What % of the US population can drive a manual transmission vehicle?

a reply to: Arduous

THAT!

..is just raw!!!

Enough horsepower and the vehicle becomes magical!

a reply to: menneni

My favorite car! My husband & I just bought one last year with 20,000 miles on it and
only take it out a couple times a week in good weather and rip up the roads!
Nothing like being in control of all that HP and beating on some gears... Plus, that supercharger is just sexy
Probably the funnest car we've ever owned! Never going to get rid of it that's for sure!

a reply to: Arduous

Ok, you can call me bit envious now.

I don't fancy US manufactured cars too much but Mustang is one i've always wanted to have, among, suprisingly Dodge Viper.

With Viper, i think Need for Speed 1 - the game from nineties has got something to do with it.

Awesome car you guys have there, keep her safe!

Nearly every person I know can drive a manual transmission and I'm early 30's.

I've noticed with the semi-automatics these days though, real 3-pedal manual cars are becoming very rare, even from the long-time holdouts (VW and BMW)

Both of my younger siblings learned how to drive my manual car at 13yrs old.

originally posted by: borntowatch
Are you suggesting people who drive autos are dumber than manual drivers
That is the way it comes across

Surely by that logic, horse and cart drivers are smarter than all car drivers.

I have two autos and am not a little want to be street racer boy crunching gears to thrash the engine


I have a er6 for that


I didn't interpret it that way at all. But to answer your question, someone who knows how to drive a manual proficiently IS by definition a more knowledgeable driver, perhaps that means 'smarter'.
Really they are just cars and not every body needs to drive the way others do, autos are fine

Interesting. Always concidered it at myth these days that americans can't drive manual. Wouldn't really know since I'm not from the US.
Personally I find it more confusing driving an automatic. It doesn't feel..right, since I'm used to front-wheel drive and stick shift. Same reason why it for me would be unimaginable to not put the car in gear when parking. If I'm in town, I use the hand/parking brake just in case, but otherwise not that often. Also something you might not want to do if the temperature goes below freezing or you might end up with locked rear brakes. Nothing a little nudge from the sledgehammer and yanking the lever wouldn't sort, but still..

Automatic is very smooth, very easy, but it leaves you with a sense of lack of control sometimes. On cars with less powerful engines, the kickdown-downshift usually results in the rpm going up, but little happends speed-wise. It's also impossible to double de-clutch, a technique that comes in handy if you want to have some power left to manage possible understeer when downshifting before a corner on snow or gravel. This applies perhaps more to front wheel drive cars, but it's a matter of road-safety also, and it can't be done with an automatic.
I ignorantly thought this was basic driving-school stuff in all *developed* countries

I'm 62 and learned who to drive in a 1966 VW pickup truck aka " The Green Weenie" I love manual transmissions in fact my current vehicle a 2007 Saturn VUE has a manual transmission.
Real Girls love stick shifts :]

a reply to: BABYBULL24

Manual trans are nice, you get better gas mileage and IMO have better control of the car although a manual trans in a transverse mounted engine (front wheel drive) you would need to pull the engine out the top or pull the axles and drop the trans and sub frame from the bottom. Either is a pain just for a clutch. Remember when the starter was on the floor and so was the high beam switch.

I learned the concept in an old Chevy Ton. It was a 4 speed on the floor and it had a bulldog transmission. I prefer manual transmissions because you have more control over your vehicle, you get better gas mileage, and in older automobiles they are easier to repair because they don't have as many electrical components as automatic transmissions do.

originally posted by: 8675309jenny
I didn't interpret it that way at all. But to answer your question, someone who knows how to drive a manual proficiently IS by definition a more knowledgeable driver, perhaps that means 'smarter'.
Really they are just cars and not every body needs to drive the way others do, autos are fine

...and this is what i call wisdom. Made me laugh-out-loud how you put that titty-cheek down (sorry for calling you titty-cheek, titty cheek)

Just laugh.

a reply to: HanzHenry

HanzHenry is correct! An automatic transmission will eventually fail due too to many reasons. Being in the automatic transmission reman business I've seen late model automatic transmission fail at 40,000 miles.

Manuals are fun for slow cars. For fast cars the shifting is just too slow.

That being said, I am loving my new theft deterrent - manual transmission.

a reply to: SolarObserver

With 97% of the cars with automatic transmission and no mandatory test for a manual one, people will obviously don't know and do not give a sh*t about it. In an emergency situation, the chances of taking a manual one is of 3%....

a reply to: the owlbear

Auto's are better at handling big power but it doesn't matter much day to day with a regular vehicle. Thats why most Drag cars have big 2 or 3 speed Auto's with a high stall converter. The Auto transmission is smoother at handling large power.

Manuals also have a much longer brake life span since you can use down changing for braking instead of brakes all the time