# How good are you driving stick? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 2, 2017, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-are-you-driving-stick/785720 "2017-05-02T15:26:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-are-you-driving-stick/785720/81 "2017-05-03T16:29:20Z")
Preference depends: What am I doing, where/when Terrian Vehicle type Passenger/passengers & their states of mind I am old & cranky I do not like fly/drive by wire in/on anything Walk on my lawn if you want/need to but god help you if you mess with my dog. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-are-you-driving-stick/785720/82 "2017-05-03T16:30:38Z")
> [@AngelSoft](#): > > \Though it might have something to do with the fact that the only manual transmission car in the family is his precious Shelby Mustang. That is far, FAR too much car for a learner driver! :eek: > [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > \What the heck am I supposed to do with my right hand? Why can’t I stop stepping on the phantom clutch? As **John Mace** said, once you learn, it’s just second nature. Just wave it vaguely around in the air like I do when driving an automatic. 🙂 > [@Gatopescado](#): > > Fucking Awesome. You took my answer. 😃 > [@PastTense](#): > > This results are really surprising to me. I expected a much higher results for no idea how to do it and could do it if forced.\ I honestly don’t know what the real stats on how many drivers know how to drive a manual transmission are. With the people I hang around with (from 30 - 60 years old), every damned one of us knows how to drive a stick. I suspect the under 30 crowd would be far lower (with a whole bunch not even knowing how to drive). ---
**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:** [May 3, 2017, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-are-you-driving-stick/785720/83 "2017-05-03T16:42:06Z")
For about 14 years I owned a manual transmission car (yes, one car) and loved it. I have no problem driving stick, but it is a pain in the ass in gridlocked traffic. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-are-you-driving-stick/785720/84 "2017-05-03T16:44:56Z")
My first “car” (it was an old-style Fiat, so the word must be in quotes) was manual - hadda learn how to drive it in a real hurry. I taught several other people how to drive manual including my husband. For the longest time, we actively preferred manual transmission, as automatic mileage tended to be worse, cost more, and theoretically be more likely to break down (though I had to put new clutches in two cars so I dunno). Now that we’re aging, I’ve been really enjoying the automatic in my CR/V, and my husband’s next call will be automatic as well. I gather the mileage on automatic transmissions has gone up, in fact in some articles they claim it’s better than manual. But it’s like riding a bike: if I have to drive my husband’s car, I have zero problem remembering what to do. My poor son (age 22); the plan is that when we get a new car for the husband, the son gets his old car (an 18 year old Civic). He is NOT eager to learn to drive manual even though it means it will be HIS car that he doesn’t have to ask to use. We’ve taken him driving a couple of times and he got very frustrated (and I imagine frightened) when it stalled while he was attempting a turn. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-are-you-driving-stick/785720/85 "2017-05-03T16:50:52Z")
In over 20 years of driving, I have never owned an automatic. I have driven them, sure, and I spent quite a few years driving company vehicles, which were all automatics, which was nice, as most of the driving that I did for them was in heavy traffic, the only place a manual is inferior to an auto. My current car (a '94 mercury tracer) is about on it’s last legs, and in looking for a new car, I am disappointed that there are very few manuals to choose from. On the plus side, it does make buying a used car much cheaper, as it does seem as thought the same car with a manual transmission goes for at least 25% less than an auto. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-are-you-driving-stick/785720/86 "2017-05-03T17:15:41Z")
I have owned many cars over the years, probably 50/50 sticks to automatics. I’m equally comfortable driving either. ---
**Author:** ![DrumBum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e79b87/32.png) [@DrumBum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrumBum)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-are-you-driving-stick/785720/87 "2017-05-03T18:22:00Z")
I’m competent enough to drive the streets of San Francisco if necessary. It is not something I would _wan_t to do but I have done it several times. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-are-you-driving-stick/785720/88 "2017-05-03T18:52:56Z")
Awesomely. I’ve driven manuals in the hills of Seattle for 20 years. Parallel parking on Cherry hill in the rain? No sweat 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-are-you-driving-stick/785720/89 "2017-05-03T19:20:07Z")
Weird. I was just reading an article where it looks like his inability to be able to drive stick could have made a difference between an escaped criminal getting away instead of spending the rest of life in prison. > [@](#): > > Correa-Carmenaty eventually ditched the van and kidnapped a woman, 31-year-old Amy Kanger in Council Bluffs, and took her car, officials said. > > According to an Omaha police report on the carjacking, Correa-Carmenaty made Kanger get in her car because it had a manual transmission and he didn’t know how to use a stick shift. She told police that he told her to drive around, and they ended up at a liquor store at 30th Street and Laurel Avenue in Omaha, where she got out and ran inside. Correa-Carmenaty then took off with her car, though it’s not clear how he was able to drive it. > **[Inmate accused of fatally shooting deputy first attacked him with a shank,...](https://omaha.com/news/crime/inmate-accused-of-fatally-shooting-deputy-first-attacked-him-with/article_a47ec2ea-2f71-11e7-a102-1b21e69eab17.html)** > > Wesley Correa-Carmenaty used a sharp object to attack Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Deputy Mark Burbridge, said the source, who spoke on the condition of not being identified. ---
**Author:** ![AllShookDown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d9b06d/32.png) [@AllShookDown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AllShookDown)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-are-you-driving-stick/785720/90 "2017-05-03T19:22:55Z")
The only time I ever tried to drive a car with a manual transmission, I bounced it down the street. Never tried again. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-are-you-driving-stick/785720/91 "2017-05-03T20:02:15Z")
I’ve driven everything from a “three on the tree” to a ten gear split transmission, so I claim competency. ---
**Author:** ![DinoR](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dinor/32/2821_2.png) [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-are-you-driving-stick/785720/92 "2017-05-03T20:29:37Z")
I went with competent. I haven’t owned one since 2000 or 2001. It would take a while to get fully up to speed again. I could and did manage that manual transmission, rear wheel drive pickup through Michigan winters without snow tires. I’m pretty sure I could manage getting back to competent, if not that level, relatively quickly. ---
