Stick Shift?!

[niki]

I learned how to drive a stick last night. I am horrible at getting it to start moving in 1st- absolutely horrible. But I think if I really needed to drive a stick I could manage and only roll into like 2 or 3 cars!

I can't imagine actually owning a stick that I would drive everyday. It just seems so inconvenient and frustrating. I loved my automatic so much more. I could see having a quick little sports car and wanting to shift but just every now and then.

So how many people own a stick shift? And why?

[Shay]

Originally Posted by bmxbugzzi

I learned how to drive a stick last night. I am horrible at getting it to start moving in 1st- absolutely horrible. But I think if I really needed to drive a stick I could manage and only roll into like 2 or 3 cars!

I can't imagine actually owning a stick that I would drive everyday. It just seems so inconvenient and frustrating. I loved my automatic so much more. I could see having a quick little sports car and wanting to shift but just every now and then.

So how many people own a stick shift? And why?

See I love my automatic

or If I ever get anything other then that I'd get Tiptronic

[CoriBug]

Niki -

I bet it was funny to watch you learn!! Wish I could've beent there. I own a stick, I could never own an automatic. Manuals are more fun, less expensive and better on fuel. When I drive my dad's icky Subaru(brownish purple )I about put my foot through the floor trying to shift!! If I lived in California and had to drive through awful traffic every day, I guess I'd buy an automatic. I learned how to drive on my mom's manual Prizm, so driving a manual just seems natural. And sometimes when I have to drive my mom's car or my dad's(used to be a stick), like when mine is in the shop, I'm glad I know how.

So who let you drive their car?

Cori

[mrbeetlebrain]

Stick shifts make you feel like a part of the car - automatics always feel remote and like your a passenger NOT the driver.

Plus, you can go a lot faster in a manual

Weeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!

[Toad]

OMG no way, clutch pedal 4 life.

[JuggBug]

I actually learned to drive stick in my aunts air cooled bug, but for everyday driving it's not convenient for me. I like having my hands free so I can smack my kids around when they get outta line.

[Toad]

Originally Posted by JuggBug

I actually learned to drive stick in my aunts air cooled bug, but for everyday driving it's not convenient for me. I like having my hands free so I can smack my kids around when they get outta line.

Well, that's all fine for you, but it keeps my hands off something else.

[bluebee]

I drive a stick! My salesman at the dealership taught me how to drive it. For the first couple of weeks, it was a little difficult. Every now and then I'd stall out, but after I drove it every day and got in a lot of practice, I got a lot better! Three years later and I manuals way more than automatics! I bought a stick because it was a bug at the dealership in my price range and I was desperate to have a Beetle.

[CoriBug]

Originally Posted by JuggBug

I actually learned to drive stick in my aunts air cooled bug, but for everyday driving it's not convenient for me. I like having my hands free so I can smack my kids around when they get outta line.

I do have to admit that driving an automatic with kids is more convenient. Not that I want to be multi-tasking while on the road, it just gives me 1 less thing to think about. Usually when I drive around a kid or two, I have to use my right hand to smack their feet off the backs of the seats! Then I give them the "You're in BIG trouble if you do that again" speech.

Cori

[LadybugEwa]

I knew I had to have a stick shift even before I knew I had to have a NB. My childhood was spent in Europe, where automatics were a huge rarity in those times. Here comes the long digression. The first time I drove a car, I was 6. I'd been the back seat participant for a few months in the driving lessons my dad was giving my mom at the local abandoned airstrip. We had a small beetle-sized car, and my mom was arguing that she simply couldn't POSSIBLY push the clutch all the way in, because she was too short. At which point, I averted a total family meltdown by piping up, "Mom, it's not too far away! Even I could drive it!" So instead of my mom biting my dad's head off, she got out of the car, and I got in the driver's seat. I started it up, put it in first, gave it gas and eased off the clutch, and away we went! Then I shifted into 2nd, and then 3rd gear, until I had to stop because that was it for the airstrip. By the time I turned around, and got back to my mom, I could see she was laughing so hard she was almost peeing her pants. Apparently, you could see the top of my head, including my eyes, as I was driving, but when I went to clutch, I disappeared completely from view.
That's why I've never been intimidated by manual transmissions.
Nowadays, I drive a stick not only because of fond memories. It's practical for me, because I absolutely need to feel in control of the smallest aspect of the drive, and I enjoy the flexibility manual trans offers. It's also practical, because I'm a shift worker. Driving back home after a 12hr night shift, I'm less likely to feel sleepy if I have to shift. Automatic is too hands-off.

