Gentlemen, the jokes about difficulty driving a stick don’t hold water anymore and have not for decades.
I built my own hot rod because I wanted to nearly 20 years ago. I had to learn to drive it... never driven anything with a stick before it.
Manual transmission is mostly a thing of the past outside of commercial trucks.
Every production road car I’ve ever driven from 1995 to today? Auto.
Diesel Pickup? Auto.
Mower? Hydrostat.
Tractor? Hydrostat.
Hot Rod? Manual.
So yeah, being in my mid 20s back then at the time and trying to learn how to drive the only manual transmission vehicle in my family or any of my friends... yeah. You gotta do what you gotta do. Big open parking lots and a lot of quiet swearing while you feel like an idiot with two left feet.
It’s fun as heck once you get it down, but it’s a niche skill now.
And that was then. Today? Half the drivers on the road today have never even thought about what a manual transmission is. They’ve never encountered one.
And how can you eat a Big Mac and yak on your cell phone and shift gears all at the same time?
Hmm.. 20 years ago I’d been driving stick for 20 or so years. Now the only stick I drive is shifted with my left toe.
Cars, yea, auto.
Still, it’s gotta be embarrassing as hell to crash a quarter of a million dollar car because you can’t drive stick.
Turn in your man card dude.
You have nothing to be smug about. Although, I have seldom known anyone admit to being a poor driver, so you have that.
Unless you travel to Europe and rent a car....everything in Europe is a stick; look at the car rental websites and you can't find an automatic car anywhere....
My 28 year old millennial son has ONLY driven sticks. His GF also drives a stick. Not all young-uns are stupid.