Was the rwd Chevy Impala SS and Mercury Marauder (factory hot-rod variants of Caprice and Grand Marquis, respectively) ever offered with stick?
Back in the early 70’s a friend had a Chevelle SS396 with a stick. And of course the GTO.
There was a period, in the U.S., when licenses were restricted to automatic transmissions, if that’s what you chose to be tested in, if you tested in a standard your license was unrestricted. I think this began in the 50’s and I’m not sure when they phased it out, probably around the 70’s. I believe this was true in most, if not all, states.
There was a time when an automatic transmission was an “option” for which the buyer had to pay a premium, then later, I think again in the 70’s, this reversed itself and standards became the “option”.
I have never heard of any accidents cause by people who didn’t know how to drive a manual driving a manual. If you don’t know how, why would you be doing it?
The sport import market is an exception, I’ll grant you.
No, although some guys did retrofit a 6-speed from the 'Vette or Camaro into the mid-90s Impala SS.
The Marauder, no. Might have been an aftermarket conversion, but I rather doubt it. Some nice turbo kits, though…
Yes.
It might also keep you from getting a job if you showed up for one in an interview with, let’s say, your local automaker or perhaps steel plant.
I think this is really dependent on where you live. In Chicago, maybe 10 percent of the people I know can drive a stick. Maybe. Off the top of my head, I can only think of two people, and one of them is the person on craigslist to whom I sold my old car. Oh, yeah, and valets/parking attendants. I have a manual transmission car and none of my friends or family are able to drive it. I was at a wedding once when I had to go with the bride and groom off in one direction while leaving my car behind for someone else to drive and nobody (out of about 10 groomsmen and ushers) could drive a stick.
From my experience, I would say about 90% of cars here (in Chicago) are automatics. In Europe, it was the other way around.
Isn’t automatic technology a better shifter than most humans nowadays?
In the US, I almost always drove an Automatic with a couple of exceptions. Here in Colombia, my first car was a Chevrolet Swift (Suzuki) with manual transmission. I had no problems with it, but my wife who always drove an automatic had terrible problems stopping and starting on hills. I finally had to trade it for a 2006 Hyundai Elantra with Automatic Transmission. Now she is always on the go and loves HER new car. The Hyundai has a lot more power too… Great!
Weren’t automatic transmissions developed almost entirely by American companies? This would explain how they became popular in the US, at a time they were completely absent from most other markets.
Quite possibly. You may be interested in this thread, which discusses whether/how much better gas mileage you get with a manual transmission.
I got my license in 66-67, driving my parents’ car with automatic. Then in 71 I bought my own car with a stick without retesting, and I don’t recall that there was any requirement for that.
This page http://www.cartalk.com/content/columns/Archive/1993/September/09.html says that even back in 1993 a modern automatic transmission could be as good as or better than a manual for highway speeds. This is due to the use of a lock-up torque converter and a higher overdrive gear.
And at a time when the economies of Europe were devestated by WWII and most cars produced there were either for export to the US, which equated both “foreign” and “manual” with “sporty and/or economical,” or for the local markets in which few could afford bells, much less whistles. The tax structure, especially in Britain, was (and may still be) based on a calculation of cylinder dimensions and number and argued against large, multi-cylinder engines. As mentioned before, a small engine and one of the older automatics was a poor mix for little old ladies, much less someone who cared when they got there.
“most” being the operative word. Performance drivers refer to autos as “slushboxes” for good reason. It is only now in the realm of very high end manufacturing (read F1) that automatic gearboxes are appearing with things as incredible as gapless power transmission. It won’t be long until your statement is unqualifiably right, though.
I’ve also heard from off-roading enthusiasts that automatics are almost always certainly better for that sort of driving.
Pick ups that plow a lot of snow too. I guess all that slow back and forth, back and forth is pretty hard on a clutch. I have an auto on mine, and it works well.
Some of it is generational and regional. I’m 41 years old, and most (but not all) guys my age learned to drive in their father’s truck, which was usually manual transmission. I suspect this was common all over the rural South, and likely other rural areas as well. Even today, all of my friends my age or older can drive a stick. Same for many, but not quite as many, of the women. My brother is 16 years younger (hey if you raised a kid like me, you’d think long and hard about trying again too). He can’t drive a stick, and he tells me few of his friends can. He grew up in the same part of the country I did, just later. By his time, Dad had sold the older vehicle I learned in, and my brother learned on an automatic.
The fire service has seen automatics fall from favor over time. Thirty years ago, everything was manual, and today, nothing in my department is manual. The majority of people joining have had next to no manual transmission exposure.
For a laugh, ask someone if they know what a “three-on-the-tree” is. 
:smack: That was manuals falling from favor.