In little European cars with small engines, you can't go very fast in first gear without pushing the engine, so when you are in towns you are constantly shifting from 1st to 2nd to 3rd to 4th, and having to stop at traffic lights and start all over again. It's worst with puny old small cars like my old Renault Clio (having to stop every few hundred yards for traffic lights is more annoying) but you get used to this, however an automatic would eliminate all that shifting up and down in towns (British towns are crammed with traffic, traffic lights and junctions). But I'm glad I know how to drive a manual, to me automatics aren't very important and in powerful cars you could go faster in the lower gears anyway. I don't feel I NEED an automatic because I know how to use a manual. But most hatchbacks are so weak you can't go more than 10 or 15 mph in first gear before you need to shift up (unless you want to wear your engine out).

With the 206 I can do all with only 2nd and 4th gear
But usually I also use the 1st gear. The 3rd is not much useful except when slow people in front drive at 40 km/h instead of 50

what do you mean with "you can do it all with 2nd an 4th" ?

So do you go straight from 2nd to 4th gear?

Ah you meant that why do you do that? and doing that all you do is stalling it

I do that all the time.
I could even start without problem in 2nd (hence my comment "you can do all...") but of course it works better when starting in 1st gear, as it is made for that. But the 3rd one is useless when I "plan" to reach 50 km/h.
What do you mean by "stalling it"?
On the 206 at 3000 rpm in 2nd gear you arrive at 2000rpm in 5th gear, that works well. The shortest are the gears, the most you can bypass them: on the 106 Rallye you can do 1st->5th without going especially high in rpm in 1st and have still enough power in 5th

I haven't voted on this because I don't have a car at present. I belong to a generation that learned on manuals as a matter of course; and while I've quite enjoyed driving big or powerful cars with automatics, in my experience they aren't a good idea on small European-size cars, as you seem to get jerky changes (I first noticed this when being given a lift in an automatic Austin 1100). An exception to this might be the DAF-derived CVT system now used (I think) on small Fords, but I've never driven or been driven in one.

"Stalling" a car engine is when it is in gear and the revs drop too low and the engine shuts down (unless the clutch pedal is pressed down or it is in neutral), so you have to restart it. I'm sure you already understand that concept, but in English it is called to "stall" or "stalling" a car. The word stall has various other uses in English when used in different contexts.

I think automatics can be better for elderly drivers, my grandad is 84 and he still drives his Peugeot 406 but it is a manual and I really think he should have bought an automatic, his previous car, a 1985 Audi 100 (still sitting on the driveway) was an automatic, and when I've been in the car with him, I get nervous every time he takes one hand off the wheel to change gear, I don't find his steering very smooth anyway. Of course it's debateable whether people above a certain age should still be allowed to drive, although it depends on the person.

You have an automatic at home and you have never driven it?? if it was me i would have "borrowed" it lots of times to my grandad

Sorry, is that question for me? What do you mean exactly?

Yes it si for you, you say your grandad has an automatic Audi parked in the driveay right? and you have never diven it?

No, I've never driven it. When I said "parked on the driveway" I meant HIS driveway, I don't live with my grandad, he lives 300 miles away from me in the north of England, so I only see him once or twice a year. I think his Audi is now declared off the road, it's not taxed (in Britain you must pay road tax on a car to drive it on public roads), it's MOT has probably expired, it hasn't moved for 2 years. I don't know if it would even start up now. It's basically worn out. Also in Britain you can't drive a car without having an insurance policy that covers it, it don't know how it works in other countries. It's illegal to drive a car that you aren't insured on.

I have driven automatics before, my dad's Omega and an '07 Chevy Impala SS in America.

I was once interested in having his Audi, but my dad and uncle (who has always had to help grandad fix that car) strongly discouraged me, because it is old and would cost a lot to run and repair, it would be a waste of money. It'll probably end up on the scrapheap when my grandad dies one day (even though he doesn't use it anymore I bet he won't get rid of it in his lifetime).

ah i see, in Spain you cannot drive any car until you are 25, once you are 25 you can drive any car, anyway i now can drive any car i want as it does not count as illegal because the car is still insured but just not for me, so if i have a crash it is my problem, but i didnt know that Audi was in such condition, a shame, anyway you did you have to take a special permis when you went to USA or were you alowed to drive your car as normally?

Well, I hired that Impala, so I paid for car insurance. I think in Britain if you have a certain kind of policy you can borrow other people's cars and be insured third party without being a named driver, but I've never been on that kind of policy. Car insurance in Britain is very prohibitive to young drivers, especially teenagers. Some people in their early-mid 20s get good jobs and buy fast cars but they often have to pay thousands of pounds a year in insurance.