Why Drive Manual? So what are the benefits of driving a manual transmission? First, because you control the gear changes yourself, the car can run more economically and efficiently in manual than in automatic. Also, because you control the gear changes yourself, you can accelerate faster than in an automatic, and change gears whenever you want to. Driving manual or stick-shift will be somewhat difficult at first, but within a week or two of following this guide and practicing, it will become second nature.