This thread brought to mind my misconception tat everyone should learn to drive a standard before learning an automatic. I learned by the time our 4th child nearly destroyed my clutch that driving a stick first was not the way to go for the "un-gifted". Two sets of identical twins, and one of each pair was a natural driver and drove a standard with no trouble. The other sibling struggled. All our kids did learn to drive a standard transmission, and the youngest does work on heavy equipment and semis, so he can drive literally everything.
It's been a long time since I've driven a car with a standard transmission, although I preferred it. When I bought my first new car, a Datsun-Nissan pickup truck, I found that I would have to wait up to six months for one with a standard transmission, so I accepted one with an automatic transmission instead, and have never driven a standard shift since.
We used to have a '64 American station wagon with 3-on-the-tree and a flathead 6. It had very little compression. I have taken it up hills where it would bog, and I'd downshift into second. It would bog more and--not having a synchronized first gear--I would come to a complete stop on the hill (with traffic behind me) to downshift into first as though I were some fully-laden big rig trying to climb a mountain.
I didn't forget about all the manual transmissions I used operating equipment, I specified highway licensed vehicles so we didn't get into farm and construction equipment and things like sand dragsters hahaha! I did forget about motorcycles but oh well, I can't remember how many speeds they had. I think our old farm Cushman was 2 speeds and had a belt transmission, but not sure. The little Honda I had was 4 speeds and the Harley that one radio station had for us to run-up to the transmitter site with was 5 maybe 6. I do remember our old International diesel tractor that had 5 speeds manual with a 2-speed torque converter which worked great for harrowing the hilly fields in Colorado. The torque converter was smooth for controlling torque without any loss of speed lost in manually shifting. With a spring tooth harrow, I could do the entire 80 acres of alfalfa field using 3 gear and applying torque climbing the small hills. The torque converter was so cool because you had all ranges between the gears. They say it was like having 10 speeds but I say more like 40 because on low it was just the same as the selected gear and on high just slightly under the next highest gear. The drill trucks I drove were 5 speeds with the 2-speed electric rear end. You had 10 gears and that was it. A lot of fun to drive because that 2-speed electric (a solenoid actually changed gears in the rear end) shifted smoothly for a manual shift since it was in the rear end. Just a flick of a switch. Most semis are now automatic.
The motorcycles I owned had 5 gears; 1 down and four up except a Suzuki which was 1 down and 5 up. The shifting was so slick on the Suzuki that it was more fun than work.
I always preferred manual transmissions when driving in snowy or icy conditions, especially if I got stuck.
Original Austin Healey 3000s had a manually-operated (cable) 2 speed rear, essentially making them 8 speeds. Somewhere along the line (Mark II or Mark III) they went to electronic. We had one of each in the family. I recall the differential in my Coke truck (1972) was a mechanical 2 speed one that you had to catch juuuust right, or the rear was not engaged...the spur (I assume) would repeatedly bounce off of the gears, unable to lock in. You had to put it back in Low and try again.
Hubby use to own bikes too but he was too crazy on them so they had to go, only things that put him in hospital when he was young was a quarter horse and 650 Triump.
I grew up driving tractors, just steering them before I could reach the clutch, much less having enough strength to push it. And we drove lot cars when we had to peek between the dash and steering wheel to see where we were going, lol. The first auto I remember was a '56 Plymouth with the pushbutton auto on the left side. We hated autos but took what we could get. With a stick we could pop the clutch and spin in the dirt -- big fun. I learned how to ride motorcycles and scooters in my early teens and owned 5 motorcycles later on, right up to six years ago. Here is a pik of an old farm truck that originally belonged to my uncle. It was a post-war, but before 1950 I'm pretty sure. We were only 14-15 then and had it just to beat. It had a 2-speed axle, not electric, but activated by the type of cable used for chokes, etc. And the button was broke off, so we had a pair of Vise Grips snapped on the cable end. It was a 4-speed, no synchros, had to double-clutch up or down. When I was in my 30s I was helping my buddy move big hay bales one summer. He had a trailer made for hauling the bales and had an ancient single axle road tractor with farm plates. Again, no synchros, had to double-clutch up or down. I had a '70 440 Roadrunner stick and taught my first wife how to drive it. She learned quick and was so proud that she knew how to drive a stick. I finally got tired of shifting and bought my first new auto truck, a '98 S-10 and never looked back. I bought a Corvette in 2014, auto only, I'm done with sticks.
I've had two, a Ford Pinto and a VW Rabbit, both 4-speeds, if I remember correctly. (Do you count reverse as a "speed"?) I was having a bit of a trouble learning how to drive a stick on the Pinto, but one Saturday my husband was away and I wanted to go to the mall. I swore the 3-year-old daughter to secrecy and off we lurched to the mall, stalling frequently. That night, of course, she ratted me out, "Mommy took me to the mall and we went bump-bump-bump all the way!" Little rat....after I had bought her ice cream, too. I was a whiz by the time we got the Rabbit. Unfortunately, I was driving to work in stop-and-go interstate traffic and I was always too high for one gear and too low for the next and it was shift-shift-shift constantly. I hated it. I was so glad when we got an automatic.
I had a 5 speed '80 Honda Civic and a 4 speed '86 Ford Ranger. I enjoyed driving them. It made you feel like you were doing something important. Ha! They also made you pay attention to driving more. With the automatics now, I can drift off thinking about something, and then wonder if I remembered to stop at the last red light. I have a lot of trouble with a 6 speed Sears riding mower. You can't let the clutch out slow enough to avoid a serious jerk. And a multiple speed (3x3) NH tractor. Sometimes it just won't engage and you have to ease forward or backward just a little to get it to go into another gear. Something I'm doing wrong, I guess.