Car I learned on was a '67 or '68 Buick LeSabre sedan. As soon as I got my license, my dad taught me to drive a stick in his '60 Ford sedan (3-speed column shift, a former police car). That winter he took me up to the Sierras to learn snow driving - a skill that saved my butt in Idaho and South Carolina in the wintertime.

Most of the vehicles I have owned have been automatics. The exception was the '77 Ford Econoline van I bought from a shipmate getting out on a hardship after his wife left him and their 2-year-old son while he was deployed (long story, nobody won, but she and her boyfriend lost their Navy careers). 351 Windsor engine, 3-on-the-tree. Drove that tank for 13 years, biggest problem was replacing starters every 3 years.

Drove Navy pick-ups and heavier trucks with both column and floor-shifts, and a John Deere tractor in my sister's vinyard.

It has been about 10 years since I drove a stick, but it would probably not take long to get that skill back.

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Donald
Infernal Optimist / Submariner, retired

In 1968 when I turned 16 and got my learners permit. My dad had a 1964 Rambler station wagon with a 3 speed on the coloum. He gave me the keys and told me do drive forward and backwards in the driveway. And he didnt give me any lessons. The backwards part went ok after I figured out the clutch. The forward part was a ^%^$%$^. You see there was this little slight rise going forward and I kept stalling the damn car. I can bet my dad was watching from the window laughing his can off. I finaly got the hang of working the gas and the clutch to go up a little stinking slope. Fast forward to 1970 I turned 18 and joined the local volunteer fire department. I had to learn all over again to drive a truck with a manual tranny.

I have arthritus in both my knees. I drove manual right up to 2007. The last time I got caught in a parking lot on I81 for 45 minutes in slow crawling traffic I thought my knees were going to fall off. That was the end of that.

Back when I did drive a stick I shifted by engine sound also. And when I heard the engine start to lug I downshifted. You can do the same with an automatic also.

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Old James

Due to hand controls, I have to use Automatic but my wife swears by Standard for winter driving.

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I've had both, and love and hate both.
For slow moving, stop-start, traffic automatic wins
But for country lanes at speed then a good manual is hard to better.

re earlier comments about a 4000lb car being heavy, indeed too heavy to be a manual. Three of my previous vehicles weighed in at more than 5000lb, and all were manual, with modern manual gearboxes and assisted clutches which were delightfully light and positive.

Best of all? its a toss-up between an ex-works Audi Quattro S2-evo with its sequential manual or my current Land Rover with a ZF 6-speed auto.
And worst - my Cooper S just before the box gave out big time bits on the road BIG time)

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

The USA is basically an Automatic country due mainly to it's size and the American psyche. Conversely the UK is a manual country for precisely the opposite reasons.
...

You know, I always thought it was because of our drivers licensing laws. It used to be that if you took your test in a standard, your license allowed you to drive standard and automatic, but if you took your test in an automatic you were only allowed to drive an automatic. That meant that most people just stuck with a standard.

I drive one now, which is more unusual here. However, when you are buying an older car it makes sense to buy a standard than an automatic because it is less likely to have problems. It is also much cheaper to fix.

Or course when trying to teach your stubborn son (I have no idea where he gets it from) to drive, its a whole other kettle of fish. :/

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Reality Internet Personality

Of course when trying to teach your stubborn son (I have no idea where he gets it from) to drive, its a whole other kettle of fish. :/

That last time I drove a stick, it was when a lady friend/co-worker's 21-yo son wanted to buy his own car. He found a used pick-up, in decent shape, that he could afford.

Only issue, it was a stick, and he had never driven one, nor she. So I drove it home for them - yes, it was rough at the start, but I was shifting pretty smooth by the time we got home. Then spent 4 weeks of evenings and Saturdays trying to teach him to drive it. He has dislexia and learning disabilities (and an AA in Landscape Architecture), and no matter what we tried, he could not stop looking down at his left foot every time he shifted gears. Finally gave up and traded it for a slightly newer model with an automatic. He's still driving it 11 years later.

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Donald
Infernal Optimist / Submariner, retired

Of course when trying to teach your stubborn son (I have no idea where he gets it from) to drive, its a whole other kettle of fish. :/

That last time I drove a stick, it was when a lady friend/co-worker's 21-yo son wanted to buy his own car. He found a used pick-up, in decent shape, that he could afford.

Only issue, it was a stick, and he had never driven one, nor she. So I drove it home for them - yes, it was rough at the start, but I was shifting pretty smooth by the time we got home. Then spent 4 weeks of evenings and Saturdays trying to teach him to drive it. He has dislexia and learning disabilities (and an AA in Landscape Architecture), and no matter what we tried, he could not stop looking down at his left foot every time he shifted gears. Finally gave up and traded it for a slightly newer model with an automatic. He's still driving it 11 years later.

