Asklemmy

In Germany nearly everyone can drive manual. Used to be that if you didn't learn how to drive manual in driving school, you weren't allowed to drive manual with your license.

31,Sweden

Yes, and I prefer a manual car to an automatic. It keeps me a lot more dialed in while driving.

I can, not well, but I can. damn hill starts.

23, US. Yes, but I find them pointless for daily driver cars. Modern automatics are more fuel efficient and just make more sense because they're much easier to operate and less annoying in stop and go traffic.

They're great for off-roading and racing, but outside of those use cases automatics are just better.

My car has a manual transmission. I learned to drive on a manual transmission. I prefer it. When I drive a car with automatic transmission, I step on its nonexistent clutch.

Yes.

In Europe you basically have to be handicapped to not learn to drive manual. Most people get the manual driving license because it allows you to drive both, whereas the automatic one doesn't.

Manual transmission was and often still is cheaper, often cheaper to repair, often more reliable, often uses less fuel, and in cheap and less powerful cars the combination is often better. Because there are so many manual cars here, including at rental places, it's a no brainer to learn to drive manual.

This being said, that's changing. Also, less and less young people are getting a driving license due to affordability and cars no longer being the status symbol they once were.

This thread is an amusing display of sample bias. Only people that want to respond yes and brag about it bothering to respond.

In reality only about 2/3rds of people in the US can drive stick and almost no one owns manual cars.

I've never driven a manual car. I've had people be like "You can't drive manual?!" and then I would respond "So are you going to teach me?" The answer is always No, of course not, not in their car (assuming they even owned a manual, which none do anymore). My parents had manual cars but sold them 10+ years before having me.

I understand how a clutch works. It wouldn't be difficult to learn. But what reason or motivation is there to learn when almost no cars are manual? They total something like 2% of new car sales. If you're buying something like a 718 GT4 RS or a 911 GT3 RS for maximum driving engagement that's great, but those cars are priced for the 1% of the 1%.

Even if you had a fun car, which I do, the drive to work is stop-and-go, roads are full, even the fun country backroads are filled with traffic on weekends, forests are burned down, gas is eye-watteringly expensive if you have a slightly performant vehicle. The time to have fun driving cars was 40 years ago.

31, Germany, I can't drive at all. City kid.

Germany, 25, yup

Of course, 28, French. 99,99% of people here drive manual (or at least know how to).

UAE, mid 20s and I know how to drive a manual but went with an automatic.

Yes, but only on motorcycles. That's because there's no such thing as an automatic motorcycle[^1][^2][^3][^4][^5], so you have to learn manual if you want to ride one. Unfortunately this skill doesn't transfer well to manual driving because on bikes you operate the clutch with your hand and the shift with your foot. I'm not terribly worried about that, though... I've literally never even been on the inside of a manual drive car before!

For context: I'm mid-20s from the American south.

[^1]: No, electrics don't count. [^2]: No, semi-autos don't count. [^3]: No, three-wheelers don't count. [^4]: No, the 2006 Yamaha bikes don't count because that line was a sales failure. [^5]: Ok, fine. Honda's DCT bikes do count, but holy shit are they expensive!

I'm 237 years old, a retired phosphate miner in Nauru. I learned to drive on manual transmissions but now refuse to drive anything not powered by a turbo-encabulator, with the exception of Starfleet shuttlecraft. I also hate questions that encourage people to give away personal or census data without considering that is what's happening.

I can and do drive a manual transmission. I'm 34 and in the US Midwest. It's just more fun to drive. My car isn't even fast, but dropping a couple gears to pass someone never gets old.

Yes, unless you want to still have an engine, then no.

German, late 30s. Automatic cars are rather uncommon in Germany, we sure like our manuals. Not being able to push my car into high RPMs when needed to overtake or accelerate quickly takes the fun out of driving. I'd never switch to automatic as long as I still have both arms and legs. And yes I know kickdowns are a thing, but it really doesn't compare.

Mid 20s, Poland, very much can, but currently driving automatic.

