Teaching kid stick shift

lkapigian

Oh, the clutch of yesteryear seemed like a 3 foot depress as well 

northGAcock

Killit_and_Grillit said:

Im an “elder millennial” apparently but I didn’t start driving an automatic until a few years 

Did your stick shift vehicles stank too?

Eoin

Everyone learns on a manual transmission here, I don't know anyone who can only drive an auto.

Scott805

65' 2 + 2 Mustang Fastback.  Four on the floor.  Wish I hadn't sold it forty years ago!

fishlessman

67 1 ton chevy welding truck with a long throw heavey duty clutch that would take your knee cap off if you messed up.  i think dads logic was to get lit up and yell and swear while kicking the floor  and hitting the dash board long throw clutch with way too heavy springs, after that anything was easy to drive with a clutch

YEMTrey

First car. '82 Accord, 5 speed.

YEMTrey

Burned oil like a mf'er. 

DoubleEgger

Mine was a red 83 S10 with a stick. Drove with my knees in my chest so I could rock the Kicker 10s behind the seat. I called it the Red Wind.... because it blows. 

(Stock image) 

jdkeithbge

My first car was a '71 Fiat Spyder 124, you had to lift the stick to get into reverse, and I somehow popped it all the way out the first day we got it.  Then an '82 BMW 320i that wouldn't idle properly so you had to keep your foot on the brake and gas simultaneously at a stop light.  Got a newer automatic car after graduation, but came back to a manual 2005 Mini Cooper S and more recently a 2016 Mini Cooper S.  Part of my excuse to the wife to get this latest manual Mini is to teach the kids in a few years (oldest is 12).  I have a theory that it's harder to text and drive in a manual, but who knows.  You're doing the right thing either way @RiverBBQ!

xfire_ATX

My mom picked me up from swim team practice when I was barely 15, and said start driving.  It was a 1967 VW Bug and after a bit I was driving it.  We had that car, a 1982 Rabbit Convertible and a 1982 Diesel Rabbit all standard and a giant ford van.

I bougt a terrible POS Toyota and that was the only automatic I owned until ~10 years ago when we got rid of the Isuzu Pup to be a fully SUV family.  I absolutey love driving the standard but with traffic in Austin so awful the automatic sure is nice.

CPFC1905

Now we're talking.  Nothing finer that a smooth gear change.  Do not underestimate the role of the accelerator pedal.

Naturally the physical process needs to be grasped and then move on to finesse.  Did you know that your hand and foot will travel at the same speed,  there's nothing you can do about it.  So if he is snatching the gear lever, he'll be stamping on the clutch - and vice versa. 

My lad lacks mechanical sympathy and it took a while for him to get it close to smooth. Some cars are much much easier.  He learnt on a tiny gutless Citroen, where as heavier - and most often diesel cars, make it easier.

Nonetheless,  this series of videos shows 'advanced' driving - in fact it's systemised driving.  Note the words better and faster are not used.  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4rs09AKBc8  

Its all about smoothness.

In fact I was schooled in the 4S's : Safety, Smoothness, System, Speed  (sometimes I had to drive in order to 'make progress')

CPFC1905

YEMTrey said:

First car. '82 Accord, 5 speed.

Wasn't that one the same as a Triumph Acclaim - classic badge engineering by the then crumbling British car industry. 

BobDanger

Bought this for my youngest son...5 speed.

Eoin

CPFC1905 said:

Now we're talking.  Nothing finer that a smooth gear change.  Do not underestimate the role of the accelerator pedal.

Naturally the physical process needs to be grasped and then move on to finesse.  Did you know that your hand and foot will travel at the same speed,  there's nothing you can do about it.  So if he is snatching the gear lever, he'll be stamping on the clutch - and vice versa. 

My lad lacks mechanical sympathy and it took a while for him to get it close to smooth. Some cars are much much easier.  He learnt on a tiny gutless Citroen, where as heavier - and most often diesel cars, make it easier.

Nonetheless,  this series of videos shows 'advanced' driving - in fact it's systemised driving.  Note the words better and faster are not used.  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4rs09AKBc8  

Its all about smoothness.

In fact I was schooled in the 4S's : Safety, Smoothness, System, Speed  (sometimes I had to drive in order to 'make progress')

'Making progress' is one of my favourite sayings.

DoubleEgger

BobDanger said:

Bought this for my youngest son...5 speed.

Perfect ride. Can’t haul too many friends  around and it’s hard (but not impossible) to get busy in one. 

