And where are you from? And how old? Not “do you” but just if you know how.
I’m in the US, mid 30s and can (and do) drive a manual transmission.
In Germany nearly everyone can drive manual. Used to be that if you didn’t learn how to drive manual in driving school, you weren’t allowed to drive manual with your license.
AFAIK that is still the case, no?
Prettty sure that’s still the case. I talked to a young person two weeks ago who said she’s not allowed to drive a manual transmission car.
Same in Sweden. Most people get a license for manual and then buy an automatic.
31,Sweden
Yes, and I prefer a manual car to an automatic. It keeps me a lot more dialed in while driving.
35, living in Europe, I had to re-learn manual. I had only automatics in Latin America. It is certainly more fun and I feel I’m actually driving.
Where in Latin-America?
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I’m from Europe, I was taught on manual transmission and drove with it for 10 years. But I switched to automatic (actually not on purpose, I didn’t notice the car I was buying had it), and now vastly prefer it.
I don’t care what people say, automatic is superior.
It depends. Semi-nice car? Hands down.
Cheap underpowered econobox? Manual is usually better. They cheap out on the automatic transmission. No es bueno.
Eg. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_PowerShift_transmission#Faulty_operation
I knew someone that has that issue on their Fiesta, luckily that was only for those specific vehicles.
I wouldn’t buy an automatic bike, coz I ride bikes for fun.
The daily get-to-work shitbox? I don’t want to babysit the gearbox, just do your thing while I chill to some tunes.
I can, not well, but I can. damn hill starts.
Not sure how common it is now but some cars had a “hill holder” feature that would hold the brake for you when starting on a hill. Makes that whole process much, much easier.
Just pull the parking brake and accelerate until you feel the car slightly raising and then drop the parking brake.
Eventually you get a feeling for it and drop the parking brake before it’s “fighting” the accelerator.
This might sound trivial to some, but I know several people that never use the parking brake in these situations and instead do a manic race with their feet and the car drops a couple meters back and they over accelerate to compensate.
Yes, this is how I do it. I also do this when reversing out of parking spaces. Because my car’s reverse requires pushing down on the stick and is close to 1st, I’ve saved myself from driving into polls a few times.
Yeah, I learned the parking brake method.
A couple meters, you say? Sounds like a great way to trash your transmission.
A couple meters, you say? Sounds like a great way to trash your transmission.
It drives (pun intended) me nuts, but they don’t listen to reason. And the worst of all, is that they got their license in a hilly town and say they weren’t taught that. While I learned in a flatter place and was taught this.
The parking brake method is how I learned. But I grew up here, where you are always on a hill and always in stop and go traffic. So I eventually just give up on stick shift.
This is the way. Drove a tiny 4cyl manual in SF for way to long
Older diesels had a handy feature for it too, in the way of a hand throttle.
Hands down one of the worst “feature” of new vehicles IMO. If you need help on a hill, either use the parking brake like everyone else, learn to drive better, or just drive an auto.
Imagine gatekeeping manual transmissions.
yeah i hate fucking driving test examiners, gatekeeping cars.
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23, US. Yes, but I find them pointless for daily driver cars. Modern automatics are more fuel efficient and just make more sense because they’re much easier to operate and less annoying in stop and go traffic.
They’re great for off-roading and racing, but outside of those use cases automatics are just better.
Any spirited drive is better with a manual.
That’s true of course, but most people don’t drive in “spirited” way.
I’m almost 30, living US and don’t know how to drive a manual.
I just don’t understand the purpose of learning or the superiority complex around those that drive manual. In my region of the world, the vast majority of cars are automatic to the point where you might have to straight up custom order a vehicle to get manual.
Sure, if I’m outside of the US, manual might be the standard in some areas…but I have no interest in attempting to drive a vehicle in a foreign country where I don’t know their local laws of the road. I’d rather take public transport or use services like taxis, Ubers, Lifts, etc.
It’s the year 2023. Automatic cars nowadays are more efficient than manuals in a majority of cases.
If you want to drive a manual or you prefer manuals, that’s great! More the power to you and I’m glad you like it! But to have a superiority complex about it is just odd.
It’s like some boomer making fun of a gen Z kid for not knowing how to use a VCR. So what? You don’t to learn how to use a VCR in 2023.
Again, this is in terms of my region. I get that manuals are common in other regions. But again, I have no interest in driving in a region where I don’t know the local rules of the road.
honestly i don’t understand what makes them better for racing. can the auto not be tuned differently to prioritize speed and acceleration over fuel efficiency?
Automatic gearboxes can’t predict the road ahead, they can only react to the current RPM and speed.
