If you’re on the green side of 30, chances are good that you don’t know how to drive a car with a standard transmission, that’s unless you’ve already had some of the Driving Lessons Newcastle has on offer.

Once upon a time, “learning a stick” was a rite of passage. The price difference between standards and automatics used to be much more pronounced, so when parents bought new cars for their kids, they often chose cheaper stick-shifts. They bought plenty of used cars, too, and the older the model, the more likely it was a standard. An older car model doesn’t mean the car’s less reliable, it just means it’s been around the block a few times. And for someone who has just passed their test, an older car was much more suitable in case it got a few bumps and scratches. Of course, before buying the car, the competitive auto insurance rates would be compared for a new driver so that if anything were to happen, the car and driver would be covered.

Nowadays, standards are an anomaly, making up only about 10 percent of the U.S. market. It seems crazy that someone who has just learned to drive or is learning to drive is driving a brand new automatic car that could easily get marked. But that doesn’t make learning to drive one any less fun or rewarding.

If you’ve always wondered about driving a stick, the folks at Jalopnik put together a quick video that offers five minutes of down-and-dirty tips. Of course, it’s not as good as actually getting behind the wheel and figuring out the two-foot system on your own, but it’s a start.