Can You Drive A Manual / Stick Shift Vehicle?

[+ Avalon]

I can't. I've only driven automatics all my life.

[+ WilliamM]

Yes, definitely. Most of my cars have been stick shift. Three out of five.

 

To be fair, I also drove stick shifts in Europe and Asia because there was little alternative then.

Edited December 5, 2017 by WilliamM

[MikeBiDude]

Yes...floor shift and “on the tree” too

[BabyBoomer]

Push Button.

 

~Boomer~

[+ ursalex]

I got my license in 1968. My current car is the first I have ever owned with automatic transmission and I miss the stick. (I like other "sticks" was well.)

[craigville beach]

I learned how to drive with a "3 speed on the column". My cars were always 4 or 5 speed up until I was in my late 50's. Now I drive an automatic 4x truck. I still "feel" the need to shift. I am now 67 y/o

[Electra225]

Three-on-the-tree, three-on-the-floor, four-on-the-floor, five-on-the-floor, and six-on-the floor. I can shift the ones without syncromesh (double clutch) and with syncomesh as well as a Model "T" with planetary gears.

 

Cars are my life!!!

[+ sync]

When I learned to drive that is pretty much all there was. I had a little head start as a teen driving trucks and tractors on a friend's family farm.

[OneFinger]

I currently have 3 residence and a vehicle at each location. 2 of my 3 vehicles are stick shifts including the 1 I drive the most in San Diego.

[jawjateck]

It's been a long time, but it's just like riding a bike, right? I learned how to drive in a 63 Chevy pickup with a 3 on the column and a 74 Ford truck with a 5 on the floor. Oh, the good ole days of grinding that clutch. HA!

[+ lookingforfunny]

6 speed. I love driving a manual. It is fun to zip around town and it makes driving any class of auto more fun. Guys who drive sticks have more fun!

[MikeSinz]

always a Stick

Rentmen https://rentmen.com/MikeSinz/reviews/... http://www.daddysreviews.com/venue/usa/florida

https://m.adam4adam.com/?p=MikeSinz.

https://rentmasseur.com/Intosinz

[+ lookingforfunny]

always a Stick

Rentmen https://rentmen.com/MikeSinz/reviews/... http://www.daddysreviews.com/venue/usa/florida

https://m.adam4adam.com/?p=MikeSinz.

https://rentmasseur.com/Intosinz

I remember when BMW launched this great program in New York: BMW On Demand. For those who did not want to purchase a BMW, but wanted to take them out for a long or short drive or ride you could do it on demand. They are so much fun because they give you feedback. You can feel it. When you are holding the wheel with the left and the stick with the right, you are connected.

[Kippy]

A stick shift on a car makes as much sense as a coal hopper on your furnace-- both are obsolete-- unless you're in the mountains in a jeep!

 

Kipp

[+ bashful]

First car I ever drove had 3 on the tree. Later drove a 4 speed on the floor. Had a couple of automatics for a while, but bought a 5 speed on the floor when my budget was limited. Manual transmissions are fun if not a lot of traffic, but in stop and go traffic, not so much. My current car has automatic with an option to shift manually, but it's not the same, so never use it. There's no substitute for feeling the power come on in your foot as you let out the clutch.

Edited December 5, 2017 by bashful

[+ Charlie]

I learned how to drive on my father's 1952 Pontiac, with HydraMatic. However, my college graduation present was a 1961 VW bug, and in those days no VWs had automatics, so I had to learn how to shift gears. In the early 1970s I had Renaults, which also had only floor shifts. Since 1975 I have owned only automatics, but I can still drive a stick, though I have done so only when renting cars in Europe.

[Walker1]

Yes. But hate it, especially in stop and go traffic. But can if need to, but prefer not to.

[+ Funguy]

My last 3 cars have been automatic and present car also has paddles so I can have some fun in canyons.

But I learned to drive on my brother's 1965 vette (boy I wish I had that car now) and then my first car was a '68 GTO convertible, 4 on the floor. What fun, what memories.

Now, with back issues I don't dare get a manual, even in a loaner, because I know my left leg will go out and I'll be stuck.

[bigvalboy]

A stick shift on a car makes as much sense as a coal hopper on your furnace-- both are obsolete-- unless you're in the mountains in a jeep!

 

Kipp

 

Spoken like a true Prius owner...

[+ honcho]

I drove only stick shift cars from the time I bought my first car (at age 30) until about 7 years ago, when somebody took a 5 finger discount on my 11 year-old bottom-of-the-line acura integra, trashed it and it was deemed uneconomical-to-repair.

 

They don't make stick hybrids ... the "most cost effective" one I could get at the time was a bottom-of-the-line honda insight.

 

(I figured that I would have to drive it 300,000 miles with gas at $4.00/gallon before I would loose out due to the difference in cost by the marginally higher efficiency prius).

[mike carey]

I learnt on, and have mostly owned manual cars, and prefer them. Had an automatic when I lived in the US, but did drive a manual there on occasion. I found changing gears with my right hand a little awkward, but I'm sure I would have adjusted to it in time.

[+ honcho]

I found changing gears with my right hand a little awkward, but I'm sure I would have adjusted to it in time.

 

Just out of curiosity, are you left handed?

[mike carey]

Just out of curiosity, are you left handed?

No, right handed, but my entire driving life I've changed gears with my left hand.

[MscleLovr]

Just out of curiosity, are you left handed?

 

No, right handed, but my entire driving life I've changed gears with my left hand.

 

I suspect that Mike Carey, like me, learned to drive Right-Hand Drive vehicles (driving on the left of the road). I live in 3 cities so I only drive automatics.

[mike carey]

I suspect that Mike Carey, like me, learned to drive Right-Hand Drive vehicles

Exactly so. I've driven enough on both sides of the road now that I'm reasonably relaxed about it. For a while I would make one 'side of road' error each time I changed either way, but I seem to be over that now. An interesting quirk that says something about my cognitive processes is that when giving driving directions in the US I would generally say left when I meant right and vice versa. It was as if my concept of left and right was linked to where I was sitting in a car rather than to the actual directions. The first time I ever attempted to travel on the right (I hired a bicycle in Denmark) I was completely discombobulated (that's twice this week I've used that word) and had all sorts of difficulties, despite having ridden a bike for years.