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Can you drive a manual transmission car?  (stick)
If you can, who taught you and what kind of car was it?

(http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/2549/manualtransmissionbn5.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)

Around 1995-'96, my uncle Jerry taught me how to drive a stick on a country road in a light blue 80's model Datsun hatchback.  (forget the exact model)
I killed the engine several times my first few tries but eventually got the hang of it and learned to work the gears.

How about you?
Can you drive a stick?

Yes, ,and I taught myself, , kinda. I just kinda knew how to and did so the first time getting in a car that was stick without thinking about it.

I can drive one, but not well.

My boss with one sales company I was with in the early 80s tried to teach me to no avail.

I did not learn how to drive a stick until the later 90s when I was in car sales for a short stint.

I drove my brother-in-law's truck for week a few years ago when I didn't have a vehicle to drive. It was a stick, but was easier to handle than a lot of sticks I have driven.

I prefer an automatic, and have owned nothing but automatics.

Yes.  My Saturn and my Bug are both manuals.

Quote from: Cap'n Trek on September 15, 2008, 07:17:15 AM
Any here driven 3 on the column manual transmission?

Ridden in one, yes. Driven one, no. A friend used to have an old Ford Falcon that had the 3 on the column manual transmission, but at the time I couldn't drive a stick shift. I think my brother taught me how to drive a manual in his Mazda RX-7, an extremely forgiving and easy-to-drive car. The only stick I could never get the hang of was a friend's Ford Ranger; the clutch was way too high and I just kept killing the engine. I taught my wife to drive a manual transmission car, so I guess I'm all right at it, though I can't say I'm an expert.

About the weirdest car I ever drove was an old Dodge with a pushbutton transmission.

Quote from: Cap'n Trek on September 15, 2008, 07:17:15 AM
Most of the cars I've owned were sticks.  A manual transmission can be a lot more fun than a auto in certain cars.  Used to be they got a few mpg more than autos, but that doesn't seem to be the case anymore.

Any here driven 3 on the column manual transmission?

I learned how to drive on my dad's 1955 Chevy pick up, lots of fun for me, lots of scares for him.

Manual Shift?  Yes, tons, from farm tractors, motorcycles and small cars to fire trucks.

Quote from: Cap'n Trek on September 15, 2008, 07:17:15 AM

Any here driven 3 on the column manual transmission?

Yepper!  Lots of fun that old van was.

Anyone drive a split differential truck?

What is a "3 on the column manual transmission"? 
I've never heard of one before.

Quote from: Ash on September 15, 2008, 08:45:46 AM

What is a "3 on the column manual transmission"? 
I've never heard of one before.

3-speed manual transmission, but the shifter is on the steering column instead of through the floor.

I can drive a stick but I am not that great at it.  I stall it a lot when going from a standing start after I stop (like at a stop sign).  I used to be in my dad's truck often as a child and would see him shift the gears so when started to learn a stick I had an idea of what to do with it I just had to get more consistent with it.  However though it's been about 5 or 6 years since I drove a stick so I'm pretty sure I am rusty by now with it.

I learned to drive stick in Plymouth TC3 back in about '81.  Wasn't too hard actually, I'd ridden motorcycles for years so I guess I had a feel for it.  The biggest problem was if you were parked on a hill and somebody parked right behind you.  Then I had a '72 Camaro with a stick - 350 with a LT1 camshaft...ah, the good old days.  Then an '82 Camaro.  Haven't driven a stick shift in a while though.  Everything is front wheel drive now, you can't smoke the rear tires, and the car likes to go cornerways if you try in a front wheel drive.

Quote from: ulthar on September 15, 2008, 09:36:52 AM
3-speed manual transmission, but the shifter is on the steering column instead of through the floor.

I've owned four vehicles with 3 speeds on the column

1956 Willis Jeep Station Wagon  Sometimes the linkage would hang up on this one and I would have crawl underneath to get it unstuck so it would go in reverse
1968 Chevy Stepside   I flipped this one and totalled it
1972 Ford F-100 Sport
1977 Chevy Stepside

I saw a Mercedes once that had 4 on the column.

