Teaching my wife to drive a manual

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cwat89
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Teaching my wife to drive a manual

Post by cwat89 »

After many lessons and trying to build up her confidence and desire to learn to drive 3 pedals, I think she could actually get me to the hospital God forbid something happened to me while we were out in one of my cars. :lol: Joking aside, she has greatly improved given that it hasn't been the best vehicle situation for her to learn. She is only 5'1" and has trouble reaching the pedals in my s10 with the seat all the way up (bench seat). Bless her heart though she did much much better when I took her to the church parking lot Sunday night. I even encouraged her to drive us home which is only a couple miles away but she did not kill it once and was pretty smooth overall! It made me proud! I would let her drive the camaro since the seat situation is a bit better but it now has a 7/8" bore Tilton master cylinder and a ceramic metallic RAM clutch and I really don't think she could work it to good. Lol. I really wish I could find a Corolla or a Civic to rent for a weekend so she could really get used to it being in a much better driving position with an easy clutch and shifter. Just thought I would share this. I really enjoyed teaching her. I am not know for having patience with anything but I enjoy teaching people the lost art of driving a manual. Didn't get upset at all! Anyway, how many of you have successfully taught your significant other how to row their own gears?
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Re: Teaching my wife to drive a manual

Post by AHTOXA »

Once I went to teach a then-girlfriend to drive. It was stressful.
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Re: Teaching my wife to drive a manual

Post by Shadow »

I had a history of dating girls that already knew how to drive stick. I don't know why it worked out that way, but just about every girlfriend I ever had already owned a stick shift car before I met them. Back in the day, I thought it was sexy when a beautiful girl could row her own gears.

First girlfriend drove a V6 Maxima with a 5-speed (I actually loved driving her car)
Second girlfriend drove an Acura Integra GSR with a 5-speed (Nice car, but I remember her rear wing getting stolen on three different occasions. People would just rip it right off the car.)
Third girlfriend drove a V6 Ford Probe GT with a 5-speed (This car surprised me because it felt a lot more refined than I thought it would)
Fourth girlfriend drove a Fiero GT with a 5-speed (Not such a nice car to drive, but still fun)
Fifth girlfriend drove VW Jetta with a 5-speed (I never drove her car a single time. Thinking back, I don't know why, other than the fact that she loved to drive and on the rare occasion that we took her car, she was always driving)

Those five girls spanned more than 8 years of my life and every one of them only drove stick and they all loved it. I haven't kept in touch with many of them, but two still live in the same town as me. Actually, I know for a fact that girlfriend number 5 is currently driving a WRX stick, but her secret desire was always to own an Audi S4, at least back in the day when they had a bi-turbo engine. Number four is currently driving a Hummer H2, which I really wouldn't expect. Number three was driving an automatic TL last time I bumped into her. I heard that girlfriend number two recently got a new Volvo S60, but I don't know if it's an automatic or not. I have absolutely no clue about girlfriend number one. I wouldn't be surprised at all if she's still driving a stick shift car these days.
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Re: Teaching my wife to drive a manual

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Shadow wrote:First girlfriend drove a V6 Maxima with a 5-speed (I actually loved driving her car)
Second girlfriend drove an Acura Integra GSR with a 5-speed (Nice car, but I remember her rear wing getting stolen on three different occasions. People would just rip it right off the car.)
Third girlfriend drove a V6 Ford Probe GT with a 5-speed (This car surprised me because it felt a lot more refined than I thought it would)
Fourth girlfriend drove a Fiero GT with a 5-speed (Not such a nice car to drive, but still fun)
Fifth girlfriend drove VW Jetta with a 5-speed (I never drove her car a single time. Thinking back, I don't know why, other than the fact that she loved to drive and on the rare occasion that we took her car, she was always driving)
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The Lady's Man wrote:I heard that girlfriend number two recently got a new Volvo S60, but I don't know if it's an automatic or not. I have absolutely no clue about girlfriend number one. I wouldn't be surprised at all if she's still driving a stick shift car these days.
If it's a US spec S60, it has to be an automatic :|
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Re: Teaching my wife to drive a manual

Post by potownrob »

AHTOXA wrote:Once I went to teach a then-girlfriend to drive. It was stressful.
i've taught or attempted to teach a few people back in the day. i never really found it to be stressful or nerveracking, but the people learning were all at least somewhat nervous and stressed out trying to get things down. my sister gave up after an hour of driving around a parking lot. she was doing good, even getting into 2nd gear and got all the transitions down, but after an hour, she said she didn't want to learn anymore. someone else, who i gave 7 hours worth of lessons to before she bought my civic, seemed like she would never get it down, but she eventually did (after spending hours driving by herself after she bought the car). don't sell your car to a coworker, btw.
ClutchFork wrote:...So I started carrying a stick of firewood with me and that became my parking brake.
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Re: Teaching my wife to drive a manual

Post by AHTOXA »

Shadow wrote:I had a history of dating girls that already knew how to drive stick. I don't know why it worked out that way, but just about every girlfriend I ever had already owned a stick shift car before I met them. Back in the day, I thought it was sexy when a beautiful girl could row her own gears.

