<---overly cautious, semi paranoid, terminator 2 Sara Conner style, ugly real world scenario side coming through....read below



IMHO teaching any new driver on manual first is a MUST DO. take this into consideration:

If anything bad happens to her while she is out in the world with people or alone and she needs to drive a vehicle (god forbid in a high drama situation) and the only available mode of transportation is a manual would you want her to at least know the ruduments of driving any car or just automatics? If the transportation is needed for speedy getaway this is critically important. not saying it would happen but I would rather have the knowledge and experience and not need it then to need it and not have it.

Not a nice thing to think about but a smart one. learning to drive stick first enables you to be able to drive just about anything just shy of a tank if you HAVE to.

You may not need to purchase a manual car for her but I would take steps to make sure she gets training on driving both well.

my $1.32 worth

 

Rob,

Good point and I am "teaching" her however the only manual car we own right now is the "S" which makes both of us (her & I) very nervous.

She will learn, it may cost me a clutch but she will learn.

Thanks, B.

 

Modern Diesels are no where near as noisy or rough as they used to be...same with the black exhaust smoke. I've driven a TDI Beetle before...was really not bad. Lots of torque for around town driving...not much hp to get her in touble.

Turbo is not a reliablity problem...all the semi trucks you see on the road are all turbo diesels and they run for millions of miles.

Engine reliabilty is great...the rest of the car is like any other car as far as reliability is concerned. Not really sure the cost of repair...it's a VW so parts cost probably won't be as cheap as a Honda.

The only thing you must do is educate anyone who drives it NOT to put gasoline into the tank. And eventhough the fuel filler should prevent a gasoline nossle to fit, never underestimate the creativity of people to do the wrong thing.

 

I actually have a friend whose daughter put diesel fuel in the family car instead of gasoline. She explained later that she did notice she "spilled alot" while refueling and she thought something was wrong with the pump nozzle.

Cost him an engine rebuild.

 

My dad taught me this way. I tried this on my daughter and it worked for her.


Have your daughter back up and drive forward in the driveway. Very boring, but gets you use to those take off's out of first and reverse. the hardest to learn.


Good luck.

 

Good Idea

Thanks

 

Just make sure to stand outside the car with a Jack and Coke.
My dad did that, I did that, you have to keep the tradition going.



This is polish instruction at its finest.

 

I can assume the alcohol makes it easier to watch the clutch smoke.


May I substitute a Cold Mug of "New Castle" and still carry on the tradition?

 

You could burn the steaks like my dad did on the grill to compensate for clutch burn.

Oh yeah, New Castle is just fine.

 

If I had kids would a couple of martinis work?