A new survey shows that the manual transmission, once a basic skill for American drivers, is fading fast — especially among younger generations.
According to research from Extreme Terrain, only 18% of Americans know how to drive a stick shift. The gap widens sharply by generation: 35% of Gen Z drivers surveyed said they never learned to drive a manual, compared with just 9% of baby boomers.
The survey also found a confidence gap. Among drivers under 30, only half said they believe they could competently operate a manual transmission vehicle.
Driving instructor Andy Nelson, owner of Safe Driver Solutions, told the New York Post that the skill is increasingly confined to older generations.
“People in their mid-40s and up are probably the only people left who really grew up with the stick shift; people now don’t know how to drive it unless their parents or grandparents teach them.”
That generational hand-off is reflected in the data: 56% of manual drivers surveyed said they learned from a parent or older relative.
The motivation for learning has also shifted. Only 22% of Gen Z drivers who learned to drive a manual said they did so out of necessity, compared with 55% of baby boomers, for whom manual transmissions were far more common in everyday vehicles.
Part of the decline reflects the shrinking supply of manual-transmission vehicles on the American market. Most stick-shift cars and trucks still on the road today are older models, often passed down or kept running for decades by owners who value the control they offer, particularly off-road or in rural and remote driving conditions common in states like Alaska and Colorado.
Whatever the cause, the trend has an unintended side effect: vehicles with manual transmissions have become harder for thieves to operate, since fewer people — young car thieves included — know how to drive them.
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