# Poll: Can you drive a stick? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 30, 2008, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-can-you-drive-a-stick/443316 "2008-03-30T21:35:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![masterofnone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@masterofnone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/masterofnone)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-can-you-drive-a-stick/443316/241 "2009-01-13T18:12:02Z")
(1) Yes, I prefer it, but I have a bad heart, live in BFE, and my wife doesn’t know how to drive stick , so I’m stuck with an automatic. (2) USA (3) 37 ---
**Author:** ![tim-n-va](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim-n-va/32/3001_2.png) [@tim-n-va](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim-n-va)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-can-you-drive-a-stick/443316/242 "2009-01-13T18:32:09Z")
I’ve owned both and was comfortable driving a stick when I last owned one (been a few years). I would anticipate that if I got in one now it would take 5-10 minutes to feel comfortable again. I live in the US, age is 50. My wife would give the same answer except age 48. My sons in their 20s have never driven a stick to my knowledge. In the relatively heavy traffic here near DC, I prefer the automatic. I do think the self-selection mentioned above is skewing the results. I know very few people who own manual transmission vehicles. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-can-you-drive-a-stick/443316/243 "2009-01-13T18:33:32Z")
can/do/prefer learned as teenager usa, 47 y/o ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-can-you-drive-a-stick/443316/244 "2009-01-13T18:38:04Z")
Yep. I go out of my way to find them. 42 y/o male. Took me months to find a G35 Coupe with a six speed stick. The lady that owned it before me ordered every conceivable option, then deleted the automatic and got the stick. Sweeeeet. I also rev match and, while not needed, I practice double clutching, just for kicks now and then. But rev matching is something I do 90% of the time. OLD SCHOOL, baby. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Todderbob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@Todderbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Todderbob)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-can-you-drive-a-stick/443316/245 "2009-01-13T18:38:24Z")
1. Yes. 2. USA 3. 18 ETA: Learned to drive stick when I was 15 or 16. Not sure, although I believe I could, shift with my left hand. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-can-you-drive-a-stick/443316/246 "2009-01-13T18:52:48Z")
(1) Yes, \*way \*more comfy than driving my SO’s automatic transmission car. My foot keeps looking for a clutch that’s not there. (2) USA (3) about 40. I took my car for an oil change at a new place a few months ago, and not one of the 5 young men on shift that afternoon knew how to drive a stick. I was surprized. ---
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Mama](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5ac83/32.png) [@Atomic\_Mama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Mama)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-can-you-drive-a-stick/443316/247 "2009-01-13T19:01:11Z")
I’m MUCH more comfy driving a stick! USA Age 59, female, left-handed, taught to drive a stick at 3 a.m. in Chicago (safer then!) in a c. 1971 PINTO !!! Currently driving a 3-cylinder Geo Metro Hatchback (Tropical Green) in Anchorage AK 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Arcite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/67e7ee/32.png) [@Arcite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arcite)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-can-you-drive-a-stick/443316/248 "2009-01-13T19:02:13Z")
> [@Harmonious\_Discord](#): > > So why are people doing a poll from last March?😕 Because the board was pay-to-post at that time? 😉 1. Yes 2. USA 3. 32 Unlike seemingly everyone else in this thread, though, I didn’t learn on a manual. Mom and Dad only owned automatics, and I didn’t have any friends with a manual. My uncle tried to teach me once, when I was in college, but it was only the 1 lesson and I didn’t have the opportunity to take it further since, again, I had no access to manual transmission vehicles. Later, I decided to learn of my own volition because, frankly, I started to feel somewhat emasculated by the fact that I couldn’t drive a stick-shift. When I was 25, I took a lesson at the local AAA school, started test driving manual transmission cars, and bought my first one, which I still own today. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-can-you-drive-a-stick/443316/249 "2009-01-13T19:09:21Z")
Yes US 53 The first car I drove had ‘three on the tree’. Now I have an automatic because the kneew are wonky. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-can-you-drive-a-stick/443316/250 "2009-01-13T20:15:21Z")
> [@Throatwarbler\_Mangrove](#): > > It’s a self selecting poll. Why would anyone post here other than to feel smug about their ability to drive manual transmissions and to feel superior to those proles that can’t comprehend the magic of the 3 pedals? > Of course, I’ll have you know that I operate both left-hand and right-hand drive manual transmissions with ease, AND I double clutch on every downshift. > > How about those lazy sods with can’t drive without use _syncros_, wot wot? > 25, Canada. I guess I posted because I feel smug about my inability to drive manual transmissions – a sort of counter smug smugness. Ed ---
