Myth 3. The coolest sports cars only come with a manual gearbox.

The answer depends on your definition of "cool sports car." The 797-horsepower Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye is only offered with an eight-speed automatic transmission. Both the highly anticipated 2020 Porsche 911 and the 2020 Chevrolet Corvette debuted without a manual gearbox option. Finally, Ferrari and Lamborghini no longer offer any stick-shift vehicles. Sports cars don't get much cooler than those.

Most modern sports cars use a dual-clutch automatic transmission, which features a computer-controlled clutch and offers the best of both worlds: the control of a manual with the ease and speed of an automatic.

Myth 4. If your dream car comes with a standard manual transmission, you can always get an automatic as an option.

Like the previous assumption, this one isn't true either. A small group of cars these days, mostly sporty models, only come with a manual gearbox. The list includes the Honda Civic Type R, the Ford Shelby GT350, the Hyundai Veloster N, and the Subaru WRX STI.

Myth 5. Teenagers really, really want to learn to drive stick shifts.

There does not appear to be any evidence to support this statement. In fact, the opposite is true. Because there are so few manual transmission vehicles out there, many drivers who have just earned their licenses don't get exposed to them, and so they have little interest in learning how to drive them.

Standard Transmission as an Anti-Theft Deterrent?

There's one argument in favor of stick-shift cars that doesn't have a ready true-or-false answer. The theory is that because fewer people know how to drive stick shifts these days, cars equipped with them are less likely to be stolen. While there have been a few examples of would-be thieves being stymied by manual transmissions over the years, there haven't been any formal studies conducted.

Frank Scafidi, director of public affairs for the National Insurance Crime Bureau, which tracks car theft trends, says he's not aware of any data to support or refute that idea.

"Some thieves might be thwarted in their attempt to steal a car with a manual transmission since many thieves possess varying levels of intellect," Scafidi says. "That very personal element is also a factor in the degree of expertise necessary to overcome some of the more sophisticated security systems.

"Most car thieves are just not that swift and therefore resort to stealing older, easier targets," Scafidi says. "But there are those in the car-thief ranks who are quite capable of making off with anything that they intend to steal."