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.
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.
This thread is an amusing display of sample bias. Only people that want to respond yes and brag about it bothering to respond.
In reality only about 2/3rds of people in the US can drive stick and almost no one owns manual cars.
I’ve never driven a manual car. I’ve had people be like “You can’t drive manual?!” and then I would respond “So are you going to teach me?” The answer is always No, of course not, not in their car (assuming they even owned a manual, which none do anymore). My parents had manual cars but sold them 10+ years before having me.
I understand how a clutch works. It wouldn’t be difficult to learn. But what reason or motivation is there to learn when almost no cars are manual? They total something like 2% of new car sales. If you’re buying something like a 718 GT4 RS or a 911 GT3 RS for maximum driving engagement that’s great, but those cars are priced for the 1% of the 1%.
Even if you had a fun car, which I do, the drive to work is stop-and-go, roads are full, even the fun country backroads are filled with traffic on weekends, forests are burned down, gas is eye-watteringly expensive if you have a slightly performant vehicle. The time to have fun driving cars was 40 years ago.
Agree that fun driving is essentially over, but I don’t think automatic cars are as common outside North America.
In Europe ~80% of cars have manual transmission, mainly due to the (in the past) better fuel efficiency.
Modern automatic cars have often slightly better fuel efficiency, but they cost quite a bit more to buy and maintain, and very nearly everyone knows how to drive stick, so people usually don’t bother.
Edit: As we stop having fun driving cars, should we finally also say goodbye to race biking, and fun motorcycling, once and for all?
Disagree that fun driving is over. Have you driven a tesla?
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There are still fun cars. It’s getting incredibily difficult to have fun driving them.
I have not.
Do they somehow make it fun to be queueing at a busy intersection?
Is driving 70km/h behind a truck somehow a blast if you’re in a Tesla?
If so I’ll make it a priority to try one out ASAP!
Are manuals fun in those instances?
No car is fun in those instances. But that is how we spend the majority of our time on the road.
Hence, “fun driving is over”.
I got a manual for a few reasons, but the big one in my mind was fewer moving parts, and something that I can actually maintain myself. I’ve actually rebuilt a transmission before, and while it’s not the easiest thing to do, I already have the tooling required to pull a transmission and disassemble it.
I’m not redlining my 2002 v6 pickup truck so it’s not a performance thing. It’s just something I like. I like the engagement even if it’s a pain in the ass sometimes.
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While I have noticed that Americans do like to brag about driving manual, it should be noted that outside the US being able to drive manual isn’t bragworthy in the slightest. You’re just part of 99% of drivers. From boy racers to grandma.
Hell, my driving school even taught a guy with down’s syndrome to drive manual. It took longer, but he passed all the tests, so off he went. Apparently it wasn’t even a close thing, and the driving test is quite stringent here in the EU. There’s no need to make fun of people with down’s syndrome, but if they can manage to drive manual with practice anyone without a disability can too.
It’s not difficult. It just takes practice. If your parents drive a manual, which is likely in the EU, you can practice in their car. If your parents have an auto, which is likely in the US, you can’t practice shifting gears so why bother?
Damn thats some sobering real talk. I don’t know how to drive manual, and frankly you make a strong point about how little point there would be to try
why would someone brag about driving manual? it’s the standard in most countries.