The big news last week was that Minis will no longer be built with manual transmissions. In future, they will all be automatic.
Funnily enough, my wife drives a Mini Cooper - which she loves - and it’s an automatic, which she didn’t want.
Her previous Mini, a manual, was written off in a freak incident last winter, and because she needs a car for work she had to get a replacement very quickly.
The Mini dealership in Peterborough was very helpful but the salesman had bad news.
My wife could have a (new) manual Mini, but it would have to be ordered specially and it would take several months to be delivered.
On the other hand, she could have a new automatic within two weeks.
My wife had never driven an automatic before and didn’t really want one but she swallowed the bullet and, guess what? She loves it as just as much as her previous Mini.
I had a similar experience when I switched from manual to automatic 15 years ago.
I was keen to buy a Mercedes C-class and was told that almost all Mercedes were automatic. Manuals were available but they weren’t popular and I might struggle to sell it for a good price.
So I bought an automatic and never regretted it, although the automatic gear lever was a bit clunky.
That was in 2008 and I have never been tempted to go back to a manual car, although I enjoy driving one when I get the opportunity.
My subsequent cars have both been BMWs and the automatic gear lever is more like a joystick. It’s incredibly easy and smooth to use.
For decades ‘keen drivers’ were dismissive of automatics on the grounds that a key decision - when to change gear - had been taken away from drivers.
You were also denied the instant acceleration you could get from manually changing down from fifth to third, for example, if you wanted to overtake another car as quickly as possible.
Some older automatics, it was said, also suffered from a perceptible time lag from the moment you hit the accelerator pedal to when the transmission changed to another gear.
Technology has moved on in recent decades and I can understand why there is significant demand for automatics today.
The irony is that they are said to be less fuel efficient than manual cars and, purchased new, they are also more expensive than the equivalent manual model.
Anyway, a couples of anecdotes circa 1980/81.
A colleague I shared an office with went on holiday and said I could use his car while he was away.
It was a 1275cc red Mini, not the larger model we know today.
What he didn’t tell me was that it was an automatic, which must have been quite unusual at the time, and I had never driven an automatic before.
I worked out that D meant ‘drive’ but I think there may have been three settings - D1, D2, and D3 - and for some reason I was stuck in D1.
All I know is, the car never got out of first gear as I drove home with the engine revving furiously as I pushed the accelerator to the floor.
I parked it outside my flat and didn’t drive it again until he returned from holiday and I had to take it back to the office a week or two later.
The other story concerns my first car, an old Ford Capri GT, that I bought privately in 1981.
It cost me £400 (£1,350 today) and driving home, having picked it up from the seller, two things happened.
First, the glass on the driver’s side fell into the door cavity when I tried to wind the window down.
Second, the gear lever came off in my hand as I drove round Marble Arch. I could even see the tarmac through the hole where the gear lever had been.
Six months later I sold the car for £300. Manual or automatic, I was delighted to get rid of it and pocket the cash!