Would you drive a manual or automatic in Scotland?

[XJ Wheeler]

Aye, no kilt shots laddie. Can't handle that horror.

I was for the stick, but the part Carves said about the left hand quickly needing to do what the right hand does flipped me. I would get the auto and head over to a dealer and test drive a stick (or many).

[LizardRunner]

An Auto will be the way to go. As for the kilt, be ready to lay out about 1000.00 and BTW, they don't wear them except for very special occassions these days, and you would need a sporin, belt, socks, garters, tags, shoes and a shirt with jacket to have the full setup. When your at the pub you order single malt whiskey or a pint expect the beer to be warmish compared to US standard ice cold beer. And be nice and call your self a yank not an american, they will already know that by your lack of brouge. Rain is considered fair weather. Oh and most importantly, have heaps of fun.

[olds-cool]

I've thought about things like this before when remote possibilites of going over seas have come up. Most of the cars I'd like to drive are best with a manual trans. Always wondered if the shift pattern was the same as a US model. I'm just not sure if I could get my mind to work backwards for a week or 2 and make my left hand do the shifting. You know what they say, never let the left hand know...
These guys have brought up some good points about scenery and sticky situations. My only argument against that would be that most of the time you'll be in 5/6th gear (depending on the car) and won't have to worry about shifting anyways. I think I'd still go auto anyways, one less thing to worry about when driving in a strange place.

[fuji11x]

If you're going North then the tight winding roads are best with a stick - even though up & down the box is a real pain. You are going to want to max out on the views though, so I guess an auto is less hassle when there are other distractions! My own XJ is a stick and when I'm on these roads the engine really drinks it. (8/gallon ).
Happy travels when you reach here.

[Brasscatz]

Thanks buddy! We are in fact going to be all over starting in Edinburgh and stopping in a bunch of towns all the way up to Inverness and back down a different way. Trip will be in late June, so if you're in those areas from Troon, let me know and maybe we can meet up! Thanks again for the info

[MauriceNZ]

Try driving stick for the experience, that's what holidays are about.
Stick is weird if you are a natural right-hand person. If you are naturally left-handed (writing, holding hammer etc) changing gears in a RHD stick shift will feel like heaven.