Sticks are more macho! Hauling a load, starting up a hill with a load, driving on a slick surface, and about a jillion other truck things are easier or better or both with an automagic tranny. If you drive long distances with little start and stop, don't get off the highway, don't drive in poor traction situations, or will go crazy if your hands don't have something to do, then get a stick. I come down hard on manual tranny for good reason. It isn't that I don't like them, I do. It isn't that I can't use them, I can. I can drive a stick (with a light load) from point A to point B (with little or no stop and go traffic) without using the clutch(yes yo can stop and start the vehicle without a clutch, it just isn't real good for thte machine). I did it a couple times to prove a point/win a bet.
Lots of guys (and some women) think they are somehow more in tune with the inner spirit of driving if they get to do what an automatic can do for them, usually better. It is often an image thing. Fangio, Craig Breedlove, and a host of big name old line drivers used sticks because that is what worked. A lot of good race cars these days aren't using standard manual transmissions. I'm sure the manual crank started cars had a folowing too when all the wimps were going to electric start. Real pilots fly planes without enclosed cockpits and "prop" the engine to start it.
Manual hubs for 4wd are a rare treat also. I especially like the part where the reason you need to engage 4wd is because you are stuck in the mud. Get out of your nicely carpeted and upholstered cab in your nice clothes and shoes to slip around in the mud to engage the hubs and one of them is always a little sticky and requires you to get back in to "jog her a bit" and then get out in the mud again to try again to get the second hub engaged. Yeah, an excuse to play in the mud and track it in your vehicle, what sport, how macho, "but honey, a man has to do what a man has to do".
The original "good" turn signals didn't self cancel and therefore didn't turn themselves off if you turn the wheel back a ways forcing you to hit the switch again to start up the flashers again to keep signaling your intentions. I wonder what it would cost to special order a vehicle without those annoying self canceling flashers? Then there are those annoying automatically darkening rear view mirrors that reduce the strength of the light in your eyes from cars behind you. They should have a manual control. Cars used to have the spark advance control for the driver to set. Nowadays you have to settle for whatever some stupid computer gives you. Surely knowlegeable drivers would want to set the advance manually. And on and on and on. Gotta quit now, both my tongue and cheek are getting sore.
Patrick
