This may turn into a discussion, and I don’t mind if mods move it, but I just have a straightforward question: has anyone ever heard of carjackers attempting a jacking, and then giving up because the car had a manual transmission? I was reading the thread about car doors automatically locking, and the comment that it might foil carjackers, and I thought about a stat I’d seen recently regarding fewer and fewer new drivers knowing how to operate a manual transmission, so it got me wondering: what happens if the carjackers can’t drive the car? Do people who intend to carjack make a point of learning to drive a clutch?
Seattle, June, 2014
Orlando, Jan 2013
Florida, June 2013
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/06/20/florida-carjacking-at-gunpoint-fails-after-man-cant-drive-stick-shift/
It happens. But less than 7% of cars out there are manual transmissions, so the odds are a car chosen to be jacked is auto are high.
Ain’t that just like a dirty thief? Steal a car he’s too stupid to drive!
Talk about a uniquely American occurrence.
I’ve offered countless times to teach my son to drive a stick, since he’ll inherit a few.
He’s never wanted to, and Friday, it bit him in the ass.
He went with me to drive a friend’s Ferraris on Friday, but alas, gated shifters all around!:eek:
He got to ride with my friend, then me, so it’s almost as good! He’s still smiling today!
Yes I have, sorry l couldn’t find a link. A couple of years ago two guys attempted to carjack a woman’s car around here but barely made it block before abandoning it and running away. It was a manual trans Mustang.
I’ve always chosen manual transmission vehicles because l prefer driving them but l joke that living in a high crime area, a bonus is that l am less likely to have a vehicle stolen or get carjacked.
Yes. 1990. A visitor from Oregon stopped in downtown LA for gas. Their Volvo 240 was car jacked at the gas station. Made it 6 blocks before the idiot burned the clutch out of the car.
I did the repair at the dealership I worked at.
But probably car thieves are more interested in stealing sports cars (a significant percentage of which have manual transmissions) than that percentage suggests.
I think you will find carjackers are assholes of opportunity. A guy with a Buick at a stop light? He will take it. He probably won’t wait 6 years for the next Ferrari to drive through the hood.
Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase “first world problems”.
I am tired as heck of this hateful stereotype that Americans can’t drive stick
are automatic cars really that uncommon in Europe and other place
About 6 years ago, suburban Virginia. My friend left my place around 11 pm and was warming up his car (no idea why he does that). He noticed a guy tapping on his passenger side window and it distracted him from the guy with the gun coming up on the drivers side. He got out and they took his wallet and keys and said they were taking the car. They told him to take off running.
He came back up the stairs to my apartment and we called the police and went to his car. The keys were on the ground next to it. We were never sure if they planned on stealing the car but couldn’t because it was manual or if they just dropped the keys and never planned on taking the car. As they never caught them we couldn’t exactly ask.
From what I have seen is, yes manuals are more common in Europe, Mid East, S Asia, Far East etc and even if there are more automatics, there is pressure to learn to drive manuals, for instance in many countries you get a licence only if you show proficiency on manuals or yo get a restricted to automatics only license. I think in the US even if you pass a test on automatic! you are legally permitted to drive stick?
Edit: Replying yo PSXer. And it not a"hateful" stereotype. It’s mostly fact from what I have seen. Don’t know why there are such bragging rights to driving stick in the US.
A few years ago, I had just finished working on my Ariel Atom late at night and decided to head down to the local Taco Bell to grab some food instead of cooking. [It never ceases to amaze people at the drive-thru.]
After getting my food and pulling into an empty corner of the lot, I noticed that the local chapter of “The Fast and The Spurious” (blinged-out cars with coffee-can mufflers, neon underbody lighting, fake carbon fiber and Kanji stickers) was meeting on the other side of the parking lot.
They noticed the Atom and started yelling and calling for me to drive over there. With a sigh, I drove over to talk to them. After the usual questions (“How much does it cost?”, “Is it legal?”, etc.) the head Fast & Spurious guy asked me “Does it come with an automatic? 'cause I can’t drive a stick.”
I rest my case…
It’s not that they are uncommon it’s just that there is such a substantial percentage of manual cars around that most people *can *drive one even if they don’t.
In other words, Americans as outliers in this respect is not a “hateful stereotype” it’s pretty much an accurate reflection of a point of difference.
Except it’s not a “first world” problem, see above.
Mooching friends are not *quite *the same thing as carjackers. But I’ve found that since I started driving a manual transmission car, far fewer friends ask to borrow it. Or if they do, the simple response “Can you drive a stick?” is enough to derail the issue.
I’ve always found a simple “no” works fine with any of my friends. They all know I don’t let anyone else drive my car, anyway.
Autocar magazine put the sale of automatic transmission cars in the UK at about 25% last year. This is up from 17% a decade ago.
There’s an awful lot of manual cars going around. If you pass your driving test in an automatic, you are restricted to automatics. You have to sit another test if you want to drive a manual.
Given the current modern state of sports cars - very very few are now manuals.
Ferrari no longer produce “traditional” manual, and for Lamborghini I don’t think it’s even on option on the Huracan…
I think it’s a generational thing. I was born in 1965, got my license in 1980, and I learned on a stick. Pretty much all the guys and many of the girls in my high school drove sticks. Fast forward to my brother, 16 years younger than me, and the situation has changed. He can’t drive a stick, and neither can many of his friends.