Sgt Al's Blog: DEAR SGT. AL: IS IT WORTH ME LEARNING HOW TO DRIVE A MANUAL TRANSMISSION?

DEAR SERGEANT AL: I am planning on purchasing a new micro car that gets substantially better highway gas mileage with a manual transmission. I did some math and figured that I would save more money over the years in gas, especially if gas gets more expensive. The problem is that I don't know how to drive a stick. Is it easy to learn? I'm getting mixed reactions from friends and family. Is it worth learning to drive a manual? --OIL BLOCKER JUAN KILLING ENGINES NOT OXYGEN BY INTERVENTION

This gentleman is shifting his five speed manual gearbox from first gear to second. Make sure you fully depress the clutch when shifting gears, otherwise you'll strip the gears, causing that grinding sound.

DEAR OB JUAN KENOBI: This is an interesting question. Learning to drive a stick is a bit tricky if you are not coordinated. If you are coordinated driving-wise, then all that's required is some getting used to. After you've learned how to drive a stick, then you can drive anything on the road. I learned how to drive a manual at 18 after driving for almost three years and I have a class A CDL driver's license. I can definitely say that if it wasn't for learning my stick shift experience, it would have definitely been much more difficult for me to graduate from motorcycle school at the police academy. A lack of stick shift training also would have made it much more difficult to pass my road tests for both a tractor trailer and a bus. There is a reason why most race car drivers drive with a stick. If you cannot coordinate the actual driving experience of clutching, shifting, and steering, while paying attention to road conditions, a concept which some people cannot do together which is why they have no business driving PERIOD, then a stick shift is not for you. With this in mind, I believe that if ALL drivers were required to learn a stick like about 80% of the rest of the world does, besides the fact that this act alone would disqualify tons of non-driving people from driving, the world would be a much more safer place to drive, especially here in America.

Mercedes Benz invented the automobile as we know it today with this car, the Patent Motorwagen in 1886, but they were not the first to incorporate automatic transmission technology into their cars.

It was GM's Oldsmobile and Buick divisions that introduced the world to automatic transmission, and cars since have never been the same for better or worse.

The automatic transmission is definitely an American thing. While the Germans (Mercedes Benz particularly) invented the automobile as we know it today, we Americans (particularly General Motors in the 1930's, the first being Buick and Olds) added the automatic, and we are the ones who mostly use it compared to the rest of the world. Mind you, it is a great invention and convenience that has allowed even more people to learn how to drive, but the automatic does not give you the full, complete driving experience, particularly if you are driving a proper sports car or a high performance luxury vehicle. If you plan on renting a car in most parts of the rest of the world frequently and want to save substantially on money doing so, if you ever want to learn how to drive a truck or a motorcycle, and if you ever want to improve your driving skills in the winter time, particularly in areas where there is a lot of snow or ice or off-road conditions, I strongly suggest you learn how to drive a stick. Not only will you be able to drive just about anything on the road, but you will become a better driver. With a stick you have to pay more attention to your driving and to conditions on the road, which in total makes you more alert, thus a better pilot on the road.

An automatic transmission has many parts and components which is why it requires specialized training to repair one, and thus very expensive to repair. If your car ever needs a replacement transmission, count on it being rebuilt with mostly used, rebuilt parts. Rare if ever is there such a thing as getting a brand new tranny in the literal sense.

If I had to bet the rest of my life's income to guess as to why these cars are laid to rest in this graveyard, I would say either insurance write-off from accident damage, or broken automatic transmissions or engine blocks. These are the three biggest costs as to why a car dies to be no longer of any use: it just costs too much compared to the value of the car to get it repaired.

