I use the word “stats” very loosely here, since, as JThunder points out, this poll was very likely to end up being skewed toward those who can drive a stick.
I’d also postulate that the denizens of this message board are not even vaguely representative of the populace as a whole in this regard.
And we don’t have a statistically significant number of responses in any case.
So, now that I’ve grudgingly accepted that my poll wasn’t good for much more than entertainment:
Of the 142 people who learned how to drive in the US, only 16% were not comfortable driving a stick. Of the under-35’s, it was 20%.
As GorillaMan expected, all 10 Brits (well, 9 Brits and a Manx) were OK with a manual transmission.
The rest of the world’s results (all 20 of them!) pretty much mirrored those from the US.
Not at all - it’s pretty much the norm in the US anyway.
When we went to Ireland for my Hineymoon in 2006 we rented an automatic. It was a bit more expensive but I don’t recall it being that much more expensive to be honest.
I’ll drive an automatic again only under the most direst of circumstances. Good news is that I can rent some US models which have a dual transmission, where I can shift the gear lever over to the “manual” side (typical sequential). And I learned how to shift lefty when in South Africa a few years back.
When I first started driving I was very skeptical of manuals, and didn’t grok the appeal. I most certainly do now-the feeling of being in control of your car, and not some computer, the fun factor, the rush of hitting the redline, the aesthetics of a perfectly-executed heel-and-toe downshift. Can’t imagine ever going back again.
I particularly love jamming the stick forwards from fourth to third using the ball of my hand, when I pull out to overtake in traffic. Something immensely satisfyig about that.
We were watching a show on bad drivers yesterday, and they made the point that as cars become cushier, drivers become less and less engaged with the road and the driving that they are doing. I would argue that driving a manual transmission car is an antidote to this - it’s very hard to drive a stick and not be paying attention to what’s going on while driving - you have to make a lot more decisions for your car to start with, and if you like the fun of driving stick, you’ll make even more decisions than you really have to (like how far off you can start downshifting to the stoplight without using your brakes ).
It may sound odd, but outside of a 2-hr lesson at a driving school, I have only ever driven a stick in Australia - so, on the other side of the road, when there was two sides of the road. (I did a lot of driving on tracks through the bush, and really only prefer to drive a stick in that sort of setting.) I honestly don’t know how comfortable I’d be driving a stick here at home; it would take some getting used to shifting with my right hand.
Albeit, I’m not sure how comfortable I would be shifting with my left hand.
I learned to drive on automatic, but my second car was a stick. I got a five minute lesson from my housemate and from there it was trial by fire. I did drive all the way to NJ (4 hour drive) the next week. Although, of course, on a stick it’s the local driving that’s hard and the highway driving that’s easy. For the most part I picked it up pretty easy.
It did take me awhile to feel safe driving up the steep hill where I knew I might hit the red light at the top. I didn’t realize until years later that my car, being a suburu, had built in measures to prevent the car from sliding backwards as easily as normal stick cars.
And then of course, whenever I took the ferry I always seemed to be the one car that got stuck parking on the ramp. I had to tell the car parked behind me that when we arrives he was probably better off backing up and taking the lower deck than trying to follow behind me. I was fairly good at not sliding back at this point, but the deck was very slippery.
Before I really started taking driving lessons, I was at my grandparents house in rural mountainous Vermont and they let me take their stick out for a spin on the dirt roads to practice. Unfortunately in trying to make a three point turn I ended up in a ditch. Which meant I had to go up the incline in reverse. Since I had never driven a stick before, trying to get into reverse gear while on an incline was near impossible for this lad. It must have taken me about thirty or so tries to finally get it going.
I learned to drive stick in a 1964 Beetle when I was 16. (I wasn’t 16 in '64, the car was about 9 years old.) They told me if you can drive a Beetle, you can drive anything! I’m very comfortable driving a stick. Driving one doesn’t faze me, but I do prefer to drive an automatic and haven’t owned a manual for about 20 years.
No. I was taught the basics, but I suck at it. A real lot. I suppose I could drive a stickshift in an emergency.
US
30…at least until a week from tomorrow.
It doesn’t surprise me that you’ve gotten so many, probably a disproportionate number of, Yes responses. A lot of people consider it a failing if one can’t drive a stick. That probably silences a lot of the Nos out there.
My (very likely dodgy) advice for learning to drive a stick:
If you can already drive an automatic, fine. If you have never driven at all, I go against popular opinion, and I think you should do your first lessons in an automatic. when you’re still getting comfortable with even pointing the car in the right direction and are still freaked out when you see an oncoming car, the last thing you need is to worry about stalling or lurching.
Once you can drive a little, then read up on the principles of driving a manual, and get thee to an abandoned lot or deserted carpark on a Sunday afternoon. Leave the car in first, and just practice moving off. Try it with no extra gas applied. Just get the feel for that friction point, as it’s 90% of stick driving. Do this over and over. Introduce other gear changes later - any stick driver will tell you the higher changes are easier. Moving off is the tricky part (and it’s not once you know how) so practise that.
Once you’re out there on the road, you might still get flustered sometimes, so remember THIRD GEAR IS YOUR FRIEND. Third is easy to find if you get “lost” in the stick pattern: find neutral, let go briefly, then jam it straight up. In modern cars especially, there’s enough torque and general forgiveness that third will get you out of most sticky situations until you can get your head together. Your car might protest a little, but you won’t stall it unless you’re nearly at walking pace, and you won’t blow up the motor if you’re going at any reasonably high speed (as long as you don’t stay there too long).
The wife and honeymooned in Ireland, and I refused to shell out the money for an automatic. It took about and hour of driving in Dublin to get used to driving and shifting on the left.
(1) Are you comfortable driving a manual transmission? I’ve pointedly never owned an automatic.
(2) What country do you live in? Merika, dude.
(3) How old are you (roughly)? 38. But I learned stick at about 18.
Learned on a stick at 16 - I’ve never had anything but manual transmissions and I wouldn’t put up with an automatic. The number of people whose (automatic transmission) cars I’ve had to get out of the snow in Toronto this year, and with a manual, it’s easy to rock the car back and forth…
you drove a manual in dublin??? :eek: i was on the **tour bus ** and i was still scared shitless. dublin is the most terrifying city for driving i’ve ever been in. and i’m a battle scarred veteran of new york and chicago! i swear before god the driver never looked at the traffic which was about a micrometer from his bumpers.
but i digress…
yes. most of my previous cars have been stick. in illinois, where i got my driver’s license, back in the day when we still had summer school driver’s ed, one of our cars was a manual. in order to pass the class, you had to know how to drive a stick **and ** pass the instructor’s exam in it.
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