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This is a timely topic. Our granddaughter will turn 15 next month and wants to learn to drive stick. Our DD is Saturn Vue 5 speed so I guess I'll get the task of working with her. She expertly handles a Kubota 4 wheeler on her other grandfather's farm so it is just a matter of teaching her to deal with the clutch. She is a dancer and has excellent leg control so I'm hoping this is going to be relatively easy.

It will not be my first trip to this rodeo. I had a VW Bug when we were first married and got the "opportunity" to teach my new wife to drive it. We all laugh now about one particularly tear-filled moment when she stalled it on a hill and couldn't get it going, with me having to take over during the blare of following car horns. I taught our son (who has a 5 speed Camero now) and our daughter (whose first car was a Honda Prelude 5 speed). There were some teary times with the latter, too.

Though it has been many decades, I remember my own stick learning experience vividly. I managed to stall our 53' Mercury on a hill while still driving with my learner's permit. My Dad had to take over. The next time we went out, he took me to a back road up a mountain. He had me stop just as soon as the grade started. I stopped and started at least 50 times as we continued up the hill. I never stalled it with him in the car afterward. I knew that my "punishment" would be another trip to that hill.

But that training paid off. A friend rented a larger U-Haul truck and managed to get it perched just above a 6 foot tall wall. The engine didn't want to keep running and the clutch was in bad shape. The emergency brake wasn't holding well. They wanted me to take over and get the truck back from that ledge. I ended up with my right heal on the brake while I feathered the gas pedal with my toes. I was going to get one chance at it and could not let the truck drift forward in the process. Even with the different feel to that clutch, I managed to back it away from the edge and ended up driving the truck to complete that move. I said a silent "thank you, Dad" after it was over.

I have owned only 10 vehicles in my 35 years of driving,(got my hardship also at 15), of that, only two have been automatics. Learned on a stick and have always preferred a stick. (Except when stuck in stop and go traffic). There's no way I would I want my Jeep Wrangler in an automatic. My grandpa told me when teaching me to drive, "If you learn to drive a stick shift, you can drive almost anything."

Lol. My first stick was an 83 Isuzu Pup with a four cylinder diesel engine. Eighteen gallon tank, over 40 mpg and diesel was only ¢69/gal!! Put something like 300,000 miles on that baby! Last couple years of its life, transmission lost fifth and reverse. Still passed inspections because only requirement is that the white reverse lights work, not the actual gear!

Syntyr wrote: Mon Aug 06, 2018 5:09 pm Reminds me of the first time I drove a right hand drive 1978 Porsche Sportomatic. Talk about brain bender. Driving on the wrong side of the car. Shifting with the left hand and no clutch pedal, the clutch was built into the shift lever.

I think the highlight of my driving career was in Ireland in about 1989 or so, I successfully parallel-parked a right-hand drive manual transmission Ford Escort wagon on a Dublin street...on the first try! My traveling companions were in awe.

I just relinquished my sports car for a truck. When I would take it to a car wash, the wiper guys would have to call over the one guy who knew how to drive a stick.

I took my project car to the muffler shop and wanted to leave it for them to work on, and pick it up later. I had to sit there and wait while they did the work, since none of the young people working there could drive a four speed and get it in and out of the shop, and on and off the lift. I need to find a shop with older mechanics

RSX11 wrote: Tue Aug 07, 2018 11:43 am I took my project car to the muffler shop and wanted to leave it for them to work on, and pick it up later. I had to sit there and wait while they did the work, since none of the young people working there could drive a four speed and get it in and out of the shop, and on and off the lift. I need to find a shop with REAL mechanics

If you can't drive a stick, you''re not a real mechanic.

Pawpaw wrote: Tue Aug 07, 2018 11:58 am

RSX11 wrote: Tue Aug 07, 2018 11:43 am I took my project car to the muffler shop and wanted to leave it for them to work on, and pick it up later. I had to sit there and wait while they did the work, since none of the young people working there could drive a four speed and get it in and out of the shop, and on and off the lift. I need to find a shop with REAL mechanics

If you can't drive a stick, you''re not a real mechanic.

