Insignificant Signals was the thread for this.
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Manual transmissions are handy for compression starting.
I think they are looking to “go”. I see it occasionally with two muscle cars and one hits the gas and they both take off. I get it sometimes too in my car. I pop the accelerator a little and watch them take off as I slow back down. I like to do this if I know a speed trap is up ahead. I also get the occasional “coal roll” from a big dually.
Can any P&C folks tell us how less likely theft is for cars with a manual transmission? Guessing it’s much less frequent since, presumably, not a lot of thieves can drive them.
I did forget about this benefit of manual transmissions. It can come in handy if your battery is dead.
Works if you can get the car into “On” mode. If the “key” is all electronic push-button, then maybe not anymore.
I keep a mobile jump starter in my car (bought at Costco). For the other cars in the family, of course.
Or if your starter is going bad.
transmission is far less a factor than overall car value. Especially the value of its parts.
And most who engage in this trade are very likely to be at least somewhat conversant with operating sticks since many sports cars will fall into that category.
I have no idea what that even means. I need my car to be as simple as possible. Ideally drives itself so I don’t need to learn to drive.
I guess I was asking something more like… in a linear model, if you had the car’s value, ZIP code, vehicle age, etc etc etc, and transmission type as independent variables, what is the coefficient of the transmission type variable?
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virtually zero, IMO
Are you thinking of a log-link model?
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I had never heard the term “compression starting”, but I’m pretty sure it’s equivalent to “popping the clutch”.
When I google “compression starting” the first link is Push start - Wikipedia
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Yep, that’s the term I was familiar with growing up.
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I have had people do that trying to get me to gun my car / race them. And a few times people following me on a two lane road (one lane 2 directions). And sometimes I pull up behind another loud/fast car and do the same to them. Mostly I think it is just messing with other people to see if they will show off or not.
Talk about bringing on reminiscing, this reminds me of the 1980’s. Well, except the time I revved the minivan next to a Ferrari for a laugh (embarrassed the kids and I don’t think the Ferrari noticed 
).
You sure your last name isn’t Griswold?
RN, and unfortunately, the driver was your typical old guy Ferrari driver, not early 80’s Christie Brinkley.
That makes sense, but I know some car thieves are just taking them for a joy ride, in which case (according to a cop friend of mine) amount of gas in the tank and ease of breaking in undetected are factors.
So stick might be more of a deterrent for those folks, but I’m not sure. Those cars might be more likely to be recovered and have low claims costs though. A week or two of a rental car, a detail, and maybe some minor damage (broken window, couple of new dents), less the deductible. Much less than if the car is just completely gone anyway.
How would you know?