Teaching son to drive a manual transmission

[Hasselhoss]

Tonight I took my 15-yr old son to a "neighborhood-that-never-happened" and attempted to teach him to drive a stick-shift.

After an hour or so he was still stalling, burning the tires or bouncing the car like a basketball.

If you've ever taught you kid how to drive a manual I could really use some pointers as he was getting very frustrated. It made it worse when I drove us home and it "looked so easy".

Ideas?

 

[inkdaddy]

I so remember those days.......Good Luck Dad!!!!!!!

 

[the_great_white]

well, if he already figured out how to do a burn out, that's all he needs to know!...lol

good luck! i can't imagine the fear my parents went through teaching me to drive

 

[linebacker]

LOL,,, Good luck with that! I bought my son, 16 at the time, a Ford truck with a 5 speed. After about 2 hours, I said "screw it, I'll sell this one before you tear it up and get you one with an automatic".

 

[themayor]

Have him learn the clutch first. Forget about shifting just where the clutch catches and releases. Have him stop and go learning how the clutch and gas go together. When he starts getting that you do all the moving of the stick and he learns how the clutch works with other gears, and finally he does it all at once. I taught several of my friends that way when I was younger.

I got taught by my dad. I had a less then 20 minute lesson with a hill stop at a light with a cop right behind me. Fear of being put thru a wall helps you to learn quickly.

 

[dakota port]

the lost art of manual transmissions, it makes me think of how easy we have it today learning to drive(even semi trucks have automatic transmissions now) but with manual its less likely to get stolen i figure

 

[Me]

My oldest son will be 44 on Friday. Close to 30 years ago I was trying to teach him to drive with a 5 speed toyota. Clutch and shift went ok except every time he shifted he turned teh wheel to the right. Cleaned out some ditches!!!

Good luck!

 

[ratedR]

Buy a cheap car.

 

[blazedawg87]

Learn to drive a 6sp in a 99 vette. Now my DD in a 5 speed and hate autos.

 

[Hasselhoss]

Great suggestions, thanks. We worked on the clutch some tonight. We sat in the driveway and he learned the "art" of the clutch. His mind had it set that the clutch was an "On/Off" switch.