[Dragonspirit12]

I have driven an automatic pretty much all my driving career only on a manual long enough to figure out how to give people whiplash and move the car a bit. But when I got my beetle I jumped in with both feet into a manual I knew I would either sink or swim and its only been a couple weeks and I am swimming along nicely in fact I wouldn't trade it for an auto beetle for anything

[FlwrPwer]

I learned how to drive a stick on my beetle. In fact, I couldn't even test-drive it or take it home from the dealer because I couldn't drive it. My dad had to do all that for me. It took me a good few days to really grasp first gear and how to make the car move....I still stall it every now and then. Do you have any idea how hard it is to have a new beetle in the driveway and have to leave it there because you dont know how to drive? Thats what I had to do the day after I got my car.

I got the stick because it was cheaper. The automatic raised the vert price another $2,000. But now that I have a stick, I would never drive anything else. I feel like I bonded with my car because it is a stick. I LOVE it. Even now, with my new one hour and ten minute commute, I still love driving the stick. It also handles a lot better in the snow. I'm very happy I learned how to drive a stick and even happier that I learned on my Beetle.

I too get very confused when in an automatic car. I keep looking for the clutch. It actually makes me a more dangerous drive I think because I get so confused. That could just be me though.....

[angelworks]

I love my stick!

My step-father drove big trucks and insisted I learn how to drive manual when I got my driver's permit.

I hate to be told that I can't do something and everyone thought him crazy for teaching a girl to drive stick.

Okay, yeah, took me one day to get shifting into first under control. Grrr.

And like Mr BB and Toad said---you gotta feel it in the seat of your pants baby! Or maybe that's just me.

I am not a dare devil at all. You can not get my hands off the brakes when riding a bike down hill. I only let myself let go so much while downhill skiing.......

but you put my arse in the saddle or in the seat of a manual car-------all bets are off.

[lojasmo]

Whenever I have to drive my wife's car (auto) I feel like I'm driving a golf cart....a 230 HP golf cart.

I love my stick.

[mrbeetlebrain]

Originally Posted by lojasmo

Whenever I have to drive my wife's car (auto) I feel like I'm driving a golf cart....a 230 HP golf cart.

I love my stick.

Thats a good way to put it, when I drive my mums auto Beetle, I always feel that you push the gas pedal and wait for the power, with a turbo stick the power is just there!

[GINA]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: when you have an automatic, you're just steering the car. When you have a manual, you drive the car.

[Lnzbug]

I learned to drive on my sister-in-laws honda civic. I had gone to look at the new CRX and liked it so much I ordered one. Luckily for me it took almost 4 months to get it(new model and I only wanted blue). By the time I picked it up I was a pro Now that I'm older I thought I would want an auto but when I saw the vortex and it was a turbo I thought, it's gotta be 5 speed. How can you have a fast car and have it NOT be manual? I love leaving honda's in the dust on the highway. Downshift and boom, I'm gone I've been driving manual for so long I always press the clutch in , even on my hubby's auto Mitsubichi

[SilverVw3]

Originally Posted by mrbeetlebrain

Stick shifts make you feel like a part of the car - automatics always feel remote and like your a passenger NOT the driver.

Plus, you can go a lot faster in a manual

Weeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!

What he said!

I just wish my beetle was a 6spd instead of 5...

[Lnzbug]

Originally Posted by SilverVw3

What he said!

I just wish my beetle was a 6spd instead of 5...

Yeah, 6 would be nice.

[iScott]

Originally Posted by bmxbugzzi

So how many people own a stick shift? And why?

I find that between my standard and the auto on our Jetta, I have a lot more control over my car in terms of RPMs and shift times.

It's a lot easier to burn a little rubber, too.


...I said rubber.