Can you drive a manual car/stick?

The Majority of cars sold here in the UK (Northern Ireland here!) wwould have Manual transmissions,so most drivers will have learned "stick" from the start.Someone who has passed their driving test in a Manual Car can drive an Automatic,but Someone who has only learned on an automatic can only drive Automatic,and must sit the full driving test again in a manual to qualify to drive one..I've visited the US,and until I get more practise in a stick car over there,I'd prefer to drive Auto while visiting there,as I'm too used to shifting left handed here!

Iam 19 years now and can drive mannual cars. Iam drift racing we only have mannual cars though i don't know how to make a drift but i am learning it i like mannual drives very much. I think Automatic drives are for lazy people.

Hi, I have learned how to drive a manual car and got my driver's license by taking a test driving using a manual car. However, after I passed my test I never practice driving a manual car. Every time when I try to drive a manual car, I will always find difficulty to shift from first gear to second gear. The car engine will always stop when I want to change from the first gear to the second. It made me scared to drive a manual car especially on a busy road because I am afraid that accidents will happen if suddenly my car stopped when I want to shift from first gear to second. However, I am not even brave enough to drive an automatic car even though I know how to drive one. It is something associated with my anxiety disorder which makes me afraid to drive. I am now in a middle of a treatment and I hope to get well soon so that I will be able to enjoy life like other people.

it's all i really drive, my ute is a manual. when i went for my licence, it was better to drive a manual car instead of auto or u'd be stuck on a auto licence for your p plate's. then not able to drive a manual car. it was funny, a friend of mine was telling my 8 yr old son about my bro driving the ute at his age. i couldn't believe my bro was driving at that age.

Hi, coffeeshot. I can only drive an automatic. I never could drive a stick. I have seen my father-in-law, ex boyfriend, cousin and husband all drive an stick. I could never understand how they can drive an car that is made this way. It seems like it takes a whole lot of patience and concentration. Which I don't seem to have. An automatic car will do me just fine. I am 31 and I still don't know how to drive an manual/stick car myself. You are not alone at all.

My late husband tried to teach me to drive a manual car. I don't know who was more nervous, me or him. It was a catastrophe. he ended up buying me an automatic . He couldn't take the stress of trying to teach me what i just couldn't seem to get.

Showing my age here but when I passed back in 1989 the last century OMG! I passed on a manual and got a full manual driving licence, I passed second time round, however since I passed all my cars have been automatics! Because of the traffic and I do a lot of travelling on the M25 which is stop start, stop start as you probably know, I find an automatic far easier, I couldn't go back to a manual, I hated the clutch and the forever changing gear, that's probably why I enjoy driving so much, it's relaxing, even in traffic. Some say it's lazy, maybe, I don't care, it suits me and that is all that matters, I have to drive, and it's my choice.

My first car was manual, and I got my licence driving a manual. Later I decided that it was too tiring driving a manual in a big city like Sydney. But it is simply a matter of coordination. You need to release the clutch at the right revs. Practice makes perfect. Something which might not be as easy to do in the new cars of today, since you cannot hear the engine.

I can drive a manual/stick and used to vastly prefer that to an automatic, although they are making the automatics better now. It is not hard to learn to drive a manual.

Yes I drive a manual and like your brothers I would drive a old ute around the paddocks as well when I was there age. It was just what you did as kids when you had a property as big as we had.I think its good for boys to be doing up the old ute, keeps them out of trouble and they could become a mechanic one day.

I've only driven an automatic once...for about 6miles to get my husbands car back home from the park after he fell & broke his ankle. Luckily, my dad was with me as I didnt have a clue how it worked. I dont even really think about changing gears... it becomes almost a reflex action as you can 'feel' when you need to change.

Your discussion brought me back to the days when I was learning to drive and that was a long, long time ago! I recall being seventeen, working in a newsagency and taking driving lessons during my lunch break. I was learning in a manual car and not doing very well, kangaroo hopping down the street because I wasn’t taking my foot off the clutch at the right time! I did improve over time but I was not quite ready for my driving exam when I lost my job so I decided to continue my lessons in an automatic car in order to speed things along. I got my licence on the first attempt and that was good and to this day I still have just an automatic licence. When I travelled to the UK for a working holiday I had an international licence and it didn’t stipulate I should drive automatic only so we bought and old manual and I attempted to drive it which was quite amusing because I still could not manage that darn clutch! I got around but I never ventured very far. That was 1989 and the very last time I drove a manual vehicle!

I learned to drive a manual as my parents had them and so did other people that I worked with that were brave enough to let me drive their cars. The first time that I hopped into an automatic car, I did not know what to do! I went for my test in a manual car but my first two cars were automatics, but as I worked on cars I got to drive all sorts of manuals regularly so I never had trouble with this. I find it really easy actually and do not understand why people get worried by it. I do know some people who are younger than me who have automatic licenses. This would be frustrating and so restricting in my opinion. When I got my license, you could go with either and your license was the same, but I chose a manual as that is what I was used to. Most of my cars have been manuals over the years, but my current commodore wagon is an auto and I am loving the relaxed cruisiness of not having to change gears!

I love driving manuals! I find that they accelerate faster and you have more control on your speed. It is more tiring to drive in heavy traffic though so if you live somewhere with a lot of other cars, an automatic is good. I find that driving it gets boring sometimes though.

No, I can't drive a manual transmission. I have even been advised against it because of my medical problems, so, while I might've wanted to learn, I never have.

Most of the cars that I have owned and driven have been manual gear shifts. I learned on an old manual gear shift van here in the UK back in the 1960s and that is what was mostly around then except for the big-engined Jaguars, Bentleys, Rolls etc. I have owned an automatic a few times, but I tend to find them boring because there is nothing much to do with the car except steer it, and I didn't like the way I had to wait first thing in the morning for the gearbox to warm up before it would accelerate properly. I find it strange that so many cars these days are automatic, even the smaller cars because it is a known fact that they use more energy/fuel because there is more power needed from the engine to keep the hydraulics up to pressure in the geardbox. And as I found to my expense, automatic gearboxes when they go wrong cost quite a lot more to get fixed than a manual one. But I will say that automatics are better in heavy taffic when you have to keep stopping and starting. Not so much wear and tear on the legs to operate the clutch. It doesn't take long to acclimatise to a manual gear shift, and you would soon be changing up and down the gears automatically.. Happy motoring! _Derek

Hi, coffeeshot I like your username. Yes, I can drive a manual. In fact, I can only drive a manual. I have not tried driving an automatic yet. Here in the Philippines, although there are a lot of automatic cars available in the market, manual cars still dominate. My father, who has a big role in choosing what car to buy here in our house, does not like automatic cars because he thinks it's not macho. I told him the next one we buy should be automatic so that there would be less strain on his legs (because of the clutch). He is not getting any younger, you know. Have a nice day!