Is driving a stick shift becoming a lost art?

[Blown70]

the wife's focus is an auto cause she cant drive a stick to save her life.

hahaha My Girlfriend cant drive one either,, guess what I bought with my new daily driver.... 6 spd....hahahhaha

[Mike DC]

                               

BTW everyone,

my example about the 50K clutch life wasn't supposed to be a literal mileage number back there.  I was just making the point that one big clutch is being traded for several smaller clutches in an automatic.  

 

[Smokey Bear]

The great thing about them is that your kids and wife can't drive the car !

I like manuals for the simplicity, reliability and fun factor. I would have bought a 09 Hemi Ram during the clunker drive, but they don't make them with a stick! A Hemi Ram with NO manual available? No sale.

Times are moving on I guess. The really old farts laugh at us because we can't double clutch a non-synchro   

[Ghoste]

Not all wives, mine can drive a standard with the best of them.

[Brock Samson]

found this, seems relevent.. 

[SFRT]

every car I have owned in the last 30 years has been a manual. I cant stand automatics. they actually creep me out, like, I dont feel I am driving the car. I think its from my lifelong motorcycle thing, shifting is like 90% of effective driving. with an automatic you might as well be sitting at home on the couch.

Luckily my wife feels the same. all 3 of our street cars/trucks are manuals. People freak when I take them out in the Charger here in san francisco, they just cant seem to get their head around it. funny.

I learned to drive on a 3 on the tree Rambler when I was like 12. with my drunk dad next to me. he needed someone who could take him to the Lucky Mart for booze i guess. LOL.

I am violating the rule with the Coronet, it will be my first automatic, but I figure, since its for the track, and my car club buddies will also be racing it occasionally, thats OK.

[chargergirl]

Dually is a stick, my 3/4 ton is an auto. When I lived in Tampa there is no way I would have a stick. Left leg would have been blown in 2 years. Traffic was awful! Automatics lend themselves to heavy traffic and I turn the overdrive off when in stop and go (3/4 ton). When I moved to Hudson area it was more rural and therefore lent itself to driving a stick. Found the car I'm about to get back and bought it at 24K miles. Put better than 100K on it and still had a great clutch. Although I was told by a mechanic, not MY mechanic, that I would be putting a new clutch in the car since I was a chick and most chicks blow the clutch every 3K miles. A few years later saw him again and he was surprised that I had same vehicle and the same clutch. I love driving a stick! Had a guy following me down a twisty road and thought my brakes lights didn't work...thought I was a guy when he saw the brake lights did work. Stopped where I stopped and I thought he was going to fall down when I stepped out of the drivers side. Love a stick but not in heavy, every day, go to work traffic. NWFL is like Hudson lots of open spaces.

[Todd Wilson]

Everyone should drive a non synchro 4 speed tranny! Then you will truely know how to shift a manual.


Todd

[451-74Charger]

Rather have a stick, you have more control of the car.
on an auto you use the brake pedal much more, and the engine isnt really used to slw you down or control your speed. Imagine icy reads, you can use a rear wheel drive with stick and let the engine slow you down, but an auto, you have to use the brakes, and they work on the front too.
can I say slippy slide

[Ponch ®]

I learned how to drive stick when I was 13-14, but I don't know if I could drive one pretty well now. Really, I just haven't had access to a stick car since then. Maybe it is like riding a bike, but it's been at least 13 years since I even drove a stick. Every family car and/or every car that I've owned just happened to be automatics.

I do like to mess around with the AutoStick® on my 08 Charger...but it's not the same.

[Ghoste]

Everyone should drive a non synchro 4 speed tranny! Then you will truely know how to shift a manual.


Todd

There's the quick way to tell who the farm boys are.

[Cooter]

While My 505 C.I. Dart is an automatic, I'm thinking bout puttin the 4-gear back in it...
The General Lee is a 5-speed, as well as myu daily driver Subaru, cause if it weren't I'd never get up hills..

I think Everybody should shove third and go sideways at 50 MPH just one time before they die...Course, there's nothin' like the gear jammers at the local track either.. Sure, there are people watching the drags but when the stick cars come up to the line, they get up and make their way down to the fence and hang on to it...Nothin' Like watching the gear jammers make a pass..Everybody round here thinks their competing with Ronnie Sox when they drive a 4-speed hard..

[Mike DC]

 
I usually like 4spds better than 5 or 6.  IMHO there actually is such a thing as too many gears.   

With these modern 6spd trannys, there is so much shifting all the time .  .  . you might as well leave the motor pegged at a steady RPM and just row the gearshift like a 6-notch gas pedal. 
     

[PocketThunder]

 
I usually like 4spds better than 5 or 6.  IMHO there actually is such a thing as too many gears.   

With these modern 6spd trannys, there is so much shifting all the time .  .  . you might as well leave the motor pegged at a steady RPM and just row the gearshift like a 6-notch gas pedal. 
     

Most of the time you find yourself skipping a gear on purpose anyways.

