Car to teach SWMBO to drive stick...

Doing donuts in the high school parking lot in a 21 year old camaro. You gonna ask her to prom afterward?

Miatas are great if you can get comfortable in them. Honestly, the best car I've seen to teach someone to drive is my friend's Mercedes 240 diesel. It's almost impossible to kill and on the other side of things, dumping the clutch means it won't get away from you with 65 hp.

ebonyandivory wrote: I've taught a couple of women to drive a manual, passably at least, with 4x4's with a low range transfer case on a dirt road. They're all but impossible to stall in 4-low. Once they get used to HOW it has to happen, you can switch to 4-high. Either way, a dirt road gets rid of the screech and chirp of the tires when she messes up and doesn't kill the car as fast either. (Works for males that can't yet drive manual)

Came in to say this. Taught my 13 year old niece a few weeks back out on our back 40 with my Geo Tracker. Put it in low range, sat there with the truck off and ran through the process a few times. A little jerky the first time, but she got it, and the 30 min worth of starts and stops afterwards. It helps that flat out in 5th gear low is like 40mph, but we tooled around the woods for a good hour just goofing off seeing what we could run over or through. (I didn't tell her I had already gone over and through most of it.)

Taught SWMBO in HER 84 300z after she agreed to buy it and then told the PO that she couldn't drive stick.

Taught the ex in my neon RT. Taught her son in my Miata. That pissed his dad off something fierce.

The answer is the answer. As said...Miata. One of the easiest manuals I've driven so should be good for teaching.

Taught Mrs. Zero how to drive manual in my Dakota. The 3.92 gears helped out tremendously.

After that, she DD'd a 93 318is (not know for tq or hp) for years. She said the feel was really good and friction point was easy to find.

I think V8 Mustangs are pretty easy because of the low-end torque. The easiest manual I've ever driven was a 4cyl Jeep (I think it was a '97).

Did anyone suggest a tractor yet? They're easy to learn on because torque isn't a question, they're slow, and the throttle is set via some control not done via floor pedal. So you set the throttle high enough so it won't stall but not higher than that and just focus on the gear change and the clutch.

It's how I learned at an age much too young to even consider a learner's permit.

Brought up the idea of getting something stickshift (either of the two cars in my previous post) and her learning to drive them, and got a lot more push-back than I was expecting. "In 32 years I've never needed to know how, why should I take the time to learn now?" -_-

So just buy one and she will have to learn if she wants to drive it?

Had to teach my 31 year old brother how to drive a stick this winter. Hugely frustrating, he lacked all sense of mechanical empathy and every clutch engagement was exactly the same (abrupt). He had a negative attitude to the process as well something along the lines of "this is stupid so why should I bother to try?"

No matter that not knowing how to operate something so common is a virtual handicap. I may never have to land a 747 but I have an idea of how to do it. Why wouldn't everyone want to learn every skill that presents itself?

EvanB wrote: So just buy one and she will have to learn if she wants to drive it?

She'd almost certainly just not drive it- that's what she did pretty much the whole time we had the Prius which she was fully capable of driving but that she simply didn't like. And she'd quite certainly (and somewhat justifiably...) be upset with me for me deciding on and getting- on my own- something completely different from what we've been discussing and looking at.

I read the title as "care to teach swmbo to drive stick" and the answer is no, I do not, and no, you should not either

Buy whatever she picks out and dont ever complain about it. My new gf had me help her find an auto Miata. We were actually able to locate a very nice <30k LS with all options. It is not my first choice to drive at any time but at least, it is topless when we take a drive in it.

I like to teach via feel as well, so finding a car that has good clutch feel is important.

I tried to teach my wife on a Honda, and she wanted to cry after about an hour. Then we switched to my Alfa, and she got it the first try. After a little while in a car like that, she could get my Miata pretty well. And has no problems with my no feel Fiesta at the moment.

