<p>My kids are looking at more international travel as their lives move into, through and beyond the college years. In addition, I suspect both of their eventual careers will take them abroad at lease occasionally. In my own experience, it is much more common to have rental cars in Europe and South America be of the stick shift, standard transmission variety. I know it’s always possible to request an automatic…but it might just not be available when you get to the counter…or it may be much much more expensive.</p>
<p>So, do you teach your kids to drive a stick? Both H and I learned this skill very early in our driving careers. We now no longer own a standard transmission vehicle so our kids have haven’t been forced to learn. Personally, I consider it pretty important once you get our of the US…</p>
<p>Yes both my kids can drive a stick. Comes from living in a farming community and driving old trucks. Both of them can also drive a tractor. And a skid-loader/forklift.</p>
<p>S1 was in Rome with a group of friends when they rented a car to drive to Northern Germany. The only car available was a stick Of the four of them he was the only one who could drive a stick, so guess who got to drive across the Alps. At night. In the fog. He said by the end of the trip all four of them could at least get around in the car.</p>
<p>We don’t own a car big enough for me to learn. We do own a stick but my legs are literally too long to fit in the drivers seat. I do want to learn eventually. Both of my parents drive sticks and have at least my whole life.</p>
<p>lololu - One of my first real life experiences driving a stick was when after about 4 hours of practice, my dad turns to me in Salzburg and says…you know…I’m tired, you drive! Talk about OTJ training.</p>
<p>We also own a tractor, which son handles nicely, but it is very different than driving a regular auto on the open roads.</p>
<p>I don’t know how to drive a stick shift and I’m a parent. My husband spent about an hour teaching one of our kids, using a rental car in Spain. By the time S gets back to Europe, who knows if he’ll even remember?!! Good thing they have a great train system.</p>
<p>No, neither of my kids can drive a manual. We have never owned one, although I can drive one. (If I had one for a couple of weeks, uninterrupted, I could drive one better.)</p>
<p>If you’re going to stay in the U.S., I don’t see much more point in driving a manual than in driving a team of horses. Automatics are everywhere, and automatics are becoming more and more fuel efficient.</p>
<p>But, yes, if you go abroad, cars with automatic transmissions are hard to find and expensive to rent.</p>
<p>My across-the-street neighbor had a manual-transmission car for his kids to drive. One benefit, he said, was that his kids were never subject to pressure to lend the car to friends, because none of their friends could drive it.</p>
<p>No, they can’t drive a stick. I learned the basics in about 30 minutes though and got a lot better driving a stick in the course of about a year.</p>
<p>There are fewer reasons for driving a stick today though. The old reasons were control and efficiency or performance but six (and higher) speed automatics can do a better job at efficiency today and you can get paddle shifters for more control without having to manage the clutch. I have knee problems from time to time and moving to an automatic from a manual was easier on my left leg.</p>
<p>I drove manual transmissions for 19 years and it is fun but creeping uphill on the Southeast Expressway in Boston with a manual wasn’t a great time.</p>
<p>I suppose that there are still a few places in the world that use rotary phones too.</p>
<p>My kids are all very proficient with a manual transmission, and each have found it a handy skill to have. It sounds a little over the top, but as our second child started driving and oldest was back from college and car demands were escalating, we intentionally bought a small, used, sporty 6 speed. Motivation to learn how to drive that cutie was high and the whole family had fun with it over the years. (And I confess, I probably put more miles on it than anybody!)</p>
<p>Oldest owns a stick now and sort of likes that few people can drive his car. Daughter found it handy at college. One child was able to get a summer valet job (good tip money) because of this particular skill! Spouse and I both owned manual transmissions in our younger days, and even after years of automatics, the skills were quickly back up to speed.</p>
<p>The thing about driving a stick is that it really isn’t all that hard, as long as the road is pretty straight and flat, so if you have never driven one, you can usually manage okay if you take it slow. All though, I still get worried if I have to stop and start on a steep hill with traffic behind me.</p>
<p>My problem is my husband drives our automatic like it is a stick. He starts in 1, goes up to 3 and then to Drive. Drives me nuts.</p>
<p>I learned to drive on a stick-shift car as did my husband. Our kids learned on an automatic. My husband has a small sports car that’s a stick shift and when my younger D wanted to drive it, she asked if we’d teacher her. H. did, and she picked it up pretty quickly. Older D doesn’t know how to drive a stick-shift car, but her husband does. We keep the sports car at our vacation home as an extra car, but it turns out that lots of our guests don’t know how to drive it.</p>
<p>All 5 of my Ds know how to drive a manual. My H has two manual transmission cars. He’s a car guy, loves to drive, and can’t imagine himself ever preferring an automatic. </p>
<p>It’s a good skill to have. And if you ever want to appear on The Amazing Race, it’s essential. ;)</p>
<p>One kid yes and one kid no. The one who can’t drive a stick actually can but with difficulty - a lot of alternating between killing and over-reving the engine when starting from a dead stop.</p>
<p>I first learned how to drive a manual transmission by trial and error (no one teaching me) on a garbage truck when I was 15 years old. I guess that’s why I still drive my car today like it’s a garbage truck.</p>
<p>We don’t have one that old, but our neighbor does. Don’t know if the boys have ever driven that truck, but that have driven several of his other vehicles, so they may have. I have driven it, but never very far.</p>
<p>Our daughter can drive a stick and until recently owned the only manual shift car in the family. She sold it when she moved to a large city. Our sons were both taught how to drive it, but neither are proficient. My husband and I always owned at least one manual stick car until we gave the last one to our daughter. I agree that they are easy to learn to drive, but not fun in city’s or on hills. </p>
<p>A disadvantage for my daughter was on a recent trip to Greece, she was the only one that could drive the rental car so was THE driver for the whole trip through narrow streets and hills.</p>
<p>Both S and D can drive a manual. S learned to drive on the manual, but told us we should teach D the basics on the automatic, and then have her learn how to drive the manual a bit later. We followed his advice–much less stress! S prefers manual now, and has a 13 year old manual transmission that is a bit cranky. His wife has not learned to drive it (and really doesn’t want to), so the replacement will probably be an automatic.</p>
<p>Yes, both S and D can drive a stick. They share a '98 Accord that’s manual. It used to be H’s car. Now H drives another manual Accord. This one is an '09. </p>
<p>I kinda like that the kids drive sticks. It makes texting while driving very difficult. :D</p>
<p>^^^Growing up my dad always had a stick and my mom an automatic. My dad made us all learn to drive on the stick and only would let us drive my mom’s car after we got our license. We made our boys learn on the stick first too.</p>
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