Why Do We Drive Stick Shifts?

The subjective debate over if a manual or automatic transmission is truly better will never end. Everybody has their opinions and it’s kind of hard to knock somebody off their rocker once they see things one way or the other in this particular argument. However, for someone who’s able to see things right down the middle, it really begs the question of why somebody would continue to drive a manual, especially when there are always automatic transmissions that are more efficient in every way possible.

It’s pretty much not even debatable that an automatic transmission controlled via computer will do things way better than a human being wielding a stick shift ever could. No matter what manual transmission fanboy wants to tell you otherwise, that’s just the way that the cookie crumbles as the facts put themselves before any and opinion. However, if you’re someone like myself, you’d find that driving a manually shifted car is still quite the rewarding experience over an automatically shifted car. It appears as if the guys over at Gears and Gasoline think the same and this time, they take a crack at explaining why that is.

The video below really gives us an interesting perspective on the whole concept, explaining exactly why those of us who enjoy driving a manual so much prefer it over the tried-and-true automatic gearbox. From the connectivity that it gives you to the car, making you feel like you’re more in control all the way to a funky comparison to cooking, this video really does a good job of explaining why the manual fanatics are still hanging around. Even though, as of 2013, it seems like the vast majority of the car market, at 96% or so and probably growing, chooses to go with automatic, there are some of us hanging around who very much prefer to bang our gears manually.