I'd be fibbing if I attributed this to any great foresight on my part, but well, I've Always driven cars with "standard" transmissions...

Additionally, I married a sweet girl who had always driven cars with "standard" transmissions... (see? once in a while i DO manage to make a smart move ).

After 20+ years together, we Both Know Better than to try to "TEACH" each other much of ANYthing. For Example when she's surfing, I do not go NEAR the computer, (unless summoned for troubleshooting, of course). I know some will recognize this pattern:

Her: Hey hon, can you show me how to do X?
Tatt: Sure, just click, etc etc etc and you're all set, my sweet!
Her: (opens wide, fangs dripping, and needlessly chomps off Tattman's condescending patronizing HEAD!)

Boy I tell you I got it rough! I'm INnocent I tell ya!

Oh and did I mention that I've got over 5 YEARS (my MCS will be long PAID FOR (yay)) before any of our offspring reach 16?

Be good to each other,
Tatt

 

Why not use the best teaching technique in the world. It's called the upfront contact. It goes something like this.

"Honey, I love you. I really want to teach you how to drive stick, but I have to admit I'm a little scared. I'm afraid that I'll want to yell at you, and I'm afraid that at some point you'll get frustrated, and not listen to me. Can we both agree that if I yell at you, and if you get to frustrated to listen, that we'll call each other on it? "

She'll say yes.

Trust me! It may sound gay, but will work. It also give you free reign to be yourself with out feeling guilty about it. Same goes for her. Afterward you can both have a big laugh about the tranny.

Thus endith the lesson in Psychology

DevilMini

 

patented!

Good method. Add another trick. Start with a level but slightly downhill stretch to get used to rolling and shifting first and second gears. Slightly uphill would be a little harder to fight resistance of rolling to a stop.

I taught my wife using a honda civic years ago and I taught my daughter in my MCS and both did fine.

Another method I've heard of is to take your friend to a Honda dealership and tell them you want to drive a civic manual but you're a novice. I bet they will allow you to go out and give it a whirl . Hey, that's why they have demo cars, right??!?? I got this tip from a Honda salesman who said they DO get people that don't drive manual who show up and want to drive a stick and they teach them how on the fly! Brave, huh. Or perhaps foolish.

 

Explain to her basically how it works -- do this over dinner, while watching a movie, etc., but not in the car

Then, give her the keys, get in the car, state simply that "Mr. Clutch is your friend" and then -- and this is the really important part for a successful run, I swear to you...

SHUT UP.

Don't speak.
Don't moan.
Don't "oof", "argh", or "ack"
Say NOTHING.
Not a SINGLE WORD.

Until she asks you to.

And then, keep it brief and neutral in tone.

Then, come back and tell me that I'm brilliant.

 

I taught my oldest son to drive a stick in my car. We started out using my wife's minivan and once he got the basics down we switched to a Chevy Cavalier 5-sp manual. The battery died on the Chevy so my MINI was the only one left (and you know how persistent 16-year olds, with a brand new drivers license in their pocket, can be). I found a fairly unused road that had a stop sign and a couple of turns in it and we started out slow. He caught on really fast and after 2-sessions he was driving solo. He now drives the Chevy (he thinks it's his car) and covets the MINI.
My second son is 15-1/2, just got his permit last week and is beating me up (verbally) each night to take him out driving. Son #1 / Son #2 - Day / Night ... complete opposites. I know that he'll be a good driver I just don't know about learning to be a good driver in my MINI.
Son #3, 14-years old, has already claimed the MINI as his since, by the time he gets his license, I will be 55 and way too old to drive! Young whipper-snapper!

 

Buy a cheap beater for $500 or so let her learn to drive and sell the car for $500.......

 

You all have completely missed the point of this thread!


I'm just looking for a rental in the Tampa area!


I know how to teach (and not teach)...

 

Yup,just what I was thinking.Then drive them to some empty road,parking lot,open space,easier on gravel or snow,and let them loosemost get the gist pretty quick,some not so quick,if no traffic is around.
Don't let them anywere near your MINI

 

This is simple mbcoops. How serious are you about this girlfriend? Will you eventully marry her, or live together for 20 or more years. If you don't answer yes let her learn of some elses car. Teaching her on your MINI is a big investment in the relationship. I taught my wife to be to, drive a stick and realized this was my wife to be. Married 29 years.

