Maybe there's hope? "Manual Transmission Alive and Well," declares the Globe and Mail
 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe...ticle34803405/

The author of the article basically restates a lot of what we tell each other (and ourselves) on this board.
I'm not sure if manuals are truly making a resurgence, but in a world dominated by news about how the next Tesla Model ZZZZ will make humans obsolete, I thought this might be a tiny shred of good news.

In any case, I'm glad to be leaving the land of the CVT soon....

I read an issue of evo magazine, and this was at least several months ago, I'm thinking mid-2016, where one of the journos was talking to a higher up in the auto industry who told him that many of the manufacturers are reintroducing manual transmissions. Aston still does (albeit just on the Vantage), Porsche is gonna (although to be fair their base 911s never stopped being offered in manual - only GT3s did) and I can't remember who else. The main problem is there are no schools anymore that teach it. You have to find local guys with beat up cars that run private ads on local classified sites. That's how I learned. That and PC sims lol

I learned to drive stick valet parking :)

What? I did my driving lessons in a Manual, just googled the two driving schools I remember off the top of my head and both still offer manual transmission cars.

The thing is it'll be like $100+ to get in the car, but it's not like some desolate wasteland of automotive drudgery.

I learned to drive by working a summer at a car dealership (my Dad was a salesman).
On lunch, he'd take us out in a ratty Corolla or Echo on the used lot (they sold Toyota/Lexus), and I'd practice.

My goal for learning stick was to test drive the IS300 manual, which remains one of the sweetest cars I have driven. This was waaaay back in 2002.

You're in the states, you guys have everything lol. I'm in Canada's largest city (4 million people) and not a single official driving school offering manual lessons. There was one - Young Drivers - a very reputable school. But they'd discontinued them half a dozen years ago. Hence I had to resort to local ads.

If you guys wanna learn MT you gotta go to UK.


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A shitty Nissan off craigslist is less than the plane ticket, pass.

My parent's bought me a 1990 civic for $1000 on my 16th birthday. I took it out the next morning and taught myself how to drive stick. Not really sure why you need a school?


The Driver's training school in my town doesn't offer manual transmission.

Manual driving school? You're F'ing joking, right?

Yeah, you don't need a school. I learned on my best friend's older sister's 1987 Honda Accord, over the span of one afternoon. Was really easy - didn't stall out once. I was 16 at the time.

Never owned a manual transmission car until I was 19, but the skill came in really handy when I was 18 and given the opportunity to drive a brand new 1998 Ferrari F355 Spider:drool:

What's confusing? I did my driver's training (school) in a manual transmission car, >10 years later they still offer drivers training in cars with manual transmissions. That's all.

Five minutes talking about how to operate a car, start it, drop the clutch and go onto some of the busiest freeways and intersections in a city of ~1 billion people.

See above. Not sure how you guys misinterpreted it as MT specific lessons, it was all pretty straightforward until you guys came in, driving school and drivers training is pretty interchangeable as far as I'm concerned. Many states require/recommend in-car training from an instructor. Not everyone wants to throw thousands of bucks into purchasing a garbage car, has access to "friends" willing to teach, or is willing to plunk down on a decent car and then learn on it for (unfounded) fear of breaking it.

My comment was mostly directed at this

It's cool that some driver's training schools offer cars with manual, but I don't think it would be worth paying hundreds of dollars for someone who already has their license to retake driver's training just for the sake of learning manual.

A couple hundred bucks cheaper and way safer than buying a clunker, and some insurance companies offer discounts for defensive driving courses.

Not the dumbest idea around, some would say it's way smarter than buying some POS that's typically recommended by gearheads.

99% of your city can't drive for shit. That's why 85% of your city comes to places like Guelph so that they have a chance in hell of passing their driving test. I'd honestly be scared to drive in Toronto when Tommy doesn't know whether to shift or try to get into the left lane so he can make his left turn, and becomes an erratic train wreck instead of doing either.

If only there was some way to verify this statement...

http://stickgta.com/
https://www.ambdriving.com/manual-sh...l#.WQfdWYWcGUk
http://shifters.ca/
http://www.sinceredrivingschool.com/english.htm
http://www.123shift.ca/home.html
http://www.proshift.ca/
http://www.allspeeddrivingschool.com/
http://www.manualdrivinglessons.ca/home.html

I could keep going but this is enough to make my point.

There are 6 places in London offering MT lessons and we have 10% the population of TO.

Actually YD has brought it back. One of my work colleagues is having her daughter take up lessons with them and this includes manual transmission time, only the road test will not be done with a manual.

Excellent news! I stand corrected sirs

what happened to back roads/rural roads? I learned to drive in dirt and muddy roads.

This is good news!

I had to learn the hard way working on a ranch with lot's of steep hills in a manual F150 pickup.

learned stick in my brz, bought it without ever driving a stick in my life, i practiced a bit in a parking lot then drove it to work the same night i bought it.

why would anyone go to a school to learn manual? never heard of anyone needing more than an empty parking lot

I sent my wife of 2 years to one to learn MT. We are still married 34 years later. Some times it is just better!

If you get manual lessons, you don't pick up on bad habits.

I don't know about you, but my drivers training was a joke. Not really sure that's who I want to teach me how to drive stick.


Why not just rent a NA Miata for $44/day and learn the fun way?


https://turo.com/rentals/cars/ca/con...625?s=ENJsKhQ7

Dude, I'm not talking about some guy with a chalkboard teaching you how to shift, literally just convenient seat time in a car with a MT. Fuck, why are you so against this concept? Did your instructor make you drive them around to all the meth houses or something? Does it cost $500 for a 2 hour lesson up there?

Turo is probably the best alternative if someone has to shell out money to get behind the wheel of a car with a MT, shame it's not more widespread, I wanted to rent a car through them last time I went on vacation but there were literally zero in the area, (I just looked, now there's a lone Yaris available with MT), also many of the MT's require previous experience (I'd feel bad, but empathy seems to be less common nowadays), meanwhile there's driving schools everywhere. :iono:

But I bet that woman would happily teach someone for a few extra bucks, it's a great find.

Im pretty sure the cost of driver's training here is $125/hr. Like I said, my training was a joke. The instructors only cared about getting paid and making sure you didnt crash. I'm not talking about some special defensive driver's course, I'm talking about schools that teach 15 year olds how to merge on the highway.

Sorry yours was so shitty, mine was decent, I would honestly recommend it for someone learning to drive.

My EX-wife taught me. So I guess that might support your point.

I spent about half an hour teaching her to drive auto and then said "oh just go get lessons". There was not a hope in hell I was trying to teach her MT! Teaching a spouse to drive can be horrific.

Since the statute of limitations has long since passed...

I had a neighborhood friend who was 1.5 years older than me and an avid hang glider - he needed someone to drive his car (a Fiat 124 coupe with manual transmission) from the launch point at the top of a local mountain to the landing field at the bottom. He spent 30 minutes with me in a parking lot teaching the basics, and then we drove out to the take off point. Typical mountain road - twisting and narrow. Almost no traffic though, which was probably a good thing... I was 14 at the time.

Never stalled, missed a shift, or hit anything. I will admit that given the circumstances I was far more likely to do a "money shift" than stall! Ahhh youthful enthusiasm and poor judgement...:sigh: Side note: by the time I got my driver's license I was a pretty good driver!