Coronado car thief can't drive stick shift – and it shows

A car thief was caught near the Hotel Del Coronado earlier in the month because the thief couldn't drive a stick shift, reads a police report online.

The pursuit began when Officer Chan of the Coronado Police Department noticed a Jeep stalling and the driver failing to stop completely at a stop sign. "The Jeep was just stolen from 10th Street and A Avenue, and the officer found burglary tools inside the stolen vehicle," continued the report. The police officers found a parking receipt for another stolen Jeep parked in a parking garage by the Otay Mesa Port of Entry.

"The driver was arrested and booked into San Diego County Jail for vehicle theft and possession of burglary tools,"

reads the police report. The police returned the two vehicles to the owners.

Car thieves nowadays are not up to speed driving vehicles with a clutch and stick shift because of the change in driving trends in the U.S. In 2020, Carmax, the nationally used car dealership in Kearny Mesa and Escondido, said that only 2.4 percent of the used vehicles they sold had manual transmissions. In 2018, manual transmission cars made up 3.7 percent of the sales at Carmax.

Also in 2018, a man walked up to a vehicle occupied by two teens at Fox Canyon in City Heights, reported NBC 7 news. Then the perp demanded the teens disembark the vehicle. "Police said the suspect revved the engine several times and tried to drive away, but the car wouldn’t move. Investigators believe the man was stumped because he didn’t know how to drive the manual vehicle. He got out and ran away."

So because car builders and racers know these signs of the times, they are scooping up vehicles equipped with manual transmissions. As in the scenarios mentioned above, though a gear shifter and the clutch pedal deter car thieves, they allegedly pull a faster quarter mile than the same make/model compared of a car with an automatic transmission and a cool aesthetic and out-of-the-box feel when driving.

"I am looking for a vehicle equipped with a manual transmission for our teenage daughter," said Steve Johnson in a recent interview with me. "I'm looking at the Honda S2000s, VW GTIs, and Porsche Boxsters. As this article goes to print, Carmax has a 2015 Porsche Boxster with a 6-speed manual transmission for sale for $45,000. "When I borrow our teen's car, I can shift the gears and take it to the redline limits. With an automatic, you can't redline the vehicle. Plus, I will not intentionally tint the front windows, so if anybody considers jacking (stealing) the car, I hope the thief realizes it's a stick shift and hope they can move onto another car to steal."

Drivers operating vehicles equipped with manual transmissions must push in the clutch with their left foot, move the gear shifter into gear, and release the clutch while simultaneously pushing the gas pedal with their right foot, then the vehicle moves. But, if the clutch is let off too soon, the car will stall, likely what the Jeep thief did in Coronado earlier this month. "Manual transmissions are the best theft deterrent in 2023," Johnson concluded. "And some cars with manual transmissions sell for more than normal."

Johnson was referring to the Ferrari 430s, particularly the ones equipped with a 6-speed gear shifter, which sell for almost double what their paddle shift counterparts sell for, according to Carscoops.com.