Each Decade That Passes, Fewer People Report Knowing How to Drive Stick Shifts
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I've driven manual transmission vehicles for most of my adult life, my last 4 cars have been automatic. My wife isn't willing to learn how to drive one.
The single thing I prefer about manual transmission vs automatic: direct throttle response If you tap the throttle, the vehicle responds to it. If you take your foot off the throttle, the engine braking starts and you slow down very effectively.
You become accustomed to the sounds and feel of your vehicle, and can tell when it's not running correctly.
The only place automatics are preferable is in stop & go traffic.
I've driven automatic transmissions all my life, but I've really enjoyed my CVT transmission because I can go into a seven-speed manual mode (that I mostly only use for engine braking).
As an aside, I do a bit of track time in an Automatic - it's like having a super power if you're a novice as there's very few people who really know how to shift properly. That being said, a Manual is so much more fun.
There are also some off-roading advantages, although in general it’s a mixed bag. You don’t want to shift while your clutch is underwater, for example, and from what I understand driving in sand is easier in an auto due the smoother shifts and corresponding lack of a loss in momentum.
Also, for extreme rock crawling, it’s helpful to have feet on both gas and brake, plus no burning up the clutch.
(I’m far from an expert, I don’t crawl rocks, and my primary Jeep is a stick, so this is primarily hearsay.)
A manual transmission lets YOU choose when to shift. That means you can keep the 1L engine that's pulling around your 5000lb barge up high near its peak power and get the performance you want. Contrast with an automatic transmission where you get the performance some engineer deems is an acceptable balance between what you want and what the company thinks is best for its fuel economy stats.
I think I’d have to place electrical tape over those indicators.
How dare the engineer decide what's best for the engine?
Literally every automatic has the ability to shift into first gear as needed. Hell, my automatic 4-banger Dodge Neon had first gear and that thing couldn't tow a tricycle.
This is something I very much want while driving; it's part of the reason I get around primarily by motorcycle. If driving is too easy, my attention wanders, and that's not really safe. A manual transmission gives me more engagement with the driving process and that helps keep my eyes on the road.
I've seen my uncle do it. He said you don't grip it with your hand, else you might break your arm should the motor jerk the crank away. Never did it myself.
Fewer people know how to use carbide lamps too.
It looked shockingly capable off-road though, which I guess makes sense if you think about what counted for a road in the 1910s.
Speaking of, there's a good book (although I admit I've barely started) called "American Road" by Pete Davies which draws a vivid picture of what roads were like and the politics involved in even deciding whether government should be involved in road building.
Its primary goal is describing a military motor train that crossed the country in 1919 (and may well have been a key opportunity that kept Eisenhower from leaving the military...history has some fascinating turning points).
I suspect that the number probably peaked in the last 20yr.
It was a cold morning, and wouldn't start.
The issue wasn't not knowing how to use a choke, but not knowing that it had a manual choke.
Arguably, the generator is an anachronism, but a comparably powered battery + solar cell would be $10,000’s, and the generator was << $1000.
Miata, Wrangler, Mustang, and a handful of others, but they’re the exception rather than the rule.
Most of those are performance oriented. Those that aren't will probably be all automatics.
You won't find them at dealers very often (they're not popular) but they are available for most of the budget lines provided by the manufacturers.
Feel free to look for yourself. They list it under "powertrain" in the specs pages.
> is different from “broadly available”,
FWIW, my definition boils down to: available from most manufacturers, in the major form factors (truck, SUV, sedan, compact, sport).
No Chevy, Dodge, GMC, Ford. That's just one huge gap.
Update: also, if you extend that to SUVs, one of the hottest markets, I think the only model you add is the Ford Bronco.
So there are no entry-level pickups or SUVs as manuals. For CUVs you could probably add Kia Soul and Mazda, but not much else.
Yet they do exist (and from most major manufacturers), and if you're not after the bells and whistles, they make for a reasonable investment.
The times I rented/hired a campervan in New Zealand and in Iceland, they were manual transmission. I heard recently the ones in New Zealand are automatic nowadays. (That's good because I wasn't used to shifting with my left hand and was kinda freaked out for the first half hour or so of driving.)
A guy I knew had volunteered on Lesbos during the refugee crisis and can't drive a stick so he couldn't drive there. The availability of rental cars on islands can be pretty limited. A couple years ago I was on Madeira and apparently the only affordable rentals there are manual transmission subcompacts.
They’re unpredictable, too eager to shift down even in torque-y engines, annoying going up hills where they’re too eager to shift up.
The only time I really appreciate an automatic is in a big diesel car. Manuals are painful in heavy diesels, especially in start stop traffic.
"Stick shift" isn't a phrase often heard here, because manual transmission is so much the default that "automatic" is the exception that needs a name.
My thinking was that it was one of those things where "a new rider would be less safe because there's more to manage but an old rider would be more safe because they have a greater degree of control." I learned, quickly, that an 800lb bike with a big engine requires a lot more careful control through a tight turn than the "mountain-bike with a weed whacker engine" on it that we trained on--especially when said operator is 150lbs soaking wet. And while older riders benefit more, new riders are incredibly unsafe* until they've sorted out the "friction zone", throttle/shifting/gear ratios of their particular bike -- when you understand how your bike reacts from/between each gear and find yourself deciding between a dangerous white-knuckle-hard-stop[1] or a rapid down-shift, throttle and controlled escape, you're almost always safer escaping first, stopping second[2]. Escaping might require a downshift depending on where you're at. Left hand, left foot, throttle, release all happen at once and you hold on. :)
Having that level of control also makes it feel like you're doing something more than having a device move you from point A to point B* which makes it more fun, for me. Unfortunately, when it comes to a car, I have 4 wheels and do not have to manage lateral momentum as much around a turn. Having the half-second decrease in downshift time will give me more power but at the expense of an enormous amount of fuel and rarely to my benefit[3]. And just about every other feature of the car, except for the entertainment pieces, is designed to make driving as mindless/simple as possible. The only benefit, especially compared against modern/higher-end automatic transmissions--for cars--seems to be "it's fun".
[0] And, I'd imagine, electric motorcycles won't have power transmissions systems that require shifting.
[1] I have an ABS bike; similarly hated feature, because the thing it tries to save you from: wheel lock and a trip over the handlebars/under the bike, it often just converts into a less controllable version of the same result at a longer stopping distance. And being the stopped/out of control vehicle in an orderly set of moving vehicles is not good for anyone.
[2] Next time you see some dude on a crotch rocket like a complete jack-ass, pay close attention to context. There's been probably 10 occasions where drivers at the right angle would have thought I was being "one of those morons" when I was reacting to another driver who almost killed me because their phone was more interesting than moving the muscles required to check a blind spot.
[3] On four occasions since riding, I have found myself having to rapidly downshift, move to the left and ride the dashed line until I could get out from between two cars, one who didn't check their blind-spot before deciding to occupy the same point in space that I was comfortably enjoying. I would have been a sandwich in a car, but they'd probably have seen me, too.
edit: formatting