re: Study: Only 18% of Americans know how to drive stick shift

True story - the manual with which I learned to drive had some sort of issue with the connection between the gear stick and the actual housing under the floorboard. At some point it eventually broke and you could wiggle it a bit and pull the entire gear stick out of the floor with the boot still attached. My dad joked it was his anti-theft device, but more than once I pulled it out of the floor while shifting from 1st to 2nd and it wasn't very funny. Eventually I just started in 2nd gear regardless.