In this world where everything is made easier, people fall flat on their nose when they are faced with something they should do manually. Changing a lightbulb is a problem for some people. Turning on a washing machine is a huge issue for others, something that they have never done in their lives.
Household work can be very problematic in typically patriarchal communities, especially for the men. But, what most people outside Europe often fail to do, is know how to drive a stick shift, or manual transmission car. This is not mandatory in the United States and in fact, most consider it an advanced driving technique. In other countries of the world, it is a very basic concept that everyone must know and here is why everyone should.
Learning About the Car
The very act of learning how to use the clutch pedal and the stick means that you will automatically know more about the car. That being said, you will directly influence the car’s longevity. What that means is that you will have to drive better and to know more about the car if you want it to last longer.
Bad use of the clutch results in a clutch which is more likely to break. The clutch works on a simple principle of friction. The part of the clutch which can and will fail if it is used poorly is called the flywheel. It can be changed, but you don’t want to change it every three months because you get the car moving with 5000 RPM, half-clutching it all the time.
It Teaches You to Control the Car More Carefully
What the clutch does give you is more control of the car. There is a reason why every driver and car enthusiast (unless they are professional chauffeurs) prefers a manual transmission. With the clutch, you can control your car’s motion to a centimeter.
You can move it bit by bit, or even have it stand still on a hill just by using the clutch, pressing it half way, or however enough it is needed to counteract gravity in that situation.
When you learn how to control the car more carefully, it can become a bit addictive and frankly, driving anything but a manual certainly gets boring after a while. The clutch and stick give you so much interactivity and add another level to the driving, which most people consider normal, but others miss out on.
Basically, stick shifting is a necessity in most of the world and one cannot get a driver’s license if they don’t learn how to drive stick. Most drivers should learn how to drive stick, simply because they would be able to control the car better and would gain a new appreciation for the experience that is driving, especially good driving.
