Manual Transmission

I took my driving test in 1974 in my Dad's V8 Fordamatic, but truly I learned how to drive in my Mom's 1972 Toyota Corolla rear wheel drive with the long shift knob that went down to the drive shaft hump between the bucket seats. 

I have a preference for manual transmissions that was only strengthened by some years driving a Ford LTD company car station wagon that had a vacuum-advance carburetor spark adlustment and a slow responding automatic transmission. When you tromped down on the gas pedal because you needed to get out of a tight driving situation, you could count on several long seconds before it downshifted. 

The Wall Street Journal (link) says that right now in the USA only a dwindling fraction of drivers can drive a car with a clutch. To make matters worse, the WSJ article says, "In 1980, some 35% of cars produced in the U.S. were manuals. Today that figure is closer to 1%..." 

Yikes! When it comes to that, maybe putting an unreasonable amount of money into auto repair on my stick shift 2007 Mazda3 will be a good investment. ...Assuming there will be any mechanics left that can work on it!

(Ichi, ni, san, shi, go!  -- my Japanese shift knob!)