How Much is Knowing How to Drive Stick Shift Worth?

[kork13]

I don't get stuck in the snow as I can usually rock myself out (first, reverse, first, reverse...)

LOL can't even count how many times I made this work while going to college in Colorado...

[fe2o3ez]

Teaching you to drive a stick should be an easy task, and you really don't need to pay anyone to do it... just find a friend and an empty parking lot.

Yep, that's all it takes! (make sure your friend has a good amount of patience, and a car that can take a little gear grinding!) I found that out the hard way about 15 years ago in college. My old automatic Grand Prix blew the block and I was stuck with a DJ job and no vehicle. Buddy let me borrow his Z24, but had to teach me the basics of a standard. I got it down - at least to a functional level - within a couple hours. The rest was learned on the road!

As a side note, you may want to learn anyhow. There are a lot of sports cars out there that are designed with only a standard shift, and if you ever want the joy of driving one, you will need this skill. It's worth it!

I think they are just plain more fun to drive. My wife has a vehicle that has the standard/automatic combination. Not quite the real thing, but close enough to enjoy the difference in acceleration.

[dawnwes]

Interesting. Good for us as we drive our cars until they die. We both know how to drive a stick and one of our current cars is a stick.

The car I drive most often is not, only because I have to cart around the kids and vans and SUVs just don't come in standard.

Dawn

I agree with MonkeyMoma -- the problem is that a whole generation of drivers have no idea how to drive a stick meaning they are much more difficult to sell. I went to a dealership and ended up getting a used stick for $2000 below bluebook -- the car was perfectly good, but had been on the lot for over 5 months because nobody knew how to drive stick. When I said I could and was interested, I was treated like royalty. I think it's one of the best ways to save money on even used cars these days.

[kaleida]

I vote for a manual transmission! My Honda Fit with a manual transmission was $3000 cheaper than the Honda Fit automatic - and I can easily get 45mpg instead of the advertised 33mpg. I get better gas mileage than my friend's Ford Fusion hybrid.

I can't post links yet but if you google "mpg savings calculator" you will find a useful calculator to tell you how much you save with a higher mpg.
(Note: I think that the CarMax mpg calculator is incorrect - look at the one from fueleconomy.gov instead - that one matched my own calculations.)

I drive 15,000 miles per year and I usually pay about $3.80 per gallon for gas, so I'm saving about $460 per year on fuel costs with 45mpg instead of 33mpg.

I don't care about the resale value because I usually keep a car until the end of its useful life.

[Lynn01]

...
As a side note, you may want to learn anyhow. There are a lot of sports cars out there that are designed with only a standard shift, and if you ever want the joy of driving one, you will need this skill. It's worth it!

I think they are just plain more fun to drive.
...

Yup, I am on my 4th manual car. They are too fun to drive anything else!