Stick Shift Failure
 

"Randolph Bean of Oviedo, Fla., had pulled over late Sunday night to text message his wife when two would-be carjackers approached his sporty yellow Corvette.

One, holding a gun, forced him to the ground while the other hopped in the driver’s seat, Bean, 51, told WKMG Local 6.

But there was a problem: The aspiring carjacker didn’t know how to start Bean’s car, a 2002 Millennium Yellow Z06 Corvette. (The car, used, sells for about $19,000.)

"The guy started screaming at me, 'How do I start the car?'" Bean told WKMG. Finally, the other guy, still holding Bean at gunpoint, hollered back, “It’s a stick!”

“I had to tell him four different times that you have to push in the clutch because it’s a standard transmission,” Bean told myfoxorlando.com.”

Rest of the story:
Carjackers, unable to drive stick shift, fail to steal Corvette - U.S. News

Not only are they thieves, they're PANSIES!

angela

DONKs are all autos it would seem....

I was a little surprised when I took my car in to a tire shop, and the employee who was going to pull it into one of the work bays had to get a co-worker to drive it in due to the manual transmission. General (American) public, I can understand the inability to drive with three pedals. But I would have thought that a guy in a car-related industry wouldn't be deficient in that skill.

Talking with a co-worker a couple of years ago, her Dad owns a gravel/construction business. She said she was getting her Class 1 license so she could drive the big dump trucks. I asked her how she was getting along with the transmissions.

Her response was that all the fleet used Allison Automatics, as it was so hard to find drivers who could drive a manual transmission properly.

We're a dying breed, Folks!

Les

My daughter is a union electrician About 5 years ago while still an apprentice she worked for a company servicing street lights. She announced proudly she was driving the 5 ton boom truck. It seems no one else in her crew could drive a standard trans except her.
Her mother taught her to drive

I guess it's time to teach my daughter how to drive a manual shift car. As for the car jackers, what a couple of idoits.

Yes we are indeed Les!

I just recently bought my 16 year old son his first car...it's a Mazda 3 with a 5 spd. I taught him how to drive it in a weekend. He's now the official COOL dude in his class because he is the only one that can drive a manual! :cool:

Alex

If it was a 911 with a 915 trans and they KNEW how to drive a manual, they still may not have been able to drive it...:)

Anyone who can drive a stick can master an old landy in minutes.......people who cant truly drive a stick usually make it 5 feet

When I got my stepson a replacement car, I specifically got him a manual. Upon seeing the car he said " I don't know how to drive stick." I said " You do now". Of all his friends, he's the only one that knows how to drive a manual.

Yep, I learned to drive (and double clutch) in one of my dad's Model A's (a 31 Tudor sedan to be precise) out in the fields.
Damn whippersnappers these days! Too soft I tells ya!
Get off my lawn!!

I learned to drive on a 1944 military Jeep. My dad had a half I-beam welded on the front before he started to teach me. It was great fun with the 3 on the floor & the transfer case.

I taught my son to drive in my 82 SC. My daughter refused but now understands she should learn after being at parties where she could be a designated diver but the keys were taken from someone with a stick. She never bought my Zombie Apocalypse theory of needing to learn to drive a stick.

Dump trucks drove me nuts. Shifting the rear axle as well as the main drive always confused me.

It's nice to know that when ever I consider a new car my wife asks me 'does it come in a stick?'

We both prefer that and almost did it on the Mazda 5 we bought recently. Unfortunately we would have had to special order it and Mazda doesn't make an optioned out Auto in the 5 (LAME!).

AUTOS SUCK!

I HATE DRIVING MY PRIUS (but I love it).

Yeah, I had to shift the rear axle on a lumber truck at 17 - scared the hell out of me and really no one to teach me how.

Also drove a couple of Gogomobils - they have an "H" pattern, but it's rotated 90 deg. around.

I think I learned in the cushman truckster at around 10... That or the tractor one. The truckster was a 3 on the tree, so everything after that was cake...