Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire How many of you old farts still drive a standard ?

54. 1963 Studebaker R/2 Super Hawk. But I'm not an old fart... yet.

Working on it in your garage is what you have to do with those old cars and trucks. They wouldn’t ever last 100,000 miles without an overhaul.

Working on them easily isn’t better than not working on them…

Dang, don't miss rowing in a truck but sure do miss a tight shifting car and throwing it thru the gears... 65 here...

I hear you there - wouldn't buy a manual truck today, but a sportier car is another story. I'm currently debating on a smaller truck, probably a Tacoma. I could like a manual in something like that...

I'm not old, but I still get a little surge of nostalgia the few times a year I hop in something with a clutch.

Wouldn't go out of my way to purchase one new anymore, especially in a pickup.

...Raise your hand if you can still hear the rage in your old mans voice the first time you were pressed into service pulling the boat out of some sh*thole, scum covered landing in an F150 with a straight 6 and a 5 speed.

When I was at racing school in Nevada a few years ago I ran some new corvettes and some had manuals and some had autos. I demanded a manual at first but an instructor said you should really try these new dual clutch autos with paddle shifters. Isn't better lap times in the autos every time.

Before that I thought it couldn't be a sports car with an auto. But, the new autos do really well. I loved the 8 speed auto in my 2019 ram. It seemed perfect with the hemi. The 10 speed ato in my f150 is pretty good too but a little funky at times. The 4 speed in my 94 yukon just doesn't feel like it has enough gears after driving the new ones.

Back when the choice was a 5 or 6 speed standard or a 4 speed auto the standard held more appeal. In the 2016 vettes it was a 6 or 7 speed standard or 8 speed auto. I learned to like the auto better. I think they even dropped the standard soon after because that 8 speed auto was so good.

Bb

No one can claim to be a real man if he drives anything else - if he can't convert an automatic to standard with nothing more than a Vice Grip and a socket set, he is just a waste of protoplasm.

84 here.
Diving a total of 9 different trucks with manual shifters, 8 of them are the Muncie SM 465 and one the 6 speed whatever in the big 2001 Dodge - and the 4speed in the old Corvette. I appreciate a manual trans.

One 72 Chev with a T400 (only 32k miles) and a Chev Duramax that runs with the Allison automatic - great auto trans.

sounds like a fun build, friend of mine had a 13 speed with a 4 speed aux making 56gears . about an 88 Ford Louieville used as a lowbed tractor mostly on steep logging roads on Vancouver Island,

Myself 76 years Gravel truck 18 speed manual

norm

damn you’re rich 🤑

This one I still drive


This one I wish I still had

In 1975 i taught myself to drive stick at 12 yrs old (in a salvage yard) in a 57 Chevy 3/4 ton, Straight 6, 4 speed with Granny low... Put it in low gear, Clutch out, Key on, Hit the floor mounted starter button and it would start and walk away by itself, Step on the gas and start rowing gears... Great fun till i had to Stop... (no brakes) I would jam it in low & shut the key off, Engine braking to a stop... Eventually i got very good at it and could almost stop on a dime (as long as i wasnt' going to fast)... Next up was a 70 F250, 360 4 speed (again no brakes)... After the exhaust fell off, That sumbitch would backrap on a shift just like Mcqeens Mustang... Have liked Sticks ever since!...

I’m 57, my daily ride is a 2010 Ranger with a 5 speed stick.
Wifey is 3 years older and has a 14 Crosstrek which is also a 5 speed. We hunted pretty hard to find something with a standard transmission, but that’s what she wanted.
I read somewhere that stick shift vehicles make up less than 2% of the vehicles sold yearly, and most automakers no longer offer a standard transmission, even as an option, and many are switching over to the CVT transmission only.
7mm

67 currently a 95 tacoma with 2.7 5spd manual. Had std transmission in vehicles all my life. When they started phasing out manuals in snow plow trucks for autos I stayed with the manuals so the worthless millennial fugs they were hiring could use the autos . Long live those old Internationals and Sterlings with Road Rangers...mb

Old enough to know better, young enough not to care.
2021 Bronco, 7 speed manual just because I could. Less computer integration.
Too bad you can’t get a manual transfer case with real levers.
Today’s automatics are adaptive to your driving style, the computer is constantly monitoring and adapting, great technology but a lot to go wrong. What will hold up better in the long run?
I don’t think there is any real advantage to a manual over an automatic anymore, just personal preference.
My first manual was in a ‘44 Willy’s jeep, top speed 40 and no brakes, that thing was a climbing machine. If you are familiar with push-up field terraces, it would climb right up the steepest ones I could find. Drive it through culverts and up creeks.

'05 Dodge W2500 Diesel 6spd... "Trusty Rusty"...

Sweet!!

Up until last november. 05 with the six speed.
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Kid ran a red and clobbered me.

Very Nice. I would love to have that one sitting in my garage.

I got tickled at my wife when she drove my new 88 GMC pickup. She grew up in a rural area and drove, pretty much out of necessity, from the time she was 12. The GMC had a floor shift and a light on the dash that came on as the motor was winding up. It was triggered by a vacuum system somehow to give you a hint when to change gears. Well, she was drivingalong and asked me why that light kept coming on. When I told her, she literally yelled at it," I've been driving for 30 yeaars and you've been driving for two weeks, and you're going to tell ME how to drive!".