Can you drive a manual transmission?

In Germany nearly everyone can drive manual. Used to be that if you didn't learn how to drive manual in driving school, you weren't allowed to drive manual with your license.

31,Sweden

Yes, and I prefer a manual car to an automatic. It keeps me a lot more dialed in while driving.

I'm from Europe, I was taught on manual transmission and drove with it for 10 years. But I switched to automatic (actually not on purpose, I didn't notice the car I was buying had it), and now vastly prefer it.

I can, not well, but I can. damn hill starts.

23, US. Yes, but I find them pointless for daily driver cars. Modern automatics are more fuel efficient and just make more sense because they're much easier to operate and less annoying in stop and go traffic.

They're great for off-roading and racing, but outside of those use cases automatics are just better.

My car has a manual transmission. I learned to drive on a manual transmission. I prefer it. When I drive a car with automatic transmission, I step on its nonexistent clutch.

Yes.

In Europe you basically have to be handicapped to not learn to drive manual. Most people get the manual driving license because it allows you to drive both, whereas the automatic one doesn't.

Manual transmission was and often still is cheaper, often cheaper to repair, often more reliable, often uses less fuel, and in cheap and less powerful cars the combination is often better. Because there are so many manual cars here, including at rental places, it's a no brainer to learn to drive manual.

This being said, that's changing. Also, less and less young people are getting a driving license due to affordability and cars no longer being the status symbol they once were.

Yes. Europe. We pretty much all do. Automatics are becoming a bit more common in recent years, but 90% of cars here are still manual. Especially the old beat-up cars we learn to drive on are all manual. And if by chance you learned on an automatic, and pass your driver's test on automatic, it says so on your driver's licence and I think you're not actually allowed to drive/rent manual cars.

Yes, but only on motorcycles. That's because there's no such thing as an automatic motorcycle[^1][2][^3][4][^5], so you have to learn manual if you want to ride one. Unfortunately this skill doesn't transfer well to manual driving because on bikes you operate the clutch with your hand and the shift with your foot. I'm not terribly worried about that, though... I've literally never even been on the inside of a manual drive car before!

For context: I'm mid-20s from the American south.

[^{1]: No, electrics don't count. [}2]: No, semi-autos don't count. [^{3]: No, three-wheelers don't count. [}4]: No, the 2006 Yamaha bikes don't count because that line was a sales failure. [^5]: Ok, fine. Honda's DCT bikes do count, but holy shit are they expensive!

Mid 30s Aussie living the the US. Yes I can drive a manual, yes I do drive a manual and yes I think it should be mandatory for 100% of learning drivers regardless of whether they plan to daily drive an automatic or manual when licensed.

The quality of driving here is considerably worse here than what I've experienced in Australia or Europe and I'm convinced requiring people to drive in a machine that forces them to consider the next ~100m leads to higher quality, more mindful drivers.

Majority of people do in Europe.

Because it is better to also know how to drive manual, than to only know how to drive automatic.

This thread is an amusing display of sample bias. Only people that want to respond yes and brag about it bothering to respond.

In reality only about 2/3rds of people in the US can drive stick and almost no one owns manual cars.

I've never driven a manual car. I've had people be like "You can't drive manual?!" and then I would respond "So are you going to teach me?" The answer is always No, of course not, not in their car (assuming they even owned a manual, which none do anymore). My parents had manual cars but sold them 10+ years before having me.

I understand how a clutch works. It wouldn't be difficult to learn. But what reason or motivation is there to learn when almost no cars are manual? They total something like 2% of new car sales. If you're buying something like a 718 GT4 RS or a 911 GT3 RS for maximum driving engagement that's great, but those cars are priced for the 1% of the 1%.

Even if you had a fun car, which I do, the drive to work is stop-and-go, roads are full, even the fun country backroads are filled with traffic on weekends, forests are burned down, gas is eye-watteringly expensive if you have a slightly performant vehicle. The time to have fun driving cars was 40 years ago.

Female, 34, from Indiana, USA. Currently driving a 2020 Honda Civic SI and I love it. My bro taught me to drive stick at 16 so that I'd never be in a situation where I needed to leave but couldn't because I didn't know how to drive manual. I've had both automatic and manual transmissions, manual being my favorite.

29, Poland/Germany. Yes, like almost everyone in Europe. Although, it is getting more popular to be automatic-only. I like driving manual, however prefer automatic due to convenience of it. I don't have a car at the moment (public transport serves me well), but if I had, I'd go for automatic.

Germany, 25. Always driven manual, don't even know how to drive automatic.

German, late 30s. Automatic cars are rather uncommon in Germany, we sure like our manuals. Not being able to push my car into high RPMs when needed to overtake or accelerate quickly takes the fun out of driving. I'd never switch to automatic as long as I still have both arms and legs. And yes I know kickdowns are a thing, but it really doesn't compare.

Yes. Early 40s, USA, both mine and my wife's cars are manual Subarus.

My parents forced me to learn in case I ever needed it.

I'd buy one again in a heartbeat if I could. Love the fact that it was easy AF to rock myself out of snow banks

I'm 237 years old, a retired phosphate miner in Nauru. I learned to drive on manual transmissions but now refuse to drive anything not powered by a turbo-encabulator, with the exception of Starfleet shuttlecraft. I also hate questions that encourage people to give away personal or census data without considering that is what's happening.

No, on account of I cannot drive at all. I'm 25 and live in Vermont. The particular part I live in, everything's accessible by bus, so I've just never felt the urgency to learn.

Mid 30s, used to drive stick all the time but I wouldn't go out and get one anymore. This seems like one of those things people clutch onto (pun intended) because it was at one time a useful everyday skill not everyone could do but now is completely antiquated.

Yes, I learned to drive in one, got my license with one. I'm 38.

I'm Italian and it's mandatory to learn how to drive stick in order to get a license. This could explain why we think driving at 16 is absurd: it would probably be difficult for a 16 years old to learn stick.

Mid 20s, Poland, very much can, but currently driving automatic.

Fun fact: in Poland you normally take the driving test in a manual gear shift car, but you can optionally take it in an automatic one. The deal is you have to provide the vehicle for the testing center yourself (driving schools lend them) and your driving license will have an annotation that it's only viable for this type of gearbox.