I think it totally depends on the individual.
I had a friend whose 40-something girlfriend wanted to learn to drive a manual (well, maybe he wanted her to learn to drive a manual, but maybe that’s another story and might be the reason for the, um, not-so-good outcome).
Since I fancy myself a manual-shift-whisperer, I volunteered my Miata. The car is light and very easy to get underway, and has a superb gearbox. I know enough to instruct someone to avoid abnormal clutch wear. My wife, herself averse to driving stick, even enjoys shifting the Miata.
I live on a 55-acre mostly rectangular lake, and the neighborhood traffic is only residents and visitors. It has eight 90-degree turns, and a stop sign at the two entrances to the development. Florida is monotonously flat, too, south of Orlando. Good venue to teach someone.
So, I gave her some of the basics, and showed her a few times, then put her in the driver’s seat. Immediately I realized this might not have been the best idea. But we soldiered on, with me using lots of patience, and with her trying not to get flustered.
It was going sort of OK. There was some trepidation at the stop sign, but mostly, she was sort of getting the hang of when to shift. But then came one of the 90-degree turns.
What I had NOT anticipated was that she was going to get so flustered about shifting that she would drive the car off the road. Yes, at the apex of the turn she drove the right side of the car onto grass, where the center of the car bottomed out on the pavement as one side’s tires were on the grass. BANG! Thank goodness there was no curb there!
Oh, crap. Turns out there was no damage at all, but we decided that was the end of the lesson. So, I decided then and there that if I am to instruct anyone, I don’t care who it is, it won’t be on any of my cars.
My $0.02.
I had a friend whose 40-something girlfriend wanted to learn to drive a manual (well, maybe he wanted her to learn to drive a manual, but maybe that’s another story and might be the reason for the, um, not-so-good outcome).
Since I fancy myself a manual-shift-whisperer, I volunteered my Miata. The car is light and very easy to get underway, and has a superb gearbox. I know enough to instruct someone to avoid abnormal clutch wear. My wife, herself averse to driving stick, even enjoys shifting the Miata.
I live on a 55-acre mostly rectangular lake, and the neighborhood traffic is only residents and visitors. It has eight 90-degree turns, and a stop sign at the two entrances to the development. Florida is monotonously flat, too, south of Orlando. Good venue to teach someone.
So, I gave her some of the basics, and showed her a few times, then put her in the driver’s seat. Immediately I realized this might not have been the best idea. But we soldiered on, with me using lots of patience, and with her trying not to get flustered.
It was going sort of OK. There was some trepidation at the stop sign, but mostly, she was sort of getting the hang of when to shift. But then came one of the 90-degree turns.
What I had NOT anticipated was that she was going to get so flustered about shifting that she would drive the car off the road. Yes, at the apex of the turn she drove the right side of the car onto grass, where the center of the car bottomed out on the pavement as one side’s tires were on the grass. BANG! Thank goodness there was no curb there!
Oh, crap. Turns out there was no damage at all, but we decided that was the end of the lesson. So, I decided then and there that if I am to instruct anyone, I don’t care who it is, it won’t be on any of my cars.
My $0.02.
