<p>So it looks like it is not a lost art. Maybe we’ll see if we can rent one for a few days and give it teaching them a shot. That or they’ll have to go on the European trips with some of the kids here who do posses the skill :)</p>
<p>My husband and my son drive manuals; they far prefer it. I can drive one, but I wouldn’t choose it! I once restored an old Karmen Ghia. Now I’ve got that paddle thingy. Other cities have been mentioned, but SF can be scary in a manual too. And I’m not even driving. My D wants to learn.</p>
<p>I think one kid doesn’t and the other has at least tried it in a parking lot but not with me present. </p>
<p>I don’t think being able to drive a manual is really that important anymore. </p>
<p>There are very few manual trans cars even available in the USA anymore, even with many sports cars (especially the high end ones) and pickup trucks and the percentage of vehicles available/sold with a manual is decreasing considerably year to year. </p>
<p>With the new automatics there’s not even a fuel mileage advantage to manuals anymore and for sheer performance in shifting for performance cars, automatics are now better than manuals which is why many/most high end sports cars don’t even offer a manual anymore.</p>
<p>It’s not difficult to rent a car in Europe with an auto trans because they’re becoming increasingly commonplace for everyone over there as well. Check out a rental site and you’ll see it’s a normal option to request. </p>
<p>Given that, I think a good reason to know how to drive a manual is so one can get a sports car or other ‘driving enthusiast car’ with a manual transmission and enjoy the fun of meshing through the gears, even if it’s now less efficient and not a performance bump over an auto trans. I’m one of those who like a manual and will get a manual when I buy a sports car (whenever that is) and won’t consider a sports car without a manual.</p>
<p>But even though I learned on a manual which I was 14 or so and my first car and some subsequent cars were manuals and I’m a manual tranny enthusiast for certain uses (sports car, good handling enthusiast car, 4-wheeling) and it’s the only kind I’ll get when I buy a sports car, I realize for most people it really doesn’t matter anymore from a practical perspective (except on ‘The Amazing Race’ sometimes).</p>
<p>It’s also less practical for people to even learn since there are so few manuals around anymore and a very good chance their family doesn’t own a manual trans car for them to learn and practice with.</p>
<p>I think this puts learning to drive a manual in the ‘it’d be nice if it’s convenient’ category and not the ‘critical’ or ‘important’ categories.</p>
<p>My older d can’t, and has an automatic. My younger d can, and thus inherited the old convertible 330 BMW. </p>
<p>I drove a stick VW bug in college, as well as a double clutch double decker bus with left hand drive. Young ladies can certainly learn to drive anything.</p>
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Definitely and so can old ones.</p>
<p>Search youtube for “102 year old drives 82 year old car” and watch it. It’s a great video of a 102 year old still driving her old Packard (and they’re both in great operational condition) and even at 102, she’s still rowing the gears.</p>
<p>D, 28, lives in Boston and sold her automatic transmission car when she moved there. She walks to her office and uses public transport or ZIP cars when needed.</p>
<p>S, 22 and a recent mechanical engineering graduate (don’t know what that has to do with it, but he is more into things mechanical) insisted on purchasing a manual transmission vehicle for his first car. He had made a point of learning to drive manual from a friend in college and became more adept as he got more experience with his own car. I am not thrilled that he is the only one in the family that can drive that car, but since he was paying for it himself, had to let him do what he chose. He lives at home as the job offer he got in his field is commuting distance from our suburban home. He has offered to teach me to drive manual, but I am an old dog reluctant to take on more new tricks than I need.</p>
<p>Yes, both of my kids drive a stick. DS had no choice, it was all we had in the family. By the time DD came along, I had gotten an automatic. But it was important to me that she be able to drive both cars so that it wouldn’t always be mine that was getting borrowed. They have each chosen stick shift for their own new cars. I suppose it’s fun before the knees get all cranky.</p>
<p>My twenty-six year old drives a car with a manual transmission. His twenty-two year old brother knows the rudiments. </p>
<p>I know how to drive one, and so does their dad.</p>
<p>I have driven stick shift since college and have taught my husband and oldest child (S) to do so. They both prefer automatic but are competent if rusty at it.</p>
