Very nice story and it also reflects my sentiment towards the fading-out stick shift. The "riding a bicycle" part was funny but in fact it is true that once you learned how to drive with a stick, you'll never forget! I'm luckier that we bought a VW V6 Passat with stick shift as my wife also knows how. But now we're facing a dilemma that whether we should fix the Passat with a broken water pump at 57K miles, which requires expensive timing belt replacement, or sell it as is for almost nothing?! I still prefer keeping a stick car in the family to have a chance teaching kids how to drive it, but in the mean time all other costs, repairs, insurance, taxes, etc., and too many cars around the house, as we just bought a new CX-5, make us think we should get rid of the Passat!