Who still drives a stick in 2025?

[ptsg]

Most people in Europe still drives a manual. Although in the last couple of years, it changed slightly with electric vehicles and automated manual transmission popping up, but most people can still drive manual. Easily.

 

[Hay Dude]

20+ years ago, manuals had advantages. Today, I see few remaining benefits to them, outside of long distance mountain trucking or, in the hands of an experienced driver, better fuel economy.
They do a better job of connecting the driver to the vehicle.
Our BMW X5 has fingertip paddle shifters that give you a little more connection to shifting.
My IH-7500 will flat out cook a similar manual powered dump truck in a “race” and gets better traction off road.
The Aisin in my Ram has held up to 70,000 miles of frequent heavy towing. So far, so good, but this is my first one and who knows how long she’ll go.

 

[scootr]

I'm willing to bet most of the old timers here learned to drive on a stick. I learned to drive in a VW beetle in a 20 acre pasture at 14 yrs of age. When I was younger my Dad would let me shift gears while riding passenger in the MGB. I was fascinated with the timing and results of manually changing gears. Just for fun my almost daily driver today is a diesel Beetle with a turbo and 6 spd manual. It gets 50-60 mpg hwy. My first truck was a 54 GMC 4 spd. Followed by many manual trucks right up to my last manual truck, a 95 Ford 1 ton 7.3 diesel with a 5 spd. Loved em all.

 

[Oaktree]

All of the vehicles I had for the first 30 years after starting to drive were manual transmission. Now, nearly 20 years later none of them are and I no longer enjoy driving them. With all of the increased traffic I find them inconvenient.

Most of mine from the time I got my license (1966) were as well. My last stick vehicle was an '88 Dodge Dakota, which I had until '09. Nothing since.
Sometimes I miss shifting, but not very often. Automatics have improved dramatically in the last 25 years.

 

[Hay Dude]

I'm willing to bet most of the old timers here learned to drive on a stick. I learned to drive in a VW beetle in a 20 acre pasture at 14 yrs of age. When I was younger my Dad would let me shift gears while riding passenger in the MGB. I was fascinated with the timing and results of manually changing gears. Just for fun my almost daily driver today is a diesel Beetle with a turbo and 6 spd manual. It gets 50-60 mpg hwy. My first truck was a 54 GMC 4 spd. Followed by many manual trucks right up to my last manual truck, a 95 Ford 1 ton 7.3 diesel with a 5 spd. Loved em all.

I learned on a 1960’s 3-on-the-tree Chevy 30 stakebody.
You couldn’t kill that truck.
My first 4 on the floor was my dads early 70’s F-250.
I didn’t drive until the 80’s, but those trucks were still around. Outside of rust, they were mechanically so easy to maintain.

You look at a modern truck or tractor and there’s bundles of wires about the diameter of dog hair going all over the vehicle for Lord knows what.

 

[bdhsfz6]

My first four vehicles were manual shift. I'd still be driving one today but they aren't available on most of the vehicles I prefer.

I used to have an old Chevy 1 ton 4WD pickup with a manual trans. I would put it in creeper gear, aim it straight, get out of the cab and shovel sand out of the bed onto the road when it got slick. Every so often, I'd reach through the window and correct the steering.

Can't do that today with an automatic without disabling all the safety interlocks.

 

[Tpondel]

79 VW Super Beetle stick.

Oh what fun it is …

 

[Hughman]

Current flock includes three wranglers (93 yj, 03 tj and 23 jl). I had to special order the JL because manuals are almost impossible to find on new vehicles. Also had a 2016 mustang GT with a manual. Given the option I'll always pick a manual.

 

[Hay Dude]

My first four vehicles were manual shift. I'd still be driving one today but they aren't available on most of the vehicles I prefer.

I used to have an old Chevy 1 ton 4WD pickup with a manual trans. I would put it in creeper gear, aim it straight, get out of the cab and shovel sand out of the bed onto the road when it got slick. Every so often, I'd reach through the window and correct the steering.

Can't do that today with an automatic without disabling all the safety interlocks.

Hah! I thought I was crazy for putting my Challenger CVT in reverse at about 1” per minute and getting out of the cab to raise implement just right to hitch it up.

 

[jyoutz]

We’ve had a lot of different vehicles over the years. A mix of manuals and automatics, but mostly manuals through the 90s. Ironically the only transmissions that needed repairs were the manuals. All of them needed clutches sometime after 100K miles. The most serious failure was on a 1999 Dodge truck with Cummins diesel. Unknown to me it developed a leak in the case and the fluid leaked out. I was pulling a stock trailer at 75 mph on the interstate and it just seized up. A whole new rebuilt transmission was the outcome. I haven’t owned a manual since I replaced that truck in 2009 with a truck with an automatic. At the time I wanted a manual but couldn’t find one. Looking back I’m glad I couldn’t.