Drove a stick shift for the first time today.

If you can get a modern car with plenty of torque and a 6 or 7 speed auto they are really sweet. Modern auto transmissions usually shift much quicker and more smoothly then old ones, and the 6 or 7 gears helps with the fuel efficiency and acceleration to the point where there is little difference in either compared to a manual tranny.

Edit - let me caveat that to add I don't buy the 'eco' engine versions of cars so I'm not sure how the perform in that platform. I've only had autos in 200+ BHP engines in relatively compact body styles
 
I learned stick shift driving on a mid-70s Pinto (my family had NO taste in cars). The emergency brake didn't work, and you had to give it gas while starting. So imagine using the gas pedal, brake pedal, and clutch at the same time - and without rolling backwards if starting on a hill. :D
 
I started out driving manuals many years ago, long about 1967. My first car was a '64 Beetle, and I went through 4 of 'em.... Had a variety of others including a "three-on-the-tree" Maverick.

Thing that turned me off finally was living in the city. St. Louis is notorious for it's forest of stop signs and un-synchronized traffic signals. Kept you very busy stirring the gears...
I haven't had a manual since the 90s.
 
Sadly my F-150 no longer has manual so I'm with auto now for the first time - during my seasoned citizen years !
The problem of mistaking accelerator for brake does NOT occur with manual , only auto !!! According to statistics ! Yes you have to think when driving manual.
 
I started driving on a 1980 Silverado with a 4 spd. From there moved to Farm trucks. My last car was a 5 spd Ford Focus. Fun car to drive even though it didn't have much for power, the manual really allows you do control your powerband a lot more. It was fun until I wrecked a few months back and totaled it. Luckily that wasn't my fault :). Went back to auto only because the wife refused to learn.
 
I learned to drive in my grandfathers log truck, when I was about 9. Back then they had two stick transmissions. 20 different gears to choose from, and a clutch that took two men and a boy to push in.
I like manuals in certain cars like old Corvettes, or Muscle cars. But after driving truck for 34 years, the last thing I want to do is get in my personal rig, and have to shift more..
150-200 times a day is more than enough shifting thank you...
 
mete said:
Sadly my F-150 no longer has manual so I'm with auto now for the first time - during my seasoned citizen years !
The problem of mistaking accelerator for brake does NOT occur with manual , only auto !!! According to statistics ! Yes you have to think when driving manual.
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First time I drove an automatic (my grandmother's old Crown Vic, I think it was) I came up to a stop sign and went to throw in the nonexistent clutch and just about threw myself through the windshield because I hit the brake pedal so hard (yes, back in the day before everybody wore a seat belt).
 
My last couple vehicles have been auto but the love of my life was an '88 notchback Mustang with a Tremec 5 speed and dual friction clutch. I loved that car. Had it when my wife and I first got married and I tell you, nothing sucks like having to cart your wife around while her car is in the shop because she can't drive stick. And try teaching someone who has 0 coordination how to drive a 5 speed with a heavy dual friction clutch and super short throw shifter. I gave up.
 
I'm glad I got to learn on one, and drove one until a few years ago. Thus, from 1987 till 2010. I took my 14-yr old driving the other day (on the farm) before driver's ed starts, and lamented the fact that I didn't have a stick for her to learn on. Even the dually F-350 now is an automatic, pulling 28000 lbs GVWR. At least my one tractor is still a stick, actually 2 sticks. :)
 
Forty years driving (where does the time go??) and only one auto tranny (F150 still have it), but my other two babies are a Volvos, S40 and C30, both R-design, six speed manuals and they're a ball to drive! It's getting hard to find manual transmissions much to my dismay, but it seems some models just beg to have manuals. Besides, couldn't more of us in this country use the exercise? ;^)
 
Shann said:
First time I drove an automatic (my grandmother's old Crown Vic, I think it was) I came up to a stop sign and went to throw in the nonexistent clutch and just about threw myself through the windshield because I hit the brake pedal so hard (yes, back in the day before everybody wore a seat belt).
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I did that to my driver's ed teacher in High School. I learned to drive on a car without power brakes (remember those)? The driver's ed car had power brakes and his clipboard went flying. We both laughed. The first time.

While I like my manuals for driving in the mountains, the auto sure is nice for city/rush hour driving, I have to admit...
 
knifenut1013 said:
A manual trans is the only way to go, lots of fun to drive and is a skill everyone should know. I've been driving a manual for a little more than 15 years and that's not going to change any time soon.
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My Old Man taught me to drive with a clutch on my first motorcycle when I was 8, that was in '68, I still can drive anything with a shift, (actually if it has a motor and moves, I'll get it moving) I stopped driving a manual trans when I blew my knee apart back in '03 after the knee replacement I didn't enjoy stop and go traffic with a clutch. On a bike with the hand clutch traffics no problem and it's a lot more fun. ;)

jackknife said:
Yeah, I used to say that for a whole bunch of years. From when I learned to drive at 16 until 2001 I drove nothing but sticks. Automatic tranny? Couldn't give me one. Then I tore up my right shoulder on the job in 2001, and needed my rotator cuff and tendon fixed up and had my arm taped across my chest for a month. My old truck was over ten years old, and 140K on the clock, so I bought a new Tacoma with an automatic. KNow what? I fell in love with it. Didn't realize what I'd been missing. Now, after almost 13 years and 130K, I wouldn't go back for all the tea in China, and I like tea.

