My wrx is the latest in a long line of manuals. I learned how to drive stick so I could drive my dad's old 77 MG Midget. My uncle was a mechanic, so in the summer, I'd get to drive over the cars over to the air force base once he finished working on the him in exchange for him keeping the midget going. A lot of them had stick shift cars that were fun to drive.

After the parts for the Midget got to be too expensive for a college kid's budget, I had an 86 VW Scirrocco. The shift pattern was different than I was used to (R right next to 1st), so the first couple of days I drove it, I went a different direction than I expected.

My outback was automatic because my ex-husband couldn't drive stick and that was the family car. The only other automatic I owned was a Honda Insight, because I was doing a lot of driving when I was in home health. That car was kind of a lemon, and I went back to stick shift with a Chevy Spark. My kids learned to drive stick on that.

My WRX is my midlife crisis car. My youngest was the only one who was interested in driving stick enough that I feel comfortable letting him borrow it sometimes. He will occasionally borrow it if he's taking his girlfriend somewhere special.

I don't drive an automatic often, so my left foot has mini panic attacks when it realizes there's no clutch.