I drive manual every day, ~~except when I ride my bike instead of driving.~~

Edit for accuracy, my bike is manual too lol

I used to drive stick in one of the most dense cities and worst traffic on the planet. My left calf muscle is noticeably larger than my right. Manual is enjoyable and freeing, but at this point I prefer an automatic in urban areas with heavy traffic. The volume knob shifter is still weird though.

We should also get rid of starter motors. Who needs them? We can just hand crank the car to start it, like real men did back in the day.

Laughs in Allison 18 spd

I have never owned a car with an automatic transmission, and I am proud of that fact

This is a tip for people that don't drive automatic transmission, if you ever try it, put it in R and really floor it. The R stands for racing mode!

The driving school I went to would fail people that used the "handbrake start" on a hill.

And also fail people that tried to drive backwards by looking back instead of using the mirrors.

No thanks. I switched to automatic shortly after I moved to Reading where I found in all the stop start traffic I was constantly dancing the clutch fandango and heading for having a left leg like a tree trunk.

I actually like the volume knob shifter. The buttons ones I can live without.

i like automatics for easier to crank the driveshaft

I hate the knob. I can't decide if that or the Nissan "orb of motion" as Garbage Time put it is my least favourite. I miss my manual car, but I'm on the electric train now, as computery as it gets.

Handbrake start? Pffft.. what a noob.

It's called the parking brake and it's for parking. You have the pedal for when you're driving. You can use that while leaving from a hill, it's really not that difficult, you just hop from the brake pedal to the biting point on the clutch.

I mean it'd be sort of a bitch on the clutch if it's like a 40 degree hill and it's a rental and it's the first time you're even moving it at all and you've no idea of where the biting point is, but you should never be in a position where that's the very first time you drive a specific car. And after having driven a car once, you ought to know the biting point.

Thus, "handbrake start"? Noob shit.

• 3rd gen (former) taxi driver

edit my dad also taught me how to switch gears without the clutch without raping the gearbox. all about giving it a bit of gas while it's off gear to match the rpm's. it's rather trivial once you get the feel for it, but you need to understand the rpm range the gears can do obvs and not downshift while on high rpm or something like that

But what about semi auto/manual transmission like DCT (dual clutch transmission) or sequential transmission ?

I bought a new 2024 vehicle last year with a manual transmission. This will be the last manual I ever own. I don’t expect them to be around by the next time I get a car.

I’ve enjoyed driving stick since I was a teenager. It still makes my commute more enjoyable. A good rev matched downshift still makes me smile. I’m going to miss the experience when it finally comes to an end, but hopefully I can keep it up another 20 years.

What about those of us who use our triptronic transmission? I manually shift down constantly to take advantage of engine braking to make my brakes last longer. I used to ride a motorcycle so it made sense to me. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manumatic