My sister has never owned a car with an automatic transmission

[AlanCasida]

My younger sister Janet, 56, has never owned a car with an automatic transmission. Her latest car is a Subaru Outback she had to search high and low to find with a stick. On Thanksgiving she told me she always takes it to the Subaru dealer for service and everytime they have to hunt someone down who knows how to drive a stick, lol. Too funny... and kind of sad in a way. 

[cjshaker]

That's why they call it the new anti-theft device.

I've only owned a few autos in my life. Currently I have none, since I sold my '65. My old '98 Ranger was an auto, and after replacing the trans for the 3rd time at 205k, I sold it and got a '03 Ranger with a stick. I like it much better. My issue these days is every time I go to shift to 2nd, I nearly get rear ended because the schmuck behind me is tailgating. Then of course I get yelled at or a physical gesture is thrown my way...apparently for not bang shifting my daily driver.

When you have a dealership full of guys, and none of them can drive a stick, that is a little sad. They probably have Taylor Swift playing in their vehicles. 

[1964Fastback]

A couple of years ago I worked part time at a Chrysler/Jeep dealership as a parts driver.  But there was a lot of time when there was nothing to deliver or pick up so for those times I worked the service line as a "valet", meaning I had to pull the customer cars out back to either the main service lot or the line for the tires/battery/radiator/lube shop.  Months would go by between when I'd see a stick (but again, only working part time and then only when not doing my regular delivery work).  But when we did get one, no one seemed to have a problem with it, which kind of surprised me but in a good way.  The guys in the lube shop pulled them on the lifts without remark and so did the technicians in the regular shop.

Pat

[fryedaddy]

my dad had a junk yard when i was a boy im 61 now. but i had a 67 cougar 3 speed in the floor 289 4 bbl when i was 12,i was on the front page of the times news at 13 driving down the road with a great dane on my roof.he loved riding on the roof and someone must have told the paper about it and they showed up wanting me to ride my dog so they could take his pic.it was on the front page the next day. the headlines said pup on a hot tin roof. and it said 13 year old takes his dog for ride.

[1964Fastback]

That is pretty cool.  I hope you saved a copy.  If it was me, I'd definitely have that picture up on my wall!

Pat

[Rory428]

Before I retired almost 5 years ago, I was a service tech at a Toyota dealership for 23 years, in the heart of Downtown Vancouver British Columbia, so not a huge amount of manual transmissions in the downtown core. We had a salesman that sold quite a few vehicles, and his manual transmission driving skills, were less than stellar. He completely destroyed the clutch on a brand new 5 speed Corolla, trying to back the car up the ramp in front of the showroom, for the customer to take delivery. When I took the old clutch out, the flywheel was blue from the heat, quite an accomplishment on a car with less than 10 kilometers (6 miles) on the odometer, that he only had to drive maybe 100 feet, uphill n reverse. Since he was one of our best salesman, he kept his job, but was not allowed to drive any vehicles with a manual transmission anymore.
Although I have owned a number of vehicles with automatics, I have not owned one since 1995. I have 2 PU trucks, a 1999 F350 Dually with a V10 and 5 speed, and a 2010 Ranger with 4 cylinder 5 speed, and both my 59 Meteor, and 78 Fairmont drag car have 4 speeds. I do keep "in practice" driving an automatic, whenever I drive my wifes Toyota,  but it has been 30 years since I have owned a car with a torque convertor, other than my 59, which left the factory with a 332 FE and 2 speed FordOMatic, but during the restoration, that was replaced with the 428 CJ and Toploader 4 speed. Barring anything medically or physically related, I plan to continue the freedom from the  "Icky red fluid" as the late TomP called them,  club.

[galaxiex]

From age 14 to 19 all my cars were manual transmission.

1962 Volvo 4cyl with dual side draft carbs, 4spd stick

1960 Plymouth Valiant slant 6, 3 on the tree

1967 Pontiac Strato Chief "stripper" model 2dr post sedan ex Government car,
rubber floor mats.
Vinyl upholstery. 
The AM radio was its "extravagant" option.
250 6 and the ubiquitous 3 on the tree.

1963 Chev C10 Fleetside 250 6, 3 on the tree.

Now the cool cars...
1965 Mustang coupe 289 "A" code 4bbl 3spd top loader floor shift.

And my first automatic car...
1969 Mercury Cyclone GT R code 428CJ Ram Air, C6 automatic console shift.

Wish I had them all still.... well.... except maybe the Volvo...

[Joe-JDC]

Whenever I take my '55 Thunderbird with 5 speed, and my Cobra SVT with 5 speed for state inspections, I get to drive them for the brake tests and pull into the test station.  I am amazed how many folks today don't know how to drive a standard transmission.  The other thing is counting back change when you pay with cash.  Joe-JDC

[Rory428]

From age 14 to 19 all my cars were manual transmission.

1962 Volvo 4cyl with dual side draft carbs, 4spd stick

1960 Plymouth Valiant slant 6, 3 on the tree

1967 Pontiac Strato Chief "stripper" model 2dr post sedan ex Government car,
rubber floor mats.
Vinyl upholstery. 
The AM radio was its "extravagant" option.
250 6 and the ubiquitous 3 on the tree.

1963 Chev C10 Fleetside 250 6, 3 on the tree.

Now the cool cars...
1965 Mustang coupe 289 "A" code 4bbl 3spd top loader floor shift.

And my first automatic car...
1969 Mercury Cyclone GT R code 428CJ Ram Air, C6 automatic console shift.

Wish I had them all still.... well.... except maybe the Volvo...