I've owned numerous cars with 4 and 5 speed on the floor
1974 Austin Marina
1980 Mazda GLC
1981 Toyota Celica GT
1980 Datsun 210
1983 Subaru wagon
1987 Chrysler LeBaron GTS
1985 Plymouth Colt
1989 Plymouth Colt
1996 Nissan King Cab truck
2003 Nissan King Cab

I much prefer a stick over an automatic.  I love being in control of absolutely everything when I drive.  I'm one that takes even my menial drive to work as an experience.

My wife's car, a 2002 Dodge Neon, which I bought brand new is a 5-speed.  My car, a 2005 Hyundai Elantra is sadly an automatic.

Aside from the Neon, one of my other cars I have owned was a stick.  It was an '89 Isuzu Trooper which remains to this day, my favorite vehicle that I've owned.  I bought it on the cheap, in great shape and used it on trails in the woods.  There is nothing like crunching through a not traveled area and having to use your driving sense to know which gear to be in, how much throttle to use.....  So much fun.

My next car will certainly be a stick.  A lot of people complain about using them in a city, but I love it.

Put me in the 'Prefer Stick' camp as well.

I learned to drive a 'stick' in a 1968 Simca.
My dad had four of these French babies.
Two that ran and two for parts!
(http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t214/morrisawilliams/ad_simca_1000_64.jpg)
My mom, my sister, and my brother all also learn to drive a stick in my dad's Simcas.
They were tough little cars that survived a LOT of abuse from our whole family. My brother once drove one off an embankment and popped all four tires - but that Simca started right back up! He grduated to a Baracuda with non-working doors.


My next car was a 62 VW Beetle.

Then a '76 Datsun B210 Honeybee.

I drove several nondescript automatics for years before finally returning to a manual transmission when I bought my Nissan Frontier in 2000.

A friend of mine had a semi-automatic 'Super Beetle' which had a stick shift but no clutch. I drove it once and almost put my friend through the windshield when I went to shift gears and, aiming for the non-existing clutch, hit the brake!

My dad also had a Mazda RX-2 that had that infamous rotary engine. It sounded something like a small engine plane revving up. My sister got it after the novely wore off and then I inherited it from her - briefly. The second day I drove it the thing caught on fire and burned to a crisp on the side of the road. It had a automatic electric radio antennae you could raise and lower with a switch on the dashboard, which was sort of cool.

My then-girlfriend/now-wife showed her trust in me by teaching me to drive her beloved '74 Volkswagen. Those skills came in handy when we moved and the truck I rented was a manual transmission. I impressed my dad with some fairly tricky maneuvers in that thing (like  doing a 3-point turn and backing into a steep narrow driveway).

(Postscript: I didn't do anything bad to the VW's transmission. But I ended up wrecking it anyway in a stupid front-end collision in '82).

I tended to avoid driving stick after the two driver ed lessons I had in a manual Dodge Omni in the mid-80s (the rest of the course used an automatic). I couldn't seem to get it into first gear without the car stalling on the first couple of tries. And by stalling, I mean hopping around for about 20 seconds then stalling.

When I met my wife, she had a manual Cavalier. Up until a few years ago, I managed to avoid driving that too. Eventually, however, we found some practical reasons why I should use the small car to commute and leave the minivan at home. My wife's attempts to teach me didn't go much better than the earlier efforts.

What finally did it was just driving the car to work every day. I've come to the conclusion that driving stick is something that can't really be taught. It's done almost entirely by feel, so the only way to learn is to do it for a while, until you develop a feel for it. Today, I can honestly say I can drive a manual transmission almost as easily as an automatic. I have to admit, I like being able to control the shift at those times when I want to accelerate really quickly.

There is only one pitfall. When I do drive the minivan, I sometimes forget I'm driving an automatic. Usually, that means reaching for a shifter that isn't there when approaching a turn, but occasionally, I jam my left foot hard on the brake pedal. Whoopsie.

Quote from: AndyC on September 15, 2008, 12:55:11 PM
I've come to the conclusion that driving stick is something that can't really be taught. It's done almost entirely by feel, so the only way to learn is to do it for a while, until you develop a feel for it.

