Posted on 06/01/2012 7:23:21 AM PDT by US Navy Vet
Go to any given dealership with 100 new cars.
On average, just four of the 2012 models will have manual gearboxes.
The trend of the vanishing third pedal is nothing new, notes The Detroit News.
Even a decade ago, just 8.5 percent of 2002 models were manuals. The paper’s own automotive reporter even confesses she never learned to drive a stick shift until it essentially became a job requirement.
It’s more than a little contradictory to automotive reviews (including many you’ll read here) extolling the pleasure of enthusiastic driving with a true manual gearbox. Likewise, purists gravitate to manuals for tackling their favorite twisting road or occasional track day. It’s the original form of in-car connectivity.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Me too. :) I have a 74 beetle and a TR7 Triumph now, along with a 1994 Ford Ranger 4WD, also a manual.
“While lighting a cigarette and tuning the radio...”
LOL...I’ve been known to eat with my right hand and reach over to shift with my left hand.
I loved my stick-shift pickup truck so much that I developed a callus on my left butt cheek.
My jeep is also a stick and it is much more fun to drive even when stuck in traffic.
I read an article from Four Wheel magazine where each and every writer preferred a stick for several reasons.
The most important for all of them was survivability. Each had been stranded by a auto that hit a rock but one ever drove home with a stick that had a gash in the gear box and no fluid. He said it was a noisy ride but he made it home with no problems.
Sticks are more forgiving and cheaper to replace. They last longer if properly cared for and are more interesting.
I have a sticker on the side of my Jeep that says “Shift Happens.”
I had to replace the shift handle. The new one came from http://www.hotrodshiftknob.com/
You have to pay more attention when driving a shift and you are more in tune with our car as well.
Downside for me is that it’s much harder to eat and drive, although I usually do that on the highway.
don’t worry.. they will outlaw eating in the car soon enough.
Sticks ate actually better for snow covered roads. Instant downshift ability is key and not available on automatics
We’re flatlanders but have lots of mud. As long as you enter the mud in 4 low - 1st or 2nd, it’ll pull you through by itself. Mr. Liberalh8ter likes it especially because doing it this way, he doesn’t spill his drink! LOL
Did mine in a 69 Beetle. Learned to work on engines with that one.
When it finally gave up the ghost, I had a box full of parts left over. Don't know how it still ran, but it did.
I hated driving stick, but I did so because I abhorred the inherent complexity of automatic transmissions, and suspected that the simpler manual transmission would be more reliable and easier to fix if it breaks.
But driving stick was a pain in the rear. Between having to steer the car, hold my coffee, and light and smoke my cigarettes, my hands had enough to do without having to constantly reach for the damn shift lever.
That I am tall also made it a nuisance on my GM car to reach a steering column shift lever with the seat pushed all the way back, especially with having one foot in the air.
My Volvos with their stick on the floor and better overall ergonometric design made it easier for me, but I still hate driving stick. Damn nuisance.
Sure, the performance of auto transmissions is still spongier--so add a little extra horsepower and that's problem solved.
And if autos burn more gas, so what if you can afford it?
Probably the only reason someone drives stick today, is because they like to play vroom-vroom games when they drive like children.
Cars are for getting you from here to there safely. They are also, unfortunately, sometimes needed as a status-symbol sales aid in business and socially.
O and I drive one of these too(mine is Red):
http://www.harley-davidson.com/en_US/Motorcycles/electra-glide-classic.html
I think grampa told me his T had three pedals aside from gas and brake: Reverse, low, and high.
I hear ya...
My car is a Hyundai Elantra...very underpowered. I have determined that it is physically impossible for anybody to learn on that car (without breaking something).
Nice. My first car was a TR6 which had a super-heavy clutch and engaged practically right at the floor. So it had to be mashed to the floor and held there. Fun car, it is in a state of disrepair in my parent’s barn. Someday I’ll get it back together and running again.
I used to drive a tactical deuce and half semi in the Army. We got into some tight places, but compared to the Dixie contingent, we Yankees simply could not drive. Hence the dominance of NASCAR by Dixie.
Of course, like all good FR posters I have not yet read the article :) but are there not plenty of hybrid transmissions with the paddle shift option, giving one the manual experience w/o the manual clutch?
Hooray for the wrinkleys - AND the can drive Auto too!
1980 Xterra with 5 speed on the floor.
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