Reply #9: Didn't learn to drive a stick shift until I had to, though.

[Philostopher]

My dad didn't think it was anything that would be useful to me twenty-mumble years ago, either. He didn't own a car that had a standard transmission, and hadn't for a quarter-century (my mother never drove a stick very well, she says they were really hard to handle when she finally got tired of it).

Finances make a big difference in your choices, however. First hubby and I were contemplating a cross-country move. The car we had definitely wasn't going to make it across the country, and we thought buying a small station wagon would allow us to carry more of our stuff than a sedan or hatchback, so we started hitting the 'payday' lots. The only small wagon we could find was a Toyota wagon, and it had a 5-speed. I was upset about it, at the time, but I bit the bullet -- and I haven't owned an automatic transmission since.

My older sister does know how to drive a manual, although she prefers not to. Mom can't, she says she wouldn't even try. My younger brother opted out on learning it, though my first hubby offered to take him out and teach him. Second hubby also prefers a standard, so all our cars have stick shifts now.

Funny, though -- it took three weeks, a few years back, to find a secondhand RAV4 (or other mini-ute) in our price range, with a five-speed. We were looking at several-year-old mini-utes because we have a small dog we like to take on trips with us, but at the time, there wasn't a satisfactory new car alternative. We must have looked at a hundred and fifty different vehicles on car lots, just in passing. We found about seven of them with 5-speeds, one of which we bought. I find it funny that when I didn't want a stick shift, the only car available had one -- but now that I prefer to drive one, we had to spend weeks looking.