 

Threads tend to take on their own life here on NAM, kaelaria! I sure didn't realize that you were looking for a rental. Sorry!


Clover

 

Now that is funny!!! Rent a standard Hummer

 

Erinn (my wife, who once worked for a large car rental company) suggests checking to see if there is a Rent-a-Wreck location near you. They are the only vendor she knows of that has had manual gearbox equipped cars available- but not sure if they still do. Unfortunately, most U.S. rental car vendors do not stock manuals for 2 reasons:

1) not all drivers are able or willing to drive one, and this might make the difference between renting the car or not on a given day. A car that sits on the lot is a money loser.

2) Of the pool of potential renters of manual transmissioned cars, many will be looking for one for the exact reason you are- to spare their own vehicle the potential abuse that instructional usage of the vehicle entails.

Most rental companies sell off their cars before the OEM base warranty expires, and aside from oil changes at the bare minimum required interval and warranty repairs, the cars get very little service. Any repairs that would be charged to the rental company accounts are considered a "cost center," and delayed or avoided for as long as possible. The basic idea is to try to let minor issues ride until the car is sold off, thus keeping the cash in the shareholders' pockets. Since clutch lining wear is almost always explicitly excluded from coverage under new car OEM warranties, the risk of paying to replace cooked clutches is not attractive to rental company beancounters. Put bluntly, the 50-150 dollars the rental company might make does not outweigh the risk of of a $600-1100 clutch replacement (typical cost for this job for FWD cars in my area.) Unlike collision or other overt physical damage to the car, the rental company would be hard pressed to prove (in court) that a clutch failure was not the culmination of a condition that existed prior to the last rental of the car. Therefore, it would be difficult to balance bill the renter for the replacement, as the company does with other things beyond normal wear and tear that turn up when the car is returned following a rental.

These factors, taken together, make your search a decidedly difficult one. The Holy Grail might be easier to find. Best of luck with the hunt, though!:smile:

 

I was really worried about my car when teaching my wife how to drive standard. She really surprised the heck out of me. Now she drives standard better than I do! At least give her a chance! :smile:

 

Similar experience here. I was visiting my Dad's office in downtown St. Louis. Five o'clock came - he handed me the keys (to the Renault Caravelle ) and said, "You're driving." In downtown rush hour traffic!

Just getting out of the parking garage was a trip. (Can you imagine how frightened I was that I'd take out that gate arm!)

Was a pro by the time we got home, 20 miles later...

 

I drove my new Fiat (taxicab yellow with black racing stripes and a roof rack) home from the Beverly Hills dealership to our house in Mar Vista! I was cool within about 2 miles of BH! LMAO!

Loved it.......


Clover

 

Damn, reading this thread makes me wonder if I should make my next upcoming MINI order an MCS stick, instead of a CVT MC.

It's been a long time since I've driven a stick, and I hated almost all of them, though they certainly could be fun at times...until I got stuck in uphill rush hour traffic...that lasted way longer than the stated hour.

I have a lot of fun using the steptronic mode for quicker take offs in the CVT, and doing so on a regular basis makes me wonder if I stick next time around might not be funner yet, once I got myself retrained to using one. The MINI's clutch is considered a farly "easy" one to use, though I'm not sure what that is compared to.

I first learned to use a stick years ago in my friend's old, very beat up (I sold it to a junk yard the next year for $25), Datsun B210. I stalled, and grinded those gears many times that first day, though the car never seemed to suffer too badly from it by the time I got the hang of it. Even long after that, I still tended to stall that car fairly often, and I wasn't all that much better with any other stick I ever drove. However, none of those were performance cars with slick sticks, and quick, smooth clutches. They were always one form or another of junk car, or an occasional U-Haul truck.

I imagine most every U-Haul (or Ryder) rental truck is an automatic nowadays, but you might want to consider using that type of vehicle, if one is available. The idea of having a Honda dealership teach her is not bad. I've had a Toyota dealership offer to teach my ex-wife how to drive a stick, when we were worried about spending too much on an automatic. Same thing with a Suburu dealership we were at, and a Jeep dealership, and... Well, you get the idea.