Reasons To Drive Stick Shift

Benefits Of Driving Stick Shift

What's more boring than driving stick shift? A lot of things. One of these things is: driving an automatic car. How many Fast & Furious movies show cool scenes done with an automatic car? Although I don't expect you to drive like the people in those movies, I can assure you that driving stick shift has its benefits.

Fuel Economy:

In an automatic transmission, your car's gears will shift on their own. All you have to do is step on the pedal. This means that your car is in control of what gear you're in, not you. Let's say your car is in third gear, approaching fourth gear. If it's on the verge of switching to the fourth gear, but it's not there yet, your engine is actually at higher RPM (revolutions per minute). This means that you're wasting more fuel, as the engine is more active.

  

In a stick shift car, you can manually change the gear to fourth gear, which will bring you RPM lower, resulting in less fuel consumption.

Interaction:

A lot of us consider driving to be "fun". It gets more fun with stick shift as you use all four limbs, making it a completely interactive experience. Both of your legs are in use, as the left leg controls the clutch pedal (left) and your right leg controls both the brake and gas pedal (right).

Your left hand is then used for the steering wheel, while your right hand shifts through the gears using the shift knob.

The engagement needed to drive stick shift is very engaging and therefore it allows you to focus on the actual act of driving, rather than looking at your phone. Being more attentive at the wheel can also help your chances of not being in an accident. If you're being more active, it is less likely that you'll fall asleep or get distracted with something else.

 

 It's More Fun

Plain and simple, it's more fun. Manual transmissions tend to put out faster acceleration than their automatic counterparts. With that being said, if you're at a red light next to the exact same car, and you guys both take off, you'd most likely win the race (assuming that you know what you're doing). 

When you're putting that gas pedal on the floor, it's always fun to feel the car interact. You feel the car's torque with every shift's kickback. It's great to know that there is some skill involved. Think in terms of racing an automatic car, all they have to do is step on a pedal. That's it. In the case of a stick shift car, you're letting go of the clutch pedal, pressing the gas pedal, shifting, then pressing down on the clutch again and repeating the experience. The skill element adds to the experience of racing.

Hidden Benefits:

-Overall, being able to drive stick shift is more rewarding. Some of the benefits include, on average, being lower in price when purchasing a new car. 

-With a stick shift car, it is also said that the transmission is more durable, due to the fact that its system has less components than an automatic transmission. A less complex structure means that there are less parts that can break.

-If done properly, you can actually push start your own car (if your battery) has died, WITHOUT sourcing energy from another car through jumping cables.

-There is a sense of pride within the car community in being able to drive stick shift. Something I always found disappointing was to see an awesome car, then find out that it's automatic. People take pride owning a stick shift car or even in knowing how to drive one.