Teaching wife to drive stick?

[Ryuu0u]

Can't officially date a girl till she has learned stick. If she really can't I'm leaving her in the parking lot where we are practicing.

As terrible as it sounds I can sadly imagine myself doing that then circling around to pick her up. Probably would get the silent treatment after that though lol

[Kimsey47]

Originally Posted by Dragon

Getting off 1st gear for me is still kinda bumpy and im afraid that if i dont gas it enough that i will stall

With all the innuendos in this post... This made me really lol

Keep practicing because if you think is bumpy in a FWD then you'll really get some shakes if you're not smooth with a RWD.

[DeeezNuuuts83]

Originally Posted by torqdork

This is what rental cars are made for. Just spring for the collision damage waiver and head to a large parking lot, preferably with ramps and inclines to practice e-brake starts.

Originally Posted by Marchy

good luck finding a rental car place that has a manual transmission. Its all automatics now.

This, especially in states like California. I had a short stint working in auto sales at a Toyota dealership in 2007 (and that's when auto sales was still doing very well), and I think I had seen just three or four Camrys with manual transmissions throughout the time I worked there.

Originally Posted by Foobar

To quote the Shawshank Redemption, "Do you trust your wife?"

Quoted, just because the movie is awesome. "But that's only my opinion... sir."

Originally Posted by whaap

For those of you that might not know: if you carry collision insurance on your car you do not have to pay for the collision coverage when you rent a car. All the coverages on your car will cover you while you're driving a temporary substitute. Your collision coverage, less your deductible, will cover the damage to the rental car. The rental car companies liability coverage will cover any damage to other property/persons you might cause with the rental car. Your liability coverage will only come into play if the damages you cause exceed the limits of the rental companies coverage.

I work in insurance... and this does NOT always apply with every insurance company. More often than not, you SHOULD be fine, but a few companies do not allow the physical damage coverage to apply toward a rented vehicle if it was used for PLEASURE purposes rather than out of necessity due to your actual insured vehicle(s) being inaccessible, such as if the vehicle was in a claim (whether in an accident or vandalized but is being repaired, or if it was stolen and the insurance company hadn't yet made a payout) or if your vehicle is out of commission due to some significant repair or maintenance that required you to get a temporary replacement.

Bottom line, check with your insurance company to be sure. Most will be fine, but some companies might not cover it.

[Frozen_skidmark]

I'm not teaching my wife diddly. If I did she'd try and drive it. I have a nice auto corolla she can drive. I finally got all my deck and fence and furniture purchases out of the way. Now I have a couple vehicles to liquidate. Then it's Frs time!!! I've been dragging my but a bit to see if they'd have some 2014's early, but it seems you're lucky if you can get a 2013 right now. Once I have the sportage and the truck sold I'm off to the dealer.

[Wolfking]

Psssssst NOT IN YOUR CAR.... (lol)

[torqdork]

Originally Posted by whaap

For those of you that might not know: if you carry collision insurance on your car you do not have to pay for the collision coverage when you rent a car. All the coverages on your car will cover you while you're driving a temporary substitute. Your collision coverage, less your deductible, will cover the damage to the rental car. The rental car companies liability coverage will cover any damage to other property/persons you might cause with the rental car. Your liability coverage will only come into play if the damages you cause exceed the limits of the rental companies coverage.

That's true, but what your car insurance typically doesn't cover that a CDW usually does is what could easily exceed repair cost, loss of use, based on rental income lost while the vehicle is in the shop for repair.

OTOH, some credit cards include varying amounts of CDW and loss of use coverage. Check your cardholder agreement, different MasterCard, Visa and especially American Express cards have generous coverage limits that are usually secondary to your auto policy. The AMEX Premium Car Rental Protection option provides primary coverage world wide for a flat $24.95 per rental.

[AE86_Mikko]

I learned driving stick all by myself in a non-busy neighborhood... since she already know what to do, let her drive by herself... Just an FYI, I bought a new 2010 mazda3 almost 3 years ago not knowing how to drive stick. And everyone knows that that car has a weird engagement feel, but I turned out fine even in up-hills after practicing for two days... good luck!

[Dezoris]

Teaching someone who has no desire to learn is a losing battle. I taught my ex, she is excellent has owned only manual cars. Taught my buddies wife in 5 hours.
My current woman can do it but does not like it because of low confidence.

Only tip I can offer is find a place with a loop like industrial park. Drive in circles around so there is no worry about the course.

Give her commands.

1. Clutch in first gear start.
2. Shift into second.
3. Clutch in come to a stop in neutral.

Rinse repeat.

