Drive a stick shift, and always write in cursive.....
My Subaru STI is safe!
I’ve long told my wife I want to get a car so ugly & hard to drive she won’t ever want to use it.
Currently teetering on the edge of getting either a poor-condition old Jeep Wrangler or bizarrely-futuristic Tesla Cybertruck. (Latter isn’t stick, but should still be odd enough to confuse unapproved drivers.)
Definitely not a new one, we have seen numerous stories like this before where failed carjackers had to abandon the vehicle because they couldn’t drive a manual.
LOL, happened to a friend of my Dad’s many yrs ago. He had a rusted out Plymouth Valiant with a 3 on the tree he was fixing to get of, the only thing worth salvaging on it was that virtually indestructible Slant 6. He parked it at the Green Acres Plaza on Long Island, at the time considered the car theft capital of the world. Someone broken in and hot wired it then realized he had no clue how to drive a stick. As he kept stalling it out one of Nassau County’s finest happaned to be patrolling the parking lot. BUSTED!!
Trudeau’s Somalias didn’t get free driving lessons ?
I was born in 1957 and still never learned to drive a manual transmission. My family always bought old used cars, but they all were automatic....even the old 57 Chevy we had. One of my sons is now a commercial rated pilot and he can’t drive a stick either.
And those of us who are older still drive them.
WHOO HOO!!!!
FWIW, I taught ALL my kids how to drive one as we’ve always had one and they needed to know in case it came up.
My son still does in his truck.
Awesome! I have double theft protection; my ‘92 F150 has a stick trans and all the fenders are pre-dented. I could probably store gold bullion on the floorboards.
I eventually graduated to driving a manual transmission car in England while on liberty from the USS CORONADO. I had a heck of a time getting used to using my left hand to shift ...
A funny story goes along with that: we rented the car in Portsmouth and were driving to London, a little stick-shift Morris. For the first 25 or so miles, I wasn't overly impressed with the car: it had no pick-up and seemed to require a very heavy foot on the gas pedal to accelerate even a little bit. We were out on the main highway between Portsmouth and London when a car pulled up alongside and motioned me to put my window down. I did so and the guy hollered, "Hey, mate ... your rear-end is smokin'". And sure enough, there were clouds of smoke coming from the back end of the car.
So I waved him thanks and pulled over to the side of the road. A police car pulled over behind me shortly thereafter and the policeman came up to me, as I was walking around the car, trying to figure out what was going on and how we were going to call the rental company.
After looking the situation over for a little bit, the cop walked me up to the driver's side door (on the right, of course) and pointed out to me that the hand-brake .. which, on this car, was situated between the door and the driver's seat .. was fully applied.
Needless to say, without the parking brake being on, that car had a lot more pick-up ...
Around here, a kid tried to carjack a fellow coming out of a gym. The kid put a pistol in the guy’s face and climbed into the car. The car owner ran for cover, then called law enforcement. When the deputy arrived, the kid was still in the car trying to figure out the shift pattern.
The story starts off: “This might be a new one.”
Nope. I’ve read countless articles over the past few years about idiots stealing stick shift cars, and abandoning them due the lack of ability to drive them.
I have an old 2001 Turbo SAAB 5 speed stick shift I enjoy driving to this day.
Women car thieves?
A 17 year old is not a boy.
Having had a broken arm once and a broken leg another time, I can say an automatic was a Godsend each of those times. To drive a stick shift you need both arms and legs to be functional; with an an automatic you can do it with one arm and one leg.
Sounds like a great name for a profession team. 8>)
It has long been known that stick shifts are the most effective form of car-theft prevention.
It's also great as an anti kid device.
Save the manuals.