Sunny, With a High of 65°.
Today, it’s a beautiful sunny day, with a lovely high of 65°. And we all know what this means, right? Ridiculously awesome, so lets just say PERFECT, driving weather. Seriously, if you live in Orlando, and you’re reading this right now, go outside (well, after you finish reading of course), hop in your car, and set off on the road, with the windows down and your music turned up. I know you’ll agree with me.
I discovered the perfectness of today, while heading over to my parents to hang out. I just felt so happy, driving along, listening to happy music, and utilizing all the pep my small car has, which made driving around infinitely more fun (as you can see from my picture).
Which brings me to my real point of today: Today is the perfect drive outside, but it is only made absolutely perfect if you enjoy the perfect driving day by driving a manual car.
Don’t get me wrong, automatics are fine, and sometimes when I’m in barely moving traffic and my leg is killing me from pressing in the clutch, I even wish for a second that I had an automatic car. But automatics aren’t for me. For me, driving an automatic car, just feels like driving a golf cart. And I have nothing against you if you like feeling like you’re driving a golf cart. I’m still going to tell you five reasons why driving standard is awesome though.
5. Keeps you focused. That’s right, because I am too busy shifting and steering while driving, my hands are therefore unable to also text or really ever talk on the phone while driving. This is a nice perk, as I learned in my speech class last year, if you text, or are on the phone while driving, your chances of getting in a car accident that injures you, are quadrupled. By making it impossible for me to shift, steer, and text, or reasonably talk on the phone while driving, driving standard decreases my chances of getting a more serious car accident. Awesome.
4. Standard Cars are less expensive. I promise I’m not lying to you. When we were helping my brother find a new car a few years back, he was debating between a standard, and an automatic Mazda 3. But when it came down to it, the standard car was a good $1500 less expensive. And unless you’re a kazillionaire, that’s a good chunk of savings. My brother ended up buying the standard car(not knowing how to drive standard), and learned how to drive it within a matter of days, in order to snatch up those savings. Which brings me to numero tres.
3. Learning to drive standard is easy. I’m for-serious guys, it is easy. There are no complicated formulas, or waving of wands required. It’s just like learning to ride a bike: the concept is really simple, it just takes a bit of practice. And my proof is above. My brother had no idea how to drive standard when he bought his car. But after about 3 or 4 days of lessons from my parents, he was able to drive his new car home without any issues.
2. It’s a good skill to have. What if your mom/friend/sister/aunt/etc goes into labor, and you can’t take her to the hospital, because you didn’t drive and her car is standard, and you don’t know how? Or what if you’re roommate told you that you could borrow his or her car, but it turns out the car is standard? If you don’t know how, you’re still stuck walking. Or, the reverse, what if your roommate wants to borrow your car, but you’re a little OCD your car? If you have a standard car, and they don’t have your skillz (that’s right, I said it), you don’t even have to worry about anything, since they can’t drive it.
1. It’s super fun. You may think I’m being silly, but I really think this is a valid reason, and my number one reason. I’ll be honest, all the previous reasons are good sensible reasons to drive standard, but the main reason I love driving my manual car, is because it’s ridiculously fun. You have more control over the shifting and acceleration, so even if you’re car doesn’t have the most horsepower, you can still make it zip. I know for a fact my Mazda isn’t the fastest car in the world, but I have fun zipping past everyone else when the light turns green, it just makes me happy. And that’s important.
PS: Distracted driving stats found here, and more about why standard cars are awesome here.
