You. Yes, you. The person reading this. If you weren’t a car enthusiast, you were a normal person with a normal life, answer this question. What is the single most important parameter that makes a car more enjoyable than ever? What is the secret ingredient? What is the special sauce that makes a car special? The secret, is the manual gearbox. The stick shift. Three pedals (one clutch, one brake, and one accelerator), and one shifter with an amazing to hold gear knob. A match made in heaven. No matter how any car actually is to drive, it’s the manual gearbox that makes the experience more engaging. However, it is dying.
Indian traffic is bad, and is only going to get worse. All over the world, automatics are increasing in preference and are replacing manual gearboxes. Because they are more convenient and make the car easier to drive. So, including India, automatics are the more preferred solution. However, for convenience, and ease of driving, we are sacrificing driving engagement, and a skill that must be learned. The real problem is not that manuals are dying, the real problem is that new drivers will now avoid learning how to drive a manual, which in my opinion, everyone must.
The impending death of the manual makes sense. However, as an enthusiast, I think that we must do what we can to preserve it. I am not against automatics; they are a necessity these days. However, we must do everything we can to preserve manuals. If you can, keep a manual car for the weekend, and an automatic as your practical daily. Or rent manual cars that are fun to drive and take them for long drives occasionally. And learning how to drive a manual is a must. It’s a life skill. If you are a new driver, learn on a manual. After that, your car can be an automatic.
