The Dying Art of Driving a Stick Shift

There is something satisfying about driving a manual car: being able to coordinate your clutch and shifter smoothly, heel-toe shifting/blipping the throttle on downshifts. I drive an old Nissan Navara D22 utility with a 5 speed box, 2 wheel drive on good old leaf springs and it's no sports car but the gearbox is as good as anything I've ever used. I find myself not even consciously thinking about shifting.

Given just how good manual transmissions got (thinking more specifically of the Japanese 5 and 6 speeds) we kinda forget that a lot of older manual transmission cars were awful, clunky things. Holden in Australia clung for far too long to a 3 speed column shifter that belonged in the steam age, crappy mechanical clutches and pedals that were placed for manufacturing convenience instead of driving. The Borg Warner 4 speed boxes were all rattly, clunky piles of garbage that were frustratingly slow and the 5 speed versions were worse.

In the days when a "slushbox" automatic was detrimental to being able to balance your vehicle on the throttle, the manual transmissions made more sense for engaged drivers. Today, the automatics are so good I think the D22 will be the last manual car I own.

Shoutout to motorcycles! I share a car with my wife, but last year finally got a motorcycle. It's such a joy to have a manual transmission vehicle again, and on a bike you really form a relationship with the power response and physics of the machine.

The trend will accelerate since electric vehicles also do not require manual clutching, and more countries and automotive companies are committing to futures where internal combustion engines (both automatic and manual) will supposedly cease to be sold.

Come on. We're millions doing it every fscking day. What a buble is this forum.