# How good are you driving stick?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-are-you-driving-stick/785720>\
**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:** 2\
**Page:** 7

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**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2017, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-are-you-driving-stick/785720/121 "2017-05-06T06:31:44Z")

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I’m more comfortable with a manual, I think because I’ve spent most of my life driving cars with manual transmissions.

My first car was a '68 VW Beetle. Lots of fun. And my current car is a 2002 VW Passat (old, but it’s only got 50,000 miles on it, and everything works just fine). Both manuals. And everything in between. At some point I had the only Jeep Cherokee I’ve ever seen with a manual.

I figured out once that I’ve put something like 350,000 miles on various motorcycles. All manual, of course.

And I’ve driven in the UK and Ireland quite a bit. Shifting with my left hand was no problem (what really took me a while to get used to was looking the right way when crossing the street on foot).

That said, I have nothing against automatic transmissions. I have no desire to own a sports car. I’m only interested in practical cars at this point in my life. If the most practical car for me (when it’s time for a new car) isn’t available with a manual, that’s fine with me.

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**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2017, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-are-you-driving-stick/785720/122 "2017-05-06T11:47:11Z")

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Driving my daughter’s and my Focus killed my left knee. More fun was my 84 Dodge Colt. 1400, 4-speed. Utterly useless EXCEPT in town, battling the CTA.

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