Manual transmissions aren’t quite dead, and people can’t stop talking, or at least tweeting, about Ram trucks.

That’s the news from the Twitter machine, thanks to the car-crazy team at Autowise. They geotagged tweets to discover the most talked about pickup in the Twitterverse, and which state had the most folks tweeting about manual transmissions.

Not while they’re driving, one hopes. If we can’t expect somebody who’s gotta shift at every stop sign to put the phone down and drive, all hope is lost.

Manual transmissions were once so common they were called "standard transmissions," because an automatic was an expensive option. Falling costs and rising performance have turned the tables; manuals accounted for as little as 2 percent of U.S. new car sales in 2018.

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Michigan was No. 1 in the survey, which tracked 20,000 tweets that mentioned manual transmissions and stick shifts. That tracks with our car-crazy culture, and the perception that “real” car people drive manuals, despite the fact that the vehicles with automatic are now routinely faster and more fuel efficient than manuals.

The top 10 states in order:

Michigan Missouri Oklahoma Washington Tennessee Texas Ohio Indiana Illinois Kentucky

Ram 1500 pickup’s 2019 Victory Tour of sales increases and truck of the year awards and critical praise continued when it was the most tweeted-about pickup in the most states. Full-size pickups dominate the list, as they do pickup sales. The map is based on 105,000 geotagged tweets since Jan. 1.

Ram racked up the most mentions in 17 states. Crucially, the list includes truck-mad Texas.

The Ford F-150, America’s best-selling vehicle, led in 11, including Michigan.

Toyota’s Tacoma midsize pickup led in eight.

The midsize Ford Ranger, which just went on sale led in an impressive seven states.

Chevrolet’s Silverado, the No. 2-selling pickup, led in four.

GMC Sierra was No. 1 in three states.

Geotagging tweets isn’t a scientific survey, of course. It’s possible the results were driven by droves of people saying they would never use a manual transmission and they hate the Ram 1500.

Possible, but not likely.

Contact Mark Phelan at 313-222-6731 or mmphelan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @mark_phelan. Read more on autos and sign up for our autos newsletter.