I was sitting in a conference room at a publishing company in New York City (not The Times) last week when an editor poked his head in the door.

A hot new sporty hatchback had been dropped off for him to drive to a studio for a photo shoot. But there was a problem: the car had a manual transmission, and the editor couldn’t drive a stick.

At first everyone in the conference thought he was joking. He wasn’t. His magazine isn’t a car magazine, so there’s no professional reason for him to know how to drive a stick. But I’d always thought it was a basic life skill, like rock, paper, scissors, and shuffling cards. I’d always taken it for granted.

It’s really not so hard. One afternoon of grinding on the clutch, that’s all it takes. I picked it up in college when I didn’t have a car, and my roommates had a Honda Prelude and a Mazda RX-7. When I got my first car, a VW Golf, the manual transmission was the cheaper option by a thousand dollars, which was two months rent at the time.

I was living in Los Angeles. Even though stopping and starting and stopping over Laurel Canyon during rush hour was excruciating, it was a completely different experience when the canyon roads were empty. That’s D-R-I-V-I-N. Forget about the talk of no mass transit. As long as Southern California has those roads and those views, no one’s giving up their cars, but I digress.

Of course, it’s no secret that manual transmission’s days are numbered, especially with the advent of paddle-shifters, which give drivers the convenience of an automatic while retaining performance cred. I can sort of understand. Paddle-shifting a BMW M5? Not so bad. But a Honda Fit? Not the same.

Which leads me to wonder: How many people really feel that paddle-shifters offer the same type of visceral feedback as a manual transmission?

Mitsubishi plans to appeal to both demographics when it releases the new Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution early next year (it went on sale in Japan on Monday).

The Evo has always been a true hardcore performance car, up there with Porsche-like power and handling and a toboggan’s ride quality. But Mitsubishi offered no apologies to those who didn’t like the stark interior or the harsh ride. Go buy a BMW, it seemed to dare those who complained.

The latest version seems to search out the middle ground. Though early test drives have raved about the power and the overall performance, they’ve also mentioned the improved ride comfort. Mitsubishi is clearly going after a broader audience.

It’s also the first time that the Evolution will have an automatic transmission option. I fully understand that we’re all heading toward a carborg society, where we won’t have to shift, brake or steer, and all controls will be based on voice recognition, but I can’t help longing for those canyon days. I can’t be alone, can I?