Best Cars for Learning Manual: Window Shop with Car and Driver

It’s an art that needs to be learned. The tender dance of clutch, shifter and human being that is operating a manual transmission. For those of us burdened with teaching this subtle activity, the first challenge is finding the perfect training ground. That is, a vehicle with a manual transmission that is perfect for a beginner on which to earn mastery.

That’s the challenge of this week’s Window Shop episode on the minor miracle that is YouTube. It’s Car and Driver’s somewhat-weekly, sometimes-not-so-weekly game show where those in the orbit of this media mélange get together on a Zoom call and duke it out in utter violence. Blood, guts and all sorts of gore! Or, maybe not.

The budget this week to find the perfect manual-transmission training ground was $40,000. Of course, no actual purchases were made because that’s the sort of commitment we all avoid. But it’s always (okay, sometimes) edifying to see what the hangers-on hang up on when they scour the Internet.

This week’s contestants are John Pearley Huffman, on loan from C/D’s Hearst Autos brother Road & Track, newly installed executive editor (he rose as most people do here, by assassination) K.C. Colwell, senior editor Joey Capparella, and longtime fugitive from the crushing authority of the Hardin County, Kentucky public library system, contributor Jonathon Ramsey. Hosting duties are handled by epaulet owning martinet and editor in chief Tony Quiroga.

What did the group find? Watch the damn thing and find out. Large Ram trucks, an Acura, a Mazda, a Toyota and a Honda are involved. The show is presented in living color.

And if you don’t know how to drive a manual transmission, learn now before they’re all gone.

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