Funny. All of my cars have been manual
transmissions (including my Audi Allroad and my
BMW 540i...both 6-speed manuals).
It took me getting a British vehicle to have an
automatic. :) (A Range Rover Classic I picked
up for $500, fixed it up a little bit and have
since put 16,000km on it since I bought it a year
ago.) I wish it was a manual transmission, but
they never imported manuals to the US.
But, I have 7 other cars, and they are all manual transmissions....
At 20:24 2009-03-10, Carleton MacDonald wrote:
Ive actually driven a manual transmission car
most of my life: MG 1100, VW Beetle, two
Rabbits, two Saab 900s (and two motorcycles
mixed in). The car I have now (and have had
since 2002), a 1999 Saab 9-5, is the first automatic Ive ever owned.
Metric related: Unlike most American cars, the
km markings on the speedometer of the 9-5,
inside the mile ones, are lit at night and can be read.
Carleton
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Stephen Humphreys
Sent: Tuesday, March 10, 2009 05:50
To: U.S. Metric Association
Subject: [USMA:43627] Re: Jerry's questions
regarding "imperial" fuel & fish sales in the UK.
Congrats are due to you for mastering the use of
a manual gearbox! I think that's more of an
achievement than road placement (based upon most Americans driving Automatics).
> From: [email protected]
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: [USMA:43622] Re: Jerry's questions
regarding "imperial" fuel & fish sales in the UK.
> Date: Tue, 10 Mar 2009 00:18:29 -0400
>
>
> I remember the first time I rented a car in the UK. October 1982,
> Edinburgh, Scotland, British Rail Waverley Station.
>
> Left my wife Susan at the bed and breakfast, took a bus downtown, went to
> the station, to the Godfrey Davis office. A kind, pretty young woman (I was
> young then too) had me fill out the paperwork then gave me the keys. I
> thanked her, opened the door, got in, and sat down. On the left side.
> Where's the steering wheel? Oh, right. Got out, closed the door, glanced
> at the booth: she was inside, hand on her mouth, suppressing a laugh.
> Walked round the back of the car, got in the right side, sat down, felt the
> shift with my left hand, started the car, said a very significant Anglican
> prayer, put the car in gear, and headed out,
saying to myself, "Drive on the
> left. Drive on the left. Drive on the left. Drive on the left ..." Headed
> back to the bed and breakfast, scared to death. Picked up Susan, headed out
> of town toward the bridge over the Firth of Forth. Stopped, took picture of
> the famous railway bridge. Started up again, found myself making a left
> turn to the right side of the intersecting road, corrected quickly, too
> quickly, hit a stone kerb, blew out the left front tire, stopped to change
> it.
>
> Somehow we got through the three days without hitting anything, and it even
> included a distillery tour, a steam train ride, and a night in Glencoe,
> where my ancestors got massacred in 1692.
>
> Carleton
>
> P.S. When we got back to San Francisco we went to the store and Susan
> bought soup; I told her to put the Campbell's soup back on the shelf!
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf
> Of Paul Trusten, R.Ph.
> Sent: Monday, March 09, 2009 21:02
> To: U.S. Metric Association
> Cc: U.S. Metric Association
> Subject: [USMA:43620] Re: Jerry's questions
regarding "imperial" fuel & fish
> sales in the UK.
>
>
> Ah, but the rule of the road is in the eye of
the beholder. Left-siders must
> think the rest of the world has it backwards.
>
> Quoting Brian J White <[email protected]>:
>
> >
> > I think you brits should also fix your cars and
> > roads so you drive on the correct side of the road. But that's just me.
> :)
> >
> >
> > At 15:54 2009-03-09, Stephen Humphreys wrote:
> > >Sorry  - I think you might have the wrong person.
> > >I'm not anti-metric - I'm a pro-choicer.
> > >
> > >The most 'extreme' views I hold on the subject regards safety.
> > >
> > >I have always said and always been firm that:
> > >
> > >1) Road signs should stay imperialÂ
> > >2) Medicines and chemist goods should always be metric
> > >
> > >Both of these relate to safety concerns.
> > >
> > >For most other things (in fact prob all) I
> > >prefer the dual route or a flexible degree of choice.
> > >
> > >This may put me at odds with many on this list
> > >but I'm always truthful and up front about it
> > >and as many many have said it is healthy to have
> > >a contrary view here for purposes of debate.
> > >
> > >With regards to the USA - I actually believe it
> > >should be more metric than it is.
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> --
>
>
>
> Paul Trusten, R.Ph.
> Public Relations Director
> U.S. Metric Association (USMA), Inc.
> www.metric.org
> 3609 Caldera Boulevard, Apartment 122
> Midland TX 79707-2872 US
> +1(432)528-7724
> mailto:[email protected]
>
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