Ok, now with arthritis in my knees and driving on hills, I like a automatic tranny better. But yeah, last NEW car I bought has a stick.
Why?
A little cheaper. Better gas mileage (it has 6 gears not five, but this advantage is no longer there on higher end cars what with CVTs and computer gears). No one will steal it. Never boring.
Worse on: hills. bumper to bumper commuting.
It depends on the vehicle. In general for a small / sporty car I’ll take the stick (MT), and for a bigger car I’ll take the AT. I like MTs for reasons already stated above — it’s a better driving experience, you have better control especially on downhills (I often drive across the Sierra Nevada mountains here) and you can get better performance out of an underpowered car.
My last car was a 2001 Honda CR-V mini-ute, and when I bought that I insisted on the MT. The salesperson had to search far and wide to find one. It was a bit underpowered but with the MT it performed fine for me.
I sometimes towed heavy loads in the CR-V. With the MT, I knew I could not overheat the transmission like you can when towing with an AT car. I of course had to shift carefully so as to not fry the clutch.
Even when I lived on hilly San Francisco streets I’d drive the stick. I got over 213,000 miles out of the CR-V’s original clutch, including San Francisco hills and some heavy tow loads.
My current car is a 2016 Jeep Grand Cherokee, with the AT tranny, and those traction controls are fantastic! One, what Jeep calls Hill Descent Control, is incredible when descending steep, slippery trails — especially on muddy trails where it’s easy to slip and slide out of control. The HDC takes most of the white-knuckle drama out of the situation.
If you get that Bronco, enjoy. They look like awesome rigs.
Interesting discussion. I can tell you are all passionate about your sticks, and I’m starting to understand why.
Funny thing is that I actually do enjoy driving. I just don’t enjoy shifting. Never have, probably never will. Different strokes, I guess.
Yes, a good conversation. And yes, different strokes, it’s all good.
Years ago my youngest (and only daughter) was learning to drive and I wanted her to learn how to drive a stick. She resisted furiously. I said that she doesn’t have to like it, and she doesn’t even need to be proficient at it, but that it’s good just to know how it’s done. Because as dad likes to say, one never knows, and it’s good to be prepared.
When she was at college, one semester especially, she needed a car. My wife lent her VW Jetta. Stick, of course. She fumbled at first, then she got good at it. Then she became proficient.
She’s in her 30s now, and she’s owned two cars. In her first car about 5 years ago she drove on a tremendous road trip, San Francisco up to Alaska, back down to Idaho and across the USA on a route where she hit all 48 CONUS states. She traveled alone, meeting with friends along the way. An epic road trip.
That car was a stick, and so is her current car.
For as much fun as a manual was in my Mustang, my ’95 F-350 was another story. It was generally OK to drive, but one trip I took with it to downtown San Francisco was a complete nightmare! Not only was it way too long and tall to park comfortably in any underground parking, but (in case you’ve never been there) - there are steep hills. When the light turns green, the guy tailgating you is going to get a surprise when you roll back a bit. I had to use the emergency brake when starting out a few times. Not fun.
I could do better than an automatic. On the cars I’ve owned and driven. Also, I never found it a pain to be clutching and unclutching and shifting and downshifting - no more than walking, which I also do.
I have a theory that any expensive car must have a much nicer automatic than the cars I buy or drive (invariably at the bottom end of the market). Because the automatics I drive throw you back and forth when they change gear. At least, that’s what it feels like compared to driving a manual, where the changes are so smooth in comparison.
I’m driving an automatic now, because we used to have shared cars in the family. But my sister, with the bad neck, still drives a manual.
I learned to drive stick, and my first car was a stick shift Toyota Camry. You get used to it and don’t think about it much after a while. It is a little more fun, has some advantages in winter driving, used to be a little cheaper and apparently makes the car safer since not every would be thief knows how to drive it. I don’t like or need it so much that it is a bigger factor than model, safety, reliability or comfort. But if they made my vehicle in a stick shift, I’d leap at it. They don’t. Low demand.
