(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
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.
can/do/prefer
learned as teenager
usa, 47 y/o
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. 
- Yes.
- USA
- 18
ETA: Learned to drive stick when I was 15 or 16.
Not sure, although I believe I could, shift with my left hand.
(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.
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 
Because the board was pay-to-post at that time? 
- Yes
- USA
- 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.
Yes
US
53
The first car I drove had ‘three on the tree’. Now I have an automatic because the kneew are wonky.
I guess I posted because I feel smug about my inability to drive manual transmissions – a sort of counter smug smugness.
Ed
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
- Nope.
- USA
- 26
- Yes
- USA
- 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.
A man after me own heart. Was it a Sprite or a full size 3000?
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.
Yes, and I learned to drive in Manhattan.
U.S.
63.
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.
What about it? That just seems to link to your post showing your answer.
- No.
- U.S.
-
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).
- 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.
- USA
- 33