<p>I have promised to teach both girls, but the timing hasn’t worked out. Partially, that’s because my middle daughter terrifies me so much with her driving that I’m hesitate to head off to the church parking lot down the street with her! (DH did all driving lessons. I figure that’s fair compensation for labor & delivery plus all those doctor and dentist appointments over the years.)</p>
<p>The advantage, of course, to having stick shift when they were at home was that they had to borrow Dad’s car to go anywhere, since they couldn’t make mine go. Now that they’ve all got their own vehicle, maybe I can think about going back to automatic? :)</p>
<p>Nah…</p>
<p>Split down the middle here. H and S yes, D and I no. When we were first married we had a clunker automatic, the first time H had ever driven one. When he bought a new one, it was stick. My new one was automatic. S learned on H’s stick. D has never enjoyed driving, and only drives when she has to, an automatic.</p>
<p>On a long trip to Canada, before the kids, I drove H’s car, but I steered and did the clutch, he shifted. S lives in Europe. A stick is really a must there.</p>
<p>H, S, and I all can drive a stick shift, but not D. I still chuckle at the thought of learning on a HS BF’s parents’ Datsun in the '70s. They would still probably get a bit irritated if they knew.</p>
<p>Yes all three boys can drive a stick…and a three on the tree. My H taught them. I have to admit I can only drive a stick if the car has a Tac since I cannot “feel the clutch” But in a pinch I would persevere. My first learning attempt was a Plymouth Valiant, too! Along the road of life I also encountered a double clutch in a rental truck early in our marriage…left that one to H.</p>
<p>My first attempt was at a dealership, and I almost impaled the car on something sticking out of a pole it was parked in front of. Hmmmm…I guess that means I almost ran into a pole. I never thought it that way before.</p>
<p>I’ve trained my oldest daughter to drive a stick and once my youngest is old enough - she’ll learn too. DD once she figured it out was really proud of herself - as was I - helped out a lot when we went on our college visitation tour.</p>
<p>My parents prefer driving manual, so I actually had to learn on manual because we didn’t own any automatics when I was 16. Then one of the our cars broke and we revived my grandfather’s old automatic car, so I ended up testing on that and mainly driving that – so I kind of sort of know how to drive manual.</p>
<p>All 3 kids know how. H insists they learn from the beginning alternating between auto and manual. My D passed her drivers test in one (parallel parking here in PA). I learned in a VW bus on a very steep hill! We own 2 manuals and 2 autos. And if you prefer to own a manual, you might also have to have manual windows. They are usually the stripped down version if purchased new.</p>
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<p>If this is so then pretty much all the ones that are produced must be snapped up by car rental companies for their European outlets. Whenever you try to rent a car in Europe there are very few, if any, automatics available. It’s all stick shifts and also very often with diesel engines too.</p>
<p>^^ What’s available in a particular model in the USA vs the same model in Europe can be different, especially in the area of engines and trannies. There really are very few cars with manuals sold in the USA nowadays as a percentage of overall sales. Even the cheap econoboxes come with automatics now.</p>
<p>I checked Hertz, Avis, Europcar. They all (at least say) they have cars available in Europe (I checked Frankfurt) with automatics and I remember being asked if I needed an automatic the last time I rented in the UK. However, they certainly show more cars with manuals than automatics.</p>
<p>The last car I rented in Europe (a few years ago) was both a manual and a diesel (an Audi A-5).</p>
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<p>My parents have two manuals, a Civic and a Matrix. Neither has manual windows. For the most part, I think they were manual versions of the automatic version that was being made.</p>
<p>That said, the Matrix is maybe five years and the Civic is older, and they’ve said their next car might be an automatic because manuals are getting harder to find with the right specifications. But manual windows? I doubt new cars are being made with those right now.</p>
<p>Yes both D1 and D2 learned on a stick (H taught them) and automatic. it was intentionally for a safety factor if they were ever stranded or the boyfriend could not drive home?intoxicated, etc. H and I both learned it on our first cars (stick was less expensive in those days). So D1 drove home a car for a guy friend who did not know how to drive the car he just bought and was did not want to ask a guy friend. She then taught him how to drive it.</p>