Posted on 09/04/2026 2:24:01 PM PDT by Libloather
Are drivers who never learn this skill getting the short end of the stick?
Recent research shows that this once-ubiquitous ability is increasingly becoming a lost art.
Only 18% of Americans know how to use a stick shift — with the number even lower among younger drivers.
In a survey of US drivers, Extreme Terrain found more than a third of Gen Z drivers (35%) never learned to drive stick, compared with just 9% of baby boomers.
Further, driving confidence is waning among younger drivers, with only half of those under 30 believing they could competently drive a manual.
“People in their mid-40s and up are probably the only people left who really grew up with the stick shift; people now don’t know how to drive it unless their parents or grandparents teach them,” driving instructor Andy Nelson, owner of Safe Driver Solutions, told The Post.
To that end, and to Nelson’s point, more than half of manual drivers (56%) surveyed learned to drive a manual from a parent or older relative.
The reason for learning how to drive a stick has evolved over time; only 22% of Gen Z drivers learned out of necessity, compared with 55% of boomers.
“Like most of society, it’s turned toward disposable technology, so rather than fixing the transmission, they just replace it,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
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Over 20 years ago, I took my beater to the VW dealer for a lifetime warranty muffler replacement. After a week of sitting, they explained that they had no one who knew how to move the car. Manual shift. Kinda sad.
I can’t think of any reason a new driver would need to learn this skill.
Illegal aliens drive 18-wheelers. They know how. Sort of.
Lost it? They never had it.
It’s not harder - it just puts more of the car in the driver’s control (almost wrote ‘in the driver’s hands’ but that’s exactly wrong).
Love those paddles — DCH is objectively faster and I can left-foot brake without heel-toe, but “automatic” just means I have little control over gears just when I need more control.
I didn’t know anyone from Gen Z could afford a car.
Horses will make a comeback.
So will paper, in revolt against the digital age.
Shoelaces and analog clocks too.
In 2025, only 0.6% of all new cars delivered in the US had a manual transmission. The good news is that the punks can’t drive a manual, so it is a theft deterrent.
It’s hard to learn to drive a car with a manual transmission if it’s next to impossible to find one, though you could get a motorcycle.
Long ago when the drinking age was 18, I learned to simultaneously drive, operate a manual transmission and drink beer.
These skills I fear are lost amongst the young.
Not really something a new driver really needs to know.
It's gotten so that staff at the carwash let you drive your own car through if it's a manual transmission. Granted, it's a car wash so they're not paying top dollar, but I'm surprised the owners don't train them.
I've also seen signs at valet parking for "no manual transmissions" depending on who's working that night.
When I was a teenager, and perhaps a decade longer, no self respecting young guy would be caught dead driving an automatic. Even us girls often drove them.
Can they change a flat?
What would Jesus drive?
An older Crosstrek, one with Emmanuel transmission.
Another is parallel parking. It’s sadly hilarious watching my neighbors daughter try to park. Up to 20 minutes in one case and she either is on the curb or a foot away.
I’m glad of it. It means a Gen Z’er won’t be able to steal my 2013 Dodge Challenger R/T.
Winning!
-SB
While smoking cigarettes and throwing the empty bottles left-handed over the roof to hit the road signs on the passenger side... and also shoot the road signs between empties.
Yeeeeeeee hawwwwwwwwww
My son (30) has a manual. I really miss having one. I sometimes take his car out when he is at work (work van picks him up).
While smoking cigarettes and tuning tge radio
But…the car never beeped at me. There was no: buckle your seat belt! You’re about to run out of gas! Etc
They still make cars and SUVs with manual transmissions. There's been a slight increase as well from those trying to avoid CVT transmissions.
And since the unconstitutional California Air Research Board (CARB) mileage standards have been tossed at the Federal level, car manufacturers can move away from gas-electric hybrid cars and shift-to-a-new-gear-every-100-rpm automatic transmissions.
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