Let her try it once at least? Maybe the "if she stalls once, she's done" is a good idea? :P

 

Step 1: Buy Honda
Step 2: Teach her drive said Honda
Step 3: Sell said Honda for $500 more than you bought it.

Win, Win, Win..

 

Sell the Honda after you add a sick a** wing and a fart can...then sell for $500 more

As far as the OP... I bought my old lancer new in manual and drove it off the lot haha. Manual isn't hard... people just panic. Be calm and teach her

 

I taught my 14yr old son how to drive in my ms3. If your wife has an attitude....like shut up it's easy-I can do anything......then you're in for some drama. However if like my son, who was scared of failure, wanted to please his dad and was disproportionately nervous of breaking something, along with a dose of humility.....then she'll do fine.
The thing is most people are scared to death of breaking something and want to do it right soooooo bad, if so these people tend to do fine........provided the teacher is also patient and actually teaches the right technique.

Lastly, my advice is this.....do not try and teach her how to drive the way you drive and shift when you shift......teach her how to actually drive a manual transmission first then you can pass on all your hot shot tips. There's a difference in how most of us drive and how you actually drive a manual trans car. If you don't know what I'm talking about it's because you've never taught anyone to drive, let alone a stick shift. Trust me on this. Send her to youtube first and watch videos WITH her, she'll have questions, you'll have answers and clarification of what she's seeing. Then you can do some dry runs(practice) with the engine off and you giving her shift cues until she's got the jist. Another initial technique to give her some idea of whats ahead is to drive and let her shift for you. First, your hand over hers then let her go on her own with your shift cues then by looking at the rpm gauge and hearing the car, it'll build confidence. Then go and find a movie theater parking lot or similar in the DAYTIME(early mornings they're empty) to go through practical exercises. Make sure the lot has enough room to coast a bit that way you have time to coach her without having to be running through the gears every 25 meters.

Lastly(part 2) patience....patience...patience.
The more freaked out you are the more likely she will also and the more mistakes will happen and the more drama you'll generate.


Anyways....those were a few hints I've picked up from teaching my kids to drive, don't mean to insult anyone's intelligence by any means.

Off box of soap.

 

You should do this. Memories are forever and she will feel proud of her abilities to learn on such a car. I was patient with my wife when I taught her to drive years ago. She will alway remember the car she learned on, the road I took her to, the weather outside, and my good attitude. Have patience, and be careful. She will focus on the gears and not the traffic in front of her. We all know this car accelerates quickly, so an accident would be tragic. One problem I have is that my wife is used to the Evo, so when she drives the minivan it is always on the edge (tires screeching, heavy brakes). Enjoy the experience. Cars can be fixed, but relationships are trickier. Be proud that she can drive the car. It seems few people these days seem to know how to drive stick, and it is nice to see more females drive. Thumbs up for all the ladies on the forum.

 

That is a nice set of (diff) pins!

 

^ how do we know thats not just a guy in a dress who happens to have silky smooth legs? face pic or it didnt happen!

 

lol :-)

 

I'm taller, and don't need cushions to sit on to see out of the car. My legs are less appealing.

 

I tried teaching my wife how to drive a manual in my car. Didn't work out too well

 

My wife picked up the manual pretty well and quickly when we were in the parking lot. I was actually pretty surprised. But when we hit the street that was a whole other animal. Like others have said, people tend to panic. And it really takes some practice.

It's very different driving a manual when you have to pay attention to traffic and others around you. Also when you live in a large city such as mine. And then teaching someone how to slow down and then down shift. Or teach them they need to clutch and brake. And when they are on a hill. If they are like my wife and not good multi-taskers they might have problems with the manual when driving in the streets.

Ofcourse it gets easier and becomes a second nature. But the trick is not having any incidents with other cars until that second nature occurs. My wife gave up on the manual. And I agree it was a good decision.

 

I like what Thycidides had to say. Memories are forever. If you take her to a parking lot, and you're in control of the situation, she isn't going to do a massive amount of damage.

I've taught my wife how to rev match, double clutch, two step, etc. She does better than 70% of the men I've seen drive stick out there. Just takes some patience on your part to teach her how to do it right.

 

Taught my wife how to drive stick in my E46 M3, needless to say I now own an evo.
You can always get a heavier aftermarket clutch, she wont drive my car now because the clutch is "too hard" to hold in.

 

just teach her. Worse case you get a excuse to upgrade.

 

I learned how to drive stick by going to the suburu dealership back in 02 when I was just out of Highschool lol.
Maybe do that lol.

Went around 3-4 times the block and the salesman was having a trip.
Long story short in 03 I bought a SRT-4 , had some issues at first but I polished my skills.

Of course then I got polished by a local SCCA instructor