American Powertrain coined the hashtag #SAVETHESTICK, and it also happens to be for a good reason too. Not only is it a great slogan, but it also surfaces the issues of the disappearing stick shift. As many of you know American Powertrain has been around for many years and they build 5 and 6 speed kits for multiple cars including A, B and E-body Mopars, as well as drive shafts, pedals, cross members and a plethora of other accessories. Which is a great upgrade for our classic cars, but the bigger issue is the young generation cant drive a manual!

Recently the Los Angeles Times wrote an article on this exact subject. The majority of new cars sold are automatics, and most of the time if you walk into any car dealership they won’t have a manual car on the lot! As the generations that grew up with 70’s muscle cars can attest, there’s no better feeling than sitting behind the wheel of a gas guzzling V8 and burning rubber through the gears. Or to be racing and know the feeling of pulling away from the guy beside you as you slam through the gears. Don’t get me wrong, there are some fast automatic cars that are being produced but what fun is it to press the gas and just go? There’s no excitement, no ability needed to go fast.

You can probably tell we are not enthused about the declining amount of manual equipped cars that we see roaming the streets, but that’s why we are thrilled to see #SAVETHESTICK motto that American Powertrain has created. We want to see manual transmissions continue to evolve, not go away. The only way we continue the tradition of stick shift cars starts with us. If you own a manual transmission car, teach someone to drive it, if you have kids teach them, maybe let a friend drive it to see how awesome they are. If we don’t start allowing others to see how awesome stick shift cars are, they are going to die off. So please do your part and #SAVETHESTICK!