Aside of a dedicated cult of stick-shifters nobody wants to use manual transmission. That includes people in countries, where most cars are manual.

Driving a car with a manual transmission is a full-time job. Even on a relatively empty interstate you switch gears at least once every minute.

Uphill? Four. Downhill? Five. Accelerate? Four. Even speed? Five. Passing? Four. Slowdown? Three. Accelerate? Four. Five.

All that requires proper clutch manipulation as diferent speeds and different RPMs at which you switch require various release speeds. Sure - with 10 yrs of expirience it's no sweat. The problem is that after driving 900 miles from NJ to SC you are half-dead from exhaustion.

So your main objection to driving a manual transmission is that you have to pay attention to what you're doing when you're behind the wheel?

Sounds like a good thing to me. Maybe if everyone drove a stick, we wouldn't have to put up with drivers that talk on cell phones, play games, eat a sandwich with both hands, drink, turn around to hit their kids, read, write, do their nails, let go of the wheel to retrieve something from the floor, etc., while they're supposed to be driving.

Yup, I've seen all these things happen. Really, truly.

Getting used to a manual transmission is not all that hard. At the very least, everyone should initially learn to drive on one. It takes more concentration and leads to better drivers. That being said, since we moved to the city, one of our cars is now an automatic....

Yes - paying attention on the road is a good thing. And I personally do not even use cruise control, as it seems to create even more detachment and slows down reaction time on the road.

The problem is - those nasty habbits do not die with the ascent of manual gearbox. Once I was personally employed to switch gears for a guy, who at the same time was talking on the cell phone and driving a stick car :)

I have an expirience of driving two cars from NJ to SC and back within a two weeks period. One had manual transmition. I found myself to be much more tired after driving a stick-shift for 14 hours than driving an automatic for 14 hours.

It took me 3 tries to learn how to drive a stick. Maybe you're just a lousy driver.

You are missing the point of my posts. Before I got into my first car with automatic transmission I was driving manual for years.

The point I am disputing here is comfort of driving, which is much lower for a driver with manual transmision. Sure, if you want to feel like a race driver for 14 hours - cool. But you always gonna be more tired, both physically and mentally after switching gears 1500 times duiring a trip, rather than not at all.

Three tries to drive a manual gearbox, huh? I am not sure the gerabox was feeling the same way ]:)

My first two cars were manuals, and I don't ever remember feeling particularly exhausted after driving either of them, not even compared to the automatics I drove later on (and drive now).

I will say that driving a stick in a large urban area is a pain the butt, though. By the time you leave one intersection and get halfway down the block, it's already time to downshift for the next light or stop sign. I question whether or not driving a stick in the city has any appreciable benefits from an efficiency standpoint.

What a whiner. I've driven from FL to PA and back many times in my manual-transmission car - while eating a burger from the drive-through and petting my kitty in the cat carrier next to me.

I am proud of being able to drive nearly anything with wheels, including most motorcycles and 3-on-the-tree manual (one of the hardest things I ever learned). I only hope stick shifts aren't extinct by the time my car of now 12 years dies.

I don't know about you, but if I'm driving 14 hours, most of it is on the highway. Shove it into 5th and cruise, baby.

By the way, when I sold my truck, it had 182,000 + miles on it. The clutch was in excellent condition.

junebee:

I am proud of being able to drive nearly anything with wheels, including most motorcycles and 3-on-the-tree manual (one of the hardest things I ever learned). I only hope stick shifts aren't extinct by the time my car of now 12 years dies.

In short: as I have stated in my first post - there is a small number of people who are dedicated stick-shifters and proud of it. The rest just wants to get form A to B with as little hassle as possible.

