How many Americans are aware of manual transmissions?

48 comments

1. manual transmissions are very uncommon here but people know what they are lol

2. I’d bet this will vary by age group. Over 40 years old, 97%. That number goes progressively down as the age of the respondents goes down.

   Automatic transmissions are just better for every day driving purposes. Older vehicles and commercial vehicles are the only scenarios where you would really run into one now.

3. I am aware of them but don’t know how to drive them and I’ve seen them before. Only time I’ve seen people be shocked is if they didn’t know they were reserving a manual car and were expecting it to be automatic especially if they don’t know how to drive and manual.

4. Pretty common in my very rural circle. I drive a manual.

5. they are uncommon, but most of my friends and i can drive them, but we all are/were car guys.

   i think ive had 3 manual transmission cars (a VW GTI, a Nissan 240sx, and a Honda Prelude). i love them, but i wont get one unless is a third car, because autos are way easier and my wife doesn’t know how to drive a manual hand has no desire to learn.

   >do you know of any case of Americans renting a car in Europe and being shocked when they see a manual?

   when my wife was a kid, her parents took the family to Aruba. they got a rental and it was a manual, and her parents didnt know how to drive it lol

6. It’s almost opposite of Croatia. Manuals exist here, but there’s far more automatics. Many people don’t know how to drive manuals but I have no idea what the percentage is. I myself used to drive one, but I think I’m more unusual.

   I don’t know any cases of Americans being shocked because I don’t know any American who has rented a car in Europe! When I visit, I use trains/buses. Renting a car in Europe is extremely expensive, plus the rules of the road are different. It’s just easier and cheaper to use a train/bus/tazi..

7. Probably all of them

   It’s all I drove for the first 30 years I had a license.

   Of course, manuals are inferior in all ways at this point why are you so proud to be stuck in the past?

8. I mean if you wanna hunt a car down that’s manual you can but they aren’t the norm. I learned with a manual and would probably get another one if I was chasing after a nice sports car. A lot of people drive in the states and having an automatic just makes sense especially in traffic.

9. They’ve become a luxury item here, unfortunately. It used to be that the cheap used cars were manual, but they’ve all been automatics for a while now.

   I miss my clutch.

10. I think it’s mostly just us old guys who remember them. Today even sports cars just have the paddle shifters, which is nothing like a manual clutch.

11. Everyone is aware of them—it’s not like people don’t know they exist. How many people can drive one is a different question and I’d guess it’s less than half. I can drive a manual, just not very well since I don’t do it often (other than my motorcycle).

12. Everyone knows what a manual transmission is. They just aren’t common.

    People who drive them usually sought them out on purpose.

13. I don’t see the purpose of a manual in a modern car. A computer can shift MUCH better than a person can. But yes, everyone knows they exist. But no, nobody is going to drive one because it’s 2023.

14. I learned how to drive in a manual transmission car (we called them a ‘stick shift’ or just a ‘stick’), a late 70s Chevy Chevette. My first car was a 1968 Volkswagen Beetle. It was fun to drive, like a go-kart. There were lots of manual transmission cars around when I started driving (the early 80s). Not so much anymore.

15. Please tell me you’re not actually asking if Americas don’t know that manual cars exist.

16. My husband and I were in Croatia a few weeks ago and rented a car (manual transmission). We both learned to drive on manual transmissions when we were teenagers in the US, so driving in Croatia was a flashback and it took maybe 30 minutes to have that knowledge come back to us.

    But there aren’t many manual cars in the USA. You can find them but not anything like Croatia.

    Oh, your country is amazing! People are nice, food is amazing, scenery is unreal! We can’t wait to come back.

17. I have never learned to drive a stick shift. (~30M). Was an issue when I was in Germany and had to pay extra to get an automatic!

18. My first car was a manual transmission. I bought it from my dad and he taught me how to drive it in an afternoon. It took me a month or two to get good at it.

19. For older folks, very common. Most of us learned to drive on manual transmissions.

    For younger folks, not at all common. Anymore getting a manual transmission is something you’d have to request on a new car.

20. Everyone who has a car knows what a manual is. Few people can drive them however.

    Manuals are typically cheaper to manufacture and shaves a bit of weight off the car. Having more manuals could probably solve the ongoing crisis we have of manufacturers increasingly driving up their prices and leaving the economy segment in the dust.

    But the kind of person who has to buy the cheapest car possible probably doesn’t have the time or money to go learn how to drive manuals. Such is the predicament I suppose.

21. My friends kids were staying nearby at their grandmas house. I went and picked them up to take them out. I think the oldest was about 14 at the time. At one point he asked me why I kept touching the shifter and I had to explain to him why I was shifting all the time. Until that point he had never seen a manual transmission.