The first time I drove an automatic it was one of the ones with a double wide brake pedal. I had just been driving the jeep with a massive return spring on the clutch (Press lightly on the brake, STOMP on the clutch). Now do that with a double wide brake pedal on a car with touchy brakes (scrape the front bumper on the ground).

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BOINC WIKI

The first time I drove an automatic it was one of the ones with a double wide brake pedal. I had just been driving the jeep with a massive return spring on the clutch (Press lightly on the brake, STOMP on the clutch). Now do that with a double wide brake pedal on a car with touchy brakes (scrape the front bumper on the ground).

LMAO....I can just see that....
Force of habit can be a very hard thing to break. I can relate to that scenario.

A number of years ago, I drove my RX7 all summer. 5 speed manual.
When fall came and it was time to switch back to the good ol' Oldsmobile with it's automatic transmission, I kept putting my left foot down and grasping air with my right hand reaching for the shift knob.

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"Time is simply the mechanism that keeps everything from happening all at once."

The first time I drove an automatic it was one of the ones with a double wide brake pedal. I had just been driving the jeep with a massive return spring on the clutch (Press lightly on the brake, STOMP on the clutch). Now do that with a double wide brake pedal on a car with touchy brakes (scrape the front bumper on the ground).

LMAO....I can just see that....
Force of habit can be a very hard thing to break. I can relate to that scenario.

A number of years ago, I drove my RX7 all summer. 5 speed manual.
When fall came and it was time to switch back to the good ol' Oldsmobile with it's automatic transmission, I kept putting my left foot down and grasping air with my right hand reaching for the shift knob.

That's muscle memory for ya. :)

And it took a while to get over it.
I would still do it once in a while weeks later when I got out of work late and dead tired, or if I had something distracting on my mind.

Lori did the same thing when the Toyota Celica she had driven for many years was finally overtaken by rust and no longer safe to drive. Her new Nissan Rouge was of course, an automatic. And after her years of conditioning, she would go for the clutch and shift knob for a very long time. And months later, if she and I were talking about something as we were leaving to run errands, she would still do it once in a while.

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"Time is simply the mechanism that keeps everything from happening all at once."

You know, I always thought it was because of our drivers licensing laws. It used to be that if you took your test in a standard, your license allowed you to drive standard and automatic, but if you took your test in an automatic you were only allowed to drive an automatic. That meant that most people just stuck with a standard.

Errrrrmmmm 'ish.

Yes it is true that if you pass your test in a manual you can also drive an automatic, but not vice versa. Most cars sold in the UK are manual cars because that is what the majority of the general public prefer. 75% of the 1.8 million new cars that were bought in 2013 were manuals, 25% being automatics.

I drive one now, which is more unusual here. However, when you are buying an older car it makes sense to buy a standard than an automatic because it is less likely to have problems. It is also much cheaper to fix.

Yes agreed. Mind you from what you have said, Mr 99 shouldn't be let near any car, he's a wrecking ball on 2 legs!!!

Or course when trying to teach your stubborn son (I have no idea where he gets it from) to drive, its a whole other kettle of fish. :/

Ooooh now, the maternal side of the family by any remote chance ???

I still thank that most Americans are just lazy drivers that can't be bothered to drive a real car, but times are changing. A lot performance cars e.g the new Porsche 911 GT3 and 911 Turbo, Renault’s new Clio RS 200 Turbo, Aston Martin’s latest V12 Vantage S and all of Lamborghini’s new supercars, to name but a few have the paddle shift with dual clutch, which has taken over from the sequential change gearboxes.

It depends on what the commute looks like. Often, mine has stop and go traffic for an hour or so. Handling a manual shift correctly often involves shifting 5 to 15 times a minute for the hour as the speeds change all over the place. Quickly becomes less than fun. My current car has a CVT.

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BOINC WIKI

The only tricky part about a manual for me has been stop lights on hills. It's a delicate balance to get going again without rolling back a little. ~One of the reasons I don't like people nearly touching my back bumper in traffic - drives me a little crazy. ;~}

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

The only tricky part about a manual for me has been stop lights on hills. It's a delicate balance to get going again without rolling back a little. ~One of the reasons I don't like people nearly touching my back bumper in traffic - drives me a little crazy. ;~}

With sport car pedal layout, the pedals are close enough together that both can be worked if you have big feet like mine :-( If that fails to work. set the hand brake and when the clutch starts to catch, release the hand brake. I use the hand brake method when I am parked on a hill to make sure I don't roll into the car behind me.

