For those of you who drive....can you drive stick?

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This is an example of an automatic gear stick, with the option to change to a lower gear (2) when necessary and a standard drive(D) gear, you can see the options on the left of the stick. I like automatics for urban driving and for hill starts too because there isn't any clutch work .

Every car my parents bought always had a stick shift and I had to learn how to drive in it. I'm not sure why they preferred stick over automatic. Learning how to drive the stick was very challenging at the beginning, but the more I practiced, the better I became in driving it.

I've driven manual cars for years, I prefer it. If I drive someone's automatic, I have the habit of stepping on the floor where where the clutch petal would be .

I learned to drive using an automatic and every car I've had is automatic, so I never bothered to learn driving stick, it just seemed pointless to me personally.

All my lessons were in a car with stick shift. After that I've only driven in an automatic, but I miss driving stick.

I can drive one. My current car is an automatic, my wife's car is a stick. I've owned both kinds over the years. I learned to drive on a stick---old Chevrolet station wagon with three speeds, shift on the steering column, or "three on the tree" as we used to say.

If you keep a manual transmission long enough, you'll have to replace the clutch. They are designed to wear. But it's still cheaper than a major repair to an automatic.

I learned to drive in the late sixties and don't remember anymore what they taught in drivers ed. However, I learned how to drive a stick very early. I can drive both and currently am driving a stick.

Oh, you mean a car with a manual gearbox. I was wondering what driving stick was. Yes I can, I've never tried to drive anything else. When I first learned I kept whinging that it'd be much easier to do if it weren't for the damned gears, but I soon got the hang of it. They're practically all manual gearboxes here in the UK.

Don't know if you can do this with an automatic - driving slowly on ice, sometimes it's better to use a higher gear than you normally would, so the wheels don't suddenly accelerate, melt the ice, and lose traction.

I don't think anybody knows why US cars are automatic and UK ones are manual, but the best guess I've heard is that when they first invented automatics, they were fuel-inefficient compared with manual (assuming a reasonably competent driver). British petrol is VERY heavily taxed, so we had to keep our usage down. Automatics are much more efficient these days, but old habits die hard.

I'm in the UK too, automatics are not very common. I have owned a few and on small engined cars I didn't really like them.
I drive trucks for a job, sometimes they have a 16 speed manual gearbox.
I owned a few american cars and I think automatics are fine when you have a big grunty V8 at the front, Chevvy caprice 305, cadillac Seville, Ford F-150 and they were all a decent drive.
My every day car is a volvo 940, turbo diesel with a manual box..I love it, the old fashioned Diesel engine is quite happy to run on waste cooking oil, filtered sump oil etc.

I cant remember the last time I was in a stick-shift car... probably as a kid, would be the last time.

I've never seen the point, myself. My car already goes at the speed I want it to based entirely on just the gas pedal... why would I need additional complications to that? But then, I know little about and have zero interest in cars, as far as I'm concerned they are boxes with seats that are on wheels that go from one point to another.

If I WERE to try to drive one, all that'd happen is something would end up broken.

Nothing pointless about a proper gearbox. All four of my cars have been manuals, three five speeds and one six. I'm psyched that Porsche released the first seven cog stickshift, it's actually the same box as their "automatic" with one less clutch and a whole lot less solenoids. Having a box with seats on wheels that doesn't tell me what it's doing always freaks me out. I can drive automatics but I'm a smoother and more natural driver with three pedals; anticipating corners and zipper merges are ALWAYS easier when you know how to blip-downshift and drop gears.

I daily a V50 T5 AWD across the pond here, if they would've sold us the D4 turbodiesel ones I doubt I'd want another car for life.

It gives more control. Like if you're speeding down a steep hill you can drop down a gear to save your breaks - each gear has "engine breaking", keeping the car from going too fast without using the breaks constantly down a hill which could make them overheat. It's also very useful on ice where you want to be in the highest gear you can be at your current speed to stop the wheels spinning, which loses the control. You don't want any sudden movements on ice so controlling the gear you're in does help. Also going up hills helps if you're in a lower gear since they have more accellleration. And if you pull into a fast road and need to speed up to stop the cars rear-ending you then you can leave it in each gear for longer (so instead of changing out of 3rd gear when you reach, say, 35 mph, you can let it go up to 45 mph). They're a bit harder to learn though, but worth it in my opinion for the added control you get. Not sure if you can do what I've said in automatics.

Absolutely not! I destroyed two manual transmissions when my spouse tried to encourage me to learn. I just don't have the coordination. Infact I asked for the "automatic transmission only" endorsement on my drivers' licence so that new car dealerships cannot try to sell me "stick" vehicles under penalty of law. I'm happy to be a confirmed right foot only driver past, present, and future (unless I'm in one of those vintage cars that have the dimmer switch on the left).
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn33 ... 1438155322

Over here there are not many automatic cars, so everybody learns to drive from zero with a stick. Once you learn it is just a practice thing until it becomes automatic and you never have to think about it anymore.

I love driving and have driven automatic cars before, but it really makes driving much more boring for me.

I only ever drove stick once, my friend at the time let me drive his Ford Ranger which was 4 speed I think. It certainly seemed pointless to me and unnecessary. A human can't shift quicker than a properly programmed computer can.