I learned to drive a stick by driving my dad’s truck back and forth in my parents’ driveway before I had a license. Once you get used to taking off from a dead stop, the rest is pretty easy. You don’t stall it while you’re moving, and selecting the correct gear really doesn’t take much experience to figure out. 17 years later, I’ve never owned a daily driver with an automatic transmission, and as long as I can drive one, I probably will.
Assuming that people still drive their own cars by the time my infant son is 16, he’ll learn how to drive a stick early on as well. It’s really not that difficult, and I have always been of the opinion that it helps keep the driver focused on the act of driving; something that is pretty lacking in the general driving public these days.
If you learn it from the beginning, it’s just part of driving a car, not a distraction. OP, don’t let people convince you that it’s a bad idea…I’m with you.
You’ll have a really hard time finding a Fit manual. Only the base model is available with a stick; the Sport model comes with a sequential auto flappy paddle deal. I learned on a manual too, but there’s no reason any American kid needs to learn. If he wants to drive for fun he’ll learn to drive a manual on his own.
Why teach a kid how to do anything? An American kid doesn’t NEED to learn how to weld, or how to use a table saw, or how to do a lot of things…but it doesn’t mean that his parents find no value in teaching him those skills.
If you plan on buying a table saw just to teach your kid how to use one, I’d say that’s a piss poor investment too. The OP will pay more and get less because he’s limiting his selection to manuals, which are 10% of used car inventory.
You didn’t say a thing about investments, you said “there’s no reason any American kid needs to learn” how to drive a manual. Now, when responding to me, it’s about the purchase and resale price of the car?
I can see this isn’t going much of anywhere, Really Not All That Bright.
I will also point out that when I’m driving a stick, I have something to do with both hands, so there is never a temptation to pick up the phone for any reason while driving. I pay more attention to driving with stick than with an automatic (which is why my next car will absolutely be a stick again).