If you can't heel and toe, you're not a real sports car driver

mescobar_rpls wrote: Mon Aug 06, 2018 9:04 pm It is impeccable timing that this subject has come up. Just last week, I was instructed to teach my department (6) to drive a manual transmission.

So my company has one truck with a manual transmission. The owner asked one of my guys to pick up supplies and the only truck was, you guessed it, the only one that has a manual transmission. Well, he could not drive it.

The funny part is word of my driving class got around the company and other department heads came to me and asked is their employees could take part. So after a quick survey, we found that all but one employee under 26 could not drive a manual transmission. In all around a quarter of the company will be attending.

I pity that truck.

Bitter Clinger wrote: Tue Aug 07, 2018 1:02 pm

Pawpaw wrote: Tue Aug 07, 2018 11:58 am

RSX11 wrote: Tue Aug 07, 2018 11:43 am I took my project car to the muffler shop and wanted to leave it for them to work on, and pick it up later. I had to sit there and wait while they did the work, since none of the young people working there could drive a four speed and get it in and out of the shop, and on and off the lift. I need to find a shop with REAL mechanics

If you can't drive a stick, you''re not a real mechanic.

If you can't heel and toe, you're not a real sports car driver

If you can't heel and toe, you can't really drive a stick.

The wife can drive a stick.

She volunteered to help shuttle cars on a Boy Scout canoe trip. Oh the cry’s from the sports car guys when they found out the moms were shuttling all the cars.

She had a blast making all those men panic. Lol.

I love my manual cars. I switched to automatics a little while back in CA because driving a manual through nightmare traffic is pretty painful. Now that I moved here, with the lighter traffic, I would get a manual if available for the car I'm looking for. Preferably a manual made by Tremec or Graziano

Pawpaw wrote: Tue Aug 07, 2018 1:28 pm

Bitter Clinger wrote: Tue Aug 07, 2018 1:02 pm

Pawpaw wrote: Tue Aug 07, 2018 11:58 am

RSX11 wrote: Tue Aug 07, 2018 11:43 am I took my project car to the muffler shop and wanted to leave it for them to work on, and pick it up later. I had to sit there and wait while they did the work, since none of the young people working there could drive a four speed and get it in and out of the shop, and on and off the lift. I need to find a shop with REAL mechanics

If you can't drive a stick, you''re not a real mechanic.

If you can't heel and toe, you're not a real sports car driver

If you can't heel and toe, you can't really drive a stick.

You can't be either if you've never broken a shifter while enthusiastically switching gears.

After more than 30 years of manual transmission cars, including three winter months driving in Norway, I still don't really know how drive a stick.

strogg wrote: Tue Aug 07, 2018 7:15 pm I love my manual cars. I switched to automatics a little while back in CA because driving a manual through nightmare traffic is pretty painful. Now that I moved here, with the lighter traffic, I would get a manual if available for the car I'm looking for. Preferably a manual made by Tremec or Graziano

Pawpaw wrote: Tue Aug 07, 2018 1:28 pm

Bitter Clinger wrote: Tue Aug 07, 2018 1:02 pm

Pawpaw wrote: Tue Aug 07, 2018 11:58 am

RSX11 wrote: Tue Aug 07, 2018 11:43 am I took my project car to the muffler shop and wanted to leave it for them to work on, and pick it up later. I had to sit there and wait while they did the work, since none of the young people working there could drive a four speed and get it in and out of the shop, and on and off the lift. I need to find a shop with REAL mechanics

If you can't drive a stick, you''re not a real mechanic.

If you can't heel and toe, you're not a real sports car driver

If you can't heel and toe, you can't really drive a stick.

You can't be either if you've never broken a shifter while enthusiastically switching gears.

Turn 6 at Eagles Canyon. Ripped my shifter lever right out of the housing during a 4-3 downshift as I was approaching that turn just a little too enthusiastically...

I learned to drive in one of these. Most people under 40 probably have never seen a starter pedal.