<p>Both of my kids drive cars with manual transmissions. I’m not sure it can be mastered in an hour, and I don’t think the instruction will be retained for long if one doesn’t actually drive a manual transmission regularly, for a while at least.</p>
<p>I agree it is a good skill to have, but I’m afraid it is a dying skill.</p>
<p>My son taught at least half a dozen of his friends how to drive his truck, though, because they were in the market for cheap used cars and there are a lot of old trucks around in this part of the country. </p>
<p>Of course, that meant the clutch and transmission had to be replaced by the time my daughter took over the truck.</p>
<p>I just remembered that this is how I knew my boyfriend in college was the guy for me: he taught me how to drive his manual transmission car. I was a slow learner, but he married me anyway. I think the car even lasted a while.</p>
<p>My mom taught me to do all those things when I got my first car at age 16.</p>
<p>Lucky for me now I’ll never really have to change a tire since I have those tires that travel an additional 50 miles after a flat. Plus I have free roadside assistance so it’s not necessary for me to change a tire on my own.</p>
<p>Not a clue. H can check tire pressure and add air, but that’s about it. We are mechanically illiterate, and we don’t take vacations in remote areas. Perhaps the two are related. :)</p>
<p>I drove from home to DC with my girls a few years back, as I arrived at the hotel I noticed the car was driving funny. The car had a flat tire. My girls looked horrified because we were away from home and we had a tight schedule. I asked the bellman to unload the car, gave them my car key and my roadside service information, and asked them to have it taken care before I checked out next day. Later that day they old me there was a nail in my tire, they decided to patch it instead of replacing it with a new tire. They just added the cost of repair ($50) to my hotel bill (the hotel paid in advance for me). I did have to tip the guy who took care of it for me pretty well, but it beat having me wait around for the roadside service to show up.</p>
<p>I agree there are a lot of life skills one must have, but I have skipped taking care of a car for 25 years. Oh, my car has a little light that comes on when the wheels’ air pressure is not right.:)</p>
<p>Yes, to all of the above. My daughter learned how to do those basics as a condition of driving. She even knows to loosen the lugs before jacking the car off the ground. Came in handy. My wife hit a curb late one night leaving the two of them stranded at a gas station with a flat in a not so great part of Cambridge. Daughter called me on the cellphone, found the flashlight I always put in the center console, and proceded to change the tire. Took under ten minutes, as I walked her through it – she done it in the driveway before. They were on their way.</p>
<p>Other thngs we did: The day she got her learners permit, we went to a big open parking lot at a local community college with a stack of orange cones. She practiced all out emergency braking. Doing large figure 8s – which require looking way ahead to do properly, three point turns in a tight space, and so forth. We used plastic garbage cans in front of our house for parallel parking practice. And, the day of the first big snowstorm, we went back to the parking lot so she could experience sliding a car on ice, activating the anti-lock brakes while hard braking on ice, and so forth.</p>
<p>A great excercise with a new driver is to play a game of looking far down the road and identifying potential trouble spots – kids playing in a yard, a car in a driveway that could pull out, and so forth.</p>
<p>I agree that all of these things are important for a young driver to learn. </p>
<p>However, I think there are more important things for a young driver to learn to keep them safe while driving (and also prevent repairs from getting even more expensive).</p>
<p>1) Know the sound of the audible wear indicator for their brakes and know the feel of the brake pedal (when it has to be depressed further, it is a sign that the brakes are about worn out). This can prevent having lower braking capacity (when you’ve run out of pad) and possibly save you a rotor purchase.</p>
<p>2) Sense when the car is pulling to one side or the other and can tell when this is an alignment issue (not needing immediate attention, but soon) or whether this is a tire low on air (potentially dangerous or can strand you).</p>
<p>3) Know the “normal” sounds that come from under the hood. Recognize that a squealing belt can come off and leave you stranded or that rumble sound that means you have an exhaust leak (potential of Carbon Monoxide leak into vehicle).</p>
<p>4) Know what to do when the various “idiot lights” come on (Pull over and run the heat on high when the temp light comes on, for example). Know (car specific) the difference between a flashing “check engine” light and a solid one (one could be only an emissions issue like a loose gas cap while the other could mean inadequate oil supply) and when to pull over and when it is safe to drive home.</p>
<p>So many kids have absolutely zero idea of how a car actually works and treat it like a black box that you drive until it quits and then call Dad to get the smoking wreck towed to the shop for a repair that costs more than their yearly earnings bagging groceries. They “didn’t know” the strange sound, smell, feel was a warning to stop driving the thing.</p>
