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

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Properly calibrated shift programs are available in maybe ten percent of what people think of as automatics. The only way shift latency can be lower than with a practiced driver is in a high end (usually dual clutch) automated manual; still a 2 pedal setup but the only automatic part is the PRNDL+- lever. Shifts can be almost as quick in newer automatics like ZF's and FCA's (7-9 speed boxes) although there's an invariable delay when there's no mechanical linkage. Gearless automatics (continuously variable transmissions) can be computer controlled nicely (sometimes) although they're inconsistent, no matter what the ratios in the junction box behind the shifter say, the pulleys will wear and the belts will stretch and/or break. A friend of mine is on his 3rd transmission in his 2012 Subaru as a result of choosing the auto box. That means removing the entire motor too. His dealer might as well have already replaced the car. Computers are quite unlikely to best humans at error correction. Case in point, I enjoyed driving a 5 speed automatic rental Jetta, though I took it over a mountain pass and noticed the +/- 'Tiptronic' shift functions still took well over a second to deliver the promised gear, and furthermore there was no way to skip gears. Manuals require more mechanical savvy but automatics force drivers to anticipate more in order to maintain the same level of car control.

My automatic has traction control for that. If it's good enough for Lewis Hamilton and Sebastien Vettel, it's good enough for me, though I understand some "real drivers" out there prefer to compensate for poor traction directly. Presumably, their reflexes are much faster than the sensor/microprocessor loops in traction control equipped vehicles. Or something.


That seems like a plausible explanation. I learnt on both and have owned both, but driving a manual in midtown Manhattan traffic was horrible.

It's not that my reflexes are faster than next year's Toyota TCS, merely that I can exert more control over a car when there's a pedal for neutral, as well as choosing how quickly I come off downshifts. My previous three cars had no TCS or ESP, just ABS in my SAABs and naught but a 5 speed in my Datsun. Now that I've got a traction controlled manual AWD car, what I can tell you is that using the electronic safeguards when I leave it on a gear (i.e. 5th @ 40mph) is about the same as using them with an ordinary automatic car, but smooth clutch work on downshifts in that thing REALLY pays; manuals let you choose when and how drastically to activate traction control.

Haldex AWD is pretty awesome...

I learned how to drive a stick back in 2004, when I was 19 years old. My first car was a grey 1987 Honda Accord LX four-door sedan with a five-speed stick transmission. Growing up, I always wanted to learn to drive a stick shift car as soon as I got my driver's licence. I had been saving some money for a while, and I wanted my first car to be a vintage Honda Accord with a manual transmission. My Dad taught me how to drive it, and we went to the parking lot of a local community college on Sundays when there were no classes being held, and we would drive around there. I had the Honda for 2 years, until it got some engine problems that I could not afford to have repaired. My Dad had the Honda donated to a local charity, and he bought me a used white 2001 Volvo S40 1.9T with an automatic transmission, which I still drive today. I still miss the old Honda Accord a lot, but the memories will last a lifetime.

OK... so, I used to know how to drive stick. Then I forgot how.

I learned in my Mom's Saab. I refer to all my experiences with that car as , "one big Saab story".

Ba dum tish. Anyways, It was really cramped, and hard to work, but I eventually learned it(it really helped to live on a dead-end road wit ha big old hill to practice popping the clutch).

Then, I went to college for 3 years, and didn't drive at all. I didn't get my license until I was 22, and then I thought it would be awesome to buy a car with a stick. Well, good thing we test-drove the car, because I quickly found out I lost the capacity to drive a stick. I went with a Hyundai Sonata instead. I call her my "hyunny".

I learned to drive a stick shift when I was 19. My car is a stick shift. I used to stall out all the time when I first started using it until I got the hang of it.

My dad wouldn't let me drive an automatic till I could drive a stick perfectly. It didn't take me long because I rode dirt bikes in my early teens and had a good feel for how a transmission is supposed to work.

No. My car is an automatic transmission. It took me until I was 48 to even get a license.

No. I would like to learn someday. I don't know anybody with a manual car, so I don't have anybody to teach me. Even all of my dad's classic cars are automatics.

I got my chauffeur's licence at 16 + 2 weeks, driving stick on ice. I was surprised to learn that one can pass a driver's test with an automatic. I was even more surprised that the tests said nothing about shifting an automatic to neutral to regain control on ice.