Question: “Why do most people not recommend getting a C2 driver’s license?” [allows you to only drive automatic cars]
Top answer: “I used to be a driving coach, and I can tell everyone the truth now without any fear. The main reason people don’t recommend C2 driver’s licenses is because of driving schools. Most of the cars driving schools purchase are manual drive. If everyone wanted to learn how to drive automatic cars, then they have to buy in a few batch of automatic cars, and that’d be too expensive. Back in the day, we didn’t have that many automatic cars yet, so they all have a huge stock of manual cars that they don’t want to just throw away. Plus, automatic cars are more expensive to maintain and repair than manual cars, so they can save costs.
So every time someone signs up for classes, they push the brainwashing really hard (because their boss makes them): you can drive more types of cars if you learn manual, you can deduct points from other people with a manual driver’s license [when you violate traffic laws, points get deducted from your driver’s license, and if you run out of points, you license gets cancelled, but you can just use someone else’s license and get points deducted from that with no problems], automatic cars are for disabled people, if you get a C1 license if you ever lost your job you can at least drive a truck (lol, you’re better off getting a scooter and delivering for Uber Eats. Why would you ever become a truck driver?).
This brainwashing is pretty effective, though. A lot of people even look down on people who can only drive automatic because of these reasons, and feel like they’re superior for driving manual. And this is exactly what driving schools want to see too. Of course, maybe one day, when driving schools have more automatics than manuals, they might brainwash people into choosing automatic instead. It’s the same logic.
Also, the driving exam in China is very situational. You pick up most of your driving skills on your own once you already have your driver’s license. Passing the exam really just means you’re familiar with most of the parts of your car and how to make them work. After all, the exams are set in stone, and there are reference points for you to use [for backing up and parallel parking and such], but you can’t guarantee you always have a reference point in real life. So never believer all that bullshit driving schools tell you when you sign up, how you can learn how a car works by learning a manual and increase your safety awareness or whatever. From the point of view of an experienced driver, this is all so pretentious and ridiculous. The only people who’d ever be tricked are newbies who’s never touched a car before.
Speaking as a coach, all that matters if that you get a license as soon as possible. Don’t make it any harder on yourself than necessary. You can pick up skills once you have your license. As for safety awareness, most of it just comes down to manners.
Now that I’m in a different industry, just speaking from my heart, it’s not that I don’t recommend the C1 license [lets you drive manual-drive, as well as smaller buses and trucks]. You can never have too many skills, and if you want to learn a more difficult course, I’m fully supportive. But if your career doesn’t require it, I’d recommend that people just stick to learning automatic. After all, there aren’t many cars that are still manual-drive these days, and electric cars are everywhere. Even a lot of trucks are electric too.
There are people like, “But if your work vehicle is a manual drive and you have to use it?” I have no idea what kind of workplace would force a C2 license holder to drive without a proper license, but if your workplace insists on it, you sohuld probably quit. And, if you only have a C2 and can’t drive a manual car, isn’t that a perfect excuse to slack off at work?
Honestly, automatic cars are a progress of technology, designed to make everyone’s lives easier. It wasn’t designed for “dumb” people. It’s just like how we all have computers these days, so is it necessary to learn how to use an abacus? Now that we all have lighters, of course it’s awesome if you know how to make fire with friction, but you’ll never really get to use this skill.
Another couple of benefits to learning automatic drive:
Automatic cars don’t randomly die on you, so you’ll get yelled at by your coach less, and you’ll be in a better mood. You hear stories of a coach chewing someone out? 80% of the time it’s because the car died. You’ll find that automatic coaches have much better attitudes than manual coaches, unless they’re just assholes. Although the difficulty of the driving exam doesn’t come from stepping on the clutch or stalling the engine, it’s still one less thing you have to worry about, and it frees you up to concentrate on other things. And honestly, even if you’ve never touched a car before, stepping on the gas to go and stepping on the brakes to stop is much more intuitive than manual-drive. Almost every student I’ve had says at the beginning, “I thought you just have to step on the gas to make the car go. Who would invent such an inhuman concept as a “clutch”?”
You don’t have to worry about the clutch with your left foot, so it won’t fall asleep as much, so it’s a lot more comfortable. You’ll get pins and needles or even a cramp after practicing manual for 30 minutes, but you can drive an automatic for 3 hours and not feel a thing. And it’s a lot easier to control your speed with the brake in an automatic—you can just follow your instincts. Using the clutch to control your speed in an automatic takes a long time to figure out, and there’s always the risk of going too fast and stalling the engine.
There are fewer automatic cars in driving schools so not a lot of people choose to learn it, so you’re more likely to get one-on-one coaching. If you go with manual, you’ll have to share your class time with 3-4 people.
You don’t have to start your car on the slope during the driving exam. It’s not the hardest thing you have to do, but there’s a lot of ways you can lose points on a manual drive. If you’re more than 20cm away from the curb, you’ll lose 10 points. If you are more than 50cm away, you’ll fail. If you don’t get to the parking line, you lose 10 points. If you stall the engine, you lose 10 points. If you slip backwards, you lose 10 points or fail. You have to pay attention to a lot of things all within a couple of seconds, your clutch, your steering wheel, the lines, and it’s easy to miss something and fail. You can bypass all of that with automatic drive.
You pass with 90 points in Round Three [Chinese driving exams come in 4 parts, where parts 2 and 3 involve you actually driving on a road]. If you stall the engine in a manual (and you’ll be stopping and starting a lot in Round Three), you’ll lose 10 points, and even experienced drivers stall the engine sometimes. If your gear doesn’t match your speed (and sometimes, even experienced drivers don’t know what gear matches what speed), you’ll fail. That’s not a thing for automatic, so that’s more room for error on the final parallel parking. And you don’t have to worry about changing gears.
It’s easier to get an appointment for automatic exams, and you’ll spend less time standing in line, and your license will get to you faster.
You can deduct points for a C2 license on a C1 license, but not the other way around, so if you have a C2 license, you can avoid having to give your driver’s license to someone else to deduct points from because you owe them favours.
This is a benefit only for men, but it’s mostly girls who are learning automatic, and you’ll be in a better mood because you get to chat to girls, and maybe you’ll even get a date. Two sets of my students got together.
PS: Most of the benefits I talk about only applies because there’s not a lot of people learning automatic drive yet. If everyone took my advice and started learning automatic, a lot of these benefits will probably disappear lol XDDD”
Comments say, “Failed on Round Two for my C1 license exam, so I switched over to C1 and passed first time around.”
“C1 exams are so annoying! Even once you get your license, it takes a while of driving before you form muscle memory. The biggest benefit to manual drive is newbies won’t accidentally step on the gas and cause an accident. Newbie drives like to step on the gas too hard, but the great thing about manuals is that if your gas and clutch aren’t working together, you’ll just stall. Even if you don’t stall, you don’t actually go much faster. And the loud noise from your engine will remind you to go lighter on the gas. If you stomped on the gas in an automatic, god only knows if you’ll end up paying out your ass or sent to jail.”
“I learned manual, and once I got a job, it’s saved me a lot of hassle. A lot of manual cars will appear in front of you under all kinds of unexpected circumstances, and you have to drive it. It’s a pretty sought-after skill. (Just my personal experience. I don’t mean to say that C1 is more impressive than an automatic license.)”
Can you expand on how using someone else's license works?