Drive A Stick?

[Ash]

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



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?

[ghouck]

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.

[Menard]

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.

[akiratubo]

Yes.  My Saturn and my Bug are both manuals.

[Derf]

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.

[Dennis]

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.

[ulthar]

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

Any here driven 3 on the column manual transmission?

Yepper!  Lots of fun that old van was.

Anyone drive a split differential truck?

[Ash]

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

[ulthar]

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.

[asimpson2006]

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.

[Jack]

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.

[trekgeezer]

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

[Mr_Vindictive]

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.

[Raffine]

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!

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.

[schmendrik]

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).