Sticks, AT’s, SUV’s, Hemi’s, etc. adnauseum are ony means to get from where you were to where you are. Anthing more than necessary to accomplish that task safely, economically, and reasonabl rapidly are superfluous!
My experience has been that people that drive a stick tend to, more often than not, actually drive.
I think that in general (and of course, IMO) people that drive automaics also tend to do stuff other than drive (cell phone, eating, the fore-mentioned nail polishing). Even if I wanted to, there’s no way I could do that stuff driving a manual in the city.
I also find that people who drive automatic tend to use their brakes waaaaaay more than is necessary, which often causes traffic back ups. It’s one thing to use a brake to stop, but with a stick, it’s not necesary to brake to slow down a bit.
When they first came out with electric windows, they had constant issues with them crapping out. The buying public chose manual windows. Eventually, technology came around and made the electric window reliable, affordable, and durable. Now if you told the salesman these days: “Hey, I want manual windows. Nothing beats the feeling of the control over my auto interior air flow. Those folks that are getting electric windows don’t know what they’re giving up. I demand the control a hand crank gives” The salesman would rightly conclude that you are a nitwit. Especially if the hand crank window required a major componant replacement equivelant to a clutch on a regular basis.
So all you folks out there with outdoor plumbing, rotary dial phones, wood fire stoves, and corded remotes, go ahead and stick with your throwback auto technology. Me? I’m quite happy to have an automatic transmission.
I went out of my way to buy a manual transmission, for various reasons that are my own business. But I never discuss it with anyone unless they ask.
On the other hand, at least 50% of the people who ride in my car comment on it and tell me I’m using “outdated technology” and that “automatics are so much better” or make some sexist comment about how they “never met a girl who could drive a stick.”
Now, tell me again which group of people is made up of rude fucking assholes?
I wouldn’t get to bent out of shape about that one, sounds like a compliment to me.
BAH! BAH, I say to your TipTronics, your SportTronics, or whatever proprietary name your car company of choice hangs on the damn thing. Sure, it’s OK if you don’t know your way around a manual transmission, but if you do, it’s worthless. A glorified automatic at best. It simply does not feel the same as ramming the clutch down and feeling the tranny click into its gates. That’s connection. That’s control. There is no substitute.
-Ogre, who, at the insistence of the dealer, test-drove a 350Z with Tiptronic. “You’ll loooooove it!” BAH!
Oh, and my girlfriend has a manual V4 Jetta. Not muscular, but peppy as heck, and it corners like it’s rolling through a tube. ZERO body lean. I’ll launch it through a tight turn without a second thought.
I love driving, and especially driving my manual. One advantage is that you can get used ones cheap. When I bought my Golf I looked at a bunch of used VWs. All were about two years old, and all had 40-50k miles on them, except one, the stick. It only had about 20k, and was less expensive than all the others.
OK, Q.N. Jones, why did you go out of your way to buy a manual transmission?
I love to drive as well, learned to drive on a stick ( an old diesel peugeot ), and drove sticks as my first cars ( two of them in succession ) for over ten years.
No more. I live in the #2 or #3 traffic area in the country ( and about the hilliest ) and I simply got sick of it. More responsive and funner in the country? You bet. Worth the hassle of driving in the city? Not even close. Since I have no intention of ever moving, until I decide to get a second car just as a plaything it will be automatic all the way.
- Tamerlane
Now your snobbery is just getting silly. “Poorly” compared to what, a go cart? The 97 Accord EXs handle quite nicely, and are quite nimble for a mid-priced sedans.
I betcha it’s because their dads were like mine. He made me learn to drive a stickshift before I was allowed to get my license and a car.
They’re a pain in the butt of course, as you mentioned, but they do take a bit of coordination.
I betcha the “stick snobs” of whom you speak just think they’re “all that” because they know how. (woo hoo).
Though I have heard that manual transmission vehicles are safer to operate in icy conditions and that they last longer with less transmission trouble to deal with.
I have NO idea if that’s true or not.
I do think it’s kindof neat to “show off” and shift without using the clutch (my dad taught me). That said, I do NOT own a standard!! I only do that with our ancient work truck.
When you’re screaming around a turn at the greatest speed you can possibly pull off safely, you do not want your transmission suddenly deciding you need to shift. Furthermore, when you want to accelerate quickly, you want your car to be in the appropriate gear before you push the accelerator, not a while afterwards.
If you have a sports car because you like driving, you know why you want a stick. If you have a sports car with an automatic, you probably don’t care about driving and just bought it because it looks cool, so be prepared for a little kidding about it. If your car gets you from point A to point B without you ever caring what RPM you’re at, an automatic is for you and nobody need give you any shit about it.
Of course, any kid of mine is going to learn to drive a stick before he gets his license, because it’s ridiculous to be stuck somewhere because your friend is drunk or injured and you don’t know how to operate his kind of car (or to be stuck in Germany where, when you request a rental car with an automatic, they look at you as if you just asked them for a car that runs on cotton candy).
BLASPHEMY!!!
Poor spingears, you’ve never fallen in love with a classic have you?
(you sound just like my mom, she’s never understood the love my sister and I have for pre-1970s autos, “You girls!!! it’s “just” a car, point a to point b” :D)
Oh oh… Forget about the “stick snobs”… you just pissed off the “Honda snobs”, who are the most self-righteous, indignant fanboys you’ll ever meet, short of the Smoking Nazis. Don’t you realize that everything that Honda makes is specially blessed by Buddha or somebody to outperform anything on four wheels, last forever and never require maintenance? 
Bow to the memory of my '75 MG Midget, the car with the Fred Flintstone reverse (open door, place foot on ground, push car back)…
-Rav
Keep telling yourself that should you ever leave your lights on and have to pop-start the car.
Yeah. Well. You know, I used to have a VW Beetle. I got manual windows on it. Saved weight. And cost. And then there was a recall a year or two back. Seems all the windows were popping off the tracks, thanks to the weather.
Manuals not affected.
I miss the girl already. I knew her so well I didn’t need to use the clutch to shift, I just matched RPMs and slid the shifter from gate to gate. I could drift her tight enough to knock a single soda can off the apex of a turn. Only real way to rotate the weight of the car is by proper up and downshifting, you know.
Now, I have a Matrix XRS. The thing is, I drive in what might be the second worst traffic in the US. LA is the worst, but I commute right through New York City daily. And it’s not so bad. Course, there was the time I broke my leg and had to shift with a crutch…
How the heck do you do that? And it’ll only work in ancient trucks?
Call me a stick snob then, I never plan to own a automatic. I even taught a bunch of my buddies to stick my car, and they all admit they love it. And yeah, I get the ‘chicks’ aren’t supposed to be into cars a lot too, but I still can’t wait to get my '65 vette (red, manual transmission) 
ascenray you protest too much. I think secretly you envy us stickpeople, and hearing us talk about our amazing skills makes you green. so there