Is being able to drive manual a lost art?

[Thump553]

I realized stick was dead back at the time of the first Gulf War. Hummers were all the fashion then and I learned that they were all automatics-the military didn't want to train enlistees how to drive stick.

Most of my cars until the last decade were stick. Now that automatic has caught up or surpassed stick in gas economy, and given standard is just about impossible to find in a normal car and given standard pretty much kills resell value I doubt I'll ever have a standard again unless I get a play car.

 

[AdamK47]

Both of my cars are manual. Hadn't driven an automatic in the past few years until I got one a couple weeks ago as a rental. It felt really weird driving it. My left kept wanting to press an invisible pedal. Especially every time I tried starting it.

 

[who?]

With an automatic I keep my left foot jammed into the far left floorboard to keep me in the seat and my right foot works the pedals.

 

[StrangerGuy]

I almost only drove manual in my entire motoring life, I would fall asleep if you put in with an automatic.

While I do agree manuals are technically obsolete, I don't see the point of not learning it especially if one is going to spend almost the same time and money learning automatic only in a driving school like in Singapore.

 

[Staples]

I used to know some guy from the England. Over the internet of course. Ten years ago, he told me that more than 90% of the cars in England were stick shift and automatic was rare. Of course, this guy loved to fix cars so all his cars were probably 10+ years old. I am not sure if he was right about 90% of NEW cars being stick. Is there anyone from the UK or Europe who can give me a break down of how many manual/automatic transmissions are sold in new cars?

 

[purbeast0]

I have been driving nothing but manual the last....25yrs, I would suggest you not to do it. Now sure about the new one but bimmer stall very easily, their clutch is like an on/off switch. With an M4, you will likely burn your clutch a lot, stall a lot and have very bad gas mileage.

Damn so after 25 years of driving manual you still haven't learned how to do it?

 

[sze5003]

That's funny because I learned stick on valet cars and most of them were m3's and Porsches.

 

[Denly]

Damn so after 25 years of driving manual you still haven't learned how to do it?

Funny. Lucky everyone drove my e46 stall the first time, I MEAN EVERYONE. I guess unless you're a life long bimmer fan you would expect it to be a little more forgiving. When I said it stall I meant about once a month.

 

[NetWareHead]

That's funny because I learned stick on valet cars and most of them were m3's and Porsches.

Ugh. I heard a valet driver grind the shit out of my gears and stall multiple times in front of me. It took all of my will to resist plucking him from the car and parking it myself. I hate using valet parking and avoid it if I can help it. Or at least I ask if the guy can drive stick before handing the keys over.

 

[sze5003]

Ugh. I heard a valet driver grind the shit out of my gears and stall multiple times in front of me. It took all of my will to resist plucking him from the car and parking it myself. I hate using valet parking and avoid it if I can help it. Or at least I ask if the guy can drive stick before handing the keys over.

What I should have said was I got better at stick because I had a valet job in college. I never did any of that in front of customers. But knowing some of the things they did is why I also only valet with the company I worked for since I know the boss and some of the people that still work there. Also it's free for me.

 

[repoman0]

Ugh. I heard a valet driver grind the shit out of my gears and stall multiple times in front of me. It took all of my will to resist plucking him from the car and parking it myself. I hate using valet parking and avoid it if I can help it. Or at least I ask if the guy can drive stick before handing the keys over.

Stall ... fine, different cars can take some getting used to. Grind the gears .... I'm absolutely plucking the guy out and parking it myself

So far I've managed to avoid handing any car over to a valet. I am hoping to keep it that way for all of time.

 

[highland145]

Stall ... fine, different cars can take some getting used to. Grind the gears .... I'm absolutely plucking the guy out and parking it myself

So far I've managed to avoid handing any car over to a valet. I am hoping to keep it that way for all of time.

And your side business? Repos?