<p>So often we parents turn over the keys to a kid thinking they will actually tell us when something doesn’t seem right only to learn that they are relatively insensitive to the workings of the $5000 machine that takes them places. What they aren’t trained to handle (this stuff comes up when you least expect it) will eventually put them in a bad situation. It would be nice if those folks putting together driver training videos (the ones you watch before you get to drive) would put together a segment on these things to be aware of (perhaps the auto repair shops pay them NOT to do this - LOL).</p>
<p>We all know how to do that but I think only my husband and oldest son change the oil on a regular basis. It’s a pretty basic list. </p>
<p>When we had some beater vehicles I learned more interesting things. We had a '63 pick-up truck that tended to slip out of gear on a regular basis and I learned how to manually put some gear back in place. A few weeks ago our Jetta wouldn’t start at the grocery store just a couple of miles from our house. My husband and I impressed a few strangers by jump starting it with my husband pushing and me popping it into second gear. Now, that’s something all manual drivers should know how to do!</p>
<p>I know how to do all those things, but it’s been a long time since I’ve done any of them. In fact the last time I tried to change a tire, I couldn’t get the nuts off. Luckily I looked helpless and a man got them off for me. I did find the spare and put the car up on the jack. I can drive a stick shift too and use the jump cables. Oh and I used to know how to double clutch, haven’t driven a car that needed that knowledge though since I was sixteen! I remember a Landrover on one trip that we had to park facing downhill each night so we could roll it down the hill to start it.</p>
<p>…check the oil in the car?
The gas station attendant does this.
… add oil if needed?
Ditto
… check the air pressure in the tires?
Ditto
… add air to the tires if needed?
Ditto
… change a tire?
AAA. There’s no way D would be driving somewhere so remote there’s no cell phone service. And I’d rather have her safe in the car or well off on the side than out on the road in harm’s way trying to change a tire. </p>
<p>Same rules apply to H, S and myself. (However I do refill the washer fluid myself–yay me!) We don’t do our own plumbing or service our own oil burner either, and put auto maintenance in the same category. Maybe it’s because we don’t live in or travel to the boondocks, but in umpteen years of driving, our lack of skills have never been a problem.</p>
<p>My driving for two years DS knows how to do all of the listed things and more because his school now offers Auto Shop. Last year the school decided to redo their schedule and create an intersession where they offer unique classes, internships and travel experiences during the entire month of January (regular school is held august to dec. and feb. to june). They offered Auto Shop/Automechanic for 4 hours a day during the month. My son said it was one of the best classes he has taken and that he learned life skills from it. The kids loved it as well as the teachers and nearby neighbors because the students worked on their cars for free. Oil Changes, transmission work, brakes etc. were done by the students. My son now knows a lot of more about his car and regularly changes all of our oil.</p>
<p>Another thing not on the list is, “Do you know how to pump your own gas?” In New Jersey it’s ILLEGAL for drivers to pump their own gas, an attendant must do it. I’ve been at the gas station a couple of times when a youngish New Jersey driver has gotten to the gas pump, sat in the car for a few minutes (waiting for the attendant) and then stepped out with a slightly bewildered look and figured out how to pump their gas.</p>
<p>LOL, what a funny set of questions. D has always known how to do all basic checks on the car. We have always had older “clunkers” so she knows what to listen for, and can tell if the squeel is a belt, if the engine is running rough if it is just low oil or needs a tune-up, or if it is pulling and needs an alignment.</p>
<p>She definately knows how to check and add oil, check and fix tire pressure, and also knows about coolant.</p>
<p>Other than that, I agree, AAA Plus is the way to go.</p>
<p>kathiep – I was going to add that about pumping gas. Always throws me for a loop when I stop in NJ for gas and get out, ready to pump it myself! D & S started pumping gas before they even got their learners’ permits – I figured they needed to know how, AND it meant I didn’t have to do it.</p>
<p>As for the original list – yes to all for me, and yes to all for D & S – but since neither has had to actually change a tire, I’m not sure of the execution. I added both of them to our AAA membership when they got their license. Not too long after S started driving himself to HS (a 30 min trip) he called at the end of the day to say the battery was dead. (He’d left the lights on.) I told him, “You’ve got AAA, figure it out. See you when you get home.” He ended up calling the school security service, who came and jumped the battery for him – but, he figured it out.</p>
<p>Yes for a boy, no for a girl. At least, she has AAA and has e a sense to ask her dad when she suspects something unusual about car. She also has been a decent driver so far, better than me.</p>
<p>Agree with Star and Missy. Taking care of things doesnt always mean doing them yourself, it means doing things right and on time, and using appropriate outside resources. IMHO.</p>