After commuting on the Long Island Expressway Parking lot for a number of years with a stick shift, I switched to automatic tranny's. Both my kids have learned how to drive a stick, but have automatics. My wife was never able to drive a stick, not from lack of trying.
I remember driving my friends Corvette that had an automatic. What a waste of machinery.
My wifes mitsubishi lancer has hte "slap shifter" paddles. Not the same although they are fun in a clumsy way. I do get yelled at when I use them on the rare occasions I get to drive my wifes car.
ETA
This happened in Texas? Surprised the car-jackers didn't get shot like they should have.
My old, humorous, comment about manual transmissions was that if you ever robbed a bank and had to steal a car quickly you better know how to use a stick shift. Obviously, that's similar to the situation that sparked the OP.
I took my driving test in '65 (passed on my first attempt) in the '61 Chevrolet Biscayne I learned to drive in -- a 3-speed in the column -- no A/C, no AM radio... and we liked it!
It won't be long before a manual transmission will become an expensive "option" and possibly phased out altogether by most auto manufacturers. How the tide has turned.
“It’s a disgrace,” said driving enthusiast and Kelley Blue Book senior analyst Karl Brauer. “Yes, it’s more troublesome and expensive for the automakers. But it’s completely inexcusable that Ferrari doesn't even offer a manual.”
Yes, the first Corvettes came with a 6-cyclinder and two speed power glide automatic. But they did have a wire screen over the headlights.
Driving conditions have changed much for the better. How do you get out of the snow now? Back in the day of 3-speed shifters mounted on the column, it was no big deal to rock the car back and forth, hitting first gear and then reverse in a very quick motion. Worked fine for snow or mud or even sand, as long as you weren't 'high centered'---bottom of the car in contact with the ground and the tires dangling free.
Now it is rare for that to ever happen unless you know you are going into 4-wheel drive territory.
A few years ago I was back in the UK for a couple of weeks, picking up my car at LHR from Mr Hertz. I had booked it on Orbitz (IIRC) along with the flight. I am certain I pressed the radio button for auto - I have driven nothing but autos for the last 25 years since I wrapped my last manual around a tree in a Buffalo blizzard and broke my hip. Anyway: Hertz offered me the manual Vauxhall Whatever they presumed I had booked. I wasn't looking forward to my usual 1500 miles in two weeks visiting my scattered family in a stick; so I asked how much extra it would be for an auto, After about five minutes of higher mathematics on a hand calculator, they came up with GBP 82. Well I supposed GBP 6 per day for an automatic wasn't too bad: and I was about to sign when my wife thought to check. Good job she did: that was the daily added rate.
Needless to say we took the stick; it's amazing how quickly you get used to it once you realize you are saving GPB 1000.
The majority of cars here are stick-shift, altho' automatics are increasingly available. May even be close to 50% now for all I know. My 1989 VW Golf (OK, I borrowed it) goes like a rocket and shifts really well. Apart from the clutch disintegrating two weeks back, the 2005 Hyundai stick works nicely - and it has cruise control despite not being automatic.
I always preferred a stick in Ohio for the snow - and that's true here too for mud.
On rental cars, I have noticed it's getting more difficult to find a stick in the UK and whereas they used to charge a higher price for auto, it seems to be switching around - or at least the same cost no matter what? Perhaps as sticks get less "available", they have to go to more extraordinary lengths to make one available at specific locations.
For Christianity, by identifying truth with faith, must teach-and, properly understood, does teach-that any interference with the truth is immoral. A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts
