Driving manual or automatic

[Oscar Henri]

Do most North Americans not know how to drive manual cars (stick shift)? One of my ex-girlfriend was an exchange student in Canada almost 20 years ago and she took driving lessons there, and it was automatic cars, because that was everything the driving school had. In Europe at that time it was the complete opposite. Very few if any took lessons for automatic only. Nowadays it is more common with automatic here, mostly on cabs where it is useful because they drive much in the cities. Still, most Euros will think you are not a "real driver" if you cannot drive manual.

North American members here, do you know how to drive manual? I believe that in the future automatic cars will be the standard everywhere in the world, because technology always goes forward and it is no point in having manual transmission, but first the snobby mentality outside N America needs to change.

 

[Batman_]

I do, but I can confirm that probably 1-5% of Americans know how to. I didn't learn how until several years after I got my license, and only did so because I found a manual car for dirt cheap. But now I can't ever go back, I honestly don't know how anyone can drive an automatic, it's painfully boring in comparison. I firmly believe that automatic transmissions make you a worse driver since the driving is so passive and its easy to distract yourself.

 

[The Resilient]

Can drive a 3/5/8/9/10/13/18/21 speed transmission. And no, the general majority of people do NOT know how to drive a manual vehicle

 

[D'Kora Koloth]

I learned on a stick shift. It's very difficult to find new cars that are manual. The closest are paddle shifters, but it's not the same. I rue the day when motorcycles become automatic.

On the advancement of technology and vehicles, grab your tinfoil hats here: I think with self driving technology, it's going to remove our ability, either consciously or not, to explore. Do you remember the freedom of your first bicycle? Your first car or motorcycle? How you could go and explore? Now we have the start of self driving cars. Just plug in where you want to go and it'll now drive, on the most efficient route, nothing to worry about on your end. It completely removes adventure, planning, problem solving skills, etc. I think this is only beneficial to a select (((few))) and not the general populace.

 

[Athanasius]

I can drive them but I think most Americans under 40 probably do not know how to, simply because sticks had become relatively uncommon by the mid-90s and now are probably rare.

I don't miss driving one myself.

 

[RDF]

Can definitely confirm that almost no Americans can drive manual cars. I can drive tiptronic (essentially manual without the clutch). I was shocked when I recently visited Europe and learned that everybody drives manual haha.

 

[Sherman]

I grew up driving cars with stick shift. In Europe they still use mostly stick shift. When I lived in the Netherlands before coming back, I sold my American car I brought over to two Dutch Auto collectors. It had automatic. They were thrilled to get the exotic American car with air conditioning and automatic transmission.

 

[The Resilient]

I grew up driving cars with stick shift. In Europe they still use mostly stick shift. When I lived in the Netherlands before coming back, I sold my American car I brought over to two Dutch Auto collectors. It had automatic. They were thrilled to get the exotic American car with air conditioning and automatic transmission.

wait, air conditioning and automatic are considered exotic in that country ? ? or just that it's American is considered exotic ?

 

[Kingsley Davis]

Roosh is in the market for a MANUAL transmission Toyota Forerunner.

https://www.rooshvforum.com/thread-74527-post-2046076.html#pid2046076

 

[Hermetic Seal]

I've driven manual cars for about ten years of my life, but I'm probably not going to drive one again. It can be fun under the right conditions, but since I'm tall and have long legs, most cars are not scaled for someone of my proportions and operating the clutch causes unpleasant back soreness on drives longer than about forty minutes or so.

Wouldn't be so bad, but living in the Atlanta area, traffic is awful and you have to stop and go a lot. Manual is way more appealing if you're not often in those situations.

 

[Leonard D Neubache]

I used to be in the manual chest-thumping club but not anymore. Rack up enough k's and the novelty wears off. Stick is nice if you have a shitty, unreliable car that you can park facing down a hill. But honestly once you have a reliable car and roadside assist it's difficult to justify a manual if you're eating a lot of distance.

