Who will miss the manual car when it’s gone? Only the very smuggest drivers | Zoe Williams

We're falling out of love with manual cars, says the DVLA. What will driving enthusiasts' have left to feel superior about now?

You can do whatever you like when you're reviewing a car, because the cultural standard was set by Jeremy Clarkson. You're almost expected to ding it. I once took a whole hubcap off a Toyota Hilux and pretended I'd done it off-road on a caper, when in fact I'd backed into a pillar in a car park. The Hilux was somewhat longer than I realised; watch out for that.

This being the case, I'd been doing the job for years without a moment's anxiety, not even when I took a Ferrari California T on the Isle of Wight ferry and its internal alarm thought it was being car-trafficked. And then I found myself in a Fiat Spider on a winding Italian road (lovely little roadster built off the Mazda platform) and I've never been so stressed in my goddam life.

Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist