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Boston's Ideas & Opinion Newsletter
Shifting gears: One man's ode to manual transmission
Editor's Note: This is a letter from the editors included in WBUR's weekly opinions and ideas newsletter, Cognoscenti. If you like what you read and want it in your inbox, sign up here .
The manual transmission is nearly extinct. Last year, fewer than 2% of vehicles sold had stick shifts. But people who love to drive stick really, really love it. Cog contributor Jonathan D. Fitzgerald is one of those devotees . Last week, he wrote an ode to the kind of driving that seems at odds with newer technology: It requires more, not less, of us.
“A manual transmission is needier than an automatic; it wants every one of your limbs engaged,” he wrote. “Left hand on the wheel, right hand on the stick. Left foot on the clutch, right foot on the gas.”
I drove a manual for many years, and though it never inspired the same devotion (shifting interfered with my morning coffee), I was moved by his essay. So were many of our readers: The piece quickly shot to the top of our most-read list.
As we enter the fourth year of the pandemic, with continuing bleak news on war and climate, this essay about a small passion ran deep.
“The thing is, a lot of the time, I feel out of sync — like I’m the one stuck between gears,” Jonathan wrote. “I think this is why driving my little blue Subaru Impreza with its manual transmission can feel profound.”