I taught Mr Bean how to drive a stick many years ago in Portugal. We were renting a car and decided to go with a stick (it was much cheaper) which I already knew how to drive. I figured it wasn’t likely he’d totally burn out a clutch in the short time we’d be there. It worked out well. Our next car, and several after that, had manual transmissions. I sometimes wish we still had one.
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Yes… I learned to drive in a '73 Ford F-100 also 3 on the tree. My Dad taught me.
To this day, all of my vehicles are manual transmission. When I purchased my current car in 2016, the dealer looked “high and low” and eventually found a manual transmission (new car) for me. It was 3 hours away, so I sat at the dealership pretty much all day, while they went and retrieved it.
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On the open road a stick is simply more fun and provides more control, but in the clogged rush hour traffic of most cities an automatic is a welcomed feature. My current ride, an '08 Mini S convertible, I have an automatic, but you can opt to use the paddle shifters. They provide the added control when you want it but are just no fun.
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Our clutch master cylinder went out on our Corolla when we were, camping in SW Colorado.
Drove the whole 700 miles back to KC crash boxing
our way thru the mountains and plains.
As I recall, Monarch Pass was the only place we had to stop and make a second run up the mountain.
Bicentennial July 4.
Around here, lots of trucks with granny gear 4 speed transmissions.
Love those things!
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Good times. I drive a 2015 Mazda3 hatchback 6 speed. I love it. Tried to teach both of my sons. #1 never mastered it and #2 finally got it after he was working in Australia and needed to drive a work truck with manual transmission.
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Never getting out of second can be tiring. City life.
When I did commute to work, I rode my motorcycle through “rush hour”. In my state, motorcycles (single rider) are allowed to use the HOV lane. I’d blow past all the stopped cars sitting in traffic.
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And never getting out of second can be disappointing. In 1970 I was at Vasek Polak for another reason and was allowed to test drive a Lamborghini Miura (with a guy from the dealership in shotgun). You cannot get out of second in LA traffic. Lambos, at least then, were cramped and noisy, having a suspension like a Radio Flyer. The visibility anywhere but forward was almost nonexistent. They did, however, turn heads.
I tried that once, then forgot and started the engine. The blanket got snagged by the fan belt and I played hell getting it loose. 
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I’m about 90 miles from the Mexican border. One time we went to the border town to shop, and the car (manual transmission, parked on the American side) got stuck in first gear. It took us over four hours to get home.
Could be a long memorable bonding experience— or not! 
Rumor had it that a girl from my HS drove her daddy’s Lamborghini to school once. I cannot attest that I saw it on the parking lot😂
But it was a possibility.
As for showroom guys riding shotgun, I once went to test drive some kind of Saab with a manual transmission. I said to the guy, it’s kind of balky in second, isn’t it? He replied What does a girl want with a high performance car anyway? A quick search for an ejection button came up empty handed. I circled back to the dealership and dumped Mr. Clueless and his crappy car off in the lot. And we know what happened to Saab. Karma, I say! 
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OMG. Guys at the local car wash once told me that my dad had been by in my car a few days earlier (guy is laughing) driving down the road 40 mph in second gear . Dad was many things, except not a skilled driver. When years later I bought a Jeep he complained that he could never use it because I’d gotten a manual transmission.
That was the idea …
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I needed some work done on a car once, talked on the phone to a guy about it and where it was, and he said “hmmm…lots of Black people live over there…”. 
He must have been related to my guy. Corner of hell reserved for both of them.
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Yikes.
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Sounds like they might already have been there! 
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Sadly enough rather than getting their comeuppance, jerks just share a little bit of hell with us.
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True enough, but I don’t wish comeuppance on these two ( I don’t think; I’ve been watching a lot of comeuppance movies!). Living in fear and ignorance might be good/bad enough.
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Well, my Brit friends used to say Revenge is a dish best savored cold, but my optimism reserves … just aren’t there anymore. I’m crawling back under the bed now.
