How To: Drive 5-Speed Column Shift Manual on a JDM Imported RHD Van! 

I wish your wish never comes true.

I wish more modern cars had manuals. Because last time i checked there were not manual option for the most powerful model (it was 200+hp)

Bruh, that's just going to be confusing also I'm less likely to hit a wrong gear if I'm on a horizontal plane instead of a vertical.

No!

Nope , normal gear stick is way better

Extremely common here in nz on old jap utes

I can picture someone instinctively pulling the column down thinking it’ll go into drive then all of a sudden they’re going in reverse

@@ionpeen A friend had a Dodge Aspen back in the day (maybe ten years ago) and he left the keys in the switch in the rough neighborhoods. No takers. My Studebaker had the column shift stick, with the complication of a starter button under the clutch pedal so that the clutch pushed the button.

Lol. It depends. The first column shift I ever drove was a 5 speed Nissan. I was able to figure that out in about a minute.

If you can drive a manual, this is not hard even if you go from left hand to right hand drive.

Bench seats were nice. My uncle Frank used to own a 1990 Cadillac Brougham with I was a kid, and it had s seatbelt in the front center, so the car could seat 6 with plenty of room to spare. The front bench with the column gear selector made the car feel much larger than any sedan available today. The enormous size trunk was perfect for a couple of teenagers to sneak into a drive in movie unnoticed 😃

I learned on a three-on-the-tree in a '51 Studebaker Commander, ancient at the time. Somehow my Mom even found a three-speed '70 Buick Estate Wagon with the 455 engine (a couple of dozen were built, bought it from her boss). I think it was 1984 when we first had an automatic in the family. I bought my first floor-shift manual in 1985, and that's all I've bought since. Going to test-drive a six speed Subaru later today, give those heated seats a good workout.

never knew they existed. I know that, many years ago, particularly before the mid to late 70s 3 on the tree was common, worked well for cars with front bench seats. also for a short period in the 1960s, 4 on the tree was available on some ford and chevy/GMC vans, they apparently were far less common than 3 on the tree, and of course the column shift automatic which was also very common at the time. Funny how today, very few new car models offer a manual transmission but in the 50s and 60s an automatic was considered a luxury.

Hello! Yes, shot in the US! I imported the van from Japan earlier this year :) Thanks for watching!

Don't forget all those imports (SAAB, Citroen, Mercedes, BMW, Peugeot, DKW, Fiat, Renault, and many more) with four-speed colun shift. I remember reverse in the SAAB was pull the lever out to the right, back toward the driver, and down. Some column manual four-speeds had fourth as the dogleg shift (outside the H-pattern) instead of reverse.

The 3 speed on the column was so common, and the shift pattern so universal, they didn't need a shift pattern plate.

In all honesty, they're nice, my favorite type of shifter. You don't have to move your hand far from the wheel to reach it. The caveat is, most made from late 50s up to the late 70s were garbage and mostly 3 speeds. They were integrated in the column tube and had alot of play, plus completely worn out most of the time. The best one I've driven from that era was an AMC. Cars older than 1955 tend to have shifters with their own assemblies, separate from the column itself. Those were better to an extent, primarily when not completely worn out.

I like having them the opposite, if i want to start moving forward, i bring the shifter towards me to the front of the vehicle, if i want to start to reverse it's completely opposite, i move the shifter away from me and towards the rear of the vehicle. The shifter is pushed/placed in the intended direction of travel. Seems intuitive to me.