I did. 1993 Saturn SL2. I bought that car for $1500 in 2001 when I was 16 and quite literally drove it until the wheels fell off (which then ended in me flipping over the car on the highway, but that’s a story for another day. That also ended with being the reason I can’t listen to “The Red” by Chevelle without a mild panic attack, also a story for another day.)
The idea of buying an 8 year old car (with only 93k miles, at that) for $1500 just seems so foreign now.
All it needed was a muffler, too. I drove it for about a year and a half before I killed the clutch, and that was the most expensive repair it had.
I had a 4 speed Saturn. I loved it. Great car. Was so disappointed when they went out of business
89 camaro. Old junk with a nice paint job when I got it. Dad made me get a V6 after test driving a 67 mustang with a hell of a motor, being totally unprepared as a 16yo kid, and doing a 180 in an intersection. Tires were cheap and way too small for the motor. I’ve had a 300zx, e30, fj40, a mustang, a couple fieros, and a second camaro. All were manuals. I was in the middle of rebuilding the last camaro’s motor for low compression and a B&M mini blower when the crash that disabled me happened.
Every car has a clutch. Not all of them are manual.
My HEV Corolla does not
Most automatics use a torque converter instead of a clutch.
Show me you’re old without telling me you’re old.
Torque converters (at least nowadays) have a clutch
My car doesn’t even have multiple gears, let alone a clutch
Single speed reduction transmission :)
I learned stick in my 30s after driving an automatic up until then. Humbling to have to learn to drive again at that point in your life.
Learned and took my driving test in an 88 Dodge Omni 5 speed.
started off in a Vauxhall Corsa with no power steering or windows, yes a full manual car. Except choke
I did drive some of my mums auto cars, remembering that they dont have a clutch is the problem.
As someone who learned driving using a manual transmission car, automatic transmission is much better for city driving, I hated having to be careful with the clutch in stop and go city traffic, my left leg would get so sore after a while, plus I’ve stalled the engine more than once by letting the clutch go too fast.
Yeah I finally went over to the dark side because of bostons horrendous stop and go traffic
Of course I’d use transit whenever I could. However I lived to the east and had to drive through Boston to get home from anywhere else. There were times when it took hours to drive just a couple miles: I couldn’t deal with manual transmission for that
1982 SAAB 900. No turbo, no sunroof. No frills. Still a fun car to drive. Drove it till the motor gave out just shy of 1,500,000 miles on the ODO
1.5 million???
I had a total of 6 SAABs. I was a delivery driver that did long distance deliveries, mostly donated organs. None of them died before 1.2 million miles. The closest I ever got to the 2 million mile club was my 1986 SAAB 900 SPG that I got to a whopping 1,854,35*,*** miles. I don’t remember the small digits. There are still SAABs out there that are joining that club, and they haven’t made one since 2011
That’s awesome. I can’t think of any car built in the last 20 years that you could expect anywhere near that kind of longevity. Even ‘premium’ German brands. I had a BMW that started falling to bits after 100k and my SO had an Audi from brand new that was riddled with problems for the 3 years she had to endure it.
Holy crap! My wife’s Solara has 368,000 miles on it and I thought that was a lot.
I had a total of 6 SAABs. I was a delivery driver that did long distance deliveries, mostly donated organs. None of them died before 1.2 million miles. The closest I ever got to the 2 million mile club was my 1986 SAAB 900 SPG that I got to a whopping 1,854,35*,*** miles. I don’t remember the small digits. There are still SAABs out there that are joining that club, and they haven’t made one since 2011
That’s insanity. Too bad I never really cared for the look of the Saab. Looks like a shoe to me. Good cars I guess.
Whatever the driving school had, I have no idea what car it was.
Mazda GLC
Learned to drive manual on a 1981 BMW 320i. All of my cars are still manual to this day. 1999 Toyota Solara, 1988 Toyota Corolla GTS, 2003 Toyota MR2 Spyder and 2020 Hyundai Veloster N. But mostly I ride my bike, which is also a manual.
Nissan vanette and ford focus. Don’t miss either of those and have an automatic now. I still drive a friend’s van from time to time which has a clutch, whoch is good so I don’t forget how to drive it. Although it still feels completely natural since I drove manual for 2 decades.
Common password recovery question…
OG Mini. So, yes, had a manual clutch. Now, 40-something years later I’m driving an automatic for the first time because they don’t make the car I wanted at the spec. I wanted in a manual.
1987 Golf, and I still drive a car with a clutch.