**Author:** ![EpicNonsense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c37758/32.png) [@EpicNonsense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EpicNonsense)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-can-you-drive-a-stick/443316/251 "2009-01-13T22:28:00Z")
a. i can drive a tractor 🙂 but not a car with stick (though i’ve only attempted it once really, not much practice) b us o a c 23 ---
**Author:** ![beanpod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9adbd/32.png) [@beanpod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beanpod)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-can-you-drive-a-stick/443316/252 "2009-01-13T22:57:57Z")
1. Nope. 2. USA 3. 26 ---
**Author:** ![Gordon\_Urquhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/db5fbb/32.png) [@Gordon\_Urquhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gordon_Urquhart)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-can-you-drive-a-stick/443316/253 "2009-01-13T23:01:26Z")
1. Yes 2. USA 3. 39 (although I went to college with people in their late teens and early 20s during the late 1980s and early 90s who couldn’t. “City Folk,” we called them) Also, the ability to drive a stick in the United States doesn’t prepare you to drive a stick everywhere. My wife and I went to Germany last fall and spent quite a lot of time trying to figure out how to get the rented Hyundai into reverse (turns out it had one of the collars on the stick that one had to pull up in order to actually put the gearshift in reverse). Also, Part II: Hyundai’s owner manuals for their German-market cars are, in fact, printed in German. Just an FYI. ---
**Author:** ![Jettboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/85e7bf/32.png) [@Jettboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jettboy)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-can-you-drive-a-stick/443316/254 "2009-01-13T23:08:51Z")
> [@The\_Mermaid](#): > > 1. Yes, absolutely. I had an Austin Healy that I put about a bajillion miles on. A man after me own heart. Was it a Sprite or a full size 3000? ---
**Author:** ![Throatwarbler\_Mangrove](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@Throatwarbler\_Mangrove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Throatwarbler_Mangrove)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-can-you-drive-a-stick/443316/255 "2009-01-13T23:15:10Z")
> [@](#): > > Also, the ability to drive a stick in the United States doesn’t prepare you to drive a stick everywhere. My wife and I went to Germany last fall and spent quite a lot of time trying to figure out how to get the rented Hyundai into reverse (turns out it had one of the collars on the stick that one had to pull up in order to actually put the gearshift in reverse). This is a common feature on Volkswagen/Audi cars, even in North America. I imagine Hyundai put it in because Germans were more use to it. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-can-you-drive-a-stick/443316/256 "2009-01-14T00:37:18Z")
Yes, and I learned to drive in Manhattan. U.S. 63. ---
**Author:** ![TheBoltEater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@TheBoltEater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheBoltEater)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-can-you-drive-a-stick/443316/257 "2009-01-14T05:24:31Z")
Yep, first car had a stick. USA (SoCal) 34 In fact, I just had my first chance to drive a stick on the “wrong side” on a vacation to Ireland in October. Drove about 1000km without incident and really enjoyed it – after a few scary moments in Dublin on the first day. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![MadPansy64](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dc4da7/32.png) [@MadPansy64](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadPansy64)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-can-you-drive-a-stick/443316/258 "2009-01-14T06:28:35Z")
[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=9636902#post9636902](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=9636902#post9636902) This. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Vox\_Imperatoris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Vox\_Imperatoris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vox_Imperatoris)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-can-you-drive-a-stick/443316/259 "2009-01-14T06:55:50Z")
> [@MadPansy64](#): > > [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=9636902#post9636902](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=9636902#post9636902) > > This. :rolleyes: What about it? That just seems to link to your post showing your answer. 1. No. 2. U.S. 3. 1. Valete, Vox Imperatoris ETA: I might eventually learn, but I would have interest in a manual transmission car. My car does have an optional gear setting where you shift up manually, and it shifts down automatically, though. I’ve never used it (it was not originally my car). ---
**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:** [January 14, 2009, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-can-you-drive-a-stick/443316/260 "2009-01-14T07:21:04Z")
1. Yes. My last three cars have been stick, although I did learn to drive stick in Europe. None of my friends growing up (in Chicago) had a manual transmission. 2. USA 3. 33 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-can-you-drive-a-stick/443316.md?page=12) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-can-you-drive-a-stick/443316.md?page=14)