[Impala64ssa]

Maybe if kids, and older people, for that matter, learned to operate manual transmissions, they would stop texting and yakking on their damned cell phones, and be forced to pay attention to traffic conditions. Cheap collision insurance.

[Paladin2]

"Ford Motor Company shares the passion for teaching young people how to drive manual transmissions"

Pure BS. Ford has not offered its F150 largest engined P/U with a m/t for DECADES.

[Paladin2]

Automatic transmissions are dangerous and should be banned.

Any number of kids have grabbed the keys to mom's vehicle and taken off while she is sleeping. You can look it up.

Besides A/T's let too many peeps drive who should be taking public transportation.

[montanajoe]

Naw..

I only have a 5 speed and it can still text, fiddle with the satellite radio, eat nacho's, and sip on an iced tea..or something...and cruse at 75

The trick is learning to drive with your knee :)

[Figment]

I hope they had some pickups or other vehicles with “ three on the tree” shifters too

[HerrBlucher]

Manuals suck in a traffic jam and through crowded city streets, that is why I gave them up for auto.

[dalereed]

Go back to the Model T with 3 pedals plus a hand throtle and advance lever to keep both hands busy.

[Jack Hydrazine]

It’s great to teach them to drive a manual transmission but I’d like to teach them more!

Special Counter Terrorism Training: Defensive & Offensive Driving
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjKLE4SEXyw

Lethal Defense: Offensive Driving
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c10-J2kKYjc

Make Ready With ISA: Tactical Driving
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpiaFGNKoPs

[PROCON]

I just taught my 17 year old son how to drive a manual, got him a 5 speed VW Jetta, he’s doing fine,a chip off the old block :-)

[stormer]

I learned to drive 40 some years ago in a manual in the hilliest town in a northern state that was basically nothing but one way streets. Not only can I drive on hills in the snow, I can parallel park on either side. I still drive a stick and really don’t like driving the wife’s automatic. I was doing research in Namibia and my vehicle there was a right hand drive manual - the gear pattern and the pedal layout is the same as here, but obviously you shift with the left hand. Took a while to get used to. Really made it awkward to downshift and use the turn signal at the same time, something I’d always done and never realized.

[AnAmericanInEngland]

There are some driver training courses here in the UK for 11 year olds and older. I took my daughter to one at Brands Hatch raceway, 2 hours in the classroom, and 2 hours seat time, she had a blast, and now is proficcent driving a manual, and asking to get into karting while waiting to reach 16 and do her provisional test.

[gasport]

.

[OldPossum]

I took the driving test for my first drivers license in a car with manual transmission many years ago and the testing guy made me parallel park between two cars on a steep hill. He must have been a sadist.

Nevertheless, I was able to do it and passed.

[runfree]

I learned on a ‘65 Plymouth Belvedere with 3 on the column. Near the end of it’s life it was a true manual shift. You had to get out, open the hood and manually lift the linkage to get it back into first.

[count-your-change]

I learned to drive on old trucks wherein the term “double clutching” described a coordinated foot work that would make Fred Astaire swoon.

Texting? Using two hands and two feet sometimes wasn’t enough on the old floor shifts when the shifter had to be chased down as it flopped around like a fresh caught fish.

Automatics? I wouldn’t have anything else!