“Can you drive a stick?”

Well, if you clicked on the title you have an answer to that question, I’m sure, and probably have an opinion on it. As the automatic transmission ascends to complete ubiquity, I would be curious to know what ratio of techs and writers in your shops can row their own gears. Can you yourself? Does it even matter seeing as how few of these things there are left?

I’d also be curious to know how your shops handle M/Ts given your staff. Do you have a crummy econobox sitting out back that new techs can coax around the lot if they so desire? Do you just pull the occasional manual customer vehicle around for your good tech who can’t drive one into a bay? Is the ability to drive a stick still required at your shop?

I’d also imagine for you dealership techs, your answers to this might be varied based on make. If you work for a Lincoln dealer, you can probably go years without pulling a handshaker into a bay. If you fix Wranglers all day, though, I imagine that would be quite a different story, no?

Aging technology has always wound down. We no longer adjust idle speeds or replace spark plug wires with any regularity. But the manual gearbox is a strange exception to this progression because instead of being phased out, it’s simply a piece of equipment that, while current, is still foreign to many people—tech and layman alike.

So can you work a stick? How about the other people in your shop?