A friend of mine called me recently after he purchased his first car with a manual transmission. He had never officially learned the craft of driving manual, but he is a car guy and a mechanical engineer so he figured, given some time, he would sort it out. And sort it out he did. He called me not to gloat of his accomplishment of conquering the feared manual gearbox, but to yell at me.
Now I often get yelled at, so this was nothing new, but he was calling to scold me for something I hadn't done; he was angry I hadn't convinced him to go to a manual car sooner. Apparently I didn't quite get across the feeling of connection one has with their car when they are in control of the gears, or the sense of accomplishment when nailing the perfect heel-toe downshift.
This made me think - why do so few North Americans drive standard cars?
I have had the great privilege of traveling all over the world and seeing a good many countries on a few different continents. And in nearly every place I have been, manual transmissions were the dominant choice, in many cases by a large margin. So why has this trend not caught on here at home?
It is really a hard question to answer. Cars equipped with a manual gearbox are often cheaper than their automatic counterparts. And automatic gearboxes are often far pricier to fix if something were to break. And there are more bits in them to break!
So a manual gearbox is cheaper, less likely to break and easier to fix when it does. Yup, it makes total sense to me why they are not popular.
Maybe you don't want one because your daily commute consists of a lot of time spent in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Fair enough. Other then getting an awesome burn in your left quad, a manual at 5pm isn't the most fun. But as long as you don't have a super high performance clutch in the car, it might not be as bad as you think. That is providing you know how to use it properly and don't burn your clutch out. Which brings me to my next point.
Whether you ultimately buy and drive a manual car or not, everyone - yes, everyone - should have to learn how to drive one and take their driving test in one. After your driving test, you can choose to use one or not. At least you'll know how. Worst-case scenario, it might help you out of a sticky situation. Allow me to explain.
Picture this: You drive to a bar with a friend and you think they have had too much to drink. You haven't been drinking so you decide to drive home but, oops, they drive a manual and you don't know how to do it. So you try to rationalize with yourself that they aren't as drunk as you think and let them drive home with you as a passenger. Well done.
Or what if you are in a remote location and someone has a medical emergency and it's faster to drive them there then call an ambulance, but once again you are in their car and it's manual? Long story short, you can either have friends that only drive automatics or learn to drive stick. It's like a lifeguard having to learn CPR; you hope you never have to use it, but it could be life or death the time that you do.
When I drive an automatic, I feel so disconnected from the car and from the whole experience. A manual car forces you to pay more attention to your driving. It gets you in touch with your inner driver and it can feel exhilarating. It can often make mundane drives very enjoyable all while being well within the law.
I find it comical that we have banned hand-held devices behind the wheel. It's not the lack of hands that is causing accidents - there is a guy with no arms that drives with his feet! I saw that on Ripley's Believe It Or Not, so it must be true - it's that the mind is absent. You have cars that shift gears for you, hold a constant speed for you and now Mercedes has even come out with a car that brakes for you if you are approaching an object too quickly. It brakes for you! What motivation does someone have to pay attention? You become so disconnected from the car, no wonder you mind wanders and you want to text your friends.
A manual transmission takes away one of those aids and forces you to pay attention to what your car is doing, and I think that ultimately makes you a more aware and safer driver. To me, an automatic is like a pair of skis that carves down the hill, with you going along for the ride. You get some wind in your hair but you really aren't getting the thrill of it all.
I know they are not for everyone. And I'm certainly not saying everyone should rush out and buy a stick-shift. But I do believe there would be a lot of benefits to drivers if it were a mandated part of the driver's education curriculum. If you know how to drive manual, consider one next time you're looking at buying a car. And if you don't, get a friend to teach you in a parking lot. But make sure it's a really good friend because chances are the first lesson will end in a fight and the smell of burnt clutch!