Tips on teaching a kid to drive? :)

[supton]

Originally Posted By: Kruse
Originally Posted By: motor_oil_madman
A person shouldn't learn on a standard imo.


IMO, if a person learns to drive a car with an automatic, they never want to learn how to drive a stick.


Horse hockey. I and my wife learned how to drive automatics. My first vehicle was a manual; my wife's second vehicle was a manual. We both prefer manuals even today. And neither of us are gearheads.

 

[BJD78]

She will be ahead of probably 95% of most teens. Nowdays very few kids have opportunity to drive a vehicle with standard trans. HS drivers ed programs have used auto trans vehicles since about the late 70's. I do not own anything with a standard trans so my 3 kids all had to learn on auto trans. It would be nice if they knew how, but this Dad is not going to hunt for a standard trans veheice so that they can have that experience. I learned to drive on a "3 on the tree" Ford truck chevey station wagon and a few "4 on the floor" trucks on my grandpas farm.One thing for sure, standard transmissions are certainly a good deterrent for car thieves as most of them will not be able to figure out to drive them. I have driven a stick now for over 30 years.. in fact the last stick I drove was when I was in the Army and about the mid 90's we were loading the old jeeps onto trains to be sent away for crushing as the HUMVEEs with auto's were replacing them.There are no longer any standard transmission vehicles in the Army inventory today.

 

[supton]

I'm kicking myself for not teaching my kids yet--I need to get on that. My 13yr old son is over 5' tall. So having him sit on my lap to work the wheel (while I control the pedals) is only going to get harder.

I like the notion of using technology here; learn steering, brake, gas on an automatic. Once those basics are learned, bring in the clutch. But it's not really that hard to learn it all at once, not that much harder.

 

[SubieRubyRoo]

Best conversation ever about learning how to drive a stick:
Kid to dad: "Dad, why do I have to learn how to drive a stick?"
Dad to kid: "Because your mother's not going to be more of a man than you are!"

Make sure the standard you're training her on is easy, something that's geared low in first. My Forester can get going without ever touching the gas, you just ease off the clutch and by the time it engages the car's going about 4mph. I had my 13yo step daughter driving in parking lots in no time. Third gear engagement, not so much

 

[supton]

Originally Posted By: SubieRubyRoo
Best conversation ever about learning how to drive a stick:
Kid to dad: "Dad, why do I have to learn how to drive a stick?"
Dad to kid: "Because your mother's not going to be more of a man than you are!"

Make sure the standard you're training her on is easy, something that's geared low in first. My Forester can get going without ever touching the gas, you just ease off the clutch and by the time it engages the car's going about 4mph. I had my 13yo step daughter driving in parking lots in no time. Third gear engagement, not so much

Hated my wife's Civic (2001). I taught her how to drive my Saturn, which was easy; she went out and bought a Civic shortly thereafter. She feared she made a mistake until I drove it, and I realized that it was a gutless car--first thing I had ever driven that truly needed gas to get moving. Once I gave her "permission" to use a bit of gas she loved that car.

I never liked that car, always felt like it needed gobs of revs to make it do anything. I always preferred full clutch engagement just off-idle, but that car just wouldn't tolerate that.

 

[Kruse]

Originally Posted By: supton
Originally Posted By: Kruse
Originally Posted By: motor_oil_madman
A person shouldn't learn on a standard imo.


IMO, if a person learns to drive a car with an automatic, they never want to learn how to drive a stick.


Horse hockey. I and my wife learned how to drive automatics. My first vehicle was a manual; my wife's second vehicle was a manual. We both prefer manuals even today. And neither of us are gearheads.


What I meant was that if you give a 16-year old kid a car that he/she is learning to drive with and the car is an automatic and they learn to drive with an automatic transmission in this car, they will NOT want to learn to drive a stick-shift vehicle. If you give a 16-year old kid a stick-shift to learn with, they will have no problem driving an automatic.
There's no horse hockey about it.
BTW, my two favorite vehicles that I drive daily are manual-transmission trucks.

 

[opus1]

Originally Posted By: Kruse
Originally Posted By: motor_oil_madman
A person shouldn't learn on a standard imo.


IMO, if a person learns to drive a car with an automatic, they never want to learn how to drive a stick.


Not 100%. My nephew wasn't interested for a couple of years but over Thanksgiving he mentioned that he'd like to learn how. Took Dad's truck out to the high school and had him drive around the lot.

In this case, though, I think a female who drove a manual had something to do with getting him interested in learning. Whatever, it's stil a win.

 

[Kruse]

Originally Posted By: opus1
Originally Posted By: Kruse
Originally Posted By: motor_oil_madman
A person shouldn't learn on a standard imo.


IMO, if a person learns to drive a car with an automatic, they never want to learn how to drive a stick.


Not 100%. My nephew wasn't interested for a couple of years but over Thanksgiving he mentioned that he'd like to learn how. Took Dad's truck out to the high school and had him drive around the lot.

In this case, though, I think a female who drove a manual had something to do with getting him interested in learning. Whatever, it's stil a win.

