A lost skill
What is it?
Recent research shows that this once-ubiquitous ability is increasingly becoming a lost art.
Only 18% of Americans know how to use a stick shift — with the number even lower among younger drivers.
In a survey of US drivers, Extreme Terrain found more than a third of Gen Z drivers (35%) never learned to drive stick, compared with just 9% of baby boomers.
Other disappearing arts? Reading an analog clock. Writing in script. Navigating by using a map. Memorizing a whole bunch of phone numbers.
I learned to drive on a column shifter:
A column shifter is a shift lever mounted on the steering column of vehicles in the post-war era. The shifter was strategically mounted on the steering column behind the wheel, which cleared some space on the bench seat for an additional passenger.
Up until the late 1960s, many vehicles had three-on-the-tree column shifters with overdrive transmissions that provided three more gears.
There was a lot to think about: column shifter, clutch, hand signals.
Also, for about the first twenty years of my driving life I drove shift cars with center console shifters and no power steering. It took some muscle. Could I still do it now? Probably only if I had to. But fortunately I haven’t had to.
Oh, I remember all of those. And power steering makes a huge difference. Today’s drivers never even have to think about that.
Three on a tree.
Four on the floor.
Driving a bug with a rusted out floor panel; look down and see the road go by.
Cruise control by brick or stick on the gas pedal? Nope, those were bad ideas.
Old used cars of my youth, when gasoline was 35 cents a gallon.
Drove only sticks until the mid-90s, but was a young guy with muscle cars and loved the control it gave me. As I got into family life I went to econoboxes then luxury sedans now suvs, and left sticks forever – haven’t done the mid life crises sports car yet – but like a bike it’s a skill you don’t forget.
In Europe sticks are still common at rental car places, and one time I gave up my last auto on the lot to the American woman next to me who was fussing she couldn’t drive the stick they gave her (you have to ask when you reserve since they do run out). She was lucky I had the skill, happened to be checking in at same time, and was willing to swap.
In the big collectivist-controlled cities a manual transmission is considered an “anti-theft device”.
The only problem is that the thieves get so pissed off they can’t drive your car away that they trash it.
As a person who for the last going on 4 years, drives the 405 freeway 2 days a week from Long Beach to Van Nuys, automatic transmission is akin to air conditioning in desert communities. I likely would have already required a knee replacement otherwise.
I was about to comment that my mechanic calls the “stick” an “anti-theft device”. Both my current rides are stick shift (1 Subaru and 1 Ram 4×4). My wife won’t have anything else and rues the day that the Subi gives up the ghost and she won’t be able to find a 5-, or 6-speed to replace it. I’ll will the Ram to the grandsons (they can fight over it) but they will need shift lessons.
They are also good for control: l pull your foot off the gas (of diesel) and immediately begin to slow… That direct connection to the wheels also saves on brake wear in hill country.
There are several YouTube offerings about things we were taught and took for granted that the younger set cannot or will not do.
To practice my one-upmanship (a skill not practiced is a skill lost):
I also learned to drive on a three on the tree.
Pickup truck.
In the fields.
When I was 12 going on 13 and barely big enough to reach the pedals.
The clutch was so tight, I had to physically pick my butt up off the seat to put enough weight on it to press it down.
Re: no power steering. There’s a reason many of those old vehicles had huge steering wheels. It wasn’t a fashion statement. It was leverage.
Those doorknob looking things they used to bolt onto the steering wheel helped a lot too. All of our farm trucks and tractors had those.
I bought both my kids their first vehicles. Used. Budget was $500. (My kids are in their 40’s…this was quite some time ago). I made sure they both got vehicles with manual transmissions for their first, so they’d know how to drive them. I don’t think either one has had a stick since, but they know how.
Of course now days, it’s very difficult to find a car with a manual, even used. New it’s almost impossible, even as an option, except for a few high-end sports cars.
Don’t know which is the chicken and which is the egg: They don’t make stick cars any more because most people don’t know how to drive them, or most people don’t know how to drive them because they don’t make them any more.
Who knows?
I bought a Tesla. I don’t drive anymore, I supervise. I started with column shifters, moved to stick shifts, switched to automatic, and now I just tell the car where to go. Such is life, age, and technology. The Tesla drives better than I do, and certainly sees better, but still has problems with parking, route selection, and planning. The next FSD version should improve all three with a 10x increase in AI weights.
Ranking the changes, I think script is worth keeping, clocks perhaps. I do wonder if brains are getting the training they need to work well? Memory and concentration seem to be going missing.