Car thieves stall Porsche twice and give up because they can't drive manual

Three would-be car thieves tried stealing a Porsche in Bethesda, Maryland but eventually gave up because of the manual gearbox in the car.

It sounds like the sort of stuff you’d watch in a cartoon or read in a comic book, but this really happened.

To a lot of people, this’ll probably feel funny, tragic and infuriating all at the same time, and for different reasons.

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As reported by Fox 5 DC, Bethesda restaurant owner Myo Maung was leaving his business when three would-be carjackers approached him at gunpoint.

They took his keys and attempted to steal his Porsche, which is reportedly a 718.

The problem is, none of them knew how to drive a manual, so after stalling not once but twice, they eventually gave up and fled the scene with the Nissan they’d used to get there.

The manual gearbox is dying, but not dead yet

Cars with manual transmissions were never particularly popular in the U.S., and the number of cars with a manual sold every year has always been low.

That number is still going down.

Across the board, less than four percent of cars sold every year have a manual gearbox, and that’s just because of niche cars such as the Toyota Supra or the Mazda Miata.

But things are quite different in other countries, and it seems car manufacturers haven’t given up on the manual gearbox yet.

The new track-focused Aston Martin Valiant (above), for example, has a manual transmission, and even every day or more ‘attainable’ cars such as the VW Jetta are available with a manual gearbox.

So yes, the manual gearbox is slowly dying, but it ain’t dead just yet.