I think anyone can learn to drive a stick but not everyone can TEACH driving a stick. Perhaps the problem was with your instruction. :dubious:
I remember cleverly getting a ride to a party when I was 17 so I could feel free to get annihilated drunk and still make it home safely. My ride assumed I would drive home or just didn’t care and got wasted himself, so we had to find another driver. We ended up with a 14 year old girl who had driven a car with an automatic a little bit on a farm once.
We explained the process and cruised around a parking lot a little. I don’t know why we thought we couldn’t ride in the cab of the pickup truck with her, but we laid down in the bed of the truck and yelled when we thought it was a good idea to shift. We made it home just fine.
Another vote for a good understanding of the mechanics involved, also for getting a feel for the clutch engagement/disengagement alone, in second gear. Learning to deal with the accelerator and shifting are secondary.
When I purchased my first car, it was a manual and I had never driven one - but I had learned to drive a small garden tractor and knew how a clutch worked. I stalled once but made the 15 mile drive home through many stoplights.
I have taught several people and agree with the above - parking lot to start, make it a large parking lot (like a mall or arena after hours) that way they don’t have to turn much. First thing, let them stall. Show them how it feels, now explain that is the worst thing that will happen during the lesson - not so bad, right?
Away you go.
Most drivers learning a manual don’t give it enough gas. So I would suggest telling him to give it the gas!
Don’t go out on 95 until a lot of practice in the empty Wal-Mart lot.
Perhaps
We were in a large parking lot for a couple of hours. I was calm, cool, and collected throughout. The gears are numbered one through five. You progress through them in order, and you need to push the clutch in to do so. It ain’t exactly rocket science.
She got the car rolling OK after some failed attempts, and could get to third gear, but when we reached the end of the parking lot and she needed to brake, downshift and turn at the same time all bets were off. Now, downshifting isn’t even required, but using a brake and a clutch and turning was a momentous task that she couldn’t handle, even after a couple of hours. This was about 20 years ago. My memory might be fading, but we could never own a manual transmission car when we were married.
Thanks, everyone! I was already leaning toward teaching him, but now I definitely will. He’s nervous about learning on my car, but I just can’t let him go to Europe/go back home in the fall without knowing how to drive a stick.
For everyone who suggested a flat place/parking lot: that’s exactly the plan.
Thanks. 
Funny, when I last talked to him about this I said, “The very first thing I will do is make sure you understand the mechanics of how gears work and what the clutch does.” 
Then we will sit in the parking lot and practice first gear until he’s so bored he cries.
Easy-to-remember note; thanks!
Excellent suggestion; thank you!
Oh, I don’t know that I’ll lever let him take it out on the interstate. 
I just want him to know the basics and be able to at least drive around the neighborhood or something.
Where’s the Like button?
(Hoping for an upgrade to Xenforo)
Just got back from teaching my 16 year-old daughter in my 5 day old Q60. Lots of bucking and stalling. I think it sounds"different" now. I hope it’s just hot still, and maybe will return to normal in a few hours. Fingers crossed!
Don’t feel bad. I’m Michael Schumacher in a parking lot but get me in traffic and everything falls completely to shit. I also throw from 2nd to 5th unless I’m staring fixedly at the stick shift, which it turns out is contraindicated out in public. On one or two occasions I’ve driven stick in low traffic areas-- with my husband shifting for me. Lol.
I’ve been taught on three separate occasions by three different people I get along with and are experienced teachers… Same results everytime. It’s almost an irrelevant skill anymore, so I don’t feel bad.
:eek: :eek: :eek:
Slightly downhill is better. It uses gravity to your advantage. Usually I start by telling the student to “listen and match the tone” at about 1,500rpm. Gas it to there and add gas to keep that sound the same as you ease out the clutch. After several runs downhill they can usually duplicate the process slightly uphill.
Clutch or car damage? If he goes for an hour and still can’t get the hang of basic shifting and starting, give up. Within that hour you aren’t going to seriously lunch anything even if you are teaching him on some old Sachs tranny.
