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I don't really care much anymore. My last stick was a 2000 F250 PSD that I bought with a 6-speed. I got the truck for towing, and I learned after I'd bought it that the automatics had higher towing weights than the sticks.
But the main reason I'd insisted on a stick then was because I'd shifted (see how I did that?) from a bunch of sticks to an ought-a-matick for my then-current pickup, and one afternoon while descending into a canyon in the Bighorn Mountains, my brakes overheated and suddenly -- and I do mean SUDDENLY -- I had NO braking power. Luckily I was able to avoid riding that truck off the side of the mountain, but I decided then that my next truck would be a stick. Since then, I believe Ford and probably GM and Ram have automatics that will hold trucks back just as well as sticks.
At any rate, I taught a bunch of people to drive a stick through the years, and just last week I got a facebook message from an old girlfriend. "(Daughter) is going to enroll in driver's training. I had t tell her the story about me, a great driver, but you giving me the chance to learn how to drive a shift in a super cool car!" I doubt she'd ever mentioned me to her daughter before, but now I'm the guy who taught Mom how to drive a stick in a 'super cool car'! Hey, I'm somebody!
It was an '88 Saab 9000T, by the way. I don't know many who would describe it as a super cool car, but it's been one of my all-time favorites.
It looks really hard and unsafe to drive a manual. How do you know which gears to shift while driving and how do you make sure you shift correctly while keeping your eyes on the road and hands on steering wheel? It looks like driving manuals is hard work, do people actually enjoy driving a manual?
Its not all that complected. Once you learn how to drive a stick it quickly become second nature and you don't think about it at all. You should probably take some lessons and get educated on the subject. As many have said before me I would rather drive the car than the car drive me.
I like driving a stick. Better gas mileage and performance. Plus its much cheaper to fix a clutch compared to a AT.
To me it was like learning to type. I don't think about what letters I am keying, it just became automatic (no pun intended). The same thing with driving a stick. I never looked down at the tachometer or the stick shift once I learned. I drove one until the last few years when the traffic here became horrible. They are fun to drive, especially in a convertible (I had a Firebird with T-tops and a stick). BTW I am not at all coordinated but if I can learn to drive a stick anybody can.
Basically the OP is saying, “since I don’t know how to drive a manual, then nobody should be able toâ€. I notice a lot of this type of attitude from a few people in this forum.
Seems to be the general attitude of society now a days...
I want to learn heal toe and rev matching / blip to become a better manual driver.
In my opinion, not knowing heel-toe downshifting makes you less in control than an automatic. You're either holding the clutch or putting the box in neutral until you speed match the lower gear, or, you're applying excessive engine braking to the drive wheels because the speed and engine for a lower gear are greatly mismatched, if you're braking at limit, doing this will lock your wheels.
The shift time of a downshift should not be different from an upshift.
It's why I always chuckle at manual drivers making claims of more control, then they don't know how to heel-toe or clutch less shift up and down, or double clutch change, or on the way up, quickshifting (or powershifting for those with little mechanical sympathy),
I feel sorry for anyone who can’t drive a manual what would happen if you had to get someone to the ER in a hurry and could not wait for 911 and the only vehicle around was a manual, i guess you’re going to have to take your chances and hope that the paramedics get there in time.
There is a funny meme showing a stick shift and called it a Millennial Anti-Theft Device. Cracks me up every time I see it because I doubt many people under 30 know how to drive a stick. Both my kids, who are in their early 30's know how to drive a manual; it's what they learned on back when they started to drive.
There is a funny meme showing a stick shift and called it a Millennial Anti-Theft Device. Cracks me up every time I see it because I doubt many people under 30 know how to drive a stick. Both my kids, who are in their early 30's know how to drive a manual; it's what they learned on back when they started to drive.
My 3 daughters all know how to drive a manual i told them if they don’t learn than no drivers license, and now my oldest daughter is a semi truck driver working at a major retailer in Michigan and is in a union making great money working in a mans field. She has been all over the country driving for other companies going over the road before getting the job she has now and is home every night.
The real fun of driving a manual was when I had a drag car. It is slow by todays standards , but in the early 90's a real 10 second street car was sort of fast.
I so remember what a pass was like. I had the nitrous set up on a micro switch off the throttle shaft on the carb. I'd roll to the line, set the first light, start bringing the rpm's up, set the second light and bring the rpms up to 6k, and when the tree came down dump the clutch. The car would launch, I'd pull second and the car would always want to drift the left, then came third and sometimes the car would drift some more , then fourth and just run it out to the line... so much fun... 10.80's @ 128mph.
It was even more fun on the street.... there where times I left tire marks pretty much all the way thru third, you could even see a bare spot maybe a foot long where I shifted.
For the most part it just seems like a way for guys to defend 'machismo power' and street racing.
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" I doubt she'd ever mentioned me to her daughter before, but now I'm the guy who taught Mom how to drive a stick in a 'super cool car'! Hey, I'm somebody! 
