Manual transmission thwarts thieves’ attempt to steal woman’s soul (Kia) – Jalopnik

Every year, fewer new cars offer the option of a manual transmission, meaning more and more people don’t know how to drive them. If Fox 17 reports, which worked in favor of a woman in Grand Rapids, Michigan, who credits her shift work with thwarting an attempt to steal her soul. So her Kia Soul.

On Monday morning, Lila Burns-Weerstra discovered that the window of her car was broken and the steering column cracked open, and posted photos of it on Lila Burns-Weerstra’s website. We are Westsiders Facebook group. “Two teenage boys broke into my car at 2:58am last night and tried to steal it. They couldn’t get it to start, I assume because it’s a manual,” she wrote. “My two neighbors have cameras on the porch and recorded video, looking around at the other parked cars on the street.” We won’t be like Volkswagen and questionably advertise a manual transmission as a safety feature, but maybe it has a point here.

I wonder why the would-be thieves didn’t notice the car was a manual before they broke in. Maybe that’s because they’ve made up less than 1% of new cars sold since 2021, according to the EPA Automotive Trends Report 2024. If they assumed that wherever they broke into there was some form of automation, that was a statistically safe assumption, even if we enthusiasts don’t like to admit it.

“I briefly considered switching to an automatic after having to drive on the highway to work every day,” she said. “But now I’ll probably stick to manuals.”

Unfortunately, she is still on the hook for repairs to her window, steering column and ignition switch. Even if insurance covers it (and Kias doesn’t always), it’s still difficult not to have her car while it’s being repaired.

According to GM AuthorityA 2020 Cadillac survey found that 66% of American drivers know how to drive a manual transmission. That number seems a bit high to me, since only a few people I know besides my wife, racing friends, and automotive journalists know how. If you’ve ever wanted to learn it, you might want to learn one while you still can. If you don’t have a friend who can teach you, there’s even a school for it. It may be a dying art form, but so is Morse code, and I know how to do it too.