Not only is the auto easier in traffic, but in the snow it is better for traction somehow, with a smoother power delivery or whatever. Two wheel drive pickups are the pits in snow, but this one is way better in wet snowy weather than my last Toyota pickup with the stick. And the gas milage is the same. Go figure.

And as long as I have one leg and one arm that works, I can drive. Twice when I had my old truck I was stuck at home until the 'o lady got home. My right knee got operated on in the late 90's for torn cart ledge, and I couldn't drive my truck. Then my shoulder got torn up. Now with my 2002 Taco, I had my right foot operated on in 2011 for some old army damage, and I could limp out to my truck on crutches, and drive myself to where I needed to go. That's something to think about.
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We could be the same people, I've been through several knee surgeries and shoulder surgeries in the last few years, I know what you went through. ;)

Bob W said:
A "straight shift" is just another term for Stick Shift, or it's something different?

Now try it in Australia, shifting left-handed. :D
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I did in the UK when I was there for work, shifting was a piece of cake, parallel parking and driving on the wrong side way harder. :)

UffDa said:
I believe what we call a stick shift is a straight shift in England and probably in Australia.
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When I first read the title I thought the op meant that he worked his first straight shift like in his first full 8 hour driving shift as a trucker or limo driver.:o

One thing that was always great about a standard/stick shift was pop starting your car if your battery was dead, of course these days with fuel injection you need an electric fuel pump to build up enough pressure to inject fuel into the cylinder (anywhere between 30-60psi) so that's only one of the many reasons you can't do that with cars these days.

I remember teaching my wife to pop start a car when we first met in the late 70s, the easiest way to reach someone is while driving down the road at about 30 mph so I tell her to step on the clutch turn of the ignition and before I could say another word she shut the car off and pulled the key out of the ignition :eek: I heard the click of the steering wheel lock looked up and saw we we coming up to a curve in the road...you never saw someone find the right key stuff it in the ignition and start the car so fast... it was 2 years before I tried to teach her again, you can bet I made sure she understood not to lock the wheel and remove the key the next time.
 
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I didn't know how to drive one until I was 25! Learned really quick when I became an auto tech. You kind of have to when you work on cars. You definitely feel more connected and in control with a stick, not to mention more reliable. I could go on but I'll stop.
 
First time, huh? I bet that would have been fun to watch. Stall it a few times? I learned on a stick shift and took my drivers test in a large station wagon equiped with on on the column. The car was a tank. But I passed. I have a little Toyota pickup that has a stick shift and love it. I pretty much am going to drive this thing until it falls apart or I total it.
 
I remember the first time I drove stick.. must have been about twelve years old, taking lunch out to the guys in the farm field. No one else was with me, so there wasn't much instruction involved. I did pretty well driving the back roads the few miles from the house to the field and back. The problem occurred after I parked it back at the house...
There wasn't a "P" on the stick knob, so I left it in-between the "1" and "2" and went inside. About fifteen minutes later was a loud clatter - the truck had rolled backwards through a fence. :o
 
I learned to drive a manual transmission when I was 16. I was working in my father's garage since age 15 and driving manual transmissions occasionally but I didn't get good at it until I got one for myself, a 1966 Corvette 427 with 4-speed. I've driven manual transmissions for most of my years since, right now I have a 400hp six-speed. I get by just find driving in the big city but in the occasional big traffic jam I wish I had an automatic. I've done some off-road 4WD driving in Colorado, driving manual transmission Jeep Wranglers, but in that situation I think an automatic would work better.
 
I drove a 1966 Chevy with a three-speed on the column for several years in the city. There was a stop light on a four lane highway on top of a hill on an over pass over a canal. You had to watch in the rear view mirror for people getting too close behind. let out the clutch and roll back a couple of feet a couple of times,and they would back off.
 
I learned on my '64 Beetle about 10 years ago. I had an easy transition, I guess, since I didn't lurch around or stall it while learning. I did, however, pull into a parking lot one day and forget to pop it into neutral before taking my foot off the clutch, and I ran over the concrete parking bumper. No harm done, fortunately (a benefit of the Beetle's fairly high clearance and rear engine/tranny), and I just restarted it, popped into reverse and backed back over it (and pretended it never happened, once I was sure nobody'd seen me :D).
 
22-rimfire said:
First time, huh? I bet that would have been fun to watch. Stall it a few times? I learned on a stick shift and took my drivers test in a large station wagon equiped with on on the column. The car was a tank. But I passed. I have a little Toyota pickup that has a stick shift and love it. I pretty much am going to drive this thing until it falls apart or I total it.
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I killed it twice trying to get it to take off. On a flat parking lot no less. And, of course, I made it buck. Never ridden a bucking car before... Of course you depress the brake and clutch to turn the car on. Then I would release the clutch until I felt the engine "draw down". I think that was the term used but I may be wrong. Then I was supposed to release the brake (at which point the truck would start creeping forward and give it a little gas while I eased off the clutch. But I kept just yanking my foot off the clutch. Won't forget that feeling.
 
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