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Can you drive a manual transmission?

And where are you from? And how old? Not "do you" but just if you know how.

I'm in the US, mid 30s and can (and do) drive a manual transmission.

627 comments
  • My car has a manual transmission. I learned to drive on a manual transmission. I prefer it. When I drive a car with automatic transmission, I step on its nonexistent clutch.

  • Yes, but only on motorcycles. That's because there's no such thing as an automatic motorcycle[1][2][3][4][^5], so you have to learn manual if you want to ride one. Unfortunately this skill doesn't transfer well to manual driving because on bikes you operate the clutch with your hand and the shift with your foot. I'm not terribly worried about that, though... I've literally never even been on the inside of a manual drive car before!

    For context: I'm mid-20s from the American south.

    [1]: No, electrics don't count. [2]: No, semi-autos don't count. [3]: No, three-wheelers don't count. [4]: No, the 2006 Yamaha bikes don't count because that line was a sales failure. [^5]: Ok, fine. Honda's DCT bikes do count, but holy shit are they expensive!

  • This thread is an amusing display of sample bias. Only people that want to respond yes and brag about it bothering to respond.

    In reality only about 2/3rds of people in the US can drive stick and almost no one owns manual cars.

    I've never driven a manual car. I've had people be like "You can't drive manual?!" and then I would respond "So are you going to teach me?" The answer is always No, of course not, not in their car (assuming they even owned a manual, which none do anymore). My parents had manual cars but sold them 10+ years before having me.

    I understand how a clutch works. It wouldn't be difficult to learn. But what reason or motivation is there to learn when almost no cars are manual? They total something like 2% of new car sales. If you're buying something like a 718 GT4 RS or a 911 GT3 RS for maximum driving engagement that's great, but those cars are priced for the 1% of the 1%.

    Even if you had a fun car, which I do, the drive to work is stop-and-go, roads are full, even the fun country backroads are filled with traffic on weekends, forests are burned down, gas is eye-watteringly expensive if you have a slightly performant vehicle. The time to have fun driving cars was 40 years ago.

  • Yep. 27, Finland. I learned on a manual (in the EU, if you learn on an automatic, you're restricted to automatics only until you pass the driving exam in a manual) and drove manuals until a few years ago when my late grandma's health started declining and her car got passed down to us because she could no longer drive.

  • No, on account of I cannot drive at all. I'm 25 and live in Vermont. The particular part I live in, everything's accessible by bus, so I've just never felt the urgency to learn.

  • German, late 30s. Automatic cars are rather uncommon in Germany, we sure like our manuals. Not being able to push my car into high RPMs when needed to overtake or accelerate quickly takes the fun out of driving. I'd never switch to automatic as long as I still have both arms and legs. And yes I know kickdowns are a thing, but it really doesn't compare.

  • I can from Texas. Just turned 40. I was taught on a manual transmission and have owned several vehicles with one. I prefer it, except for in traffic!

  • France, 30s, and I almost always drove manual transmissions. But I rent an automatic, and now I don't understand why manual cars still exist.

  • Yes, it's very common here (Czechia), in fact I don't know a single person who doesn't know how to drive manual.

    Until recently I even preferred it, but nowadays I'd like automatic more. Well, my next car is gonna be automatic, that's for sure.

  • I can drive a manual yeah, I don't feel like I'm in total control when driving an automatic, I'm 20 and live in the Netherlands

  • I'm Danish and I drive a manual transmission car every day. Most cars here are manual transmission and you legally can't take driving lessons in an automatic transmission car here so everybody who knows how to drive knows how to drive manual.

    I don't get why so many Americans try to make it seem like some amazing feat of traditional blue-collar masculine excellence to able to do it. It's not that hard, anybody can learn it in an afternoon.

627 comments