I just got a rather interesting email from my uncle. We both drive manual transmissions and it seems like we both found this article to be very interesting. According to MSN Money driving a manual transmission will not only save you money but it will save the planet, sorta.

While you are still polluting you are at least polluting less. According to the article a proficient manual drive can reduce their carbon emissions by two thirds of a metric ton. If your good your car’s fuel economy could improve by about fifteen percent. Manuals are more expensive to make but dealers charge on average $800 to $1,200 less for them because they don’t have the automatic transmission which is considered a creature comfort. It makes sense too, according to the MSN Money article only 9% of the cars sold today in the US are manuals. The article also notes that the number is expected to drop to 6% by 2012.

The article also mentions that on average your run of the mill car thieves do not know how to drive a manual. The article makes reference to a post on “Just Wondering…” that says you can learn to drive a manual in 45 minutes, assuming you know how to drive a car already. I agree, it is easy. If you know my uncle I am sure you have heard him say the same thing. He always used to tell me that when he taught me how to drive a manual and I always disagreed. I can see the error of my ways now, it is easy you just need to practice. When you get it down it is way more fun. Just knowing I can down shift and get an extra boost of power to blow past someone makes it worth it. I can also remember before I started driving a manual I used to give hell to those people that are always rolling backwards at traffic lights, now I am one of those people. I don’t know why I do it, half the time I don’t even realize I am doing it. It just seems to be something you do. So to all those people I used to criticize for it, I am sorry.

One more quick note, Read the article on “Just Wondering…” there are a couple bits that I found comical. Like #11 in the Driving on Hills section.