Fun fact: in Poland you normally take the driving test in a manual gear shift car, but you can optionally take it in an automatic one. The deal is you have to provide the vehicle for the testing center yourself (driving schools lend them) and your driving license will have an annotation that it's only viable for this type of gearbox.

24, always driven manual, EU.
From my experience most people in the EU can or at least could: This is because many (if not all, not sure) countries make a distinction between manual and automatic licenses (see e.g. https://www.learn-automatic.com/qualified/automatic-driving-licence/).
I.e. if you want to drive manual, you have to take the test manual, but if you take the test on manual transmission, you are allowed to drive automatics as well.

I'm Italian and it's mandatory to learn how to drive stick in order to get a license. This could explain why we think driving at 16 is absurd: it would probably be difficult for a 16 years old to learn stick.

No, on account of I cannot drive at all. I'm 25 and live in Vermont. The particular part I live in, everything's accessible by bus, so I've just never felt the urgency to learn.

Yes. Early 40s, USA, both mine and my wife's cars are manual Subarus.

Female, 34, from Indiana, USA. Currently driving a 2020 Honda Civic SI and I love it. My bro taught me to drive stick at 16 so that I'd never be in a situation where I needed to leave but couldn't because I didn't know how to drive manual. I've had both automatic and manual transmissions, manual being my favorite.

Germany, mid 30s, all the cars I've owned were manual so I would say - yes :D

First time I drove a rental automatic I did an accidental hard stop at about every second crossroads as I intended to hit the clutch with my left foot and lacking one just hammered the breaks instead >.>

When driving combustion I prefer manual but I've recently driven some EV, I could get used to that feel :)

29, Poland/Germany. Yes, like almost everyone in Europe. Although, it is getting more popular to be automatic-only. I like driving manual, however prefer automatic due to convenience of it. I don't have a car at the moment (public transport serves me well), but if I had, I'd go for automatic.

I'm in my 40s and live in Europe (NL), and in my country, if you don't take your driving exam in a manual transmission car, you receive a restriction on your license that prevents you from driving manual transmission vehicles. As a result, both I and nearly everyone I know can drive a manual. Automatics are also a fair bit more expensive, so most people don't opt for them. Tho I expect this will change with the rising popularity of electric and hybrid vehicles.

India, been driving manual since 20 yr old , been a while and planning to get an auto

I can drive a manual yeah, I don't feel like I'm in total control when driving an automatic, I'm 20 and live in the Netherlands

I’m 26, from the US and I learned manual when I was 22. I live in Mexico now and im glad I learned because manual is still very common here, and that’s what I’m driving now

36, Canadian, 10/10 would recommend. Winter driving is way more fun with manual, and it can be a lot easier on gas if you're in the mood.

• 5 speed '93 Suzuki Sidekick 2006-2009
• 6 speed '05 Jeep Wrangler 2009-2021
• 5 speed '10 Mazda B2300 2021-Present

From India, late 30s and I drive manual. I learned to drive less than an year ago in a manual that I own. Manual cars are cheaper and I bought one since I believe switching from manual to auto would be easier than the other way around. I don't feel comfortable driving an automatic; and it is only recently that I realised that ALL of my friends and family drive automatics! I live in a large crowded city with terrible traffic problems and I sometimes wonder if driving an automatic would be easier.

Early 40s from Australia. I can drive a manual, but my present car is automatic. My motorcycle is manual though. :p

I can’t. Lots of people my age can. My teenage years there was only one car in the household and it’s an auto. I couldn’t afford to pay for extra lessons to learn manual with their car.

I was into cars and really wanted to get a manual car later on. But just never needed it. Auto cars are just more available so 10+ years later I still can’t drive manual and hasn’t affected my life at all

Majority of people do in Europe.

Because it is better to also know how to drive manual, than to only know how to drive automatic.

...american; when i learned to stick-and-clutch fourty years ago (driving fifty-year-old used cars) we still called it a standard transmission...

...we like to say that i married my wife because she drove a standard, but when she traded in my last hatchback the manufacturer only offered automatics in the new models; would've been a dealbreaker for me but she liked the car...

28, Germany. Yes I can and I dont know anybody with a drivers license who cant.