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The only tricky part about a manual for me has been stop lights on hills. It's a delicate balance to get going again without rolling back a little. ~One of the reasons I don't like people nearly touching my back bumper in traffic - drives me a little crazy. ;~}

With sport car pedal layout, the pedals are close enough together that both can be worked if you have big feet like mine :-( If that fails to work. set the hand brake and when the clutch starts to catch, release the hand brake. I use the hand brake method when I am parked on a hill to make sure I don't roll into the car behind me.

I actually never thought about using the hand brake for this. Nifty idea, thanks. :~)

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

Or, if the car behind is REALLY close, just use them as a brake - its their fault, they shouldn't have been so close in the first place ;-0

(One of my of Land Rovers was very good at "curing" those who stopped too close at "up hill" traffic lights - it would roll back a yard or so before the hand brake bit - and with a NATO hitch and winch on the back....)

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

They used to put an egg behind one of the rear wheels on the advanced driving teat, if you cracked it you failed. They don't do that any more.

Well, thank goodness, lol. That's pretty intense. ;~}

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

Of course when trying to teach your stubborn son (I have no idea where he gets it from) to drive, its a whole other kettle of fish. :/

That last time I drove a stick, it was when a lady friend/co-worker's 21-yo son wanted to buy his own car. He found a used pick-up, in decent shape, that he could afford.

Only issue, it was a stick, and he had never driven one, nor she. So I drove it home for them - yes, it was rough at the start, but I was shifting pretty smooth by the time we got home. Then spent 4 weeks of evenings and Saturdays trying to teach him to drive it. He has dislexia and learning disabilities (and an AA in Landscape Architecture), and no matter what we tried, he could not stop looking down at his left foot every time he shifted gears. Finally gave up and traded it for a slightly newer model with an automatic. He's still driving it 11 years later.

The first time I drove an automatic it was one of the ones with a double wide brake pedal. I had just been driving the jeep with a massive return spring on the clutch (Press lightly on the brake, STOMP on the clutch). Now do that with a double wide brake pedal on a car with touchy brakes (scrape the front bumper on the ground).

LOL. I too know about that first hand. But Ive done the reverse and hit the brakes with out pushing the clutch in. Can you say instant stall:)

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[/quote]

Old James

I drove a stick once on a trip with a friend, his car. It would take some practice, but makes no sense at all in Los Angeles traffic.

Makes perfect sense. I spent 35 years of driving that traffic with a manual transmission. It gives you something to do while you are waiting to get to your destination.

A lot of something to do if you drive in LA.
http://scorecard.inrix.com/scorecard/worstcorridors.asp
While the #1 in the USA went to New York, #2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 11, 13 are all LA. (that's half of the top 15 nationally!) While a stick might be fun for a week or two in this traffic after a couple of months it would be a PITA. Besides a stick makes it harder to eat breakfast, shave, do your makeup, update your status, surf the traffic report on the web, send a few texts and maybe call the boss to tell him you will be late again in your hour of delay time. Not to hijack, just there are reasons for an automatic.

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The difficult one is what they teach on the Class 1 police drivers course. That is when in a pursuit and you come to a hill, you do what is called a power change to try to get in front. It basically consists of keeping the accelerator pressed down, then downshifting a gear via the clutch as quickly as physically possible. If you judge it right the momentary increase in engine revs will match the extra required for the lower gear, giving you extra acceleration.

I can only get it right 1 in 4 times, so I don't often try it.

Sound like a great way to tear up a transmission or blow an engine. Over here the police department often orders special engines that have extra output in order to gain the advantage. That works most of the time but some people do have faster cars than the law. The policy is now changing to back off and let the helicopter follow them at a safer speed.

The older transmissions lacked synchromesh and as the result the clutch side of the transmission had to be turning at the right rate of speed to shift without grinding. My brother's first pickup had such a transmission and he reached the point where he could shift without using the clutch and without grinding the gears. i was never able to work that old transmission that well but then I never had all that much practice on that transmission.

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Besides a stick makes it harder to eat breakfast, shave, do your makeup, update your status, surf the traffic report on the web, send a few texts and maybe call the boss to tell him you will be late again in your hour of delay time. Not to hijack, just there are reasons for an automatic.

Well, I know Google, and others are working on the type of car that will make even an automatic seem anachronistic.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

Didn't those Daimler Darts look like someone grabbed parts from a half dozen different other cars and then tried to fit them together? (talk about totally mismatching body work)

As for the old crash gearboxes, they are great and I reckon that all drivers should be able to operate them before being issued a driver's license.

I've owned 13 vehicles myself of which all but 4 were manuals and don't ask me about what vehicles I've ever driven as I've probably forgotten at least a third of them (if not half), but it will be in the hundreds.

Cheers.