porsche951

I taught my wife to drive a stick when she was 8 months pregnant. Driving my then new 1981 Fiat Brava. She still prefers a stick to this day.

lahalte

Well I had my First wife learn to drive a stick shift on my Triumph GT-6. At a red light on a small incline she could not drop the clutch without choking the engine. She just got out and walked away leaving the car there. Well I paid for a driving school. Still got divorced.She now drives a BMW M3 manual transmission.

tomc_mets

Friends in college almost came to divorce over this very thing. In their case, she could drive a manual, he could not. Wife & I have same dilemma. I prefer to find a lonely road/empty parking lot & practice myself with the wife's flappy paddles (double entendre not intended!) in her Benz.
T

jrdavid68

Just once.

porschedog

For approximately 7 horrifying minutes I attempted to teach the were wife how to drive a 300ZX I owned at that time. That was 15 years ago. She is still mad at me.
I like the rental car idea.

Animus

I'm gonna go the conzumel route or $1k Honda. I can relate though via two different experiences. I taught my wife to snowboard and will never teach anyone else again. (A Jamaican teaching a mainer how to snowboard) I also let her drive when we were in Jamaica and I was tired. After almost going over the cliffs multiple times. I as so pumped up on adrenaline I took back over.

wildbilly32

5CHN3LL: +Cozumel except for too many Motos driving crazy. We had a crapbox AT and I couldn't get the wife to drive. Besides she hates AT cars anyway. Still won't try to drive the 911. Too fast she says.

996inTX

So, my wife taught ME to drive stick. On her Audi GT Quattro. Then we had kids and she won't drive the 996. She won't even drive faster than 60mph on the highway. Go figure.

DreamCarrera

I tried to teach my wife(then girlfriend) how to drive stick on an old Toyota that I owned...to no avail. I think it was all my fault, however, as my wife is no slouch athletically.

Worked out in the end for me though as she was never able to drive any of my multiple stick shift sports cars...although I have to admit, it would be a turn on to see her successfully drive a stick!

Ryan...

The best thing is to tell them as soon as they sit in the driver's seat, "Look, you're going to stall the car. It's going to shake, shutter, lurch, then shut off. Stuff is going to grind. That happens. Push the clutch in and turn the key."

I've taught about 8 people how to drive manual and most have picked it up within 20 minutes. Let them know you're not going to be upset, they'll calm down, and everything will be much smoother..

KNS

The vast majority of people can pick it up without any problems but there some people who just can't walk and chew gum at the same time.

I used to teach people to fly helicopters, these guys and gals were career oriented so they were putting serious time and money into it. Just about everyone could pick it up at some point. There were a couple of students where you came to a point (after flying with other instructors, too) you finally had to tell them that it just wasn't happening. That was a very difficult conversation to have because you were crushing their dreams.

docmirror

I taught my wife when we first got married. However, after the first automatic car was bought, she just refuses to use a stick. Simple, just refused. I taught both my kids to drive a stick, and a few others too.

Imagine a whole generation of people prior to 1950s who learned not only how to drive a stick shift, but also how to change a tire, add engine fluids, etc.

I have to say though, that modern auto trans are a magnificent achievement. They are efficient, and get almost the same economy as the standard trans. Pretty reliable too, except my horrid experience with a CVT. Never again will I get a car with CVT.

NewToThis

Update - My wife watched a few You Tubes over the past days and I can report that she can now drive a MT car !!!

She told me that having someone on a video "show" her how to shift gears in a calm voice - what she really meant was me not yelling at her - was the key to her understanding the aspects of a MT car - YEA for her.

Wayne Smith

Nice. Now can you stay calm as she approaches a lateral G along side that cliff? Marriage is an adventure

docmirror

Next they'll want the vote. Maybe be allowed out of the kitchen or something.

pfft