I Miss Shifting

[snubbyfan]

All my life, I've driven vehicles with manual transmissions. Ever since I got my drivers license, I've been shifting gears.
Our last truck was a 2009 4wd Toyota Tacoma with a 4 cylinder engine and a 5 speed manual transmission.
When that truck was totaled by a young idiot that ran a stop sign and turned left into oncoming traffic, my wife and I went truck shopping for a replacement.

I have a degenerative peripheral motor nerve condition that, with a carefully monitored diet and regular exercise, I've been able to keep ahead of but it is degenerative, so I know it'll slowly get worse.
My brilliant wife reminded me of this when we selected a replacement truck. Of course I wanted 4wd and a manual transmission. She was looking ahead and reminded me that one day a manual tranny might be a bit to much for me if I continue to get gimpier. Actually it's not if, it's when.
I like driving and she knows this. I've already had to relearn how to work an accelerator pedal with severe drop foot.
So we got a full size 2006 Dodge Ram 4wd with a 4.7 liter V8 and an automatic transmission. I like it, it rides nice, gets us out of the mountains when it snows and can haul what ever we want it to anywhere we want to go up in the mountains.
But, it's an automatic and I miss shifting gears.
Now we have a little blue Toyota Yaris with an automatic transmission and the big Dodge Ram with an automatic transmission.
I still find myself going for the clutch pedal and reaching for the shifter.

 

[bigchuck83]

You'll always find yourself reaching for the shifter or clutch pedal from time to time. Haven't owned a manual transmission vehicle in almost 14 years and still reach for something that isn't there. Just a habit. The automatic is easier in heavy traffic though.


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[DeathGrip]

If you can't find them grind them.

I have three top loaders and a T-10 taking up space in my garage.

 

[rwsmith]

Not me......

The only time I liked shifting was in a nimble car on a tricky road. The old '63 Galaxie I drove had a three on the tree, a throw of about 2 feet and the detents were long gone, so you just had to 'know' where to stick the lever. I had a little Merc Bobcat that handled well, but i usually drove it in a gear lower than where it should have been to get a little torque out of the primitive gas saving setup with the tiny engine and sparks advanced to where you couldn't take off without knocking, no matter how easy you took it. I had a Merc Topaz that was decent with a stick shift. That was my last manual car.

Now i'm old, busted up and lazy so I don't care for shifting nowadays unless it is in a pick up with a bench seat, windows rolled down tooling down a dirt road between cornfields with the AM radio going full blast.

THAT would be enough to make me want a stick shift.

I just had a horrible thought. I remember a car commercial that said if a woman was driving a car it would be automatc but if you were a real man, you could shift the lever. (no clutch). Is that LAME or what?!

 

[Weimar]

I had a manual for years and then bought a 2006 Mustang GT and it was a 6-speed (it is now my sons)

- under stress I would hit the clutch - which in my Jeep is not there and never was . As you drive it more, the manual part becomes less of a automatic thing, but its still there~!

I like the gear shifting at times, but hills, city driving and other times, it sure is nice having an automatic

 

[LVSteve]

I learned to drive in England at a time where the manual transmission ruled supreme. About the time I passed my test, car ownership exploded. By the time I was 30, I was fed up with driving a stick because the traffic density in daylight hours was just getting to be too big a PITA.

The crunch came after a repetitive set of trips in rental cars. The day I had an automatic, it was evident to me just how much less stressful not shifting made the journey. I was the first of my gang to get an automatic, and as the years went by, more of them also switched.

Let's face it, if the auto tranny had been invented first, and at a later date some joker told you that for a little more performance you would have to pump a third pedal and keep wiggling a stick to make progress, you would have told him to put it where the sun doesn't shine.

 

[Redbert31]

All my life, I've driven vehicles with manual transmissions. Ever since I got my drivers license, I've been shifting gears.
Our last truck was a 2009 4wd Toyota Tacoma with a 4 cylinder engine and a 5 speed manual transmission.
When that truck was totaled by a young idiot that ran a stop sign and turned left into oncoming traffic, my wife and I went truck shopping for a replacement.

I have a degenerative peripheral motor nerve condition that, with a carefully monitored diet and regular exercise, I've been able to keep ahead of but it is degenerative, so I know it'll slowly get worse.
My brilliant wife reminded me of this when we selected a replacement truck. Of course I wanted 4wd and a manual transmission. She was looking ahead and reminded me that one day a manual tranny might be a bit to much for me if I continue to get gimpier. Actually it's not if, it's when.
I like driving and she knows this. I've already had to relearn how to work an accelerator pedal with severe drop foot.
So we got a full size 2006 Dodge Ram 4wd with a 4.7 liter V8 and an automatic transmission. I like it, it rides nice, gets us out of the mountains when it snows and can haul what ever we want it to anywhere we want to go up in the mountains.
But, it's an automatic and I miss shifting gears.
Now we have a little blue Toyota Yaris with an automatic transmission and the big Dodge Ram with an automatic transmission.
I still find myself going for the clutch pedal and reaching for the shifter.

