San Diego Housing Bubble News and Analysis

I know we have car buffs on here.

I was just curious who can drive a standard shift car.

I'm surprised so many people can't drive a stick. I asked some friends in LA to let me leave my car at their place and drive me to the airport. Parking is restricted and they can't move a standard shift car.

I learned to drive with a standard car.

Wow, most of us are a bunch of cheapters who like to save a buck or two on a tank of gas huh? :) It makes sense we're all hanging out here looking for bargains in housing too.

I've always driven a stick and used to think it was fun. Now I'm tired of the jerkiness of the ride during gear shifting.

I do still like the better control though.

I'm male. I can drive standard, but my car is automatic because my wife makes us buy all our vehicles as automatics.

i like the MPG of a standard, but, if you live in an area with miserable
traffic, you will work yourself to death in heavy traffic.

The clutches will melt if you commute LA, Chicago, DC or NYC.

I love my Audi TT (standard)

What? I can't be the only female.

I agree totally with AN... I heart my stick shift Miata. But even if it's not a "fun" car I still prefer the control of a manual transmission. I'd only ever get automatic if I lived in LA or some other heavy-traffic area.

rich

Technically, DSG isn't really a slushbox.

I tried, but I just don't have the finesse to drive a stick.

Guido and I traded in our convertable (stick) BMW 320i and bought a '92 (stick) Miata a few months ago. Of the two, I honestly prefer the Miata. It's a great, fun little car and doesn't surprise you with a $2000 repair bill every few months.

i am a chick and i love my standard xterra. i tried for better mpg with a rav or a crv, but could not find a decent one at the time i was looking. the xterra was a screaming deal and it fits the dog, the friends, the parents, the road bike, etc.

I answered male, daily standard.

However, an additional note: it is my wife's first car, but I drive it now that we've had kids. If it weren't for her, though, I probably wouldn't have an appreciation for driving standard.

Wow, I'm impressed. So many folks here can drive manual. The Piggington crowd is definitely not reflective of the general population.

I learned to drive with a manual. Taught myself using my brother's car.

I've not had an automatic for a long time.

I don't buy new cars anymore and sticks are always safer bets. Automatics are very expensive to repair.

I do have an automatic SUV but only for pulling purposes, not for day-to-day driving.

Miatas are great fun cars. I had one myself.

They are relatively inexpensive, durable, easy to repair.

Plus they look cool. Even old Miatas don't look dated.

manual car and fortunate enough to have a motobike
I feel blessed

Maybe I'm really old, but most of my friends and I learned to drive a manual first. Our parents wanted us to know how to drive both kinds of cars, and knew that if we started with an automatic, we'd never learn manual. Also, many of our first cars were manual because they were cheaper (usually hand-me-downs or cost a few hundred bucks) and used less gas.

One of my first jobs as a teenager was as a delivery person for a photo company in Los Angeles, and the car had a manual transmission. Definitely had a lot of practice!

When I was growing up, my mom could not drive manual, so both cars in the family were automatic. These were the cars I learned to drive on. Now I won't buy stick because I usually need a car I am able to drive to get me places and don't know how fast I could learn to drive a manual. I would like to learn however, although I would need a family or good friend to have manual I could use (and right now, no one does).

You're making me realize I need to find a stick shift when it's time to teach my kids to drive. Otherwise, they'll pay through the nose whenever they have to rent a car in Europe!

Make sure it's a PATIENT friend. I remmeber yelling at my wife a lot when I taught her. She didn't like that one bit :(

I used to drive a manual, but within 6 months of moving to LA, and riding the clutch almost continuously, I sold it and drive an automatic.
Gas mileage is definitely secondary when you drive less than 5 miles to work and spend half (or more) of the time idling.

i do it for gas mileage.

I learned to drive a stick when I was 40. My sister told me on a Wednesday night they wanted to go to Yosemite and I would learn to drive a stick by Saturday morning. So I did.

It wasn't that tough to learn although the farm truck (the one I learned on)sucked to drive. Some cars are easier than others to drive. Her Honda and the Toyota were easy to shift. Their Izuzu 4 wheel drive was stiff and horrible to shift, worse than the ancient farm truck.

Have standards, but not for my daily driver. Stop and go traffic is a pain in the arse with a stick.

I save sticks for weekends when the traffic flows freely and I feel like shifting...which actually isn't that often. Shifting can be fun, but only when I'm in the mood.

Otherwise, automatics all the way.

That is so true. Try finding an automatic car rental in Europe. Nearly impossible and the rates are triple.

I don't feel it's that much trouble to shift. It's like second nature.

In most parts of the world, even the taxis that operate in stop-and-go traffic are stick shift.

I learned to drive in a 60s chevy truck with three gears and a floor shifter (on dirt roads in Valley Center, no less). Most of my cars when I was younger were stickshifts, I think they are fun to drive. My husband's Jeep Wrangler is a manual, and it's fun, but driving it in San Francisco is a nightmare. My daily driver is a 528i with the steptronic shifter, but I always keep it in automatic mode because I can never remember which direction is up vs. downshifting.

I learned on automatics, bought a stick-shift 5-gear Toyota Corolla after my first year driving, and drove that car for 8 years.

Moved out here, and with all the hills and people on my tail, decided the stick, with its jerky shift-transitions in speed, was too much trouble, so got an automatic for my next car.

Agreed, different cars shift easily or nastily (most of it is how nicely does the clutch engage). My housemate Pigpen's late-model Mustang's clutch engages really sweetly.

My dad (the least patient guy on earth) taught me to drive on a stick shift in the middle of hollywood traffic. After that one can drive anything anywhere.

This post is waaaay off topic, but I have to admit - interesting.

I drive a stick-shift hatchback and I really like it. I learned at a young age to drive a standard and taught my sister how to drive one. I tried to teach my wife once in a Home Depot parking lot, but it didn't go too well. I find myself leaning more towards automatics the older I get, but there's just something about a manual transmission - especially on the sporty cars and old beater trucks.

Female and only drive stick. Ok, how about motorcycles though...let's hear it for the ladies who drive stick and know how to ride a motorcycle. ;)

Learned manual on my '67 Mustang. Tried to teach my wife on the 280Z, but on the way to a Halloween party, a crockpot full of drunken dogs in the back and her learning the stick, the drunken dogs fell all over the back of my new '83 Z. I should have held the dogs in my lap. Now it is automatic all the way, but I would like another '67 someday.

My clutch is the original and has 180K

You are a good driver!

My grand mother used to drive a manual. She would wear out the clutch at 30,000 miles. But she drove a stick well into her 80s.

To be fair I drive mostly highway miles but I'm still proud.

Learned to drive stick in a 72 VW bug. The first car I bought was a Renault Fuego with standard transmission. This was when I lived in San Francisco. I got extremely good at manipulating the clutch.