Funny thing about cars- one of my favorite feeling clutched cars was a V6 Mustang. No idea why it was set up like that, but from the factory it was sweet. More odd when the Aston Martin I worked on was changed from something sweet like that to something with no feel at all- I thought all of these guys worked for the same company.

Very worth it. Biggest smile after work was always when she drove our Alfa to work.

For the moment I'm shelving the discussion... I'll save it for a bit down the line when things aren't quite so hectic. Would love to be able to expand the options of our 'vert search with the manuals, but for now will just have to keep looking for automatics...

The popular opinion around here and most everywhere is "OMG Don't buy a VW!" but I would definitely suggest a 93-99 GTI, Golf, or Jetta. The 2.0 4 cyl is almost bullet proof and I have known people who purposely abused them and still couldn't kill it. If you want a cheap beater to teach her on and then turn around and sell a few months down the road this is a good candidate. They are cheap and plentiful and shouldn't be hard to find with a stick. I will say that the "electrical gremlins" everyone made a big deal about with VW may manifest in the Cruise Control, ABS, and Window regulators. Again, as a cheap beater to learn how to drive stick on though it probably isn't your biggest concern.

Since you are in Lexington I'm assuming cars in the Southern IN/Northern KY/SW Ohio area are fair game so a quick search there found a few good ones:

96 Jetta

Here's a Cabrio (golf convertible) that looks to be up to date on maintenance (timing belt is important around this mileage):

97 Cabrio

And another Cabrio for the same price almost. Lowball him and tell him you can get a better one for the same price by sending him the ad above?

98 Cabrio

And if you want to "live dangerously" and teach her to drive it without getting it registered this one is $500 and has no title. Offer him scrap value and try and sell it to someone else for parts or for scrap value later?

98 no title

For a buy, learn, dump beater with a drop top there is also the dreaded GM J body, preferably with the 2200 4 cylinder truck engine, not the "not a quad 4" twin cam. I honed my stick skills in a hardtop model. If you never stopped and were feeling lazy, you could leave that thing in 3rd gear all day driving around town. Or in traffic, ride the brake in 1st and fight the IAC valve.

My suggestion? Have someone else teach her. Doesn't really matter what is used, preferably something she likes or wants to drive.

There is an emotional connection between you and your wife. This is a good thing in many situations, but it can cause a lot of stress and strife when trying to provide sometimes fast and loud instructions as the mind will add an emotional element to what is said. It can also cause a lot of issues with confidence.

Just some experience from having to teach other people to drive because they argued badly with their partners, but I can't help my own wife to parallel park. Just the way some people's minds work.

turboswede wrote: My suggestion? Have someone else teach her. Doesn't really matter what is used, preferably something she likes or wants to drive.

This. I recommend board member FlynLow. I wouldn't be married if it wasn't for him teaching my wife the art of three pedals.

I'd sell you a cheap manual '94 900S convertible if you want. $1200 as soon as I get the title back from Frankfort. 155k miles and the absolute easiest clutch job you'll ever do, but it doesn't need one. It isn't a nice example, but it isn't rotted in half and it looks great going down the road.

Powar wrote: I'd sell you a cheap manual '94 900S convertible if you want. $1200 as soon as I get the title back from Frankfort. 155k miles and the absolute easiest clutch job you'll ever do, but it doesn't need one. It isn't a nice example, but it isn't rotted in half and it looks great going down the road.

So far haven't had any luck in convincing her that this is a good idea- and am mostly resolved that it will have to wait until later down the line.

With one possible exception that may provide an interesting way to ease her into learning to drive stick while also tickling her fancy style-wise: http://cincinnati.craigslist.org/cto/5117977044.html

That's a 1969 VW Beetle convertible with a 3-speed Autostick. Removes the third pedal aspect from the equation, and also has a torque converter- would allow her to get used to the concept and practice of manually having to shift between gears with much less of the problems of stalling it out. And I know that classic Beetles are right up her alley style-wise.

I taught my wife in my International flatbed driving around a shopping mall late at night. Then I got a call for a multivehicle accident so we picked up our F350 for her and she learned how to tow a car that night too.