Taught my girlfriend to drive a stick this weekend

"area man" (hurrburgring)
08/18/2014 at 10:07 • Filed to: None

And no, that's not a dirty joke. 'Twas a two day process, but I'm proud to say that she now could easily get behind the wheel in an emergency situation, and no one cried!

I'm sure a lot of you have had to teach someone at some point - I learned from my father, whose two modes are yelling and not yelling, so I didn't have that much experience in using a soft touch. Still, she's been after me to teach her, so this weekend while we were up at my parent's house I decided to "borrow" my mom's Forester and give it a try (rule #1 - never use your own car!)

Now, I am by no means an expert at teaching someone to use a stick shift, but here's how I managed. I started on Saturday by explaining how a clutch works, what's actually happening when you press the pedal and move the shifter, how gears are set up, RPMs, what happens when a car stalls and why, and so on. It was a lot of theoretical stuff to throw at someone with no mechanical knowledge, but she seemed to follow along pretty well and only asked me to repeat a few things that I probably didn't explain clearly in the first place. I also explained what I was doing every time I started the car (make sure it's in neutral, step on the clutch, etc) or shifted, just to drill in the new steps she'd have to remember. Finally, I had her actually shift from first to second while I was driving so she could feel it.

Then came Sunday (SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY). We drove out to a local college campus that was still empty for summer and found a nice open parking lot. We spent 20 or so minutes practicing getting into first from a stop, then moved on to going into second from first, and finished with a little lap around some of the campus roads.

And you know what? She did pretty damn well! I'll get the bad out of the way first - she was so surprised when she actually got it moving in first that she went for the brake and hit the gas, and I had to throw the parking brake to prevent us from careening over a curb and down a rocky slope. And on the final lap test she got a little flustered about taking it out of gear as approaching a stop sign and we coasted into the intersection before she slammed on the brakes and stalled.

But other than that, she only stalled twice (!) while practicing getting into first and she really seems to grasp the concepts. And when we had to quickly abandon the car on the campus road because a giant wasp flew in and wouldn't stop buzzing around, she remembered to set the handbrake.

So yeah, success! I wouldn't say she's ready for public roads just yet, as her shifts are still slow, but she could pull it off in an emergency situation. For those who haven't taught someone yet, I will say that she really responded to me framing it like "left foot down, right foot up, then you switch back once you shift." That's obviously a very simplistic description, but her biggest stumbling block was moving her legs independently like that, and it helped a lot. And again, no one cried! Success.

Anyone have any good teaching stories?

DISCUSSION (6)

yamahog > area man
08/18/2014 at 10:11

I'm proud to say that she now could easily get behind the wheel in an emergency situation

Read: I now have a designated driver!

Congrats and enjoy :)

quarterlifecrisis > area man
08/18/2014 at 10:16

I love it when people want to learn, just for the sake of learning. Not saying everyone needs to be a manual zealot, like many of our Opponauts, but just knowing how is worth it.

Full disclosure: An impromptu manual refresher course was part of a first date last month. It went surprisingly well.

jvirgs drives a Subaru > area man
08/18/2014 at 10:18

I say getting the car moving is half the battle. Thats what I struggled with the most. Once I got that down, the timing and smoothness of the shifts came with repeated practice. Got pretty good by my third time out on my own.

Side bar: The clutch in an '06 Corolla is a temperamental little bastard

area man > quarterlifecrisis
08/18/2014 at 10:20

A first date? That's bold.

area man > jvirgs drives a Subaru
08/18/2014 at 10:22

It was surprising because I was the same way, took me forever to get into first, but she actually struggled more with going into second. I think the fact that the car was moving and then she had to concentrate on shifting made that tougher.

quarterlifecrisis > area man
08/18/2014 at 10:42

Yeah...

But, she didn't kill it. We were in a parking lot, and it was just a couple quick make the car move, then stop, then make the car move, then stops.