Mechanically there are ups and downs to both manuals and automatics. Some cars come with automatics as standard equipment, some manufacturers charge extra for automatics, anywhere from $1000-4000 and depending on the engine ordered. As cars get more expensive and smaller, as engines become more fuel efficient and smaller, and as gas becomes more expensive, the cost of an automatic will definitely become more cost prohibitive, as it is in the rest of the world. If you keep your cars for long periods and your transmission breaks down, and this should happen anywhere after 150,000 miles for a well built car, plan on spending at least $4000 for a replacement rebuilt transmission at one of your transmission shops like Lee Myles or AAMCO, if you want a lifetime warranty. If the tranny is more sophisticated, like paddle shifting, a semi-auto, more than four gears, or has electronic components, plan on spending even more. Times may have changed, but I have never heard of a tranny being replaced with new original components. I have also never heard of a transmission being fully repaired and/or replaced by an original manufacturer's factory or parts supplier. Most if not all are rebuilt, due to the exorbitant costs. If you purchase a new car, and it should already have transmission problems, most likely the car dealer will outsource your tranny and send your car to a transmission shop like the ones I mentioned, and have them fix your car. All if not most of the parts will be rebuilt. The manufacturer will cover your new car warranty, but they most likely are not going to quickly reveal to you that it was a local transmission shop that fixed it. Transmission repair requires highly specialized training, which is why it is very expensive.

Manual transmissions are cheaper to fix, but easier to break. This is why most old trucks with hundreds of thousands of miles on them have sticks, and probably why a lot of older cars with sticks last a bit longer than auto equipped cars. A bad auto tranny is the #1 reason why most of my older cars wound up in the graveyard. The cost of replacement wasn't worth the value of the car. Of the two cars with sticks I've had, they both could have went a lot further if it wasn't for the rust on one, and a trade-in for the other. If you are not careful you can strip the gears by not pushing down on the clutch all the way. If you like to ride the clutch, which means constantly having your foot on the clutch even when you are not shifting, you can overheat the clutch and cause damage. The most common issues with a stick is clutch replacement, which usually costs a few hundred bucks and more, as opposed to gear replacement on an automatic, which can cost thousands of bucks and more.

The law of diminishing returns dictates that eventually the cost benefit of stick shift driving will prevail, like it is in the rest of the world, where people pay at least twice as much for gas as we do. There is only so much you can do to make a auto tranny fuel efficient, especially when car and gas prices are skyrocketing.

Although automatics have become much more fuel efficient in recent years, rarely if ever do I see a car that gets better gas mileage with an automatic compared to a stick. Usually they are about the same nowadays, and more often seeing better mpg's by a few digits with a stick, so I see where you are saving money by doing the shifting yourself. At $5+ a gallon and higher, however, I'm sure sometime in the future, and beyond the ability of technology to compensate for this economic disparity with a high tech auto tranny, a stick will win out once again like it once did years ago, by saving you money on future prices of both cars and very expensive gas. But that perhaps is years from now as petroleum becomes a more precious resource. But if you buy a car with a stick now and plan on keeping it for years, I would consider this factor now.

If this is what your daily commute looks like behind the wheel, then there is a good chance that you and your stick shift may have a love/hate relationship.

Sticks are a pain in the ass to drive in heavy traffic, no doubt. If you are not careful, heavy traffic like in Los Angeles, New York, and Boston will force the habit of riding a clutch. Also, be careful of stopping on a steep hill with a stick. Places like San Francisco will get you into trouble if you don't know what you're doing with a stick on a steep grade. You can pop the clutch (let off too quickly), stall the engine, and roll backwards into the car behind you before you can stop. If you are not careful at applying the emergency brake when parked, your stick shifted car can run away. Stick shift cars are easier to start when the battery is weak or in a dead cold winter, as you can roll the car and engage the clutch to start it that way without the starter, at least in older cars.

So Master OB JUAN, this is the run down on stick verses auto tranny: If you are a frequent leaser, don't keep cars for long, spend money with no object, have no interest in driving a truck, bus, motorcycle, off-road, bad weather, or an exotic auto, then stick to your auto tranny. If your transportation future is about you and electric cars, then there's a good chance that you won't need a stick because the technology for now seems incompatible (but that may change in the future as electric cars become more mechanically sophisticated). If life is as exciting for you as watching Lawrence Welk on PBS with your Buick Electra or Lincoln Town Car in your garage, then stick to auto. If enjoying life to its full potential, however, includes seeping into the cockpit of a Lamborghini or on a Harley Davidson, then have a friend teach you or even better, sign up at a driving school where they can teach you to drive a stick. A WARNING for you: once you learn how to drive a stick, the driving experience for better or worse will never be the same. But you'll be a better driver than a lot of licensed non-drivers because of it. Go get that car with a stick and drive carefully in good health.

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