Dont know how to drive a manual? Jesus, its not exactly hard now is it?

That's not really fair Paul, you know auto boxes are dominant on the other side of the pond...

Yea but I still dont get why!

@ Draigflag: Easy there, mate. As MMUK said, automatics using regular unleaded gas are predominant over here in the states. For one, regular gas is less expensive than diesel; part of the reason that, with the exception of VW, diesel cars are not widely available over here. Secondly, we Yanks are a hard working lot, myself included. 50 hour weeks and beyond are not uncommon. So when we're having to deal with a long commute during "rush-hour", the last thing most people want to deal with is having to downshift constantly with the traffic being insane. They want to just put it in drive and go, without having to think about it any further. My "driving fun" comes when I save money on gas at my fill-ups. I dig being able to keep more money in my wallet while the dummies driving like idiots and getting 13 mpg. If this helps my gas-mileage "street-cred", I'm averaging around 42 mpg (US) so far with my automatic Focus. My mpg driving style is still a work in progress. Any tips as to how I can get better at it are always helpful. Thanks.

Not sure about the features that your trip computer can display, but a handy one to monitor is the 'instant mpg' function. This is a handy tool to adjust your driving habits.

If you don't have that function, here is a great tool that can help out...

https://www.scangauge.com/products/scangaugee/

Myself and a few others have these... they have a heap of other functions that monitor the cars general 'health' as well.

6 speed auto....

Many cars I drive are 5 & 6 speed autos. I found there is no need to have the car in 'D' when driving around town at speeds up to 50km/h, the cars run much better when selected in 3rd gear, which also eliminates the tranny changing up and down between 3rd and 4th constantly.

They still operate through the gears up to 3rd with no problem.

In your case the car may sit better in 4th, it all depends on the ratio set up, you might want to experiment a bit.

42 mpg.... I reckon you're doing well already.

Anyway....best of luck mate.

I'll have to disagree with the 50+ hours and the commute, while that may be true for some I think the real reason is that we are generally fat and lazy.

Most everyone is to busy stuffing cheeseburgers down their throat while chatting on the cell phone to shift gears manually.

My VW is the first auto (DSG) I've had in 20 years, I love manuals but am getting older and am starting to enjoy the simplicity of just dropping it into D and not worrying about it.

I think you nailed it. I try not to offend, everytime I say somthing negative about the Americans, I get called a racist?! Like we dont have traffic in the UK, this tiny Island with 62,000,000 people crammed on it and millions of cars!

It might be fun to beat up on Americans all, but the reality is that you just can't get a manual in a lot of vehicles over here ( I don't count that auto stick crap), and haven't been able to for a long time. I suspose a lot of people have just gotten used to automatics. Agreed though, I still find it really odd when I run across someone who can't drive a standard. The diesel situation is even worse, there just aren't many options for what ever reason. FYI, I always pick manuals and diesels when possible which aint' too damm often in the vehicles I wish to drive.