Who still drives a stick in 2025?

[Hay Dude]

I've never had to replace a clutch disc because it was worn out. I've had to replace the pressure plate and throw out bearing but I could still drive the vehicle. That was a 400 mile trip starting the 1972 Beetle in gear and shifting without a clutch.

I lost the slave cylinder on my 1998 Cummins during a hunting trip. One of my friends put the stock trailer on his truck and pulled it till I had to hook on. We found a parking lot with a slope and hooked my truck up. Start in gear and again shift without a clutch. That trip altogether was about a 1000 miles.

I've never had a shift fork break but I had a loose shifter in my hand once. It was only 10 miles in 2 gear but I made it home.

I've never had a problem with an output shaft. But automatics have left me on the side of the road twice. I agree that automatics have come a long ways but I'm not interested. The only place they really shine is in town and hooking up to trailers.

The dual clutch idea is an awesome transmission but it's really not an automatic.

Oh boy do I respectfully disagree . Today’s automatics are so much better for snow plowing and off roading. They never break traction since theres always some power to the wheels. Also leaves the hands free for steering & plow controls. With a manual, soon as you push the clutch in, all power to the wheels while going uphill or through snow is lost.

I prefer them for towing, too. In a light/medium truck, a 6-8 speed automatic has just as many gears to select from as the 5-7 speed manuals. They lock up and pull hard while leaving the hands free and no chance for a missed gear.

My single axle with 5 speed allison automatic would destroy my previous single axle 7 speed manual empty, or hauling a load in acceleration and ease of driving.

I’ll give you the manual for mountain heavy truck hauling and a slight fuel economy advantage, but for smaller single axle trucks down to pick ups, a modern automatic is so much easier and safer to operate along with the traction advantages.

 

[jyoutz]

Clutch?
Shift fork?
Output shaft?

Those all can break and leave you along the side of the road.

Automatics have come a long, long way.

The only vehicles that have left me on the side of the road were manual transmissions. Twice when clutches gave out, and once when the transmission developed a leak and seized up. Never been stranded with an automatic. This doesn’t mean that one is more reliable than the other, but I think the hand wringing over automatics being unreliable is way overblown and based on someone’s experience with 40+ years old automatics.

 

[M59]

Most of what people call automatics in today's cars are not the automatic transmissions, containing a torque converter, that many of grew up with. The "new" automated manual transmissions, not the CVT stuff, uses dual clutches, gears and hydraulic actuators to actuate the clutches while engaging the necessary gears. The shifts are brutally fast, on the order of 80 milliseconds, while being extremely smooth during engagement that it does not unsettle the car while providing excellent fuel economy since the torque converter is no longer part of the system and its related slip and heat losses.

 

[Hay Dude]

The only vehicles that have left me on the side of the road were manual transmissions. Twice when clutches gave out, and once when the transmission developed a leak and seized up. Never been stranded with an automatic. This doesn’t mean that one is more reliable than the other, but I think the hand wringing over automatics being unreliable is way overblown and based on someone’s experience with 40+ years old automatics.

The hand wringing on automatics is usually by guys who haven’t operated an automatic in the last 10-15 years.
I DO agree older automatics in trucks (other than allisons) were not that good.
Newer automatics with more gears are coming.

 

[jyoutz]

The hand wringing on automatics is usually by guys who haven’t operated an automatic in the last 10-15 years.
I DO agree older automatics in trucks (other than allisons) were not that good.

No argument there. The older truck automatics were notorious for being unreliable.

 

[pmsmechanic]

Oh boy do I respectfully disagree . Today’s automatics are so much better for snow plowing and off roading. They never break traction since theres always some power to the wheels. Also leaves the hands free for steering & plow controls. With a manual, soon as you push the clutch in, all power to the wheels while going uphill or through snow is lost.

I prefer them for towing, too. In a light/medium truck, a 6-8 speed automatic has just as many gears to select from as the 5-7 speed manuals. They lock up and pull hard while leaving the hands free and no chance for a missed gear.

My single axle with 5 speed allison automatic would destroy my previous single axle 7 speed manual empty, or hauling a load in acceleration and ease of driving.

I’ll give you the manual for mountain heavy truck hauling and a slight fuel economy advantage, but for smaller single axle trucks down to pick ups, a modern automatic is so much easier and safer to operate along with the traction advantages.

I can give you those and doing the same work I would probably have an automatic for the same reasons. I'm not going to say I would be happy about it.

 

[M59]

Oh boy do I respectfully disagree . Today’s automatics are so much better for snow plowing and off roading.

I prefer them for towing, too.

Absolutely agree an automatic is the cats meow when plowing or towing so long as one uses them wisely. Having plowed heavy wet snow in CT using a Ford 350 superduty with 2 tons of sand in the bed to provide enough traction to keep truck from pivoting around the angled blade. Have pictures of snow coming over the angled plow and up onto the hood.

Automatics are great BUT I had to keep reminding drivers to NEVER plow while in D ( drive ) since shifting while heavy pushing was quick way to burn up a clutch pack.

 

[rontaki]

Four on the floor and a fifth under the seat... The good ol' daze!

Driving an Automatic Stick Shift VW bug for the first time (a 3-speed trans witha torque converter and electrically activated (via stick shift position) clutch, so no third pedal. Still had a stick on the floor, but very wide range in speed per gear. I'm doing about 20mph in it's first gear, time to shift it to the next gear. It had a really wide brake pedal. You can guess what happened next - as I go to make the shift my left foot stomps the pedal to the floor. The extra wide brake pedal that is... My passenger hit their head on the windshield. As Gomer Pyle says, surprise, surprise, surprise!

I still have my '86 Vanagon Synchro Westfalia, with a creeper first gear. Every time I read about all the latest phone home feature on the latest vehicles, I love it even more.

 

[sd455dan]

I believe this was the turning point…

Yep seems the lock up torque Converters and an overdrive gear really helped the MPG, which is what was starting to put pressure on the big 3.

 

[jyoutz]

First pickup Dodge D100 3 speed on the column than Ford F100 3 speed on column until 2015 Chevy pickup stick shift,now 2015 GMC 4WD.

Wonder many youngsters could drive column shift.

Who would want to? Three on the tree was a pretty anemic transmission back in the 70s. I replaced my F-100 three on the tree with a floor shift 4 speed after about a year.