My husband misses his old Saab with manual also... He's getting an Impala tomorrow with automatic because he has a hip problem on the left side and can't do the clutch. So I hear ya. My son learned to drive stick on an old Volvo we let him have to take to college. He learned about two weeks before he left and he learned fast because he'd have to pay for a new clutch if he rode it and wore it out up at school. He was always a responsible kid and worked at a gas station/garage thru high school. But he had no equipment at school and he was used to working with a lift at the shop. He learned to love standard too. The first car he bought himself had stick shift.

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[R.A. Rifleman]

My Jeep (which hopefully won't be my Jeep much longer) has a manual transmission and I do enjoy shifting....when I'm leaving work....at half past midnight.....when there's no traffic on the road....and most stoplights have gone to flashing yellow. On the way to work however, there is a reason I hope it won't be my Jeep much longer.

 

[CH4]

I hear ya snub you, my first car was a 63 Chevy PU with a three on the tree. As hobby, Ive driven big rigs for 35 years, with manual transmissions ranging from brownies and 7 to 18 speed. Now, unfortunately, most of our fleet are automatics. According industry rumors, by 2020 most all big rigs will be autos due to EPA pressure. Autos are nice, but the essence of driving big rig is the shifting.

 

[Chik a Boom]

It looks like, Snubbyfan, that we are in the minority for being "shifty". I enjoy manual a lot-keeps me awake when I drive, I guess.

I learned on an old '60 Ford Pickup with many stops and starts- was told it makes you a better driver. I do believe you have to plan ahead maybe a few seconds earlier as you drive. Currently have a 5 speed Mustang, so still at it.

Funny/true story: Taught daughter to drive on my old 5 speed '89 Bronco. So when she was in high school driver's ed all they had were automatic cars and she had no clue where to start with it (what's a PRNDL?). Now, like her Mom, she won't have anything automatic. She and her Hubby have two Toyota vehicles that are manual-which I understand are one of the few companies left still making manual transmissions for their trucks and SUV's. Is that true? Anyone driving something else with a stick?

 

[1stgarand]

I drove a 1971 Ford F-150 column shift 3 speed, 6 cylinder, for 15 years. 1975-1990. No power anything, and no a.c...., in the Mississippi delta. And I loved that truck. You know I could actually stand on the ground inside the engine compartment with little effort. There was just nothing in there. Today, you can't even see the ground for all the stuff they cram in there. Used to enjoy working on it. I rebuilt the engine, and the transmission. Maybe more than once. I did convert it to a floor shift at some point.

 

[rwsmith]

Being in heavy and stop and go traffic......

I learned to drive in England at a time where the manual transmission ruled supreme. About the time I passed my test, car ownership exploded. By the time I was 30, I was fed up with driving a stick because the traffic density in daylight hours was just getting to be too big a PITA.

The crunch came after a repetitive set of trips in rental cars. The day I had an automatic, it was evident to me just how much less stressful not shifting made the journey. I was the first of my gang to get an automatic, and as the years went by, more of them also switched.

Let's face it, if the auto tranny had been invented first, and at a later date some joker told you that for a little more performance you would have to pump a third pedal and keep wiggling a stick to make progress, you would have told him to put it where the sun doesn't shine.

Being in heavy and stop and go traffic will take the fun out of a stick in a hurry.

 

[arjay]

I learned to drive in an old pickup that had to be double clutched and I sure enjoyed a manual 4x4 in the mountains and on the jeep roads around here.I insisted my daughter learn how to use a clutch when she learned to drive 10 years ago.She rolled her eyes and humored me lol.She lives in NYC now and doesn't even own a car and I'm in the burbs driving an automatic SUV!

 

[wingriderz]

Me too manual till a few years ago. Thank God I still have a motorcycles to shift lol

 

[Breakaway500]

I'll never ever give up my manual transmissions. Never. Cut both my legs off and I'll just use a stick on the clutch.Not sure about the brake and the throttle...

 

[Andy Lowry]

Anyone who doesn't know how to operate a manual transmission has no standards. Heh heh heh heh.

 

[brigeton]

I learned to drive with a stick and had them most of my life and don't mind shifting. My last vehicle with a stick was a 99 Dodge pickup that the dealer got from another state because there weren't any trucks with a v-8 & a stick available.
When it was time to get rid of that truck it took forever to sell and I had to almost gave it away. People are just too lazy to shift nowadays.

 

[Kurusu]

They are both stick shifts.

 

[Dobie406]

Millennial anti-theft device. Been browsing classified ads for an older manual truck for awhile now just for a fun second vehicle.

 

[robvious]

learned to shift on grandpas 65 GMC 3 on the tree around the farm yard when very young... have 2 Mustangs in the garage a 5 speed in a 67 Fastback & a 6 speed in a Boss 302... job for this summer is to teach the son how to not be so shiftless...lol