# Carjackers and manual transmissions **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 10, 2014, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carjackers-and-manual-transmissions/695254 "2014-08-10T18:01:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2014, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carjackers-and-manual-transmissions/695254/61 "2014-08-13T19:00:42Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > I disagree. Reliability is another issue. Most autos will leave you stranded when they fail, and modern computer-controlled manuals have even more fail states that leave you at the side of the road. My father made a 30 mile commute in rush hour driving a VW bug with a dead clutch pedal. (You start it in gear, in first, dragging the car along with the starter. When it starts, drive, then shift without a clutch. Yes, it’s totally possible to shift without a clutch. I’d teach you how - in your car :).) Some infernal bit of the scout ignition system died. We went and bought a little brown box that you clipped a couple leads to the battery, shoved something onto the distributor cap and flipped a switch. Ran the scout like that for the couple of weeks it took to get the part shipped in from somewhere on the west coast [at the time we were replacing anything we could with OEM parts instead of generic rebuilt or car part store stuff as we had a friend who was the parts manager at the local IH dealership and let us use his discount:p] We could have built something ourself to do the same thing, but the little brown box was $19.95 and worked like a champ. It became a permanent addition to the tool box of the scout. As I mentioned before, I used a scrounged length of speaker wire to make a manual accelerator control for the scout to get back from central NJ in the middle of the night, and once drove a 74 mustang with no effective brakes from Rochester NY to the outskirts of Buffalo using engine braking and lots of luck to get it back to the repair shop to _really_ repair the brakes this time. [URL=“[http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/](http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/)”] ---
**Author:** ![Dogzilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@Dogzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogzilla)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2014, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carjackers-and-manual-transmissions/695254/62 "2014-08-13T21:16:06Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > 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. Yeah, but the flip side of that is: on a long road trip, it’s only you, baby. No relief driver. (Mental note: Only take road trips with other stick drivers.) ---
**Author:** ![bizerta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@bizerta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bizerta)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2014, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carjackers-and-manual-transmissions/695254/63 "2014-08-13T23:57:09Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > … because I live in a hilly city and parking-break starts are always a PITA, with a pretty expensive downside if you mess it up. … Well, my new 6-speed diesel Passat came with a feature that I discovered two weeks after I bought the car. If on a hill, facing up, when one takes the foot off the brake, the car will not roll backward for two seconds giving any klutz plenty of time to move forward. This feature only will prevent the car from rolling backwards. I don’t drive a manual to be kool as many on this board are implying. I don’t care one way or the other. Driving a diesel VW has never been on the cover of a hot-rod magazine. Driving a stick is second nature so I save a few bucks when I buy a car. Cars with manual transmissions tend to come with fewer frills that I don’t want anyway. One stick-shift advantage came with my 1986 diesel Golf: At the first oil change, they put in too much oil. Thirty miles later, oil overflowed into the fuel intake. I was burning oil, making a terrible noise, and accelerating. I turned off the key, but the car kept accelerating. I braked the car without putting the clutch down and the car stalled. If I had been driving an automatic, the engine would have burned out as there was no way to stop the engine. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2014, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carjackers-and-manual-transmissions/695254/64 "2014-08-14T00:19:22Z")
I haven’t read all responses, but some dumbkopfs tried to steal my 1989 Honda CRX in about 1993. They broke the steering column apart and stripped what appeared to be the appropriate wires, but apparently didn’t realize that there was an additional interlock; the clutch needed to be engaged before the starter would turn. Assholes. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2014, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carjackers-and-manual-transmissions/695254/65 "2014-08-14T00:51:34Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > Can we please get over the idea that there’s some sort of moral or philosophical superiority to driving a manual transmission. > > I drive a manual because i enjoy it, but it doesn’t make me a better person, or even a better driver, than someone who drives an automatic. It’s just something i like to do. > > The idea that drivers of automatics are not driving, and that they are not engaged with the car, is just silly. Most of the “driving” and “engagement” we do behind the wheel involves paying attention to the road conditions, traffic signs, and what all the other bozos are doing with their cars, in order to be safe on the roads. That’s far more important than whether you drive a stick or not. I’m not trying to be smug. It is my experience that driving a stick makes me more alert and attentive because it requires more attention, and I like it that way. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![stui\_magpie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stui_magpie/32/11010_2.png) [@stui\_magpie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stui_magpie)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2014, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carjackers-and-manual-transmissions/695254/66 "2014-08-14T03:27:41Z")
I deliberately made both my kids learn to drive and go for their licences in a manual. The son was easy, he started learning in my dad’s old ute on school holidays when he was 12. Dads old beast was a Datsun 1 tonne tray ute with a 4 speed column shift manual. Built for munchkins. I bought him his first car, which was a manual Falcon ute. The daughter i first taught the basics in an auto, then bought her first car before she got her licence and bought a manual. Geez she swore at me a few times teaching her to drive that thing, little Mitsubishi Mirage, no power steering, 5 speed manual, went like a cut cat for it’s size. Once she got the hang of it though, she apologised and admitted she was happy I forced the issue. She now has an auto but has the confidence that she can get behind the wheel of any car and not care about what transmission it has. She still prefers the feel of driving the manual, but the auto is better for the number of miles she does for work in busy traffic. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2014, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carjackers-and-manual-transmissions/695254/67 "2014-08-14T13:45:23Z")
> [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](#): > > I’m not trying to be smug. It is my experience that driving a stick makes me more alert and attentive because it requires more attention, and I like it that way. YMMV. My millage certainly does. Driving since 1975 about half of my cars have been manuals. IMHO, it’s not what you drive, it’s how you drive. Auto, manual, should make no difference. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2014, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carjackers-and-manual-transmissions/695254/68 "2014-08-14T14:36:11Z")
> [@Mdcastle](#): > > I already know how to drive a manual, and did so for a few years, and I’d still gladly pay an extra 25% for an automatic. I didn’t mind a manual too much unless I was driving in city traffic or the hills in Duluth; but both of those I did a lot of. When it was time to pick out my own car rather than the one my father passed to me I jumped at the chance to let technology make driving easier and more comfortable for me. Where are people finding a 25% difference in prices? I drive manual, and I have not noticed a significant difference in price and, more often, it’s harder to find a car I want or takes longer to get it because most the cars on lots around here are auto. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2014, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carjackers-and-manual-transmissions/695254/69 "2014-08-14T15:30:43Z")
> [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](#): > > I’m not trying to be smug. It is my experience that driving a stick makes me more alert and attentive because it requires more attention, and I like it that way. YMMV. Fair enough. I will say, though, that i’ve been driving a manual for so long that, in much of my day-to-day driving, using the clutch and changing gears requires no more of my attention than using my indicators or turning the steering wheel. It’s one of those things that i do naturally, mechanically, and without any real active thought. If i’m dropping down to the supermarket, or driving to work, driving a manual really takes no more effort and attention than driving an automatic. For me, the real attention i pay when driving is no so much to the mechanics of driving, but to my place on the road in relation to other cars. I keep an active eye out for pedestrians, traffic signs and lights, and whatever crazy shit all the other bozos on the road are up to. This is, in my opinion, where being attentive really matters, and it’s something that, for me at least, is no different in an automatic or a manual. I drive an automatic whenever we rent a car, and i don’t feel any more or less attentive and alert on those occasions than i do in my own car. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carjackers-and-manual-transmissions/695254.md?page=3)