First girlfriend drove a V6 Maxima with a 5-speed (I actually loved driving her car)
Second girlfriend drove an Acura Integra GSR with a 5-speed (Nice car, but I remember her rear wing getting stolen on three different occasions. People would just rip it right off the car.)
Third girlfriend drove a V6 Ford Probe GT with a 5-speed (This car surprised me because it felt a lot more refined than I thought it would)
Fourth girlfriend drove a Fiero GT with a 5-speed (Not such a nice car to drive, but still fun)
Fifth girlfriend drove VW Jetta with a 5-speed (I never drove her car a single time. Thinking back, I don't know why, other than the fact that she loved to drive and on the rare occasion that we took her car, she was always driving)

Those five girls spanned more than 8 years of my life and every one of them only drove stick and they all loved it. I haven't kept in touch with many of them, but two still live in the same town as me. Actually, I know for a fact that girlfriend number 5 is currently driving a WRX stick, but her secret desire was always to own an Audi S4, at least back in the day when they had a bi-turbo engine. Number four is currently driving a Hummer H2, which I really wouldn't expect. Number three was driving an automatic TL last time I bumped into her. I heard that girlfriend number two recently got a new Volvo S60, but I don't know if it's an automatic or not. I have absolutely no clue about girlfriend number one. I wouldn't be surprised at all if she's still driving a stick shift car these days.

Hmm, let's see.

I had a somewhat casual relationship with a girl that drove and loved manuals once. It was basically a set of booty calls, we never hung out much. I was ok with that.

I've dated a girl for a couple of years, who drove a manual Jeep. She still has that Jeep and loves it to death, but daily drives an automatic TL.

An ex-gf learned stick after our relationship and now drives manuals exclusively.

I think that's about as far as I go in regards to g/f's with a manual affinity. Most others simply didn't care.
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Re: Teaching my wife to drive a manual

Post by theholycow »

cwat89 wrote:she has greatly improved given that it hasn't been the best vehicle situation for her to learn. She is only 5'1" and has trouble reaching the pedals in my s10 with the seat all the way up (bench seat). Bless her heart though she did much much better when I took her to the church parking lot Sunday night.
The S10 is great for teaching. If she has to stretch to reach the pedals, perhaps you could pad them up for her? You could get a set of those ricey pedal covers and add a block between the pedal and the cover, or screw the block to the cover and use the cover's prefab retention system.

I was too clutch-paranoid when my wife was ready to learn, and I was too uptight. Mostly my father in law taught her in a 1987 S10. I gave her a few lessons in the 2008 VW and gave her plenty of practice in it. She still was learning when I gave her practice in the 1980 Buick. By that time I was much less uptight and she was much less likely to panic and rev it to a million RPM.

These days I'd know better than to start with just driving, even in a parking lot. I'd start with pedal and shifter exercises while parked.

Anyway, while I merely contributed to teaching my wife how to drive manual, I definitely was the one who taught her to drive manual -- that is to say, it is because of me that she chose to abandon slushboxen and now daily drives manual. She even has a nasty commute with traffic that might make me prefer a slushbox.
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Re: Teaching my wife to drive a manual

Post by Squint »

Overall, I think my wife taught me how to drive a stick more than any other individual person - and then I refined it through practice, this website, and quite a bit of reading. My parents taught me the basics, but by the time I could drive, they had sold the manual they owned to one of my classmates. When I met my wife, she had a Mazda 626 V6 5-speed that was surprisingly peppy and I was terrible at driving. Once we moved to WV, I took it to a parking lot a few times and gained some confidence, then haven't looked back since.

I feel I might have refined her style a little bit in return with things I've learned but she's taught me far more than I taught her.
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Re: Teaching my wife to drive a manual

Post by kevinf »

I've had good experiences teaching some close casual girl friends to drive manual. It can be pretty intimate in a car and makes for some good flirting. If it's nerve-wracking for anyone, you're doing it wrong :mrgreen:
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Re: Teaching my wife to drive a manual

Post by tankinbeans »

I'm trying to teach my roommate how to drive my car. I took her once to a parking lot and she was a bundle of nerves and killed it multiple times. Whenever she mage an error she'd get embarrassed, but I told her if was nothing that I haven't done.

I think she's worries about hurting the clutch. Weren't we all, at least a little bit?

As to how I learned, I more or less taught myself. I'd driven my friend's Mustang GT, but only a few times. His was straight piped so I was always nervous on hills because I'd invariably kill it a million times and create a ton of noise trying to get it going. To this day I'm not able to move on a hill without rolling a bit, but I've learned to accept to little roll. This site has made me much more confident.
Last edited by tankinbeans on Thu Apr 17, 2014 5:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Teaching my wife to drive a manual

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A female room mate? Are you taking favors for rent reduction yet?

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Re: Teaching my wife to drive a manual

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AHTOXA wrote:A female room mate? Are you taking favors for rent reduction yet?

(I'm going to hell, I know)
Haha. Nah. She's married.
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Re: Teaching my wife to drive a manual

Post by AHTOXA »

So you live with her and her husband?

I used to live with a housemate, who was (and is) my very good friend. When he got married and his wife was staying over a lot, I got the hell out. It became a bit strange and I felt out of place. It was also his house, so it was time to skidaddle.
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Re: Teaching my wife to drive a manual

Post by theholycow »

Have you had he do the pedal exercises while parked?

You could also have her watch your leg as you no-gas launch. That might help.
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Re: Teaching my wife to drive a manual

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AHTOXA wrote:So you live with her and her husband?

I used to live with a housemate, who was (and is) my very good friend. When he got married and his wife was staying over a lot, I got the hell out. It became a bit strange and I felt out of place. It was also his house, so it was time to skidaddle.
Yep. I live with both. We generally work opposing shifts so we don't really see much of each other.
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