**Author:** ![Corry\_El](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@Corry\_El](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corry_El)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-are-you-driving-stick/785720/93 "2017-05-03T20:54:15Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > I honestly don’t know what the real stats on how many drivers know how to drive a manual transmission are. This US News and World Report article said 18% to 60%, which is interesting because some other hits on the search are media reports quoting 18% using this article as source. A Google Survey might be the source of 60%, one in the second link shows 58.8%. However if you slice that one by age it’s maintaining that over 40% of people 18-24 and nearly half 25-34 in the US can drive a manual which seems very high IME for that age group (note it’s % of the population not among drivers, ‘don’t know how to drive’ is a separate answer). In 55-64 age group, the range implied by many of responses here, it says 72%. Would depend I guess also on whether the ‘could do it if forced’, or somebody just thinking so, is included. However ‘I prefer manual’ at 40-some% in this poll is IMO clearly several times the % of US drivers overall who really feel that way, or how could only a few % of new cars be manual (people driving very old cars, manual or auto, are another highly overrepresented group in internet commentary…about the virtues of driving old cars). [https://cars.usnews.com/cars-trucks/best-cars-blog/2016/09/why-are-manual-transmissions-disappearing](https://cars.usnews.com/cars-trucks/best-cars-blog/2016/09/why-are-manual-transmissions-disappearing) [https://surveys.google.com/view?filter=&question=1&rw=1&survey=5zzzeryf5vbuk](https://surveys.google.com/view?filter=&question=1&rw=1&survey=5zzzeryf5vbuk) ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Woo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7c8e57/32.png) [@Dr.Woo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Woo)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-are-you-driving-stick/785720/94 "2017-05-03T22:45:05Z")
I learned on a standard transmission (with no syncro mesh in first, as my instructor frequently reminded me), and drove manuals all my life until recently. The fact that my last two cars have been automatics is the biggest indicator that I’m getting old. I just can’t handle the constant clutching during my hour-long stop and go commute any more. Occasionally I’m called upon to drive my husband’s 6-speed jeep and I’m always happy to realize I’m still good with a clutch. I drove some rental unit once from London to York and other than grabbing the window crank instead of the gearshift :rolleyes: a couple of times I did fine. ---
**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:** [May 3, 2017, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-are-you-driving-stick/785720/95 "2017-05-03T22:56:26Z")
> [@Corry\_El](#): > > This US News and World Report article said 18% to 60% Well, that certainly is a wide range. 🙂 I’m a little surprised by the results in this poll, but it’s an international group here, and a lot of people outside urban areas, too, I would assume. Among my friends and various acquaintances here in Chicago, I’d guess maybe 10% know how to drive a stick. It’s come up before in situations where I needed a third party to drive a car, among people I knew and didn’t know, and nobody in the group knew how to drive a stick (or was willing to admit to being able to.) ---
**Author:** ![anomalous1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e56c9b/32.png) [@anomalous1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anomalous1)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-are-you-driving-stick/785720/96 "2017-05-03T23:31:05Z")
About the age difference/usage of message boards; This message board and occasionally one or two on Reddit are good, I don’t use social media any other way ( I have, but I don’t like someone being able to keep an eye on me), even most other message boards. 29 Years old, been driving since I was 12 :eek: off and on and constantly once I hit 20, only drove a manual once, and did well, didn’t ride the clutch at all, but didn’t much care for it even those I still remember how. As far as I know it’s only to get a few extra RPM’s out and some better performance for racing. Being that I live in Chicago with awful traffic sometimes, I have no desire to get stick. I am probably wrong though, is it just a matter of preference? Or just for extra performance? ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-are-you-driving-stick/785720/97 "2017-05-03T23:54:52Z")
> [@anomalous1](#): > > About the age difference/usage of message boards; This message board and occasionally one or two on Reddit are good, I don’t use social media any other way ( I have, but I don’t like someone being able to keep an eye on me), even most other message boards. > > 29 Years old, been driving since I was 12 :eek: off and on and constantly once I hit 20, only drove a manual once, and did well, didn’t ride the clutch at all, but didn’t much care for it even those I still remember how. As far as I know it’s only to get a few extra RPM’s out and some better performance for racing. Being that I live in Chicago with awful traffic sometimes, I have no desire to get stick. I am probably wrong though, is it just a matter of preference? Or just for extra performance? I’ve owned both and it’s just a matter of preference in most cases. There are genuine reasons for owning both, however. If a person was going to buy a truck to haul a very heavy trailer (a large 5th wheel, say), he would be well-advised to get the largest diesel engine he could afford and an automatic tranny. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-are-you-driving-stick/785720/98 "2017-05-03T23:57:27Z")
I used to be much better, but I’m still good and i drive one every day. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2017, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-are-you-driving-stick/785720/99 "2017-05-04T00:25:56Z")
> [@Lowdown](#): > > Vehicles in manual are getting rarer every year, which kind of sucks It does, for the rest of you. I bought a new car last year, a Honda Civic 6-speed manual, and since I’m 63 and figure the Civic will last ~15 years, it would probably be the last stick shift I buy anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2017, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-are-you-driving-stick/785720/100 "2017-05-04T00:36:16Z")
I can handle 3-speed, 4- and 5-speeds just fine, but after a while – like late in life, when all you want to do with a car is get there – an automatic makes a lot more sense. If I ever bought another sports car, I’d go with a stick. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-are-you-driving-stick/785720.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-are-you-driving-stick/785720.md?page=6)