My very simple answer is because I like having something to do. And, yeah, I guess there’s the whole being in control of what gear the car is in and knowing where it’s at and all that shit, and you can fuck around with rev-matching or double de-clutching while heel-and-toeing or whatever the hell floats your boat, but, simply, I just like having something to do. And, yes, even in traffic. Everyone says it’s hell in stop-and-go traffic. Every time I talk to people about this they say that’s hell. I like it. I live in Chicago. I’ve had a manual for the last 20 years. I love it. Like I said. It gives me something to do; it occupies my mind (well, minimally, as it’s pretty automatic) and my limbs.
Bullshit.
Manual transmissions are obsolete. the only reason they’re more common elsewhere is because other regions have much higher taxation and more incentives to choosing tiny vehicles with tiny engines. When it comes to the most efficient driving, your 6-speed manual transmission can’t hold a candle to the computer-controlled 6,8,9, or 10-speed automatics.
quit with the self-loathing American crap. The vast majority of people drive because they have to, not because they enjoy it. A manual transmission is a needless hassle.
I’m responding here before I read any of the other replies, because I’m curious how unique my preferences are.
Personally a manual transmission is all about control. I live in western Oregon, in the Cascade mountains. I have a ~35 mile commute to work (well, I did before COVID…) and 5 miles of that is on the I5 freeway, about 20 miles is on a open 4-lane highway through a valley, and the last 10 miles is on a windy mountain 2-lane county road full of deer and turkeys and bears. Having a manual transmission allows me to downshift and power through corners, use the transmission for braking if needed (just remember that clutches are more expensive than brakes), and when conditions are slushy I can crawl out of the parking lot easier than I ever could when I drove a standard automatic.
For new cars, the choices are essentially a CVT or… a CVT. Manuals are rare, and the other option seems to be DCT, some of which are good, many of which have bad reputations. You mentioned open highway driving. That’s probably where I would be actually be ok with a CVT. But in mountain country that “transmission is slipping” sense I get from a CVT is enough to make me feel like I’m not in control of the car – justified or not. I know that isn’t universal, but it was common enough in the cars that I test drove last year to make it feel universal. There is something about knowing the engine is directly linked to the wheels that gives me a sense of comfort.
There’s also the familiarity aspect. I learned to drive on a manual, every car I owned until I was in my late 20’s (with one 6-month exception) was a manual, and it’s just… what I like I guess.
I could probably get used to a DCT with manual shift mode if I could find one that was reliable. I really wanted a Kia Soul when I was car shopping last year, but their DCT is pretty much garbage, their CVT is standard on all other trims, and a stick is only avaiable on the base model, which doesn’t have cruise control or an arm rest. No thanks!.
The only time I didn’t like having a manual was when I lived in Portland and had to deal with stop-and-crawl-and-stop-again traffic at rush hour. That was a pain in the ass, but it also happened rarely enough that trading the car for an automatic or CVT never crossed my mind. Now I live in a small town and even during the busiest time of day in the busiest part of town, traffic never gets that bad.
And you gotta admit, on a windy mountain road they are actually pretty fun to drive.
I’m glad to see that “control” is one of the principal reasons that those of us who love to drive a stick, well, love to drive a stick.
I will however point out that in most of the cars I looked at that had a MT option, the MT cost more than the same trim with a CVT. Sometimes almost 1K more. This has not always been the case, but with the laws of supply-and-demand being what they are, a MT tends to be pricier. The Kia that I looked at was the exception.
In this thread at least, that is a minority opinion. I suspect that a lot of people drive automatics because that is what is available (as noted in this thread already) or they never learned to drive a stick.
As several people upthread have noted, once you become proficient driving a stick it becomes second nature and you do it without thinking about it.