I drive a stick, and have been doing so since I learned to drive (years ago), as my parents are also members of the apparent lunatic fringe that prefer to drive stick and I had no choice. I've driven long distances (boston to denver, and back, plus Denver to Vegas and back) in manual transmission cars, and I never noticed any excessive fatigue, other than as a result of driving for hours and hours. I drive mainly in Boston and Cambridge right now, and have no problem shifting as I drive thru boston, while paying attention to wayward pedestrians, trucks, buses, traffic lights, other nutty drivers, etc. etc. I assume most people in other countries prefer driving manual for the same reasons I do- I have more control over the car, it's more fuel efficient, less wear and tear on brakes. And if you're worried that you won't know when to shift, most cars today come with that annoying light telling you when to shift (which is usually wrong, but you don't have to pay attention to it once you figure it out.) Frankly, if you're finding shifting a big challenge, you probably have much bigger problems on your plate.

MessyONE:

So your main objection to driving a manual transmission is that you have to pay attention to what you're doing when you're behind the wheel?

No, there is a huge difference between paying attention to driving, and paying attention to all the additional details involved in gear shifting.

Having driven a stick shift in one of the hilliest cities in the country (SF), I will definitely admit that certain things are much, much easier in an automatic (downhill parallel parking on a steep street - it's like the Olympics of manual transmission driving), I definitely have found that a modern manual transmission (mine is a 2007) is an enjoyable drive. I certainly have to brake less than all the other cars on the road when going down a mountain pass/coming to a stop sign - the engine slows the car for me as I let it coast in gear. While I recognize that if you were stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic in a stick for an hour and a half each day, you'd probably be pretty worn out, I actually enjoy long road trips in a stick shift because shifting forces me to pay attention and breaks up the monotony of highway driving.

Of course, to each his own. But I think one of the reasons I got such a good deal on my car is that it was a stick shift the dealership couldn't get rid of.

someone:

...paying attention to all the additional details involved in gear shifting.

I've driven manual and automatic about equally over the years -- I'm no ace driver, but past the newbie stage, shifting just requires listening to the engine (or noticing vibrations) and being aware of what I'm about to do speed-wise. I'd certainly hope that you don't consider those "additional" details. (The location of the stick and actual RPMs are useful to glance at once in a while, but only in the same sense that I look at my keyboard to be sure I'm hitting the right keys.)

I would feel differently, though, if I was still dealing with the stick that my father taught me on 14 years ago. The little monster died if it went below ~2,500rpm, had no "rollback" protection to keep me going backwards when starting on hills, and I've always had serious coordination problems. On the bright side, I learned how to be calm under pressure, and everything since then has seemed like a piece of cake in comparison...

As a teenager, I learned how to drive on a four speed. I was very happy when my children both decided they wanted to learn how to drive "stick" and became very proficient. It's not that hard to learn, and once you own or drive a certain vehicle for a short period of time, shifting becomes like walking, you don't give it a thought. It makes driving kinda fun.

Having said that, all three of us currently drive vehicles with automatic transmissions. If you spend a lot of time in stop and go traffic, it is easier. I am grateful that I know how to drive vehicles with manual transmissions. My work causes me to travel overseas and drive rental cars, and you never know what you are going to get. Try driving in the UK or Australia and have to shift with the wrong, um, I mean left hand. Now that can be challenging.

... at the cost of requiring you to pay attention with eyes, ears, hands and feet as you drive.

You see, I am a firm believer that vehicles talk to their drivers. You just have to learn their language - and it varies from vehicle to vehicle. You have to learn to listen and feel, to enter a state I call cartori. You must become one with the car. Achieving cartori is easiest with a stick shift because you get more information and have better control over the vehicle.

Yes, you have to work more when you drive a stick, but after awhile it becomes second nature and you barely notice it. There is also the side benefit of getting a workout as you drive. However, as other posters have mentioned it can be much more difficult to drive a manual transmission in heavy traffic, stop-and-go traffic, or in hill country; and you actually have to DRIVE instead of relying on cruise control on long stretches. As with any other technology, there are trade-offs.

Only you can decide if your driving style and carbon footprint will benefit from changing back to a manual transmission. I know how and do enjoy it (it plays into my fantasies of race car driving); but the kind of vehicles I'm driving now and the part of the country I live in now militate toward my driving an automatic transmission. I can live with that.