Buy your kid a stick-shift car

Instead of fielding a question this week, let's look at an idea for making young people more thoughtful at the wheel.

Apart from pockets of sporting drivers, stick-shift transmissions are disappearing. That's too bad for today's youth, because driving a stick is fun. More important, it's engaging, which for youthful drivers is a good thing. Driving a manual transmission also requires coordination. What youngster wouldn't mind being a little more coordinated?

Young drivers have a lot of accidents. Is that surprising? When you're listening to an iPod, taking phone calls, checking out cute pedestrians and fussing with the grown-up's in-car video game, aka satellite navigation, it's hard to stay focused. Add to these distractions the reality that carmakers have made driving as simple as extending one ankle and propping one hand against the wheel - thanks in large part to the automatic transmission - and trouble comes easy and fast.

Make your kid shift and suddenly driving takes a little effort. It takes concentration. You can't make that phone call and the next shift, so the call has to wait. When a controlled intersection comes, your teen has to clutch to stop and clutch-and-shift to go. Engaging the brain where cross traffic presents a life-threatening hazard is, once again, advantageous.

Because shifting is linked to vehicle speed, it also keeps your young operator more attuned to how fast he or she is going. In a manual transmission vehicle, your brain tracks what gear you're in. If you know first, second and third are primarily for non-highway use, you won't get into fifth going 60 on a residential street without being aware of it - either because you're in top gear, or because your engine is whining for mercy.

Finally, there's coordination and fun. Automatics were designed for convenience. Shifting was somehow too much hassle. But learn how to shift, how to listen to your engine, how to control your speed with the gear chosen and it can be rewarding. A car can be more than an escalator or airport's moving walkway - something that transports you without thought. It can be a machine you control with care and precision.

Hunters don't pursue deer or pheasants because it's convenient. They do it because it involves skill and coordination (along with a meal sometimes). You could invent an automatic hunting machine, a device you point toward a deer that measures the wind, calculates the distance and drops the buck while you sip a coffee. Convenient, but not much fun. For youth, consider video games. Scientists tell us they can improve coordination and perception. Players run, jump, shoot, duck, crawl. You could make a game that did all those things on its own, but what fun would it be? Sure it would be convenient but that's not what kids are seeking when they boot up a game.

Driving a stick shift engages your eyes, your ears, your brain and all four limbs. You listen to the engine, shift with your right hand, steer with your left hand, clutch with your left foot and tend the accelerator pedal with your right foot. It's a challenge at first, one it feels good to conquer. Yet you still have to think every time you drive and you're more of a participant in the process. It's enjoyable. It works your brain. It improves your coordination. Driving a manual transmission is a good thing for your young driver to do.

If you're going to buy your teenager a car, consider one that requires some learning, some skill, some attention to the process of operating a dangerous instrument - and one that rewards a youthful driver with a sense of complete control over the vehicle. How often does your young person get that feeling?