I have an airhead BMW and Honda (motorcycles) both still require using a clutch.
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I recently bought a BMW 440I. I chose a 4 year old one because it was cheaper to buy a used car but just as much because the one I bought was a stick shift and they stopped offering that car in stick 2 years ago. I have never owned anything but a stick shift and never want to. I like the direct control. Its so much more fun to drive than an automatic.
I learned how to drive one when I bought my first car, a Firebird Formula.
My current vehicle is auto, but mr. mm’s and DS’s are sticks and I can still keep in practice with those.
No one taught the author how to drive stick.
No one taught the author proper grammar or journalism either.
Interesting that it’s still 80% in Europe.
1. Driving in traffic became more commonplace for me. A manual transmission is awful for that type of use.
2. Automatic transmissions have become so much more advanced that many vehicle models are now more fuel efficient with an automatic transmission than a manual one. It used to be the other way around.
I drove stick shift til the Atlanta rush hour finally got to me and I moved into my Honda CRV but Mr. GG2 still has his 6 speed manual Dodge Ram 2500.
I haven’t driven a stick in years, and I wouldn’t want to have to do so in steep terrain, but I could in a clutch.
I drove sticks for years, some in leased cars, but I eventually learned that the sticks were more expensive to lease than the automatics (value at lease end). So I now have an automatic, but at least it has a manual selector which can be used as a stick to upshift or downshift—comes in handy on downgrades/mountains and gradual braking.
I five a four on the floor while working at a campground when I was 12. Had to slide down the seat to depress the clutch, but always made it five miles to the dump and back.
Moved up to an old double-clutch tractor with no brakes when I was 14.
I have five motor vehicles here. Only one is auto trans, but that is a very nice Allison truck transmission behind a diesel engine.
Double-clutch? In a pinch.
Y’all whining about driving a stick in traffic got nothing on me.
I tore my left Achilles’ tendon and had to wear an air boot for a while.
I got real good at shifting without clutching.
I learned to drive in a 1945 surplus jeep made by Ford. It didn’t have an automagic transmission.
Then I graduated to our 1962 Mercedes Sedan with a 4 on the tree.
We now have a ‘99 Subaru Outback with a 5 speed. My son no longer uses it, but I don’t want to sell it for a variety of reasons, one of them being that I can get a stick shift fix (say that five times really fast) any time I want.
I’ve always preferred a stick, though they’re getting pretty hard to find. You have to pay attention and think ahead a little to drive one smoothly.
I jumped into the driver's seat put it in first pushed the useless clutch and hit the starter. It chugged forward and started. I was surprised it did (especially since it was still attached to the trailer) but then I gave him a lesson in clutchless driving back to the house. Since I have had a lot of junkers I learned to to that a long time ago.
When I was a state copper working in Cook County I was in Chicago in the Greektown restaurant area when my partner and I monitored a Chicago Police Dept flash message about a car jacking that had just occurred in the area within the last few minutes.
Just moments after we made note of it, we heard cars honking at a late model import that was moving slowly in the left lane, jerking and stopping as other cars swerved around it. Since it matched the description of the suspect vehicle, we made a felony stop, detained three suspects who had two pistols in the car, and notified CPD Tactical officers to meet us at the scene.
These suspects were subsequently identified as the offenders in the car jacking, and the reason for the erratic driving that had captured our attention was the fact that the ringleader driver couldn’t operate the 5 speed manual transmission in it very well. One of his accomplices was an 18 wheel truck driver who was entirely capable of driving it, but the boss said that he had always wanted to drive a stick shift and this would be his first chance, so he ordered his buddy to stand down and took the wheel himself.
We wouldn’t catch so many of these clowns if so many weren’t so damn stupid.
As a result of this experience, my 2010 Hummer H3 has a 5 speed manual trans. The transmission also helps me to get the most performance from a relatively heavy vehicle with a relatively small engine. (3.7L 250 hp, but moving 4800 lbs).
When I was a country boy, the stick shift made sense. I’m now an old city dweller, and a stick is more of a nuisance.
I learned how to drive in a 1950 Mercury. It was more like a tank than a car. I still remember coordinating clutch and shift.