When I was younger, the default was driving stick. Automatics were a rarity, and usually reserved for gasoline-powered sedans. At the time, automatic transmissions weren’t popular on diesel engines, likely because diesels tend to respond slower1, and combined with an automatic transmission, would be very difficult to get rolling with the technology of the time.
Contrast today, where automatic transmissions now dominate. Traditional gears are now even being replaced by Continuously Variable Transmissions (CVT’s), which were rare when I was learning to drive. Electric vehicles, previously only including forklifts and golf carts, are now on the street, in competition with the internal combustion engine car models that I know well.
One big change - you still have to pay more for an automatic, but that premium has gotten smaller and smaller. Some models don’t even come with the option for a manual transmission anymore, most common in the compact and subcompact car segments. In those, you can just put the car into drive and push the two pedals and move the wheel – the parking brake sometimes a pedal where the clutch used to be.
I was trained on the three pedals, and though I’m not good at them, I feel they have something the automatics don’t.
No, it’s not control – for most street and highway driving applications, there’s the paddle shift that comes on many automatic transmissions that let you switch gears without having to manage the clutch. It’s enough for me, someone who’s not a gearhead and doesn’t drive for fun. Of course, this all goes out the window if you’re running a pickup or some heavy load – then the gears become important for helping you manage your acceleration and power.
No, it’s not the cost – automatic transmission fluid is every eighty thousand kilometers, and with my mileage, it would take quite a while to get there. On top of that, the premium between a manual and an automatic is quite small in this day and age.
No, it’s not cool factor. While I do agree that working the clutch and gears is cooler than just popping it in drive, for daily driving when you get stuck in traffic, the clutch turns against you as another step in the endless stop-and-go driving of gridlock. Said gridlock is generally uncool, frustratingly common and difficult to avoid.
What manuals have that automatics don’t is pretty simple – they require prediction and commitment
Driving stick and getting the best use of your gears is all about expectations. You have to keep in mind your current speed and gear state, and how that naturally flows forward into the future road state. Let’s have an example.
You’re on a two-lane road, three car lengths behind the car in front in the right lane. About a hundred meters from the car in front of you is a turnoff to a dirt road with nobody on it that you can see, and beyond that a waiting shed with some people under it. The oncoming lane looks clear. The car in front of you is slowing down with no indicator, so you’re not sure whether it’ll be turning onto the dirt road or picking up the person under the shed. What do you do?
Generally, I think that you have only two options here:
Reduce speed and stay in your lane.
Use the oncoming lane to overtake the lead car across the intersection.
In an automatic, these steps are simple and easy – either you brake or hit the gas and move the wheel into the left lane. But in a manual, there are detailed considerations to take into account:
If you expect the car is going to turn off, you can drop a gear and wait behind it to not have to leave your lane.
But, if you expect that the car is going to pick someone up, you should use the oncoming lane to overtake them as soon as possible to maintain speed. Is the person under the shed waving? Are they locked onto the oncoming car or are they just waiting for their ride?
But what if there’s someone ahead of the car you want to pass? Can you get back into your lane in time?
Someone taking a sudden left turn from the intersection would also slam straight into you, so this also depends on how far you can see onto the dirt road, or if you can hear any other engine sounds from it.
The oncoming lane is also trouble - what if someone comes charging down it? Are there any signs, like headlights or engine noises? How far down can you see?
Traffic cops and lights are an issue too. Going in for the overtake is technically illegal, so it depends on where you are and whether that’s standard practice or a violation of the law.
The greater control you have over a manual transmission requires greater and more detailed foresight to get where you’re going. While I don’t know if the results are any better (again, bad driver), it certainly feels better to predict a situation, commit to a course of action, and see how it pans out – rather than always having all the options up until the very end.
The manual transmission even has consequences for failure – stalls. This YouTube video describes different kinds of stalls, all of which have two root causes. First is a mistake in the process – leaving the handbrake on or shifting into the wrong gear, which are issues of technique. Later on in the video, however, the instructor talks about using too high a gear or coasting (starting here), which are failures of a different kind. Using or staying in too high a gear usually occurs either when you expect only a minor decrease in speed, but you have to slow down more than expected. Caught at a low speed on a high gear, you can still attempt to save it with the gas, but if you’re too far down the car will likely stall. Coasting is the same way – you expect to be able to gas out or not have to slow down, but you misjudge and need to either shift or end up stalling.
What you get out of driving stick is much finer control of your two-ton lump of high speed metal. You can drop into a low gear for more power on call to go up a slope, overtake or get out of muddy ground, getting to really hear the engine roar in the process. You can engine brake, slowing down faster by downshifting to force the car to go slower without burning out your brakes. You can crawl around in first or second gear in gridlock situations, without calling on the forward power that the Drive in an automatic usually gives you. You can see out the windshield and adapt, where an ECU might not.
What a manual transmission teaches you isn’t just quick hands and feet – it forces you to learn to take in information and make accurate predictions, then work backwards and take the right actions now to bring your predictions into reality. Same as going into business, same as investing for the future, same as deciding to go to college, and what to take, driving stick is about making good predictions and making them come true.
As everything in our lives becomes more automatic, more streamlined, and comprehensible, I often find myself missing the level of control and ownership that older devices expected of you. Being able to crack something open or edit it yourself was a great joy, one that I am very belatedly discovering, starting with the manual transmission.
Learn to drive stick.
This despite diesel having more energy per unit - because the pistons and other parts have to be heavier to withstand all that power!