Kcheves

I learned in my Dad's 1969 VW beetle.  Taught my daughter in my 911.

morrobayrich

Taught my daughters years ago and how have taught my two grandsons.  It is a wonderful feeling.

frazzdaddy

Foghorn said:

frazzdaddy said:

RRP said:

This is no lie - I grew up using a stick - on the floor, on the column, and on the tunnel (my '56 MGA). I had never even driven an automatic until I was 21 and had to drive it to get a drunk buddy home in his car.

Farmall cub, 140, Volvo p1800s ,Karmen ghia and a TR6 for me.

I haven't heard anyone mention a p1800 for decades.  My great uncle owned a Volvo dealership when I was a kid.  I always wanted one of those.  By the time I was old enough to drive he had died and his alcoholic son had bankrupted the dealership...

Great old car ,Wish I still had it. Lot's of those stories in the Dealership world.

frazzdaddy

RRP said:

This thread has been a flash back for me. Way back in 1959 I taught my buddy how to double cluck the 1949 Ford that his parents bought for him. To this day I can still visualize Dave slamming his foot on the floor and slipping it off as quickly has his hand shifted the column shift.

Trashed many a tranny sidestepp'n the clutch

ryantt

DoubleEgger said:

Mine was a red 83 S10 with a stick. Drove with my knees in my chest so I could rock the Kicker 10s behind the seat. I called it the Red Wind.... because it blows. 

(Stock image) 

Kicker 10s....man that takes me back.  I had 4 kicker 12s in my crx, man that thing was so loud.   

fishlessman

have to say i hate the non-sync 1st gear in my old 71 fj40

BugFreak72

My dad stuck me in a field in a jeep CJ-5 with no doors or roof and said get to it. I learned to drive the same time I learned how to mud. Good times.

Dobie

3 on the tree, 4 on the floor on up to semis with split ranges but I prefer the auto these days more than rowing. 

Brisket_Fanatic

DoubleEgger said:

BobDanger said:

Bought this for my youngest son...5 speed.

Perfect ride. Can’t haul too many friends  around and it’s hard (but not impossible) to get busy in one. 

It's super easy, that why they make twin size mattresses that fit in the bed perfectly. My now wife and would toss it in the bed and go to the drive in theater and park backwards. Lay in the bed and "watch" the big screen.

RiverBBQ

I’m so impressed that we all still are teaching the right way. I really thought all was lost, I guess I’m wrong. Thank you all for continuing the traditions handed to us, instead of taking easy way. I will never take easy way apparently. It worries me when I see next generation with no manners or goals. You all know the kid at McDonalds that never says thank you or sir. Burns me up. I’ve had 2, column shift bow ties, a cj7 4 spd...... come to think of it didn’t have a automatic OR A/C until college. Fun in Georgia.....

RRP

The lost art of driving with a stick started long ago. I remember in 1963 the year after I graduated from high school the school district bought 2 new driver ed cars - both automatics! That stirred this same type of concern! 
BTW this was in a small town in MO with a population of 2,600!

GrateEggspectations

RiverBBQ said:

I’m so impressed that we all still are teaching the right way. I really thought all was lost, I guess I’m wrong. Thank you all for continuing the traditions handed to us, instead of taking easy way. I will never take easy way apparently. It worries me when I see next generation with no manners or goals. You all know the kid at McDonalds that never says thank you or sir. Burns me up. I’ve had 2, column shift bow ties, a cj7 4 spd...... come to think of it didn’t have a automatic OR A/C until college. Fun in Georgia.....

I wouldn’t expect to find the epitome or even baseline of civility at McDonald’s.  

Ozzie_Isaac

DoubleEgger said:

It’s a skill needed if you want to rent a car in Europe. Automatics are fairly rare and expensive to rent. 

Problem there is stick is on wrong side!

NorthPilot06

Ozzie_Isaac said:

DoubleEgger said:

It’s a skill needed if you want to rent a car in Europe. Automatics are fairly rare and expensive to rent. 

Problem there is stick is on wrong side!

There’s nothing more fun than renting a car in Ireland and driving the back roads... 

Botch

Gulfcoastguy said:

Starting on a hill is the hard part . Do that and you have it beat. 

We learned how to hold a vehicle in place with the hand-operated parking brake, simultaneously letting up on it while the clutch was just starting to grab and we just started adding the gas, no problem.
Now, my new car has an "electro-mechanical" parking brake, set with a damn toggle switch; wondering how that's gonna work.  
 
EDIT:  d'Oh!  Botch, your new car is an automatic; hills won't be a problem.