Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/08/07/young-thieves-baffled-by-obsol.html
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Pretty sure those same kids were on my lawn the other day.
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You can have my shifter when you, etc.
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Aw, man… now those kids have no car, and it’s breakin’ their heart…
beep beep yeah
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Oh those darn millennials with their avocado toast and lack of need to use vehicles as a status symbol as much as their elders.
Well, except for a Tesla. Kids love Teslas.
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Weird I am terrified by automatics. Left foot always seeking the clutch pedal and finding the break…
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After hearing about a friend thwarting a car jacking in Detroit simply by driving a manual transmission years ago, I started wondering why I bother locking my sports coupe. I still do lock it, but it’s mostly out of habit. Certainly there are still people out there who know how to start a manual from 2nd, but they’re getting more scarce every year, and cars without an interlock are even more scarce.
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Was watching Jerry Seinfeld’s Netflix show the other day and he did an episode with Hasan Minhaj. He picked him up in a sweet old Testarossa - with a gated shifter, of course.
It was funny, because Hasan was like “how do you know when to shift gears?” - He was genuenlty baffled by Seinfeld’s ability to drive the Ferrari.
Also, per the above video - Rusty Anderson is an amazing guitarist and Paul’s band is just top notch.
That '59 335…
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My 18 year old gave up on learning stick; he got so frustrated with stalling and hills. Disappointed, but don’t see the sense in forcing him. I blame video games for making driving seem effortless.
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Might just as well blame automatics for actually being quite effortless.
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Try PDK. Whoa.
This was starting to already be a thing when I got my first car, and I’m old. Hell, my first car had a manual choke. When I went to driver’s school, the receptionist asked me if I was learning ‘standard or manual.’
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Obsolete technology. Pfft, any car worth stealing will have a manual transmission.
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Does anybody here still remember how to crank an engine manually? My dad and I restored a 1930 Ford Model A. That would absolutely be a showstopper.
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I keep encouraging my son to learn to drive stick, so he can borrow my car. For example, I often tell him how frightening it is to stall out in an intersection just as the light changes. Sometimes I show him how to make that cool grinding noise. And then we discuss the price of insurance.
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For joyriding purposes, totally. The boring reality is that cars are mostly stolen to be sold to chop shops, so the cars that get stolen the most are the ultra-common, everyday driver.
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My wife, who is French, would have been equally baffled by an automatic transmission.
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I know how to crank a tractor!
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I was terrified once upon a time as well.
This was because my dad’s truck was an old garbage Ford light duty truck with an unforgiving clutch.
I bought a VW Jetta GLX, which was smooth as butter. I learned stick passably well in 2 days or so, compared to months before.
Now I can drive garbage stick cars. Once you know it, you know it. At least well enough to get by. Not like win races or anything crazy.
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For what it’s worth, I’m in my mid-40s and have never driven a stick.
My parents never had one, they didn’t teach it in drivers’ ed, and my friends with manual shift cars had vehicles nice or rare enough that they didn’t want anyone fucking up the clutch.
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