The Savage Nation – MichaelSavage.com – The death of the stick shift is almost here
His father was a devoted fan of the stick shift, and so when it came time for Alvaro Puig to get his driver’s license in the early ’90s, that meant figuring out how to work the clutch and three pedals in his father’s old manual BMWs.
“You’re making decisions about whether to shift, when to shift, when to use the clutch, putting it into gear,” Puig said.
He loved it so much that today he owns two manual BMWs of his own and avoids getting behind the wheel of his wife’s automatic Tesla. Cars with automatic transmissions are just different, he said.
“It’s kinda boring,” said Puig, 52, who lives in Kensington, Maryland.
Drivers like Puig are rare — and nearly gone. Less than 1 percent of new vehicles made for the U.S. market in 2025 were stick shifts, according to preliminary government data. At just 0.6 percent, it was an all-time low.
