Florida man can't drive car he tried to steal from Uber driver at knifepoint
CLEARWATER, Fla. — The inability to drive a car kept one Florida man from completing a carjacking of his Uber driver, deputies say.
James Naylor, 61, and his girlfriend got into an Uber on Aug. 23 to take a ride home from the bar when the sheriff's office says Naylor pulled a knife on the driver.
From the backseat, Naylor put the knife to the driver's throat and told him to pull over, to which the driver complied, according to an arrest report. ...........(more)
https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/crime/carjacker-foiled-by-inability-to-drive-car/67-7c47325b-c410-45cd-b230-3e5efd6dfddc
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partly as a concession to age (I'm 67) and partly because they're getting hard to find and my current vehicle is 11 years old - though I do plan to keep it a couple more years.
I pulled into a gas station today & asked for some help checking my tire pressure (don't know why, I have never mastered doing that myself) as the warning light was on. The young mechanic who helped me noticed looked in the car to check what the pressure should be the he gasped "It's a manual! That is cool!" and looked at me with great admiration. My niece's husband told me when he met me he knew I was the cool aunt when he found out I drove a stick....It's the last thing this old girl can do to impress young men. 
if you want to drive a "luxury" car or an SUV, they probably don't ever come in manual transmissions any more.
A good 25 years ago when I was shopping for a new car, back when I still bought new, I was keen on a Toyota Camry. Alas, only their base model was available in a manual, so forget that. Instead I bought a Subaru. About ten years before that when car shopping, I was interested in a Volvo. Even then they either didn't come in a manual at all, or the dealership would have to order one in which I'd then be committed to buy, so no thank you.
Subaru and Honda both still make manual transmissions. I'm sure other companies do, so you'd need to do some research.
When my sons were in high school and their classmates were beginning to drive, their friends were always impressed that this mom could drive a stick.
And when I go car shopping most of the young salesmen have never known a woman who could drive a manual.
My current car, a 2017 Honda Fit, I bought a year and a half ago. I'd much earlier decided that my next car would be a Fit, and I was determined to purchase new, because they simply aren't that expensive to begin with and hold their value incredibly well. So I went to the local Honda dealership, had a lovely chat with a salesman, who won me over by not at all suggesting I consider an automatic. He didn't have any manual transmissions on the lot. At the time new Honda Fits were in very short supply because there had been a flood at the factory in Mexico where they're made, and so none had been built for several months. He assured me he'd let me know when he could get one in I could look at. Two days later he called me because they'd just gotten in that 2017 on a trade-in, and I should at least come in and give it a test drive. During the test drive I learned that 2017 was the last year Honda installed a CD player, something I absolutely need in a car because I have not yet fully mastered the digital technology to play music or pod casts or whatever. That sold me.
It's possible this will be my last car. By the time I might want to get a replacement, I may well be ready to give up driving. I might also relocate to a city with better public transportation, although there's a good senior van service here, and of course there's always Uber and Lyft.
I actually love buying cars. A bit over a decade ago I was involved in one way or another in the purchase of about 8 new (new to the purchaser, all were used cars) cars in about a two year period. First son needed his first car. Second son needed his first car. Husband wanted to replace what he'd been driving. Then both sons had accidents in which their cars were totalled. No one hurt, fortunately. Then my car decided to throw a head gasket. So I bought three cars in about four weeks. Then my car got totalled. You get the picture. I've actually written up a bunch of rules about buying a car, if you want me to PM it to you. And those rules do not presume what kind of car you want. The rules apply to any and all kinds of cars.