Pontiac Srato Chief, seems that we have another fellow Canadian in the house! For the Americans here, The Canadian Pontiac of the 60s, were not the same as the US "Wide Track" models, although the bodies looked similar, the Canadian Pontiacs of the era used Chevrolet chassis, and powertrains. So while most 60s Pontiacs all had some version of a 389 V8, the Canuck Ponchos could be had with 230/250 Chevy inline 6 cylinders, and 283,327, and even 396,409, and 427 Big Blocks. The Strato Chief was the lowest tier base model, like a Chevy Biscayne, followed in order by the Laurentian, Parisienne, Grand Parisienne, and Grand Parisienne Sport. When I was in high school in British Columbia Canada, 2 classmates had pretty cool Pontiacs, one was a 1965 Parisienne with a 327 4 speed, the other was a 66 Grand Parisienne Sport, with a 427 4 speed, with fender skirts. Another classmate parted out a 64 Pontiac station wagon, to get the 409 and 4 speed, to swap in his 64 Impala.But the vast majority of the Canadian Pontiac full sized cars were 283 2 barrel, Powerglides. galaxiex, what part of the "Great White North" are you from?

[galaxiex]

Hi Rory

galaxiex, what part of the "Great White North" are you from?

Born in New Westminster BC.

I owned those cars when I lived in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory.
Grew up there from age 4 to 19.
Moved to Edmonton, Alberta in 1977 and have been here ever since.


Yep, I'm "sorta" familiar with Canadian Ponchos.    (and other GM and Mopar Canadian models)
Occasionally an American model would show up here,
and we would all marvel at how "different" it was compared to the Pontiac's etc, we knew and owned.
Even had a local Studebaker that was Chevy powered, tho that may not be exclusive to Canada.


For a brief time in Whitehorse, my brother had a 67 Parisienne 2+2 rag top with the Chevy 327 Powerglide, console and buckets.
Nice car but was from down east and rotten to the core. (rust)
I'm sure you are aware.
They used to, maybe still do, salt the crap out of the roads in Eastern Canada.


Cheers!
Dale


op, sorry for the off topic.

[badcatt]

Hi Rory

galaxiex, what part of the "Great White North" are you from?

Born in New Westminster BC.

I owned those cars when I lived in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory.
Grew up there from age 4 to 19.
Moved to Edmonton, Alberta in 1977 and have been here ever since.


Yep, I'm "sorta" familiar with Canadian Ponchos.    (and other GM and Mopar Canadian models)
Occasionally an American model would show up here,
and we would all marvel at how "different" it was compared to the Pontiac's etc, we knew and owned.
Even had a local Studebaker that was Chevy powered, tho that may not be exclusive to Canada.


For a brief time in Whitehorse, my brother had a 67 Parisienne 2+2 rag top with the Chevy 327 Powerglide, console and buckets.
Nice car but was from down east and rotten to the core. (rust)
I'm sure you are aware.
They used to, maybe still do, salt the crap out of the roads in Eastern Canada.


Cheers!
Dale


op, sorry for the off topic.

When Studebaker stopped building cars in the States, they were all power by SBCs. I know a few people when I was young in the Seattle area that had them. Kind of sad, the R2 and R3 Studebakers were fast, a bit outdated, but fast.

[Rory428]

Yes, when Studebaker closed their South Bend Indiana manufacturing plant in late 1963, all the 1965 and 66 Studebakers were built at the Canadian Studebaker plant, which had been making Studebakers since the late 40s. Since the Studebaker engines had been made in the US, a different source of engines was needed when Studebaker closed in the US, so they made an agreement to buy Chevy engines, both the 6 cylinder and the 283 V8.
galaxex, I grew up just across the Pattullo Bridge , in North Delta, and moved to New Westminster in the late 70s for several years. Small world.

[Lowrider]

Back around 95' I was working at a Ford dealer and everytime a standard shift car came in they always  got me to move it out of the service lane. On a similar note I had worked on a customers 65 Mustang and they parked it in the service lane overnite to keep it safe. Next morning I get to work and cars are all lined up trying to get into service. I walk in and they're all over me because the car won't start. I jump in, pump the gas pedal a couple times and it fires right up and I drive it away. Not only can they not drive a stick they have no clue about an automatic choke.

[FrozenMerc]

My 1985 F350 had the original 4 spd, along with a aftermarket 2 spd range splitter overdrive installed.  Most of the time I drove it as a 5 spd, but having a twin stick pickup was fun, and handy to split ratios, especially with a big trailer on the back.   I freaked more than one friend out when backing up and shifting into a higher gear.  Unfortunately, I killed a bearing in the 2 spd early this summer and ended up replacing the whole works with a ZF 5 spd.  Maybe some day, I will rebuild the 2 spd and find another use for it. 

Nobody remembers the old 3spd+OD "semi automatic" transmissions anymore either.  A friend bought a '50 Lincoln Cosmo project, and I had to take him for a ride in my '50 Packard just to show him how the 3 spd+OD should work.  He had never heard of a "Lock Out" cable.  Of course, the Packard has an "automatic" clutch feature (Electromatic) where the clutch is operated automatically by a vacuum canister based on inputs from a throttle position sensor and speed sensor.  You still have to manually shift the 3 spd, but it is all Packard had to compete with the "new" automatics released by Cadillac in 1949. 

[1964Fastback]

I'm not familiar with the Packard transmission, but a friend of mine had a VW Beetle that worked similarly.  You had to shift it (I think it was a 4 speed but might have been a 3 speed) but there was no clutch pedal which made me nervous the one time I drove it.  You just accelerated in first gear, then backed off the throttle, shifted to second, then got on the throttle again.  Kind of interesting...

Pat