I agree.
I've taught two people (male and female friends of mine) how to drive a stick and the best I could do was to give them a broad outline as to how it all works.
Then they put it in 1st gear and killed the engine.   :smile:

Once they got the "feel" for it, they had no problems.  We drove around until they felt comfortable going out into heavy traffic.
They did well, except for the couple times they killed the engine again at a stop light or sign.

Someone else mentioned being stopped or parked on a hill when driving a stick. 
I hate when I think I'm gonna back into the car behind me.  Those of us who know how to drive one know that when you give it gas on a hill, the car rolls back a little bit.  It's especially nerve wracking in winter when you're on a slick hill and someone pulls up extra close. 

I'm only 16, I can barely drive at all, let alone you're nutty stck shifts.  I do hope to learn how one day, as it may come in handy, maybe after I can get a job I'll be able to find one really cheap and it wont matter if I completley destroy it.

Quote from: Patient7 on September 15, 2008, 10:58:50 PM
I'm only 16, I can barely drive at all, let alone you're nutty stck shifts.  I do hope to learn how one day, as it may come in handy, maybe after I can get a job I'll be able to find one really cheap and it wont matter if I completley destroy it.

It's just one more pedal. You get so you don't notice it. Of course, the hand that is busy with the stick shift is not going to be available for texting, playing with the CD player, drinking from the open whiskey bottle and flipping through the novel you're reading while you drive. But for some reason driving teachers frown on that stuff anyway.

Quote from: schmendrik on September 16, 2008, 07:15:29 AM

Quote from: Patient7 on September 15, 2008, 10:58:50 PM
I'm only 16, I can barely drive at all, let alone you're nutty stck shifts.  I do hope to learn how one day, as it may come in handy, maybe after I can get a job I'll be able to find one really cheap and it wont matter if I completley destroy it.

It's just one more pedal. You get so you don't notice it. Of course, the hand that is busy with the stick shift is not going to be available for texting, playing with the CD player, drinking from the open whiskey bottle and flipping through the novel you're reading while you drive. But for some reason driving teachers frown on that stuff anyway.

That was my main worry is that I'm not the best multitasker, so I may have trouble focusing on what my hand is doing along with concentrating on the road.

When I was in college the clutch went out in my Datsun B210. My dad told me that with practice I could drive without the clutch.

It was a bit tricky, but he was right.

I also periodically had ignition trouble so had to learn to start the thing by letting it roll and 'popping' the clutch.

It used to burn through headlight fuses like nothin' so I'd buy them by the box - and could change the fuse when it blew without stopping or even really slowing down.

Mine didn't look quite this good.
(http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t214/morrisawilliams/Honey_Bee.jpg)

Yeah, I knew guys who could drive without the clutch, back at the age when showing off was reason enough to learn the skill. At my age, I need a better reason to grind the crap out of my gears figuring it out. I did have the fun experience of having a cable come loose, changing the position of my gears. Totally baffling, until I figured out what gear I was in and where the others were.

The Cavalier has actually not been out of the driveway in a little while. Needs front bearings (which I have), and a couple free hours when it's light out and not raining (which I don't have). Decided about a year ago that it just isn't worth the cost of paying a mechanic to work on that thing.

Quote from: Ash on September 15, 2008, 08:45:46 AM
What is a "3 on the column manual transmission"? 
I've never heard of one before.

It was/is call "3 on the tree" a floor shift is "4 in the floor" or "4 in the floor and a 5th under the seat"


I never had anything but sticks, mainly because I've never had anything but 4X4's and a automatic 4X4 is just stupid. All my tractor are manuals, trucks manuals, cars manuals, motorcycles manual, the closest thing to a automatic I have the hydrostatic drive on my John Deere lawnmower.

 I've always had stick shift 4x4's as a primary vehicle and it was difficult for me to trust anything "new", like when I didn't have to get out of the vehicle and lock the front hubs by hand, etc.. 2 years ago, I bought a Jeep XJ with an auto tranny. I now trust them. I'll be putting ARB lockers on it this winter for rock crawling come spring. I saw no place for an auto either until I had one, and rock-crawled with guys who had auto's in their Rubicon's. It allows you to pick different lines and approaches for obstacles.