[trevor74]

My first car I got when I turned 16 was a stick. My old man took me out to show me how to do it and needless to say it didnt go very well but as I got better at it. I LOVED IT. Than the car blew a head gasket and cracked the block so we junked it. Next car I bought was an auto and I really didnt like not having the stick. It just makes driving it so much more fun and you feel way more in control 

[Blown70]

I have 6 spds, more are made and some have a skip shift mode, which can be turned off, in town driving most Techs too will tell you do 1-3-5-6 or 1-2-4-6

T

[bordin34]

Driving a stick is too easy not to. Its easy to learn and fun, eventually I will be making my Charger a 4-speed. The only problem with driving a stick that I have is when I drive an automatic, I get in the car and slam my left foot to the ground to start it almost every time same thing at stop lights.

[Mr.Woolery]

I've been driving stickshift cars exclusively all my life...I actually feel a bit weirded out trying to drive an automatic car.  My '71 Charger is the first auto car I've ever bought.  I'll keep it an auto for now, but will likely convert it to a 4spd at some point in the future.  There's nothing like working the pedals....rev matching, heel/toeing, trailbraking, etc.

It's very much a zen experience.

[Arthu®]

In Europe (this is my estimate and in no way scientific) 90% of the cars have sticks. So overhere it is anything but a lost art. It's rather odd if you can't drive a stick shift.

Arthur

[Charger440RDN]

In Europe (this is my estimate and in no way scientific) 90% of the cars have sticks. So overhere it is anything but a lost art. It's rather odd if you can't drive a stick shift.

Arthur

Interesting... I wonder why almost all of the imports to the U.S. and cars made here in the U.S. are only automatics then? Do they think americans are too lazy to drive a stck shift? 

[Brock Samson]

 I figgured it was a size efficency issue, sticks get better mialage and are "sportier", Autos are more Luxery orientated. Big cars like big american interstate cruisers have traditionally had them. Europian cars thend to rev higher and do more with less needing a stick to wring Max efficency from their peaky engines...
Alot of American cars can't even be ordered with sticks anymore, but in Europe it's traditional to drive a stick.

So yeah, It is becoming a lost art.

[chargergirl]

Towed the trailer down to Gator Nationals with my 3/4 ton/Auto. The whole way Mark is clutching...at least trying to. Everything he drives is stick so it's instinctual. I never said a word till we got there and he made a comment about trying to find the clutch. I said she'll never grow a clutch...he chuckled...we'll see. He was impressed with the way she towed though. Now he'll get to laugh at me when I do it cause the new/old car is a stick and will be my daily driver.

[Mike DC]

Three reasons for the manual/auto difference in Europe versus USA: 


--  In america the "average" driver of a car has been diluted way down from the enthusiasts.  Virtually every adult drives a car in the US and that reduces the stick-shifting percentage.  And indirectly, this also encourages ordering automatics because of resale values even if the first owner might have preferred a stick themselves. 

--  Gas mileage is extremely relevant in europe because of the prices.

--   USA is stoplight-to-stoplight around town and bumper-to-bumper on the interstates half the time.  Europe would compare to a much more rural area in the USA. 

   

[Arthu®]

Three reasons for the manual/auto difference in Europe versus USA: 


--  In america the "average" driver of a car has been diluted way down from the enthusiasts.  Virtually every adult drives a car in the US and that reduces the stick-shifting percentage.  And indirectly, this also encourages ordering automatics because of resale values even if the first owner might have preferred a stick themselves. 

--  Gas mileage is extremely relevant in europe because of the prices.

--   USA is stoplight-to-stoplight around town and bumper-to-bumper on the interstates half the time.  Europe would compare to a much more rural area in the USA. 

   

I completely agree that gas mileage is more relevant than in the U.S., but on the subject of average drivers I do not agree. I believe about 95% (again just a figure of my imagination) of the adults in at least the Netherlands have their drivers license. Which doesn't relate to the average driver/enthusiasts at all. I think everybody can learn to drive a stick. It helps that when we take our driving lessons (we actually get lessons and if you are no good than you must take a ton of em), and I think that is where the difference is. We have a much more advanced driving test to do before we get our license, and even though it is possible to get an automatic license it is rarely the case. This also because that would mean that you could only drive an automatic, which is pretty senseless here in Europe.

We do see an increase in sales of cars with automatics, for a large part because they have become a lot more fuel efficient. Also people now really think that it might be worth it. The roads around our cities are no different from the ones in the U.S. I believe, they are packed between 7 AM and 10 AM and packed again between 3 PM and 7 PM. Honestly I don't mind driving in heavy traffic with a stick, it is just what you are used to. New cars rarely have heavy clutches to deal with so your leg doesn't get sour either.

Arthur

[Ghoste]

No scientific proof to this but I would offer another possible reason as well.  Dealers in North America tend to primarily order vehicles with automatics.  They do this because there is more profit in a car with an automatic (every option purchased has a markup to it which helps the overall bottom line) and everyone can drive an automatic (the American auto retail formula requires all sales prospects to go for a test drive-doesn't mean they do just that the formula dictates such).  There may be a dumbing down and greater automatic availability because of this.
Of course I've never worked in an auto retail environment outside of North America so my assumptions are based on the rest of the world operating differently.