Originally Posted by
kipper
Not just guys... I'm a woman and have yet to own a car without a manual transmission. I love the extra control, including being able to downshift in a hurry or stay in a lower gear when dealing with snow and hilly roads. I learned to drive on a manual transmission, and when I do drive an automatic (rental cars, driving friends' cars), I'm afraid I'm going to punch a hole through their floorboard where the clutch should be.
I've never had quite that problem. If I push a nonexistent clutch my foot realizes the problem in time, I don't stomp on the floor. The problem is automatics have a wider brake pedal--more than once I've caught that pedal instead of the clutch that isn't there. Of course my left foot tries to push it to the floor. I learned on a car with a [b]very[/b stiff clutch. (My father had a problem with riding the clutch while going up through the gears. A friend who was aware of this did the clutch replacement--and put in parts for a much heavier clutch. Thus my foot is willing to push quite hard to get that clutch to go down.)