Lots of good advice here.

When I first taught my GF (now wife) to drive stick, she was scared and kept on saying that she would never get it and that it was dumb. I kept on pushing her until she got PISSED and ended up driving like a fucking champ and all I could say was "see? I told you that you could do it!" =)

As for the " She always claims I make her nervous like she is gunna break my baby" fear, I just tell her that there are WAY worse drivers out there than her and that the car will take a lot of abuse before it will break. Of course, I also tell her that I wouldn't be pissed if she broke anything since it would just be an excuse to upgrade! :thumbup:

I learned from a friend about driving manual. I found out later my wife actually knew how to drive manual before I knew how. When I bought my first manual car she drove it smoother than I can. After I brought it home she jumped right in and drove it around.

With manual car the hardest part is getting the hang of the engagement point on the clutch and dealing with the rpm drop. The way I learned to get smoother on clutch engagement is to slowly let the clutch out and try to get the car rolling slowly forward without giving much gas. It helps give you the feel of the stall rpms and clutch engagement rpm drops. Most of the beginner mistakes are dumping the clutch as soon as you feel the engagement rather than continuing smoothly to let it out. The other is freaking out when the rpms drop and give too much gas. Once you can put pushing gas pedal and releasing clutch together as synergistic movements you can drive fine.

took me awhile to get it when by myself but once i got the concept of what was supposed to happen i just took it on public roads with other cars and perfected it in 1 day... got home and looked up heel and toe etc. was really fun learning new things.

I agree. NO RADIO.

From reading all the above you would think that learning to drive a stick is more difficult than underwater brain surgery using chopsticks and a butter knife. :iono:

It really isn't that hard, lets face it guys (and gals) our grandmothers (and in most cases our great grandmothers) learned to do it. They learned because they 1) didn't have a choice and 2) were therefore motivated to do it.

It will only work if the motiviation is there. If it is, it really shouldn't take more than an hour for them to be competent enough to survive on the street. They won't be winning any drag races and you wouldn't want them driving in San Francisco, but they won't be hurting anything either.

Just my $0.02 worth.

Motivation is key....for my wife, it was learn, or not drive at all.....

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I didn't learn until I went out on my own. She is probably just nervous. Let her take it out alone early on a Sunday morning.

I tried the learn or dont drive and that did not work. It all comes down to desire. Dont force it.

My wife is learning on my FRS, and we both noticed she does prettty dang well when she doesn't "over think" anything. If she just looks forward out the windshield, and just let everything happen naturally, that she takes off pretty smooth. Its when she is staring at the tack, over thinking the clutch is when she had a tougher time.

My first time driving a manual car was when I drove it off the lot after I bought it. Let me tell you it does not like starting in third (pissed of a few people i am sure) and reverse baffled me for a while. But I quickly learned and drove it home without once smoking the clutch. I would suggest just leaving her in a parking lot and go shoe shopping.

As long as she knows the basics just give her the keys and turn her loose. She'll figure it out quicker and easier on her own without someone hovering over her.

We watched videos on youtube which worked a lot better than me trying to explain to her without the multiple camera angles that some of the better videos provide

First off, I tip my cap to you for teaching your wife how to drive a manual and in the FRS to say the least! :clap:

When I decided to start saving for not only an FRS but for my first M/T car 6 years ago, my fiance was nice and brave enough to teach me how to drive a M/T in his '05 tC. As a gal myself, maybe I could give some insight to what we are thinking when you are trying to teach us how to drive a manual.

1. It's not my car, I don't want to do anything to break it.
2. It's a NEW car, I don't' want to do anything to break it.
3. All of my significant others shifts are not jerky, so should mine.
4. I want to make my significant other proud that I'm learning to drive a M/T car.
5. I'm scared of stalling out and/or grinding a gear in front of my significant other.
6. It seems so much harder to drive the car with the A/C on.
7. You keep telling me to listen to the engine and not watch the tac, easier said than done.
8. Yes you are giving me constructive criticism, but your tone can make me think otherwise.

So going back several years ago, the comments above were the most popular things going through my head at any point while I was trying to learn. You can ask if she feels comfortable driving the car alone in a parking lot or around the neighborhood, but when I was first learning I liked having the instant feedback (as intimidating and deflating as it was sometimes). This is one of the many situations in life in which the more she practices the more it will help her feel more confident in driving a M/T and as her confidence builds so will her feel for how the car drives. Just remember when you feel like you've repeated yourself a million times and wished the teaching session was over, just remember that we are beating ourselves up 10 times over for not picking up driving a M/T car as quickly as we wanted.

Even though when I was learning, I didn't drive the '05 tC everyday (i drove it a minimum 3 days out of the week). In hindsight, I think not driving the car everyday did not allow me to get a feel and remember what the car and clutch felt like. When we first bought my FRS, my fiance test drove it and drove it home the first night because I reverted back to being scared I was going to hurt the car. After driving the FRS for 2 weeks straight after we brought the car home, I was shifting and rev matching like I'd been doing it all my life. The FRS is a good beginner's M/T car in my opinion, as the steering wheel and engine give so much feedback of where you should be. Just give her some time and keep encouraging her to apply the basics concepts of driving an M/T and she will get better with time.

Take wife out to nice dinner...have one too many drinks, tell her she needs to drive home, you'll be relaxed enough not to freak her out and she'll have the motivation she needs to get the job done.

Otherwise let her take a cruise by herself in a parking lot while you go for a walk or something, you said she already knows what to do so you being int he car isn't helping her.

Third option...instead of spending $500 on a beater and the registration and crap that goes with it, check driving schools in your area. The bigger ones that offer Driver retraining usually have manual training as well.

finding a $500-$1000 manual beater is hard to do as well.

How about paying a friend $500 to destroy his/her clutch? :bonk::burnrubber:

Here is the most important thing to remember...

If she does learn, then what will you do? She will know how to drive it! She will take it out for late night drives through the curvy back roads ... (checks to see where you are from...) of Arkansas!

Do you really want that strain on your marriage? What will you do when she is constantly driving your beautiful car, and god help us if she adjusts the seat! Lets be honest, We all know once she gets the first taste of how fun it is to drive it, she will never give it back.

I say don't teach her so none of this is an issue.

That too lol, but I have been doing some research out of boredom to find a manual beater to winter around in, turns out 80-96 civic Si's are pretty cheap found like 3 of them near Philadelphia, PA with the sellers asking for $2500. Slap some winter tires on and bamn winter beater and manual teacher.

Great cars. Though the water pump on my 83 S froze up and trashed the valves. Oops.
It runs off the timing belt. Try and get one with receipts and service records.

Taught my wife to drive stick. resulted in her owning a 2013 Civic Si. lol:w00t: