Stick Shift Goes The Way of The Dinosaurs

This is really illuminating, not to mention disturbing. I had no idea how scarce manual shift vehicles were these days. If you're the least bit into cars, you must read this article. Here's an exerp:

It's hard to find a manual transmission these days. In 1980, J.D. Powers and Associates estimates that more than 35% of all cars sold had a stick shift. By 2005, that number had dropped to 6%. Four years later, finding a car with a manual transmission is a big challenge -- you have to go either high end or very low end. 

Head on over to Wallet Pop for the whole piece.