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Post by doctork on Apr 1, 2014 21:17:38 GMT -5
I read a newspaper story about this recently. The author actually said "Go ahead and leave your keys in the ignition. No one will steal it because nobody knows how to drive it!"
Hmmmm, I beg to differ. I drive a manual and I would never leave my keys in it, as I am certain it would be stolen. But this article claimed that only about 3% of cars sold in the US are manual transmission. I think it is quite different in other countries though, as most rentals I have had in Europe have been manual; you have to pay a lot more if you want automatic.
The car I drive comes only with standard, no automatic available, so it was a non-issue in my car-buying decision. I did have second thoughts though the other day when we had to empty out the clinic parking lot for the chopper to land. I handed my car keys to Leander, our security guard, without even thinking "Can he drive a standard?" Yes he can, no problem doc!
Can you drive a stick shift? Do you?
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Post by BoatBabe on Apr 1, 2014 21:49:58 GMT -5
I can drive a stick shift. I was raised with one, and only had one for many years. I don't any more. Yes. The standard transmission is dead.  I don't think those battery cars have them. |
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Post by gailkate on Apr 2, 2014 0:22:58 GMT -5
I drove stick shifts till my back got bad. Sometimes working the clutch just wasn't possible. But despite front-wheel drive, I still think standard transmissions are best for winter driving, and I'll bet you AZ, WA and MT girls agree.
We just had to buy Jerry another car. Did I tell you that? The cute as a bug (!) Beetle had some issues, so we traded up for a Jetta. Certain models of VW cars offer standard and it never occurred to me that that they were going out of fashion.
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Post by Jane on Apr 2, 2014 6:28:47 GMT -5
I can't drive a stick, but I can't do much. After my parents quit trying to teach me to drive, they passed the task onto a friend of mine. The car I was allowed to drive was a stick. On my first night of solo driving, I ran directly into the car of one of my father's friends. I can still remember coming home, bursting into tears in the living room and having my father leap up from his nap. Fortunately, his friend was unconcerned about the accident. I finally got my license when I was 19, and I still can't drive a stick. Or parallel park.
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Post by doctork on Apr 2, 2014 9:24:32 GMT -5
Jane, maybe you should get one of those new cars that parallel parks itself!
I do think the standard does better in the snow, but of course lately I've driven a Subaru. All Subarus have All Wheel Drive, sacrifice a bit on the miles per gallon, but the handling is better.
One advantage to standard transmission + teen-agers is that only one of my kids (Spencer) learned to drive it, so I didn't have to worry about the girls borrowing my car.
I have always driven a stick shift since my very first car, when I graduated college. I learned how to drive a stick when I had to drive it home from where I bought it. 40 miles - good thing it was in Florida, where the road was flat. When I stopped for gas I had to get the attendant to show me how to start it up again!
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Post by joew on Apr 6, 2014 19:03:10 GMT -5
Standard transmission is still standard in Europe. When I got into my accident in Ireland, and insisted on an automatic transmission replacement vehicle, I ended up with a minivan — no car available. I can drive a stick shift, but the car I've had since 1997 is automatic, and if I took a stick shift in Ireland, I'd be shifting with my left hand. I just didn't want that added complication on top of getting used to driving on the left. In Germany, I've driven stick shifts with no trouble (except for stalling a couple of times when I forgot to downshift after stopping at an intersection). Shifting is actually kinda fun.
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Post by gailkate on Apr 6, 2014 23:51:29 GMT -5
It is fun, and I kind of miss it. But I forgot to mention that a stick shift on steep hills can be murder. Winter driving in Duluth, where hills as steep as any in San Francisco descend to the harbor, is not for the faint of heart. The stick will help going down, but if you have to inch uphill, you pray not to have to stop. If the car behind you doesn't leave enough room, you're bound to slide back into it before your clutch can engage. Maybe there's a trick for that, but I never learned it.
What accident in Ireland, Joe? |
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Post by doctork on Apr 7, 2014 0:52:57 GMT -5
Once years ago I drove my brand new stick shift sports car from Denver out to San Francisco to visit friends on my vacation. Denver and Florida are pretty flat; SF is not. That was quite a learning experience.
It is the law in San Francisco to turn your wheels in when you park on a hill (which is almost everywhere in the city), just in case the parking brake is not 100%. Stopping on a hill is tricky. You will usually slide back a bit, but then the car behind you should bot be "following too closely" - which can also earn them a ticket.
At the stop on a hill, I have the car in neutral with one foot on the brake and the other on the dead pedal (or on the clutch but pressed all the way down). To start I let up very slowly on the clutch as I gently press the accelerator, so I can avoid most of that back slide. However, that is hard on the clutch. The driveway to our garage in our Bellingham house was very steep, a perpetual challenge with manual transmission. A lot of times I just parked on the road side at the bottom of the driveway hill, especially in winter.
Still, I prefer to really drive my car, so I like the standard, and I don't use automatic speed control. I have never fallen asleep while driving, nor even come close, and not even when driving back and forth to the hospital at oh-dark-thirty. Not even on my marathon cross-country drives. I have to be awake to shift and to keep to the speed limit.
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Post by BoatBabe on Apr 7, 2014 9:23:02 GMT -5
I agree, Doc. I hate cruise control. I won't use it. I just drove from Boise to Buhl, Idaho, and that's a long road running with truckers. I want to be in control. By the way, I had a Buick Encore. It drives okay, but it looks like a fat-butted bullfrog.  |
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Post by joew on Apr 7, 2014 10:46:16 GMT -5
… What accident in Ireland, Joe? The landlady of the B&B where I was staying in Monaghan Town told me that there was long-term parking on the side street at the next intersection for one euro per day, and at the end of the street was a lot where one could park for free. I decided to use the free lot. The entrance was narrow and bounded by upright thin steel posts and included a speed bump between the posts. At the far side of the lot was an attractive one-story building. As I admired the building, the left front of the car came in contact with the post, resulting in sufficient damage to render the vehicle unsafe to operate at highway speeds, in the opinion of the owner of the repair garage. |
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Post by gailkate on Apr 7, 2014 16:40:35 GMT -5
"...bumper came in contact with..."
Isn't it amazing how willful these contraptions can get? That bumper was probably jealous of your attention to the attractive building. "Hey, bub, look what I can do!"
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Post by liriodendron on Apr 7, 2014 21:31:20 GMT -5
My Subaru Forester is a stick! It's the fourth car I've owned with a manual transmission. I wouldn't have it any other way. I hated those years where I had to drive the minivan, but what are you going to do with three kids and their car seats and the stroller and all those bags of groceries? Heck, the vacation where we had only two of the kids and had to decide between taking the stroller or the suitcases (the stroller won - the clothes went in tote bags and got stuffed around the stroller and on the floor under the kids' feet) was enough to make me agree to getting the minivan.
Oh, and it used to be that none of my kids could drive a stick, but the middle one's girlfriend taught him how to drive her car, so I guess my car is no longer safe.
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Post by doctork on Apr 8, 2014 20:07:08 GMT -5
Aww don't feel bad about the minivan lirio, we had one once too. With three kids you have to have it, if for no other season that on a road trip you have to have a separate row for each kid. The one sitting next to the driver has to be on their best behavior anyway, but further back... well who can stand 8 hours of "He's on my side of the seat!!"
And I know what you mean about those "friends" who teach your kids to drive a stick. Certainly I never taught any of our kids how to do that, but Spencer was enterprising enough to find someone to teach him.
Subaru has announced that the 2015 WRX will no longer have a hatchback version, just the sedan. But they are NOT going to make it with an automatic. Ya gotta draw a line somewhere,
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Dopey Member
