>hahaha. Well I can see his point. In theory a driver has more control over a car with a standard transmission that one with an automatic - that is assuming of course the person knows how to drive properly.
>My twin sister recently bought a new car and the salesman at the dealership was very confused because she wanted a stick-shift and not an automatic - it's like he couldn't figure out why a GIRL would want that...ha. He asked 5 or 6 times and then tried to explain what the difference was thinking she didn't know.

Our second daughter also has a 6-gear manual, and she even got into bit of racing (until her 240sx became more of a hobby than a vehicle... i.e. most of the fun was in replacing the parts, not driving). When she passed the driver's exam, the examiner was amazed, bordering on shocked, to see a young girl driving stick.

My current occasionally car has a bit of a problem with getting into first, sometimes even second, depending on a few variables that we still haven't figured out, and I don't want to fix that. It works for me, I know its quirks and when it gets capricious I know what to do. That's my anti-theft device. If 90% of drivers here don't know how to drive stick, then 90% of the remaining 10% won't know how to get this car to go. I'll risk the 1% this leaves.