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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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Btt!!
I made sure my children knew how to drive with a stick. Now, my grandchildren are learning to drive. I’d like to teach them as well but among parents and grandparents there are 8 vehicles and none are a manual transmission.
Unfortunately the manufacturers and Technology are in the process of breeding shifting out of the riding of motorcycles. Which I consider to be bad. As a many years rider I believe the more you automate the less attention a person pays and on two wheels that’s fatal.
IMHO one thing a manual transmission is good at is it forces the driver to pay more attention to other cars. You have to be more ready to slow down if you’re going to smoothly press the clutch while pressing the brake.
Good skill to have ( i do), but would hardly call it an important skill these days…can’t even remember the last time I was in a stick shift car.
I learned to drive a stick because a manual transmission car was cheaper to buy than an automatic.
interesting. i’m old, but i guess i’m not that old. i have an older honda that i put a rebuilt automatic transmission in (yes it was pretty heavy even for a honda) that is fly-by-wire, and i wondered (but never tried since i didn’t want to waste all that work :)) if i could experiment in neutral and try to push start it. at least, you can get it out of park with a screwdriver.
Likewise. I can’t think of any cars a normal person could afford that even offer a manual transmission any more. I know I’m a geezer, but I would hate to have to drive one in heavy traffic. There was a time you could argue better fuel economy, but not any more. We’re getting 28-32 mpg with a 6 cylinder Chrysler Pacifica on the highway, thanks in part to a 9 speed automatic.
"We don't ride in trunks no matter what you're paying."
I was driving sticks when I was 12...in 1952. Hard to find them anymore...even Jeeps!
18 Wheelers are now ‘automatic’... No skill required. Being able to back up would be useful, but I’m pretty sure most can’t even handle that.
He’d obviously drive a Chrystler
Many new heavy trucks are automatics, which scares the crap out of me. I live in the mountains and the amount of out of state trucks with smoking brakes is wild.
+++++++++
Ineresting, I heard that these heavy truck with autos are really the old clutch and gearbox(s), but with pneumatic actuators and computer control.
I always thought that would be a cool engineering project on a car. Never got around to it though...
Only some are self shifting, many are torque converter style autos. The problem comes when crappy drivers do not know how to properly use the truck’s engine braking system (commonly known as “Jake brakes”) in conjunction with these new transmissions.
I learned to drive a manual transmission when the family car was a Dodge Charger with a four-on-the-floor stirred via one of the long, s-curved, Hurst “pistol grip” shifters. It was not exactly a precise, short-throw procedure, but by the time dad’s swearing and my frayed nerves were finally over, I had ended up being pretty good at the game.
Every passing year makes my abilities in that line of work less valuable. There are many things I have forgotten how to do or that I need a prompt for... but not starting or driving the manual Mopar B/RB-blocks of the ‘60s and early ‘70s.
It’s hard to change a flat when a new car does not come with a spare.
Horses will make a come back.
You have not priced a good horse lately.
The up keep far exceeds a car payment.
Mazda still makes a few models. They are pretty reasonably priced.
https://www.mazdausa.com
And Toyota makes them in the Tacoma, Corolla, Supra and GR86.
toyota.com
They don’t still put that mini tire in the trunk?
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