Stick shift derails would-be carjackers in Vallejo

[Liberal_in_LA]

Note - I never learned to drive a stick shift either. Why the driver is yanking back on forth on that thing is a mystery to me

Stick shift derails would-be carjackers in Vallejo

Three people tried to carjack a man at gunpoint Saturday night, but left the car when they were unable to drive a manual transmission, Vallejo police said.

At about 7:10 p.m., three men approached the victim in front of his home in the 200 block of Hampshire Street as he was unloading his groceries. At least two suspects were armed with handguns, police said.

They pointed the guns at him, demanded his car keys and forced him to the ground.

The suspects then entered the car, which has a manual transmission, but stalled it, got out and fled on foot, police said.

http://www.timesheraldonline.com/news/ci_19382223

[EOTE]

1. Which is one reason I'll never again purchase an auto.

The other primary reason being that I absolutely loathe torque converters. Long live the clutch pedal!

[Hassin Bin Sober]

6. I still laugh at myself to this day when I was so surprised my father, who would be 82 years old, ..

.... hopped in my brothers new manual transmission car and drove it with no problem.

When I said "dad, I didn't know you could drive a stick".... he looked at me like I was an idiot.

[Old and In the Way]

11. I still remember the cold sweats I had learning to drive a manual on the backroads of Maine.

Dad took particular delight on having me stop on steep hills and then try to get back underway. :-) To this day, I still enjoy driving a manual over an automatic.

[Kolesar]

16. That's what the hand brake is for!

Parking brake, emergency brake, whatever you want to call it.
Release it as you are releasing the clutch and applying the throttle.

[Old and In the Way]

25. Yeah, that's all good and well, but try to do that and engage the clutch while giving

it the gas and having you're dad yelling "DON"T STALL IT GODDAMMIT!!!!" all at the same time. It was stressful for this 14 year old...

[ProdigalJunkMail]

47. I have sooooo been there...

wasn't Maine...but my dad would raise high-holy-hell if I stalled that old Datsun...the flashbacks have now started...therapy session in the near-term might help me!

sP

[TheManInTheMac]

50. That's cheating!

Once you find the friction point, you'll never roll back more than a couple of inches on even the steepest hill.

[Skittles]

49. I've had manuals (including a three-on-the-tree)

but I find in metroplex stop 'n go traffic they are just too much work

[Skittles]

48. SCHEDULING HASSIN BIN SOBER FOR ASS-KICKING

*EGREGIOUS* (your dad looked at you correctly)

[bvar22]

32. Same here.

One of the many reasons I fell in love with my wife is that she prefers a Stick Shift.
We won't buy or own an Automatic.
I prefer them because Manual transmissions are easier to DIY diagnose & repair,
plus they are much more fun to drive.
They also require the driver to pay closer attention to the vehicle, the engine, and the road.

We had to go rescue a stranded motorist once,
which resulted in my wife having to drive that motorist's car.
I looked in the driver's window while she was adjusting the seat,
and noticed this vehicle was an Automatic.
I asked, "Hey. Do you know how to drive an automatic?"

We both thought this was hilarious.

[slackmaster]

2. Stupid pathetic losers

:rofl:

[sinkingfeeling]

3. Haven't owned an automatic in the 47 years I've had a license.

[hifiguy]

4. Definitely a Darwin Awards nominee there.

:rofl::rofl:

I learned how to drive on a stick, and my current car has a manual tranny.

[demosincebirth]

5. Very few under thirty know how to drive a stick-shift

[Yo_Mama]

7. I know quite a few who do

I have found younger women like manuals because they have more control over the car. I do think they are safer in bad driving conditions, and they generally are more gas-efficient.

[Liberal_in_LA]

8. I read that car sales people were finding that few know how to drive stick so they

can't do the test drive on 'em

[musiclawyer]

24. Noawadays the computers can beat a human for MPG

So while it was once true that manuals were more fuel efficient, that's not really true anymore. Nonetheless I will always drive manuals because they virtually do not get stolen( as in the article above) and they do give you more control in snow, and I live in the mountains.......

[dflprincess]

45. The fuel efficiency difference between a manual & automatic is nearly gone

at least in Honda Civics.

I had been thinking about it but wasn't quite ready to by a new car when I did 2 years ago but I'd found that it was getting awfully hard to find a manual. I stopped in a Honda dealership on whim just to look at new Civics one day. I thought I could shoo the salesman away by telling him I really wanted a manual & he announced that they had one (just one) coming in in two days. I thought I better grab it while I could as the old Civic was 12 years old at the time.... Of course had I known my niece would still be driving the old car two years later I may have thought again before spending the mney.

[csziggy]

31. My Dad used to say that driver's ed cars should all be stick shift

With no power steering or power brakes, no air conditioning, and no radio. Frankly he would have approved of the cars sold for the driver's ed program in the movie "Used Cars" since clunkers were all he expected most high school students to afford!

Used Cars- empty the junkyard
http://youtu.be/crZy2FMAD5w

[Liberal_in_LA]

37. my first car had no power steering. After power steering, I couldn't believe I drove without it

[csziggy]

38. My first couple did have it but not the next two

Of course there was a difference in trying to manhandle a 1958 Buick four door sedan or a 1967 Buick Skylark than a 72 Toyota Corolla or 73 Datsun station wagon! The Buicks were supplied by my Dad, the Toyota and Datsun were what I could afford.

[Liberal_in_LA]

39. "manhandle" is the right word. Young folks have it easy. lol

[LWolf]

9. .