Don’t forget to teach him the handbrake trick for steeper hills - steeper stuff is where a “sometimes standard driver” can really fry a clutch.
Depending on if he can drive anything (automatic, whatever) the interstate isn’t out of the question. On a longer trip I wanted to share the driving with my buddy. Problem was the last time he drove a manual car was never and the last time he drove a manual anything was a Honda in 1972. Upshifting, given the time, he could handle. Slowing through the gears and stopping fine. Starting from a dead stop -------- not so good. So on leaving a rest stop I would push the car as fast as I could and jump in. Once we were in the 5th/4th/5th speed range, he looked like a pro. As he approached a stop, ugly. But for our purpose it worked.
A slight downhill is best to learn on. You want a slope gentle enough so that the car just starts to roll when the brakes are let off. When it’s rolling slowly, you hardly need any gas when you release the clutch. You can easily feel when the clutch engages and there is very little risk of stalling. Have them start rolling, get it into first, come to a stop, start rolling again, get it into first, come to a stop, etc. After they’ve done that a few times they’ll have a better feel of the clutch and can work on shifting into other gears and starting from a stop.
What kind of personality does your nephew have? If he’s thoughtful and enjoys challenges, he’ll probably learn fine. But if he’s impulsive and gets easily frustrated, it might not be the best for you to use your car.
Maybe you could call around to driving schools in your area to see if any of them teach how to drive a manual.
If he were impulsive and easily frustrated I wouldn’t be willing to teach him.
Nope, it’s me or nothing.
Another option: Buy a cheap-o manual off of craigslist for him to drive during the summer and sell it when he leaves. You may even be able to sell it for what you bought it for. That way he could get very familiar with driving a manual. Driving in Europe/Asia will be challenging anyway because of their roads, not to mention driving a manual. If he drives a manual all summer, it will be second nature to him when he goes over there.
Good advice, Princhester. I really have to stress this when I try to teach folks to use the clutch (especially motorcycle clutches). At very slow speeds (about 0-10 mph) one uses the clutch to more-precisely control the speed of the vehicle by varying the amount of power applied to the drive wheels. That’s what the clutch is there for, so it’s not taking any undue abuse. I’m always more concerned about auto body damage than clutch/drivetrain abuse.
And I second how the Machine Elf suggested to progress through the steps. I’ll also add that I’ve had better success by separating the clutch control from the throttle control. What I mean is that, when you’re ready to let them make the car move a bit, do it without any introduction of the throttle. Just let the engine idle and have them keep eeeeeeeaaaaaasing out on that clutch, through the friction zone and all the way out, as the car starts to move. Let it roll a few 10s of feet, press clutch and coast/brake to a stop. Do this a couple of times (no throttle) so they have to really finesse that clutch and can feel what it’s doing as the car starts to roll. With this approach I can have the student make the car move w/o stalling in just a few attempts, but if I try to incorporate throttle control this early, their clutching goes to shit and stalling ensues. My theory is that since both processes are new to them, having to concentrate-on and coordinate both gas and clutch at the same time is just too much for them and ultimately both clutch control and throttle control suffer. Again, this is just my US$0.02 and YMMV. Good luck to you and your (friend’s) nephew!
That would be serious overkill. As I said before, he doesn’t have to learn how to drive a stick: it’s just something I think it would be good for him to know, and I’m willing to teach him on my car. I just wondered how likely I’d be to do any damage. The answer is “not likely at all,” so I’m good with it now. Hiring an instructor, buying a “temporary” car, etc. – way too much.
Well, after the manual, the wrong side of the road is very dangerous if he has any habit at all.
Actually a brand new driver will prolly have it easier.
May adjust quickly but between start and adjusted is very dangerous.
Got to really impress that on him.
YMMV
I taught my 12 year old to drive a manual this spring. He drives a Nissan and a BMW. The BMW almost drives itself. You can take your foot off the gas, and with smooth clutch disengagement can get it going without stalling. The electronics keep it running. I routinely stick it in second and just idle along while the dogs run out front.