My wife hadn't driven a stick-shift since she was 13 and growing up on a farm in Texas. We bought a Ford Ranger with a manual transmission (well, basically given to us when my cousin died) and she relearned real fast how to drive a stick. It's now her favorite vehicle.

 

[jeepman3071]

Originally Posted By: Dyusik
Nothing matters more than putting the phone down.


+1

Teach her the importance of being a vehicle operator, not using driving as a way to catch up on facebook and phone messages. This teaching could possibly save her life and others down the road.

 

[ag_ghost]

Originally Posted By: addyguy
Originally Posted By: motor_oil_madman
A person shouldn't learn on a standard imo.


What? That is the best place to learn...after that an auto is almost not driving!

I learned on a 4-speed (the '63 Ford in my sig), and regret I did not have a manual shift car in the fleet when our sons learned.

To the original question, when the kid is ready to take on traffic, one thing that seemed to help was that my wife insisted the learning son drive whenever "she" took him to a sport practice or other school event.

 

[mrsilv04]

God bless you Chris... teaching a girl to drive stick.

The friction zone is a skill, that's for sure. She'll have to learn the feel of it, I'm not sure if there's any other way.

When the '52 Chevy showed up, for some reason, Dad thought that I'd struggle to be able to drive a three on the tree (which is what I learned to drive stick on, around 30 years ago).

I guess he forgot that nearly 20 years on motorcycles and well over 150,000 miles would count for something.

 

[aquariuscsm]

I learned how to drive on the deer lease when I was about 5.

 

[Carmudgeon]

Most people are capable enough to physically operate a vehicle competently to cover 90% of circumstances.

It's the mental game that's seriously lacking in most drivers.

-No presence of mind or spatial awareness of where the vehicle is, or what it's doing
-Poor ability to judge time/speed/distance, especially in relation to other vehicles in dynamic situations
-Ignorance of the rules of the road, or just plain disregard for them, others, and the skill/responsibility of driving in general

Learning to drive, or just driving a manual transmission in general requires an extra level of consciousness, and the two additional inputs are beneficial in forcing a higher level of awareness of what the vehicle does and how it reacts.

The ease with which licenses can be obtained, and how vehicles operate has served to lower the overall standard of driving.

 

[Black_Thunder]

I honestly think it helps if they learn how to drive something other then a car first.


My brothers and I were driving around mopeds, 4wheelers and tractors before cars so you can at least get the nervousness away from being in control of a vehicle to just going from something small to something larger.


I believe i was 11 or 12 when my parents bought a 4wheeler and we drove the heck out of that thing. I drove 4wheeler everywhere up until i had my license

 

[jeepman3071]

Originally Posted By: Black_Thunder
I honestly think it helps if they learn how to drive something other then a car first.


My brothers and I were driving around mopeds, 4wheelers and tractors before cars so you can at least get the nervousness away from being in control of a vehicle to just going from something small to something larger.


I believe i was 11 or 12 when my parents bought a 4wheeler and we drove the heck out of that thing. I drove 4wheeler everywhere up until i had my license


I agree.

Before I drove a car on the road I had driven farm tractors, riding mowers, ATVs and a farm truck with a trailer on a farm. That made a huge difference learning to drive on the street.

 

[slug_bug]

I've taught seven people to drive a manual including my daughters. Getting the first gear take off down pat takes a lot of patience and many stalls. One member here gave a suggestion that made a lot of sense. Have her practice getting the car moving without touching the gas. Though this will of course not be the standard way of taking off, I think it would be a great way of showing where the friction point is and the art of slowly engaging the clutch. I will definitely try this suggestion if I teach another person.

 

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

How to change a tire so they are not stranded beside the road waiting for help from their insurance coverage road assistance. "Is this a lug wrench?" "Maybe."

 

[javacontour]

I've given all three of my kids stick lessons. Two of them I started them in the stick shift car.

I try to break it down into small bites.

First bite is the friction point. I put the car on a slight downhill, and have them engage the clutch, put it in first and slowly let out the clutch while the car is idling so they get a feel for the friction point.

When they get the hang of that, I then let them use the accelerator.

Finally, I add shifting.

Break it down into the component parts and let them get comfortable with each before adding more.

Obviously, vacant land/parking lot, etc. Lots of patience from the instructor is key. The kid will be nervous enough, so relax and when they make a mistake, don't lose your cool. Just calmly go through the steps, ask them if they know what they did wrong, what they might change, etc.

Freaking out only results in two nervous people involved in the training process.

Originally Posted By: Chris142
I have mentioned before that my wife's cousin is a drug addict. She has an awsome 12 yr old girl.

Since tomorrow is a holiday that just means its another day to throw a party. So we got the kid for the night.

She helped us clean up around the house. I then figured it was time to learn how to drive.

She has the brake,gas and steering down good. Taking off from a dead stop is giving her trouble.

Funny that she found 2nd gear all on her own. Any tips on teaching her how to work the gas and clutch?

Oh and before anynone complains we are on my 10 acres...not city streets.