:rofl:

Love my clutch.

[EFerrari]

10. Doug used to do this as a joke.

Gimme the keys.

Okay, you can have the car but you should know, first is second, third is out, you have to jiggle the key or it won't start and then you tap it, jiggle it and tap it, see? This window doesn't roll down and the parking brake --

Fuck it.

[safeinOhio]

12. Here is something that made me feel really old.

GF's 15 year old grandson got in my car. I asked him to roll down the window, he looks around and says "where is the button". I showed him the window crank and how it works and says, cool.

[Liberal_in_LA]

19. lol!

[sufrommich]

13. My Dad insisted that all 3 of us learn to drive on a stick. It

is helpful to know how to drive both.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

14. I've only owned stick shifts

except for a couple of vintage Mustangs I had a few years ago. My current cars: 1973 Saab model 96, 1969 Citroen DS 21, 1961 Renault 4 CV, 1957 DKW Sonderclasse. I especially like the three that have the shifter on the steering column.

[Kolesar]

17. Dad's 1963 Ford Fairlane had three on the tree

[ellie]

20. My dad's Rambler had three in the tree.

[Angry Dragon]

29. 1967 Mustang ........ 289 ......... 3 on the floor

[localroger]

40. Three on the Tree FTW

Because my 1971 Ford F100 was of a certain age the brake tag kid had to drive it himself to evaluate whether it was in roadworthy condition. He could drive a stick manual, but had never seen three on the tree and was visibly shocked when I showed him how to shift into third.

[Kolesar]

46. My brother had his 76 Chevy pickup converted from "three on the tree" to a floor shifter

Then I couldn't shift it because the bench seat was pushed back. He had trouble, too, he wasn't much taller than me and his legs couldn't reach the pedals much better.

[msongs]

15. gun owners strike again lol nt

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

18. How I learned to drive stick shift.

Duty officer: Go over to the barracks and pick up those guys.

Me (Duty clerk): I don't have a license and I don't know how to drive a stick shift.

Duty Officer: Time to learn. Get going.

Me: Yes sir.

I, the clutch, the transmission, the Personnel Carrier, and the guys in it, survived the education.

[localroger]

41. Same: My boss, NOLA to Baton Rouge, 80 miles, 3 on tree

[Fumesucker]

21. Same thing happened here about fifteen years ago..

Carjacker forced a guy out of a 300ZX then couldn't drive it because it was a stick..

[slackmaster]

22. I can understand ONE carjacker not knowing how to drive a stick

But THREE of them at once?

:crazy:

[Fumesucker]

23. Used cars with a stick go for considerably less than an auto these days..

So few people know how to drive them any more that the market is a lot smaller for a stick.

[slackmaster]

27. That worked to my benefit when I bought my present vehicle used

I spotted it on the lot - Everything I wanted except for the color, which I was willing to accept.

A couple was being shown the vehicle by a sales person. The man obviously wanted it - He was telling the woman that he could teach her how to drive a stick in an hour or two. But the woman would have nothing to do with it.

I bought it.

[localroger]

42. Lots of people have never even seen a clutch pedal.

[mrmpa]

26. Back in the mid '80's I owned a 4 speed Jeep............

It was a soft top and from May through October the roof and doors were off. If it rained I put on the bikini top, that covered the driver and passenger part of the jeep. I worked rotating shifts and parked the car down from our squad room, by the railroad tracks. One co-worker, saw where I parked the car and asked if I was afraid of someone stealing it. I told him no, it was a manual transmission and thieves in our area mostly youths can't drive a manual. The car was never touched in 4 years.

[itsrobert]

28. The first car I owned was a stick

Some people are fans, some are not. In the end, it is only a car and it gets you from point A to point B.

[unblock]

30. bought my first car (a manual) before i knew how to drive it!

i wanted a car with NO options other than a/c (i was moving to texas).
i was NOT about to pay one dime more for anything, certainly not an automatic transmission.

drove a brand new nissan sentra off the lot for $6700, including taxes and everything. cheapest new car on the market at the time. that was back in 1985, but still.

well, actually, a friend drove it off the lot for me, and proceeded to teach me how to drive a stick.

[Ezlivin]

33. Couldn't come through in the the clutch, eh?

N/T

[Aerows]

34. I love a stick shift

I laughed when one of my friends asked to borrow my car to go get us lunch, and came back 2 minutes later and said "I don't know how to drive that."

How do people not learn to drive a stick shift? The coolest vehicles to drive come in stick *grin*

[Populist_Prole]

35. Every vehicle I've owned the last 32 years, except 1 was a manual trans

I had a sport pickup truck but couldn't get the high-perf engine I wanted with a manual so I had to go auto trans on it. Only had it for a few years. Everything else was MT, and all high-performance domestic iron, and all very satisfying to own-drive.

In my experience most anyone can learn to drive one, and I've taught many, and it made me feel good doing it...expand the ranks, as it were. There was just one exception, one friend who was extremely mechanically disinclined: He just couldn't put together the theory of the relationship of clutch engagement and engine load, no matter how hard I tried; Finally I just said "Forget it, you just can't do it".

[Liberal_in_LA]

36. herky jerky stick shifters make me car sick.

[sendero]

43. There are losers..

... and then there are llllllooooooooossssssssseeeeeeeerrrrrrrrsssssss.

If you are going to make the choice to jack people for a living, at least be good at it.

[blueamy66]

44. I won't drive anything but a manual transmission.

I love it!