I may finally have beaten my addiction to driving cars with manual transmissions. Stick shifts have always been a preference of mine dating back to my very first car in 1982. I’ve always enjoyed driving small cars, but back in those days, small cars with automatic transmissions were torturous to take from 0 to 60 mph. I could almost run faster. Another reason I like driving manual transmissions is that I’m a bit of a fidget, and driving a stick keeps both of my hands and both of my feet occupied. It also doesn’t hurt that manual transmissions give better gas mileage than automatics.
Things have changed since 1982. Small cars these days definitely have more get-up-and-go than 35 years ago, and automatic transmissions now give at least as good gas mileage, if not slightly better. And so I’m head-over-heels for my current Mazda 3, with an automatic!
I won’t say that I’ll never buy a car with a stick again. They do make great anti-theft devices because hardly anybody knows how to drive a stick anymore!
