I miss driving a standard. Drove manual until kids and needed an extra hand free. Look forward to getting a manual Jeep Wrangler in the coming years.
That was not the point. However, it does look like only the older Honda IMA hybrid system works with a manual transmission. But it is more limited in hybrid capabilities and (in some cars, like the Honda Civic Hybrid) has worse battery reliability, compared to other hybrid systems like those in Toyotas and more recently many other brands. The first generation Insight did have outstanding fuel economy, but it was also a very lightweight (by the standards of the time) small car.
Have owned 4 cars, all manuals. I’m pretty sure my next one will be an automatic just because it is hard to find a manuals with the luxury features I’ll need in my old age (heated seats, fancy stereo). For my current car I wanted a manual, but wish I’d gone with the V6 and that only came in automatic. One daughter can’t drive a manual because she can hardly drive ANY car. Too many things coming at her, like shifting on a hill, throws her. She currently drives an old VW bug that is automatic. The other daughter can drive a manual and drives a VW Bus. It’s funny because she’s always teaching her guy friends how to drive manuals. My high school friends all knew how to drive a manual because they had motorcycles and snowmobiles.
And yes, the texting and even talking on the phone is NOT allowed and my kids can’t do it while driving. As one said, “Mom, I can’t even change the radio.” Ah, the joys of no power steering!
All four of us drive manuals, H & I drive Hondas, D18 a Jeep and S19 an old Chevy. I’m about to break the family record - 232,000 miles on my car without a clutch repair.
It’s nice to see that so many CCers like manuals. But I expect that as internal combustion engines are phased out, stick shifts will become relegated to nostalgia, like buggy whips, typewriters, and rotary telephones.
Actually, gasoline powered engines in general will be relegated to nostalgia.
DH and I like our manual Hondas, so that was what DS learned to drive on. He grumbled about it at first, then realized he got macho points from his friends for knowing that mysterious skill. When we helped him buy a used car this year, he insisted on manual transmission … made the used car search a little harder, but we were secretly gratified that he’s carrying on the tradition. And teaching his friends.
My first car was a Ford Econoline manual that I drove around the country for nine months. DH and I have have usually had manuals except for all the Mommy vans that I get to drive. I’m comfortable with either, but I don’t miss the manual when stopped at a stoplight having to go steeply uphill when the light turns green.
Most manual transmission cars have a hand-operated parking brake that can be useful when starting on an uphill grade.
Not me. I drove a friend’s stick shift a handful of times as a teen and I despised it completely. 25 years later and I’m pretty sure I still have bad dreams about it!
My DD wanted a manual, probably to stand out with her friend group. It was nice to know none of them could drive hers. Now she is living in a hilly city. So hilly.
D1 learned to drive on a manual Mini Cooper. It was her first car and she loved it. I never drove a manual car. When I go to Europe, I have to pay premium to drive an automatic. I kind of feel like I am too old to drive a stick now.
Actually, it is probably more common for older people (e.g. those of age to be parents) to know how, since cars with manual transmissions were more common when older people were learning to drive (and buying their own less expensive first cars).
I don’t know how to drive a stick.
Growing up, our car that was a stick was too small for me. Literally, my long legs wouldn’t fit under the steering wheel no matter what we tried.
My parents have one now but I have no interest in learning. Mr R can drive a stick but prefers manual.
If you aspire to be on the Amazing Race driving a manual is a good skill to have.
My friend taught me to drive her parents’ manual transmission Land Rover when I was in high school. I’ve had several manual transmission cars (does anyone call them standard anymore?). Now I prefer automatics but it’s like riding a bike, you can always do it if you have to. Like driving my husband’s pick-up.
I drive a standard Hyundai and my husband and daughter have standard Subarus. My beloved escort wagon had well over 200,000 miles on its original clutch.
The only time I really hated standard was when I broke my left arm. Kept me pretty much at home for 6 weeks.
My DDs 1&2 learned on sticks and still drive them, and have found it’s great for avoiding anyone else borrowing your car as no one can drive stick. D1 lived abroad and can drive a stick on both sides of the road.
D3 never learned stick and does not care.
I think it’s a great way to teach good driving skills and am disappointed we did not force D3 to learn, she drove a bit, but never owned it.
That said, I have to be prepared to enjoy the drive to choose the stick shift car.
My parents tried to teach me on the manual car and had forgotten that I think finally having time, needed to drive and they got a car with an automatic transmission made the difference in finally getting my license. Sister liked manual. I’m perfectly fine with letting the car do the shifting. With today’s computers managing things I do not see any advantage- I don’t need to “feel” the car.
When I graduated from college, I barely knew how to drive a stick. I mean I had tried it two or three times for about 2 minutes. My first job as a college graduate was to drive a manual one ton truck full of landscaping equipment around a very large city doing landscape maintenance on commercial properties. The Spanish speaking male crew I worked with and supervised rode in the back with the equipment. I lived in a small town all my life and didn’t even know that some intersections had two left turn lanes. My crew (I’m female) had to hold on for dear life as I jerked and jostled them around the city and also dodge the equipment that shifted and rolled about bed of the truck at the same time (that was before it was illegal for people to ride in the back of trucks - the laws were probably changed because someone witnessed me committing this atrocity). I learned pretty quickly and became competent at it. My crew and I survived that summer and they were actually sad to see me go (every Friday after we finished, I’d treat them all to giant Slurpees on the way back to the office 
) . After that job and before I got my first real job in my profession, I bought my first new car - a little manual Chevy Chevette and drove it two states away to that job which required me to be able to drive a manual SUV on the very primitive and unpaved backroads in the forested areas where I worked. I was a little more prepared for the challenge this time, but the challenge was more difficult. It rained almost everyday for the first summer and I was driving in deep mud up and down very steep slopes. We got stuck a lot and I learned how to jack up the vehicle and put rocks under the tires so we could get out. It also snowed a lot that winter. Same deal. Sometimes the roads were dry, but we had areas that were so rocky it was like riding a bucking bronco for 2 hours. Sometimes on the drive back on the bumpy road to the office, one of the non-drivers would get tired and nod off and they’d jerk forwards and backwards strapped into their seat and we say they “were riding the bull”. So that was my experience for about the first 10 years of my career before I moved up the ladder and was stuck doing mostly office work. All my personal cars afterwards were automatics. A few years ago, right before I retired I was looking for a new to me used car and I test drove a manual Honda Element I believe. I was so disappointed that my manual driving skills deteriorated so badly in just of few years of not driving a manual everyday. I could barely make it around a few blocks. I didn’t pop the clutch or doing anything embarrassing, but I had to deliberately THINK about how to drive a manual. So I guess I’ll be an automatic driver until I die, but I’ve got a lot of good stories to tell my kids and future grandkids (and CC) about the adventures I had during my career.