Manual

A manual gear box enables you to select the gear you require and maintain greater control over the car in accordance with your speed and driving conditions. There is more choice when buying a car and running costs are generally marginally lower. Good control and co-ordination, however, are required in respect of all the foot controls to drive the car correctly and ‘avoiding stalling’ and ‘rolling back’ on a hill etc. When you pass your practical test in a manual car your full licence entitles you to drive both manual and automatic cars. My training car is a Skoda Fabia 1.9 TDI.

Automatic

You can choose to learn to drive and take your test in an automatic car – a car with no clutch pedal and a selector in place of a gear lever. It has a system that senses the need for a change to a higher or lower gear and it makes the change by itself. It also takes account of hills, but it is sometimes necessary for the driver to use the selector to choose an appropriate gear for the driving conditions. Automatics are almost impossible to stall and make hill starts simple. They make the physical job of driving much easier and also give you more time to concentrate on what's happening on the road. If you take your test in an automatic car, your Driving Licence will only entitle you to drive automatic cars, not manual cars. A full automatic licence only acts as a Provisional Licence for a manual car. My training car is a Skoda Fabia 1.4 automatic.