Should I buy an automatic?

[Yaris Hilton]

I'm perfectly happy with my automatic.

Then again, I have no interest in souping up my engine, modding suspension, wheels & tires or any of that stuff. I've built hotrods in the past and gotten it out of my system. It's a lot of work getting modified engines and powertrains to work decently, and they'll never be as flexible and reliable as the stock configuration that the huge corporations with nearly unlimited resources have spent years developing. Once you've got the hopped up configuration working, you can be obnoxious blasting off from traffic lights and such, but you've got to drive on the same roads with the same traffic and speed limits as everybody else, and you can't race around all the time before something's going to catch up with you, either the law or the laws of physics that make you more likely to crash. And you endanger others in the process. No matter what kind of horsepower you've got, if you have any sort of sense of responsibility and self-preservation, there's always some kid in an old Neon who's got less and will hold his foot to the pedal after you back off and beat you. Around town, sticking to the speed limits, I either catch up at the red lights with the boy racers, or if I've been watching and timing the lights properly, roll by them just as the light changes.