With an automatic and cruise control the road gets your total attention. A few ago months I was behind a guy that had to emergency brake and he stalled the car. I'd sure hate to be in that position if you had to get moving again in a hurry for some reason.

Like a lot of things as a man, it's something you should learn but nothing you need to hinge your masculinity on. Caveats on transmission may apply for particularly underpowered cars but that can be mitigated by not driving particularly underpowered cars.

 

[Hell_Is_Like_Newark]

Stick shift is one of the best anti theft devices out there. There have been several car jacking foiled around because the car was a manual shift.

 

[Papaya]

Stick if its a sports car, else it aint a sports car. Automatic for everything else. Like Leonard said...once youve driven enough there's no novelty in all the extra motion even if it is 2nd nature

 

[rpg]

I love manual transmission except in bumper to bumper jams on the interstate.

 

[RexImperator]

I love manuals which are sadly disappearing. (Even BMW is getting away from them.)

It’s one of the reasons I bought a Jeep. I also considered the Toyota Tacoma which is one of the few pickups still available with a manual transmission.

Good point about traffic jams...they are terrible in those.

 

[911]

You also get better mileage and fewer transmission issues with manual, if you're a good driver. The only reason to go automatic is if you do a whole lot of stop and go high traffic driving.

 

[Easy_C]

I think the anti-theft argument is the largest argument.

My preferred conrol system is the manual clutch that you find on V-twin motorcycles, but in the car I don't care. It's so far removed from the more visceral experience of a motorcyle that I don't care for most of the reasons stick shift advocates have.

 

[renotime]

I used to be in the manual chest-thumping club but not anymore. Rack up enough k's and the novelty wears off. Stick is nice if you have a shitty, unreliable car that you can park facing down a hill. But honestly once you have a reliable car and roadside assist it's difficult to justify a manual if you're eating a lot of distance.

With an automatic and cruise control the road gets your total attention. A few ago months I was behind a guy that had to emergency brake and he stalled the car. I'd sure hate to be in that position if you had to get moving again in a hurry for some reason.

Like a lot of things as a man, it's something you should learn but nothing you need to hinge your masculinity on. Caveats on transmission may apply for particularly underpowered cars but that can be mitigated by not driving particularly underpowered cars.

What the hell was that guy doing that he needed to use the e-brake?

If you're driving a lot a manual is superior because you'll get better gas mileage.

And I think the stick shift forces you to pay more attention, it's harder to fuck around with your phone or whatever when you have to constantly shift gears, and it's not like you have to take your eyes off the road to shift.

That being said, they are definitely more of a pain in the ass to drive around. If you're stuck in traffic it sucks. If you stop on a steep hill and there's some dickhead right up against your bumper it sucks doubly.

The only thing that bugs me today about manual is that they really don't put them in sports cars. Paddles are super gay.

 

[Kona]

I too was a manual proponent, mainly because of towing control. Nowadays, pulling something heavy with these modern auto trannies is a doggone breeze.

Aloha!

 

[Leonard D Neubache]

What the hell was that guy doing that he needed to use the e-brake?
...

When I say "he had to emergency brake" I mean he had to basically stomp the brake pedal through the firewall and pray that the anti-lock system would bring him up short of the cow that had wandered onto the road. I'm not sure if you're referring to the handbrake. We don't call that an emergency brake here.

I will admit I'm not really comfortable 4WDing with an auto. I simply don't trust a machine to interpret that I'm powering on the pedal while wanting to tease the clutch in order to maintain power without assuming speed.

I once had to drag a log out of the scrub with an auto Landcruiser. The revs climbed and climbed and climbed without result and then suddenly it just LURCHED forwards. I also once had an auto SUV that refused to reverse over a piddly little street curb. I had the revs up at 4500 before I decided it wasn't safe to keep risking turning it into a missile if the clutch dropped suddenly.

Autos are definitely at a severe disadvantage when it comes to high power low speed applications.

As for sports cars I would define a difference between sports and muscle. I think muscle cars really aught to be manuals but it makes more sense for sports cars to do whatever it takes to get the best track time.