Where Did All the Stick Shifts Go?

I'm not going to lie; I like when things are done automatically for me--automatic bill pay, e-mail, fast food, and obviously, the microwave. But when it comes to cars, I have to say I'm a fan of doing it the old fashioned way. Maybe Miranda Lambert was on to something in her new song "Automatic."

There's just something about being in charge of your transmission, not the other way around. I mean, I don't think anyone wants to be passing a slow-moving Toyota Prius in the right lane and then think to himself as the engine hesitates with an automatic down shift, "Transmission, I disagree." Now, don't get me wrong, automatic transmissions are kind of an amazing thing. An engineer somewhere sat down and thought of probably a million different scenarios and came up with a response to each one and then programmed that into the on-board transmission control so that no one would have to think about it anymore. You push the pedal, and you go. That's it. Easy pea-sy.  

And for some people, that works for them just fine. But for me, I want to have a real relationship with my car. I want to listen to the engine, understand what it needs, what I need, and then make the call. Second or third gear, up shift or down shift. That should be up to me. From where I sit, intuition trumps a computer every time. 

Think about it--would you rather have an in-the-flesh pilot flying the 777 on your next vacation, or a scaled up drone on autopilot? Before you answer that, consider Captain Sully landing Flight 1549 in the Hudson River when the plane's engines were taken out by hitting birds in quick succession. I wonder, how long would it have taken for an on-board computer to solve that problem? Would that event have even been a consideration in the programming of the auto-pilot? I'm not so sure. I'd have to image that a plane hitting two birds which take out both engines is pretty low probability, and when it comes to programming autopilots, averages and numbers win out. So you would think that stick shifts would be a hot commodity, wouldn't you? But according to Edmunds.com industry analyst Ivan Drury, stick shifts are on track to be "virtually extinct within the next 15 to 20 years."

So why are is the number of vehicles with manual transmission being both sold and driven in the United States dwindling? Am I alone in all of this? The article above sites several likely culprits: it's more difficult to learn to drive over an automatic, it's annoying in stop-and-go traffic, and manual transmissions are liable to stall on occasion (even for seasoned motorists). 

Now, if I were to be a devil's advocate for just one second, I would make the following arguments. First of all, while manual transmission is more difficult to learn, I contend that it teaches you more about what is going on in the car (and therefore makes you a better motorist). I also must state two highly over-used cliches--"Good things take time" and "If it were easy everyone would do it." Secondly, about the stop-and-go issue, I agree this is annoying (No further questions, your honor). But on the third point, as a driver of many a manual transmission, stalls generally will only happen at a stop. While this is embarrassing, it's not the end of the world. My final, and perhaps most important point: How in the world are we going to make "Fast and the Furious 23" if there are no more manual transmissions left in the U.S? I don't think anyone has considered this. Maybe America just needs to sit down and watch this video. 

You're (almost as) excited as this guy, aren't you?