Also, I’m not one to put stickers on my car, but if I was this would be the first one I’d add:
I learned how to drive in a friend’s dad’s automatic. But when I went to buy my first car at age 18, I got a brand new manual Toyota Corolla. And I didn’t know how to drive it. I can’t remember now why I made that choice. It was cute? It was cheap? I do remember driving it home, starting and stopping all the way with my brother and his best friend in the back seat laughing at me. I soon got the hang of it and then every car I bought afterwards was a manual. Back in the day they were cheaper and got great gas mileage and were very reliable. Those were the most important things for me. Control and performance never entered into the equation. And now using a clutch and stick shift are just second nature. I never even think about it. Well, didn’t until I started having knee problems. So sometimes now it does hurt to have to use the clutch. Fortunately, I don’t drive much these days.
At bit of a hijack, but have you always driven a stick-shift? The reason I ask, is that I have for 45 years and I’m going to have a partial left knee replacement at some point. I’ve wondered if using a clutch all those years has something to do with why I’m having issues with my left knee and my right knee is fine.
Much prefer a stick. My Mazda 2 is a stick, as is my F-250 that I use to haul the horse trailer. I like the control.
This board is full of old (ok, older) people 
. I bet if this was a non-auto-enthusiast forum full of twenty- or even thirty-somethings the answers would be skewed a wee bit in the other direction. As of 2018 only 18% of ALL Americans could drive a stick - I’m sure that number is much smaller in the younger cohort. And only 5% of vehicles sold are now manuals.
Let’s face it manual aficionados are fast heading towards the niche hobby side of the fence. Pretty soon it will be like preferring vinyl records to digital media. There will always be a market for fanciers, but honestly modern automatics out perform manuals in almost every category except that psychological feeling of fun and control (and the best automatics are like Deep Blue playing chess - they’ll outperform you).
I drove sticks for my first ten years as a driver and I lived in San Francisco for the first few of those years. And I like driving. But personally I’m happy to leave them to hobbyists at this point in my life. And I say that as a fossil who still buys and listens to music CDs 
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These days, automatics outperform manuals in terms of fuel efficiency and towing capacity. They might even be more reliable. The only thing manuals have going for them is the “fun” factor, and that’s not much of a draw if you are driving an SUV…
Since rolling back on hills was mentioned upthread, as a downside of having a stick, I thought I’d mention that the Mazda3 I’m planning to buy soon has a hill holder button. No more rolling back. Lots of cars, including my current one have them now. Eliminates the problem completely.
It’s fun - plain and simple.
First car owned was a 72 Datsun 510 4-speed.
Couple decades later enjoyed a 62 Corvair Monza 4-speed.
Those were great examples of the fun to be had in driving a slow car fast.
Couple years ago bought my VW GTI 5-speed.
Now I’m enjoying driving a fast car fast.
Only remember a couple of times it was a real pain - stop and go in Chicago rush hour traffic, when you never get above 2d. When I busted up my L ankle a few years back, I’m glad I was driving an auto. And yeah, given the flatland around Chicago, I’m not great parallel parking on steep hills and such.
I’m 59, and put barely any miles on the GTI. I imagine when I’m an old fogey I’ll replace it w/ an automatic, but that could be a decade or more off.
My first was a 78 Datsun 510 4-speed. Piece of shit in many ways but it took a licking and kept on ticking for five years. Granted I had to drill holes in the bottom of the doors to let the rain water drain out and was down to just the driver-side windshield wiper and no heater that last year. But, eh - what car is perfect 
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Got $500 towards as a trade-in at the dealer and it is the one time in my life I felt like I was ripping off a car salesman.
It’s also an issue where only one side feels the need to talk about it. If there were a thread called “why do you prefer home-churned butter over store-bought?”, the normal people who just pick up a stick of Land-O-Lakes at the Bi-Mor Hypermarket don’t have any reason to get involved because A) they weren’t asked, and B) it’s not a part of their identity.