way really.

Yes I know, but I'll be happy to get more than 22 miles per gallon, and that's motorway/highway driving. I get even less if stopping and starting through town

I am lazy yes and it's getting worse as I get older

TBH Autobox only really work well on torquey engines - big petrols, and diesels. If your looking for a small car, then a manual box works better.

As for reliability, nothing in it really, gearboxes cost about the same to replace, manuals use a clutch, autos use a torque converter, and with a lot of newer cars now using duel mass flywheels, it can now be more expensive to work on a manual car...

Manuals however are more economical as you get 100% drive from engine through the clutch to the gearbox, autoboxes always allow a little slip - this makes for smooth gear selection, but it does waste some of the drive from the engine.

Ive always been a manual person - always sworn by them, but now I cant be bothered. If I want to "drive" a car, I have the race car, but for normal road driving Ive recently bought an auto, mainly for thier ability to tow easier than a manual car.

Each to their own - try before you buy

I use to have a mk5 Cortina automatic, I loved it, but that was back in the days of very cheap petrol.