In article >,
"Richard Phillips" > wrote:

> Is stick-shift the norm for sports cars over there, or just Miatas in
> particular?

I'm just judging by what I hear in traffic, but my guess is that Miatas,
Porsches, and Z3/4s are overwhelmingly manuals, while domestics
(Corvette, Solstice, Sky) tend to be automatics. The sedans that some
call "sports cars" (Mustang, etc.) are almost invariably automatics.
Many U.S. and Japanese models are not even available with manual
transmissions.

We now have two generations of drivers who never learned to use a clutch.