My car is going into reverse when in first gear.

Factual Questions
1

I just bought a Suzaki Forenza 06 yesterday. While teaching my daughter how to drive this car which is a manual transmisssion this happened. When she put it in 1st gear the car started to go reverse. My gear shift goes like this. Reverse is all the way to the left. You actually have to pick up on a lever to have to go into reverse. This way you do not accidentally go into 1st while trying to go into reverse. When happened? It was working fine all day

2

You’re sure the car wasn’t rolling backwards down an incline with a beginner behind the wheel and her foot off the brake? Far more likely.

3

The lockout ‘lever’ that normally requires you to put more pressure when pushing the shifter left to go into reverse is worn or malfunctioning. It may just need a linkage adjustment but it’s hard to say how much it might cost to fix. If you can just get used to the difference between where first & reverse are it’s not hard to live with it. One trick is to first shift into second then just quickly push the shifter straight forward and it will always go into first. I’ve driven older cars that where like this and it was easy to get the hang of.

4

I agree with Hail Ants: the little ring lift mechanism that is supposed to shield reverse has failed.

Shouldn’t be a terribly expensive repair, and indeed can be worked around with a little feel for the gearbox. However, with a learner driver, I’d just get it fixed.

5

^ Agreed.

Also, you bought a Suzuki.

7

You have it backwards, it’s actually so you don’t put the car in reverse when you go to put it in first. If you’re teaching someone how to drive, I assume you’ve driven stick before. When you’re ready to pull forward, you just move the stick to the left and push it forward. The lockout prevents you from going into reverse, this way you can go into 1st without looking. As everyone else said, the lockout is likely broken and she put it in reverse.
If you’re careful and move it one slot over, it’ll be in first. If it ends up in third, you’ll have a problem.

Similarly, in most cars where reverse is all the way to the right and down (below 5 or past 6), the lockout prevents you from jamming it into R when accelerating to high speeds and thinking you still have another gear available.

I wouldn’t teach her to drive with that broken. She’s going to end up hitting the car behind her at some point. The only way I would teach her is if she has a good feel for working the clutch and then I’d have her starting out in second. Second will be a lot easier to find then first with the lockout not working. Either that or find a good, big parking lot to get started in, where other cars aren’t an issue.