24, always driven manual, EU.
From my experience most people in the EU can or at least could: This is because many (if not all, not sure) countries make a distinction between manual and automatic licenses (see e.g. https://www.learn-automatic.com/qualified/automatic-driving-licence/).
I.e. if you want to drive manual, you have to take the test manual, but if you take the test on manual transmission, you are allowed to drive automatics as well.
Not sure how common it is now but some cars had a "hill holder" feature that would hold the brake for you when starting on a hill. Makes that whole process much, much easier.
Hands down one of the worst "feature" of new vehicles IMO. If you need help on a hill, either use the parking brake like everyone else, learn to drive better, or just drive an auto.
Just pull the parking brake and accelerate until you feel the car slightly raising and then drop the parking brake.
Eventually you get a feeling for it and drop the parking brake before it’s “fighting” the accelerator.
This might sound trivial to some, but I know several people that never use the parking brake in these situations and instead do a manic race with their feet and the car drops a couple meters back and they over accelerate to compensate.
A couple meters, you say? Sounds like a great way to trash your transmission.
It drives (pun intended) me nuts, but they don’t listen to reason. And the worst of all, is that they got their license in a hilly town and say they weren’t taught that. While I learned in a flatter place and was taught this.
Yes, this is how I do it. I also do this when reversing out of parking spaces. Because my car's reverse requires pushing down on the stick and is close to 1st, I've saved myself from driving into polls a few times.
The parking brake method is how I learned. But I grew up here, where you are always on a hill and always in stop and go traffic. So I eventually just give up on stick shift.
When getting your driving license, you are supposed to know 3 so called ‘special manoeuvres’. Hill start, backwards turn and parallel parking. During your test you have to perform 2 of these (chosen by the examiner). Everyone always hopes that one of these two will be the hill start because it’s by far the easiest one.
Yes I know how to drive a manual, I learned many years ago. I’m from the US and I’m 42.
Learned on an old beat up truck when I was like 20, I remember I got stuck stalling out on the highway once, I don’t even remember how. I freaked out so bad. 8 years ago I had 2012 Mazdaspeed 3. I miss that car so so much.
I can and used to drive one regularly. I actually miss the control of a manual transmission (especially in the snow) but it’s harder to find a newer car that has one
I’m in the US and in my 30s as well. My dad taught me to drive on a manual
Some people in my family tried to teach me when I was young, but I didnt immediately and perfectly absorb the knowledge of how to master it from the atmosphere, so obviously I was just a piece of shit that was trying to ruin their transmission/car/life and cant appreciate a single fucking thing anyone does for me and that i’m an ungrateful piece of shit and to just get the fuck out of the car and never ask them for anything again (not that I asked them to teach me stick in the first place… They insisted, i suspected then, and continue to do so to this day, that it was just a trap.)
Which really helped my desire to drive, much less drive stick.
I’m in my early 40s in the US. I learned to drive a manual when I got my license ~25 years ago but haven’t driven one since that day. I rode a motorcycle for a few years as well, so I’m pretty sure I could manage if I absolutely had to.
29 southern US. I’ve been daily driving since 2014. People get obsessed or weird about it. There’s valid reasons to drive automatic or manual, just don’t go huffing and puffing one is better than the other
Born before the A-Team existed, drive both. Prefer my sports cars to be manual but would be happy with DCTs. I have not had good experiences in terms of longevity with automatics. And no, I don’t consider DCTs to be automatics.
I’m from the Netherlands. I’ve been driving since 2009 and I’ve never driven an automatic car. I drive (semi) truck since 2019 and have never driven a manual truck.
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