Baby, Can You Drive My Car? Not If It's a Stick Shift - WSJ

[question everything]

Mary Sampietro got the scare of her life five years ago. It left her disappointed in America’s young people.

The mental health professional was in her stick-shift 2016 Jeep Patriot in a rough neighborhood in her native Houston when she rolled down the window to smoke a cigarette. Suddenly, a teenager stuck a gun in her face, ordering her out of the car. He got in but only made it to the next traffic light before stalling the engine and running away.

“I was like ‘How can you be a carjacker and not know how to drive a manual?’”

For Sampietro, who learned to row her own gears in a 1970s Datsun pickup truck with no power steering, the skill’s increasing rarity is a frequent source of annoyance. Her husband’s career requires her to attend events with mandatory valet parking. The job often attracts college students. One particularly bad experience convinced her that they often lie about being able to handle the odd stick shift like hers.

“This young man ground my gears in a way that made me want to throw up,” she says. “I turned around and parked way down the street and walked. I did not tip.”

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The result can be red-carpet treatment for this rarefied class of drivers. Garrett Williams, a 40-year-old actuary from Denver, rarely frequents fancy locales, but on a trip he took with his wife to a resort with mandatory valet parking he was told that the one employee who could drive his manual Subaru Crosstrek wasn’t there. As a courtesy, he was allowed to park right in front of the entrance. Older valets, often immigrants who learned to drive on a stick, still have to reassure drivers nervous about their transmissions.

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Jaden Lamar knows how to drive a stick despite being only 24, but he says very few of the young people who have worked for Lux Valet, the Atlanta parking company he co-owns, can. After one embarrassing experience at an upscale restaurant, he decided to allow manual drivers to park themselves in a “VIP” spot. An employee claimed he had experience but, as the guests sat down at an open terrace with a view of the driveway, he burned their clutch, wafting a nasty odor into the dining area.

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https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/stick-shift-cars-valet-manuel-3a38b206?st=57abx87hm4jxyjj&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink