Agent: "Will this rental be for business or pleasure, Mr. Dellwo?"

Me: "Neither. And by the way, the vehicle will probably need a new clutch when you get it back in a few days."

 

i love driving my manual. out of all my friends only 2 others drive stick and ones a 2.0 jetta and the other and rx8, both really fun to drive

 

I was taught how to drive in a Mercury Topaz 5 speed by my dad, then he bought me a69 Ford F-100 with the 3 speed on the column as my first vehicle. It had the bad bushings too. I got so good at freeing the linkage I could do it with the truck running and on a slight slope.

 

I had to learn on a 3 on the column Rambler way back in 1962 in my driver's ed. class in high school. Pretty soon I was catching rubber with the Rambler and my driver's ed teacher (who was also my baseball coach) threatened to flunk me! I later bought my first two car's that had stick shift's. You weren't cool back in the 60's unless you had a 4 speed. I later drove truck's for a living (tanker's hauling 9000 gallons of gasoline) and had mostly 10 and 13 speed Roadranger transmissions. In the Airforce I also drove Mack tractor's that had a 5x4 20 speed tranny, that's a challenge unless you have 3 arms! I'm surprised at the number of people today who can't drive a standard shift vehicle.

 

"I'd rather eat worms than drive an automatic"

 

Did you mount the plaque in your truck?

 

No, I was going to hang an axe in my back window gun rack but, I didn't graduate.

Got kicked out for "cheating and recklessness" during the finals.
Something about not keeping my eyes on my own work.

 

I think having a manual trans for your first car/truck is great thing.

I do miss shifting in my 4x4 Ranger... I'll definately having another manual in the stable sometime soon.

 

I learned how to drive a truck with a manual transmission before I ever drove a vehicle with an automatic. I was probably about 11 years old. My dad had an '85 F250 diesel with a manual. That was the truck I learned how to drive in. Of course I had been driving tractors long before that.

I have a class A CDL now. I drive in the fall during harvest. Nothing funner than driving a Peterbilt with 600HP and an 18 speed transmission. Only use the clutch when starting and stopping.

 

I learned how to drive a manual last summer using my mom's 86 Camaro. It's definitely fun to do but I wouldn't want to do that all the time when I'm putting 20-25k+ on every year.

 

Its not bad once you get used to it.

 

My daughter-in-law drives a 6 speed M6 BMW in downtown Houston, spike heels.

 

I learned to drive in when I was 12 in my family's 1994 F-350 farm truck with the 7.3L diesel engine and manual trans. Was really easy to learn since in that truck you can put it in first, dump the clutch and it will go unless you're on a steep hill. Also learned to back a trailer in that truck which was a lot of fun since I was barely able to push the clutch down at that age, let alone ride it.

 

I want to see MGD's comment to this thread

 

eh, I think my synchro is going, really hard downshifting to 1st. My dad told me to double clutch but haven't been able to do it yet.

Being able to drive stick has lots of perks though, my buddy had a few too many beers so I got to drive his '93 Cobra