Quote:
Originally Posted by Cd
I don't like the idea of rolling into the guy behind me at a stop light while on a hill.
I tried to learn to drive a manual car as a teen and completely failed. Now as an adult, I don't see how that i could just go buy a car with a manual and drive home without first getting comfortable with it.
I'd end up stalling at every light, or miss a gear. I have enough to worry about while driving without worrying about what gear i need to be in.
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Simple - book yourself a session with a qualified driving instructor! - there is no shame in seeking the help of a trained professional...
I mostly teach people to drive with manual gears - some people take to it straight away, some struggle for a while. Some (usually older folks) either find it too difficult or just can't be bothered, so they buy an automatic.
When I teach a novice I start them off in the auto so they can get used to steering and making it stop and go. Once they are more comfortable with that, then I switch them to the manual. That way they don't have to do the equivalent of juggling three balls at once... Which is, perhaps, what it felt like to you when you first started as a teen.
I help a lot of people from the US/Canada and elsewhere to convert to a stick shift and to get a UK licence. I recently had 3 members of a Canadian family eaach take an hour with me. Just enough for them to feel more comfortable driving around the UK on their vacation.
Invariably the change over from auto to manual is the
easiest part - we spend much more time teaching them to drive on our narrow, winding and over-loaded roads as well as how to negotiate our many, many, many round-a-bouts (Traffic circles)!
BTW we have several thousand US Servicemen and women in East Anglia.
They used to have a very high accident rate due to the very different conditions here. A friend of mine specialises in helping them to 'convert' - they have a one hour lecture followed by about an hour in the car (automatic) which has proved to be enough to greatly reduce the accident rate... The USAF will not permit them to drive here until they do the course.