After owning and driving 3 VWs with AT, a '70 Squareback, A '71 411 and a
'76 Bay, my first Vanagon was a MT.  I liked the vehicle; didn't like all
the shifting in Chicago traffic.
  My next Vanagon was an '84 Wolfsburg with AT.  The trans had been rebuilt
but not very well.  I got to do it again before long.  It took me a couple
of tries, but I learned a lot and finally got it right.  My daughter and I
got to be quite fast at
R&R.
  My present daily driver, a '91 GL with AT, routinely got about 19 mpg at
70 mph with the wbx engine.  This has improved about 1 mpg with a Subie
EJ22.  The trans now has about 210K miles on it with no service other than
fluid changes and one TC seal replacement.
   For the past year my wife and I have also been driving a 2001 Outback
that we inherited from my daughter when she moved into Manhattan.
 Unfortunately it has a 5 speed MT.  A few months ago, the bearings in the
trans got very bad; I found about a cup of metal shavings in the bottom of
the case.  A replacement trans was not easy to find.
  Once again, I am tired of shifting.  My wife has a reasonable amount of
experience with MT cars, but has never learned to shift very smoothly.  The
jerking, etc. puts a lot of stress on the drive train that would not happen
with an
AT.
  I grew up driving every type of car, truck, and tractor imaginable and am
comfortable in a semi with 10 or twelve speeds and a double axle, but for
daily driving I'll take an AT.

Larry A.

On Wed, Jan 22, 2014 at 6:02 PM, Don Hanson <dhanson928@gmail.com> wrote:

> I, too, find that I wouldn't have an automatic transmission, most
> especially in a vehicle that ventures off the Interstates and city
> streets.  Just yesterday I self-started my 84 5sp by pushing it by the door
> post and hopping in to pop the clutch.  A minor delay as opposed to a major
> production getting AAA to come (nearest AAA is over 50 miles away) I also
> like being able to modulate the way it gets going by how I release the
> clutch, and to choose a proper gear, to anticipate a driving situation I
> can see, but some automatic shifter would mess up....like an un-asked for
> shift when cornering on slick roads, or trying to rock out of a semi-stuck
> situation.
> So far I don't find shifting my own gears is too much work, the better
> functionality certainly is worthwhile, in my world....if I commuted in LA
> daily, then I might consider an automatic...
>