One of the daughters of our Silver Sneakers instructor is almost old enough to start driving, and the instructor was talking about how much easier it is to learn to drive nowadays because of automatic transmission. One of the women in the class said her daughter was in the market for a new car and wanted manual transmission because it’s much less likely to get stolen — most people wouldn’t know how to drive it. That’s the first time I heard that argument!
Stick Shifts
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Ha ha ha! This happened to a colleague of ours at work. They live in the city and have a stick shift. The auto thieves broke in and then just left with the door open; the police said most cannot drive stick.
They should start using that as a selling point. 😀
interesting I’ve never heard the term “stick shifts” – we call that type of car a manual with the number of gears it has (well, I think we do…) it was a long time before I had an automatic….
I still think manual are more common than automatic although of course now electric is getting more common…
Here automatic transmissions are a lot more common. Both of Kaitlin and Torben’s cars are electric.
Way back when I was married to my first husband we went car shopping and ended up with a stick shift. He said I can teach you to drive it no problem. Well he wasnt’ a very good teacher and I swore he wanted that car just so I couldn’t drive it. My stubborn nature eventually had me going out to practice by myself and mastering it in no time. It’s been a long time since I’ve driven one now
Good for you!
That’s a good reason for getting a stick shift/ manual! I think most cars in the UK are still manual, it’s unusual for people to have automatic. Not sure why, presumably they’re a lot easier to drive.
Automatic transmissions are a lot easy to drive in the city, in traffic. They don’t give nearly the control in the mountains with snow, mud, etc. Andy’s Jeep has manual transmission.
Now I have the figures. In 2016 there were 31 million cars in the UK, of which around 8½ million were automatic. The number of automatics has risen by over 70 per cent since 2007. So they’re catching on gradually.
Thanks. I love data like that. 🙂
That makes sense if you live in an area where cars are often stolen.
I had an awful time trying to learn to drive a stick but I had no choice at the time if I wanted transportation back and forth to my first job.
Andy taught me, and later Kaitlin, to drive. We both remember having to stop on hills and then start again. His favorite with me was Page Mill Road in the Palo Alto area — it was steep with a lot of curves to make it even more challenging. 🙂
LOL!
I came home from school bragging that I could DRIVE! the class was mandatory at 16 and the car we all learned in was an automatic.
my father smiled and just said “can you drive a standard shift?”
I of course said no. and he said… “then you don’t know how to drive.”
he then taught me. for weeks I came home from those lessons in tears usually. but I finally did learn! and for years I preferred it. but I haven’t had a stick shift now in years. learning to start going on a steep hill with cars behind you is one lesson you’ll never forget! repeat after me… the clutch is my friend! the clutch is my friend! 😀
😀 The beauty of Page Mill Road was there were no cars behind us.
I learned on a ‘stick shift’ car, and yes, there were tears, lots of them! Eventually, I did learn, then graduated to an automatic, which I loved. But I’ll never forget the grinding of the clutch, and the rabbit hopping of the car, when the clutch didn’t catch—at least I think that was the cause!
😀
I grew up with older brothers so I often heard terms like “three on the tree” or “four on the floor” when referring to manual shifts. My Dad had a “three on the tree” I learned to drive at age 18. It was either learn or not have transportation. I’m glad I learned since I can drive anything now. Our VW bug had “four on the floor.”
I hadn’t heard those terms before. That’s neat.
Mom has never learned how to drive a standard or stick shift. When she was little, she rode in the car while her mother was learning to do so. Her mother could not do whatever had to be done on a hill to get going again once the car had braked on the hill. It terrified our mom enough that she never wanted to learn herself. But she said there was a news report the other day that stick shifts may be coming back into style.
Woos – Lightning, Misty, and Timber
We bought our first automatic transmission when I had a frozen right shoulder and could only shift with my left hand. Needless to say, that hampered my style. I love not having to shift, but manual transmission is so much better for Andy up in the mountains on dirt roads. I hadn’t heard they were coming back in style. We’ll have to see.
My first car was an automatic and several after that but when I decided to trade in a car and get a new one all by myself, without help from anyone, I got a stick shift. The salesman taught me. I had a horrible time getting it up the hill to my dad’s house as I drove by myself and I was in tears.
But when I finally arrived at my dad’s house to show him my new vehicle that I purchased all on my own, he was shocked to learn that it was a manual.
I was really proud of myself! Lol!
Later I taught my sister. We drove around the big cemetery and I told her that she couldn’t kill anyone there because they were already dead!
🙂
Good for you! I practiced a lot more than you did before I drove alone.