Must be to keep you from "blubbering" over the price. Ha,ha; ha, ha, haaaaaaaagh
Automatics break down a lot
This was once true, particularly in the mid-1970s. Blame all those "Save the Whales" bumper stickers.
Prior to the 1974 endangered species act, automatic transmissions were filled with fluid that was 95 percent sperm whale oil and it was just the stuff for the job. That oil lasted a long time, said Roger Kwapich, auto mechanic and host of the "Consumer Automotive Repair Show" (The C.A.R. Show) a syndicated radio show. Also, it had just the right properties, allowing transmissions to slip when they needed to slip and grab when they needed to grab, he said.
Ever since it became illegal to kill sperm whales for our motoring pleasure, automotive fluid makers have been trying to "reverse engineer" the stuff that poured out of those whales' heads by the gallon. Early attempts weren't so great and frequent transmission breakdowns were the result. But today's transmissions hold about just about as well as the old whale oil ones.