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The EyeSight lane crossing alarm on my Outback conclusively tells me that I can’t have my eyes on my iPhone and stay centered in the lane. I don’t think a taco would be a problem.
Is this a fake question? Tell me it's a fake question. You can hear it and feel it when it's time to shift. I hear a stick shift is a built in anti theft device. With all the video games young people have grown up playing, it shouldn't be hard to master shifting a car.
It's worse than that. There's also the high beam switch down there on older cars and occasionally the emergency brake pedal. Five things to control with your feet.
I recall back in the day being able to drive a manual transmission, smoke a cigarette, roll a controlled substance, and not spill my beer. My car had a CB radio. I didn't have power steering or power brakes. It was crank windows and I had to use a key to open the door.
Driving a car with no synchromesh actually took a bit of skill.
I wouldn't mind having the high beam switch back down there. It was very convenient.
Learn to drive a stick on somebody else's car. My dad offered to sell me the truck my brother and I learned on, but I declined.
Once you've learned, it become automatic and isn't that big a deal. I only owned manual transmissions for nearly 30 years, but switched to automatic a few years ago. My right hand and left foot are still wondering what happened.
I was the same way when I saw my dad and mom drive stick when I was growing up. How do they do it?
I thought riding a bike was the hardest thing when I was a kid. Then I got on and with practice learned. After I got comfortable riding I pretty much lived on my bike all throughout my childhood.
Same thing with driving stick. You just need practice. The hardest part is getting the car to move from a standstill. You can find the point where the car wants gas by slowly releasing the clutch while the car is on flat ground. You'll feel the car start to lurch forward. That is the point when you give it gas. Once you get this down shifting is easy and fun.
Then after a few months you don't even think about it. Just like when you learned how to ride a bike.
It may be true that most young people (actually, most people, in general) did not learn how to drive manuals like the rest of us can but it's disrespectful, condescending, and ignorant to disparage or belittle them about it.
The truth be told, it is a skill that becomes more obsolete and unnecessary every day, with a few exceptions.
The US definitely love their automatic, it has been here a very long time, from the 30s I believe. The 50s many cars had automatic transmissions in the US. Sometime in the 70s or 80s, non luxury brands like Ford, Chevy, and Dodge stopped offering a manual option on some of their models. By the 2000s many or most American cars didn't have an option for a manual transmission. When Americans go to the dealership to buy a new car, they are buying automatic, and this has been happening for decades.
With high demand for automatic transmissions, automakers for the US market continue to offer less manual transmission cars. Automatic transmissions were made for luxury and once the middle class grew and dealerships realized Americans were willing to pay extra for automatic, it was downhill for manual transmissions in the US(and its catching on to the rest of the world too). Can you buy a new Ford truck in a manual or other pickups? Not Ford I believe, some of the others offer it. Even commercial trucks, Class C, B, and A are dropping manual.
Its not due to safety(its silly to think manual makes driving unsafe), with the history of automatic transmission in the US grew a population of people who can't drive manual or preferred automatic. OP, driving manual offers a better driving experience than automatic, its not a lot work at all, and its definitely not unsafe. Even in traffic its really not too bad, its more your clutch that is feeling the pain due to premature wear.
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