1. Clutch in first gear start
2. Clutch in second gear.
3. Clutch in 3rd gear
4. Continue driving.
5. Clutch in 2nd gear
6. accelerate up 45
7. Clutch in shift to 3rd.
8. Slow down
9. Start to brake and come to a stop.
10. clutch in shift to neutral

1. Clutch in first gear start.
2. Clutch in brakes come to a stop shift to neutral.
3. Clutch in first gear start.
4. Acclerate to 10 mph
5. clutch in shift to 2nd

etc.

This is how I taught the woman, they like organization and structure, constant praise and and confidence.

[CamryDS]

Originally Posted by Dezoris

Teaching someone who has no desire to learn is a losing battle. I taught my ex, she is excellent has owned only manual cars. Taught my buddies wife in 5 hours.
My current woman can do it but does not like it because of low confidence.

Only tip I can offer is find a place with a loop like industrial park. Drive in circles around so there is no worry about the course.

Give her commands.

1. Clutch in first gear start.
2. Shift into second.
3. Clutch in come to a stop in neutral.

Rinse repeat.

1. Clutch in first gear start
2. Clutch in second gear.
3. Clutch in 3rd gear
4. Continue driving.
5. Clutch in 2nd gear
6. accelerate up 45
7. Clutch in shift to 3rd.
8. Slow down
9. Start to brake and come to a stop.
10. clutch in shift to neutral

1. Clutch in first gear start.
2. Clutch in brakes come to a stop shift to neutral.
3. Clutch in first gear start.
4. Acclerate to 10 mph
5. clutch in shift to 2nd

etc.

This is how I taught the woman, they like organization and structure, constant praise and and confidence.

Pretty good -- I think this can be improved by informing her about the 3 points in the clutch before they start.

Point 1 --> Clutch Depressed/disengaged

Point 2 --> Biting point

Point 3 --> Clutch Engaged/Foot off

From point 1 --> 2 you can lift you leg as fast as you want
From point 2 --> 3 you need to hold the clutch at point 2, and then slowly engage the clutch/foot off while pressing on the gas -- that is the most important part, other wise you'd jerk the car on each gear you shift it in =).

That's how I learned =) Your organizational structure is great.

On a side note, I think getting a teacher that is calm and can teach you is probably worth the money outside of a headache. 280 dollars and i can drive a stick in 4 hours.

[FrX]

The one tip I can offer is to pay attention to working the clutch entirely before attempting to add in things like accelerating.

Clutch In.
Shift to 1st.
*Slowly* release clutch until it starts to bite and roll the car foward.
Continue to slowly release the clutch, paying attention to not lug the engine, until it is completely engaged.

Practice this a ton before she can get the car rolling without lugging or stalling. Once she gets the hang of this, then you can start adding gas to make the process faster.

[Nm86]

Ok so she drove yesterday for about 2 hours, don't think we're talking stop and go traffic or anything. It was a back road 4 lane road speed limit 55. We started off on a side dead end road and she practiced started about ten times...I cheated her on the first start by letting it roll down a tiny hill, just to give her the extra help. Serious confidence booster. She started and stopped about ten times before we pulled out on the main road. We went through about 5 towns. We only had to come to a full stop twice, but it was a good chance for her to go through the gears and practice driving the car.

Two biggest issue I found were she seems to not be aware of where the gears are...I let her shift From the passenger seat all the time, of course I'm watching making sure we hit the correct gear. So once we went from 1st to 4th no biggie. Second issue she was dropping the clutch hard, this may sound dumb but when we were slowing down into a town I was having her down shift to get a feel of where the gears were, when doing this she would take her foot off the clutch real fast causing a slight chirp from the rear tires, I think we got that issue sorted out. We weren't even gunna try blipping the throttle to rev match or double clutching.
Anyway I appreciate the suggestion I think the most helpful one was just having her release the clutch real slowly without applying any gas that seemed to be the best way for her to start, at least in the beginning she wants to drive part of the way home this weekend and I am more than happy to let her try again

[Ben_G]

Originally Posted by Nm86

I tried teaching my wife to drive stick, multiple times, and in a few different vehicles, a jeep and my old civic. She did ok in the jeep, lower gearing harder to kill. She understands what is supposed to happen, but just isn't able to do it yet. She always claims I make her nervous like she is gunna break my baby. So any suggestions on how I could better teach her to drive stick?

We have been to parking lots, going from a stop through second gear, and then same thing over and over again, and then out onto roads, little traffic and she does okay, but kills it a lot and then gets frustrated. So today we will be taking a trip and most of our routes are back roads, through little towns speed limit is 55 most of the way. I am considering letting her drive my frs for the first time on these roads. There won't be much stopping and starting and maybe she will get a chance to row through the gears and feel more comfortable. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

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!

[Max Schnell]

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.

[GT 86 Brah]

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.