22. Well I figured there was a reason automatic transmissions weren’t just called transmissions.

23. No one is unaware of it. I can drive one, though I own an automatic. My boyfriend owns 2 cars with manual transmission and one with an automatic. Why does the rest of the world think we’re all fucking stupid? It’s a stereotype… but those are rarely how the majority of a group acts the majority of the time.

24. i have an automatic now but all my other cars have been manual. i’d be fine driving manual in europe, except I think i’d freak out in the UK with the shifter on the left

25. When you say “are aware of” we take that to mean “know that they exist”. Everyone knows the exist.

    I’m guessing you mean “know how to use them”. I would guess around 10-20% of people can drive a manual car

26. We know what it is, there is just literally 0 reason to get one over an automatic unless you just really want to do the extra work while driving & not have a hand free.

27. I learned to drive on a stick shift, but that was almost 49 years ago. I never see them anymore.

28. They’re dying out. I mean my dad knows how to drive stick, he’s the only one I know that knows

29. I can drive manual. I’ve always owned manual until recently. With that said it cracks me up when stupid people cling to old technology just because… because… they like shitty things I guess.

    There is no reason to have manual anymore. There are 10 speed automatics that shift faster than you can. They are faster. They get better mileage. They’re better to tow with.

30. Pretty much everyone knows what they are but it would be kinda weird to have one unless it’s a super old car. Buying a new manual car is like buying a typewriter instead of a laptop. You could do it but it wouldn’t really make sense.

31. Hey it’s our weekly manual transmission question that is either asked in bad faith and/or based on a false premise.

32. I have only ever owned manuals. 2 out of our 3 cars are manual. They are more common in performance vehicles than regular commuter vehicles

33. I recently became aware of a complaint made to Uber or Lyft about a driver who kept playing around with “forward backward knob”. Sorry, but I can’t find the post anymore.

34. I learned to drive on a manual and still drive one of my own

35. We know they exist we just don’t use them anymore.

36. We know stick shift exists. We don’t use it often because most cars are sold automatic.

37. Everyone is aware they exist. Modern automatics are far superior to manual transmissions for performance and efficiency. Your country clings to old school tech.

38. Manual transmission to me is all about the driving experience. They’re fun to drive, they make you feel like you’re putting in some effort to get where you want to go. But they’re a pain in the ass to drive in traffic. They require you to think more. If I were buying a sports car, like a Mustang or a Charger or something like that, something that’s gonna sit in the garage and only be driven on a bright sunny day, I’d want a stick shift. For everything else, just give me the automatic transmission.

    But anyway, yeah, we all know what they are.

39. Learned to drive on one.

40. I know how to drive a manual but I do a lot of city driving and auto is more convenient so why bother? It’s more convenient and my knee will be thanking me later on. I’ve done manual in a city environment and it’s just a bother. If I lived more rural and my commute is what it used to be I would probably change back.

41. Why are Europeans so proud of using such an outdated piece of technology?

    Just to give you an idea of how irrelevant manuals are, I don’t know how to drive a manual. I have been driving for over 20 years, and this has been an obstacle exactly once, when my uncle asked me to move his jeep out of the driveway.

42. My pickup has a manual. People never ask to borrow my pickup.

43. I was taught how to drive a manual, and I have driven 2 different manual vehicles. But I hate it, and I never got good at it. I just didn’t do it enough. But yes, we all know what they are.

44. I think pretty much every adult American is *aware* of manual transmissions. It’s not typical to be able to use one though. You basically have to seek it out.

45. Drive one every day. They pretty much only exist on performance cars and the most basic bottom of the range cars. Rare but people are aware of them though most could probably not drive them.

46. They are very uncommon but of course known. We call them “stick shifts”.

47. Automatics have become increasingly common over the past 40 – 50 years. Probably over 90% of cars sold today are automatics. There was a time when automatics cost more to buy, were much less common, etc. Today they are the norm.

    My first 3 cars were manuals / stick. My current car is an automatic. I prefer an automatic.

48. > How many people in US saw a manual

    Manual cars exist here too but they’re the more expensive option and car manufacturers sometimes no longer offer them as standard.

    My first vehicle was a manual because I needed to be taught to drive a manual vehicle according to my father. It was a 1986 S10. My next vehicle was an automatic and all of my own vehicles since have been automatics.

    Automatics are the common vehicles here. There is no difference in licensing or testing on automatics or manual vehicles that I know of, but there are 50 states and I have only ever taken a vehicle test in 1 state.

    I do know people who have never driven or know how to drive a manual transmission. It’s not uncommon. It also does not matter as a *lot* of cars here are automatics. Automatic transmissions are the accepted default here. Learning on a manual is mostly for car people or folks who drive very specific vehicles. It’s seen as outdated auto tech.