Sorry twifsa I was not asking you. I was asking Harry Smith about his
car.
An automatic will not last as long as a manual because of the
additional engine load that autos put on the engine. Also Autos are
more sensitive to mechanical irregularities and would cause the engine
to stop running before a manual would. Once again it's because of the
added load. Also an automatic will not get as good gas mileage as the
manual counterpart.
However, in San Francisco, the reverse is true. Think about the stresses
throughout when at a stop sign sloping backward; you attempt to start up
without rolling back into the Buick that's right on your bumper. You get
going by slipping the clutch while your engine screams.
My hunch is that as far as real-world mechanical longevity goes, the two
systems are a draw. One "X-factor" is the driver; and I'll bet that most
standard shift drivers are a bit rougher on the mechanicals than the
automatic drivers. The automatic tends to prevent the driver from doing
stupid things with the machine.
And I could be equally wrong; in other words, I think that there are too
many variables here to be sure one way or the other. But the automatics
don't, in general, get the efficiency of the manuals.
Richard
