Posted on 01/29/2013 4:41:10 PM PST by grundle
An attempted stickup was confounded by a car’s stick shift, when would-be carjackers failed to understand the mechanics behind a manual transmission.
Randolph Bean tells WOFL FOX 35 that two men attempted to steal his 2002 yellow Corvette at gunpoint outside an Orlando hospital, but they ended up running away after they couldn’t figure out how to drive his car.
"They apparently couldn't start it,” Bean 51, is quoted as saying in a police report. “I had to tell him four different times to push in the clutch, because it's a standard transmission."
After several failed attempts, the thieves eventually fled the scene.
“My first thought was I guess we don't have driver's ed. in school anymore, because no one knows how to drive a stick. And my second thing was, don't shoot me because you can't start the car,” Bean said. “I'm trying to help you out here, you know. Thankfully they didn't."
However, the foiled carjackers did not leave entirely empty-handed. "They got away with my phone, they got my keys, they got my wallet," Randolph told the Fox affiliate.
Still, Randolph was pretty forgiving when asked what message he had for the “handsome young men, who did not look like car thieves.”
“Guys, turn your life around. You guys have got a lot going for you,” he said. “Thank you for not taking my life for something silly as a car.”
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I have a stick shift in my car too. Tricked out PT cruiser..... Can burn the tires off. Very fun to drive.
Low information drivers.
*chuckle*
Glad I know how to drive both. :-)
Most of my vehicles have been standard shift.
Until about 8 or 9 years ago, same here. Jeeps, 4WD truck, Nissan 240. Kind of miss it sometimes.
I prefer driving a manual because my mind doesn’t wander sas much as compared with an automatic.
I have to admit I’d have issues as well. The one time I had access to a stick shift (younger sister’s car), I had it for a few days and had to pay for a new clutch. Like ice-skating, just not my thing.
More p*ssyfication of America.
Me too up until 2006. I always felt I had better control in normal and slippery conditions.
I tend to think there’s a racial element here.
Most blacks drive Automatics (not that they couldn’t drive sticks...in fact, they could almost certainly drive them better than whites, that are either airheads or metrosexuals).
But anyway, buying a car that discriminates against one class of thief sounds A LOT like a Title 9 violation. Hopefully the Justice Department will not convict, but you never know.
Amish could have snatched that car up with their team of horses!!!
I learned to drive in a 1952 Chevy pickup, 4 speed. This was in ancient times, mid 1960’s.
My generation all learned to drive on standard shifts.
.
Heh... just think of the confusion a column-shift manual transmission would cause among the carjacker crowd. At least with a floor shifter, there’s a shift pattern right there on the lever.
I wouldn’t let my kids get their licenses when they turned 16 unless they drove a stick. I insist on driving one myself. It keeps me alert, gives me better control over the car, and gets better gas mileage.
>>I learned to drive in a 1952 Chevy pickup, 4 speed. This was in ancient times, mid 1960’s.<<
I learned on a column-shift Dodge (1962 IIRC). If you can shift THAT you can drive ANYTHING.
All my cars in my adult life have been sticks. I prefer them and will select them so long as they continue to be manufactured.
The problem is I travel and rent cars, which are all automatic (with cruise control no less). Returning to my car can cause cognitive dissonance.
Same here and preferred a 4WD with a stick. That 90 weight takes the heat better than Dexron II and Mercon(?)in my outdated mechanical opinion.
You only need a clutch for 1st-gear and Reverse. Once you’re going, you can shift without it.
The armed services gave up on manuals back in the 80s.
It was too big an effort to train all the recruits to drive - so few incoming knew how.
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