Posted on 04/10/2022 3:21:08 PM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
Only around 18% of American drivers can handle a manual transmission, according to U.S. News and World Report. You know: the clutch pedal and the stick shift—three on the tree, four on the floor or, I don’t know, five to drive maybe. Different gears, manually engaged.
Turns out that “basically” isn’t the same as “actually.” When my father’s Oldsmobile died this month, my family replaced it as the backup car with a used Chevy. Since I’m the backup driver, I climbed in, stepped on the clutch, started the car, stepped off the clutch. The engine promptly stalled. Only by grinding the gears, smoking the clutch and jerking forward in jumps did I finally get moving.
In 1980, some 35% of cars produced in the U.S. were manuals. Today that figure is closer to 1%, and only 3.7% of Carmax sales are for stick shifts—shockingly low considering that 80% of cars sold in Europe have manual transmissions. Some car makers, including Audi, no longer offer manual transmissions in the U.S. market at all.
So why would anyone want one? Your car is less likely to get stolen, for one thing. Thieves prove as incapable of using a clutch as any other American.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
International tip…
In Italy many stick shifts require you to lift the knob up to put it in reverse - not push down.
3 cylinders, 3 exhaust pipes.
Like an old Kawasaki triple.
Ditto that. I live in flyover country. Getting stuck in Chicago area traffic on rare occasions sucks. If I lived there I would ditch the manual...
As in driving on the left side of the road? I learned when I was stationed in England in the 1970s. BTW, driving on the left is not hard and neither is shifting with your left hand.
“The Dying Art of Driving a Stick Shift”
Not for those of us who have been driving stick since 1950!😎
Back in the 80s, the US military switched procurements of vehicles to automatics. Few recruits knew how to drive manuals, and they felt it wasn’t worth spending the time to teach them.
The school bus market followed a similar path.
Yep
Driving in the right seat on the left of the road.
England.
I actually like american stick shift setups better. Being lefty i prefer dominant hand on the wheel. Shifting is easy.
I plead guilty to your WLS memories. I was with 1/77 Armor as a tank commander, and a mech infantry squad leader with the 1/61 Inf of the 5th Mech. I recall FSB A-4, C-2, the Rockpile, Vandergrift, and Dong Ha and Cam Lo out of Camp Carrol. I was with the 77th Armor when we escorted ARVN units down Highway 9 to the Laotian Border during Operation Lam Son 719.
Lots of bad memories, but many good ones, mainly those of my comrades in arms, ESPECIALLY the ones whose names are on the black wall in DC. Welcome home Bro!!!
Growing up we always seemed to have a stick even when we had other long-distance cars.
It’s been 50/50 for me.
Over the years every automatic-equipped car I’ve owned except one has needed major transmission repairs. Only one manual tranny blew up on me (a stock 3-speed in my 37 Chevy). I would have put a 5-speed in the Mustang I’m building but Parkinson’s is getting in the way of effectively using the clutch.
I prefer manual trans. Nobody steals it.
My 15 year old 4Runner is the first auto trans I have owned.
Everything has been manual before that.
“Manuals are definitely no fun in traffic. Too bad no one ever figured out how to implement a “creep” mode”.
When in traffic, I’ll back off several “car lengths” and creep along until traffic stops fully. I might lose a space or two, but other drivers seem to sense what I’m doing and go with the flow. Even while creeping at idle and first gear, I’ll occasionally touch the brake pedal gently to avoid depressing the clutch.
At 186,000 miles, I’m still on the original clutch, t/o bearing, even brakes!
Automatics would be lucky to do as well.
+1
Uae the new car money for instead for buying a 92 something with a manual transmission and have it restored to new. I won’t buy any car new enough that it has an electonically enhanced key. I lose keys and replacing one of those things at 75 to 200 dollars is not something I fancy. When I get a car I go get at least four copies of the old time key and leave one in the car and one in my wallet and two in the drawer at home.
My 3 on the tree was a 47 Chevy Deluxe with vacuum shift. Going to 2nd an 3rd gear had to be timed right. Too, fast and it would hang or grind the gears. There was no speed shafting. It was a ladies shifting device.
I try hard to get the new drivers in my family to learn clutch. Tell them how important, etc. I don’t understand why not interested. I always wanted to drive everything!
Ps. I passionately prefer manual transmissions and windows!
My daily driver in the US is a stick, but I spend time in a couple of African countries where they have right hand drive. The biggest problem is the “signal and turn with left hand, and downshift with right” isn’t in the equation. Here I do it all the time - there it’s not an option. Best part is that (at least where am) if you see 4 cars a day it’s “a lot of traffic”.
I have had manuals for the last 40 years, presently I have a 2015 Audi A4 Quatro Premium with a 6-speed. When I dropped it at some valet parking here in S FL - I heard the punk valet call out to his colleague “It’s got a stick!”. I didn’t know if that meant he didn’t know how to drive it or if he was celebrating the fact that he had a chance to drive a manual. It is starting to look like I will not have the chance for my next car.
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