It’s not just about speed and acceleration. It’s also about control. Racing drivers face an infinite number of different conditions out on the track and it would be impossible to tune the transmission in such a way that it does exactly what the driver wants 100% of the time. And it really has to be perfect. 99.9% isn’t good enough because the other 0.1% can wreck the car if it does something unexpected while driving at the limit.
Modern, high end race cars are automatics. Low end or lighter cars will be manual.
Modern, high end race cars are automatics.
No, they’re sequential manuals*. Unless you’re talking about drag racing, where automatics are common.
*Edit: Or they can also be sequential semi-automatics if you want to be extra pedantic. But personally I’d classify a transmission based on whether the driver has to select the desired gear, or if the computer selects the appropriate gear without driver input, because that’s the thing that matters in the end.
They’re great for off-roading and racing, but outside of those use cases automatics are just better.
5-speeds are definitely a pain in the ass in stop and go traffic, but the benefits of driving a manual transmission goes beyond use cases. For example, manual transmissions will always be cheaper to repair and easier to diagnose than automatic ones. Similarly, basic 4-cylinder engines will always be easier to diagnose and repair than the highly complicated CVT engines in all the new automatic cars.
Note too that a 5-speed Honda civic made 20 years ago will easily get 45 mpg, simply because by the time you get to third gear, the car is light enough that you can just ride the clutch for the next 1,000 feet. My 05 manual civic ex gets around 40 mpg combined easily, and I’ll never have to worry about potentially paying a third of the car’s out the door price if the engine ever decides to self destruct. I know we’re discussing transmission and not engines, but since you brought up the newer fuel efficient automatics, it seems worth noting.
It’s all preference at the end of the day, though. I personally like how connected to the car you feel with manual transmissions, use cases/utility arguments aside. I also kinda wonder if manual drivers are less likely to crash, since it’s difficult if not impossible to be on your phone while driving.
My car has a manual transmission. I learned to drive on a manual transmission. I prefer it. When I drive a car with automatic transmission, I step on its nonexistent clutch.
I still instinctively press the non-clutch when I have to slam on the brakes
And when you’re in an automatic and you reach for the phantom gear shift. At least once every time i drive one.
Yes.
In Europe you basically have to be handicapped to not learn to drive manual. Most people get the manual driving license because it allows you to drive both, whereas the automatic one doesn’t.
Manual transmission was and often still is cheaper, often cheaper to repair, often more reliable, often uses less fuel, and in cheap and less powerful cars the combination is often better. Because there are so many manual cars here, including at rental places, it’s a no brainer to learn to drive manual.
This being said, that’s changing. Also, less and less young people are getting a driving license due to affordability and cars no longer being the status symbol they once were.
In Europe you basically have to be handicapped to not learn to drive manual.
That’s changing though, I see many people taking their driving lessons in EVs, which in turn means they’ll only be able to drive automatics. I guess that won’t bother them too much as they’ll probably only want to drive EVs anyway, or else they would’ve chosen to take their lessons in a regular manual like most people
or else they would’ve chosen to take their lessons in a regular manual like most people
More likely that it’s often their parents’ car, I suspect. Depending on where you live, practising in your own car can save thousands in driving school fees.
But for the non-Europeans reading, the thing is that with the manual license you get to choose. You can drive both. Automatic license, you can never drive a manual.
Rental companies are almost certain to replace their cars with EVs sooner rather than later. But if you want to rent a bigger van, those’ll likely be ICE for a while longer. A van like that can easily do hundreds of thousands of kms. That’s a lot for a van that does the occasional move.
Of course, 28, French. 99,99% of people here drive manual (or at least know how to).
31, Germany, I can’t drive at all. City kid.
I’m pretty sure North America is the only part of the world where automatic is the default.
I’m American and learned on a manual, which I drove for a decade and a half. But I’m one of the few people I know my age who can drive a stick.
Plenty of Boomers can drive stick though.
UAE, mid 20s and I know how to drive a manual but went with an automatic.
Germany, 25, yup
Yep. 27, Finland. I learned on a manual (in the EU, if you learn on an automatic, you’re restricted to automatics only until you pass the driving exam in a manual) and drove manuals until a few years ago when my late grandma’s health started declining and her car got passed down to us because she could no longer drive.
India, been driving manual since 20 yr old , been a while and planning to get an auto
Yes, but only on motorcycles. That’s because there’s no such thing as an automatic motorcycle[1][2][3][4][5], so you have to learn manual if you want to ride one. Unfortunately this skill doesn’t transfer well to manual driving because on bikes you operate the clutch with your hand and the shift with your foot. I’m not terribly worried about that, though… I’ve literally never even been on the inside of a manual drive car before!
For context: I’m mid-20s from the American south.
