Teaching a kid to drive

marco79

marco79

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My 16 year old is starting to learn for his Learner's Test. He is pretty eager to learn how to drive.
We have 2 hatchbacks, 1 auto & 1 manual.

Would it be better to teach him how to handle a car with the auto initially? Or do I skip the auto and get him to learn everything fresh on the manual
 
Deadmanza said:
Straight to manual, he might pick up some "bad habits" on the auto, so early in his learning to drive.
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Agree with this. My mom made the mistake of buying an auto after getting her manual licence.

My dad had to teach her again how to use a manual.
 
Manual.

Teach him the two most important rules:

1. Teach him how to park.

2. Show him where the fog lights are so he remembers to drive with them switched off.
 
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Manual all the way, he will thank you for that later in life.
 
You points the car in the way you wants it to go

Find a long quiet gentle down hill and teach him how to control the steering and the brakes.
 
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Manual if he has time to learn and don't need the license immediately. No harm in also letting him drive the auto for a bit just to get the feeling and take the pressure off at stop signs I'd say. Once one has the confidence shifting gets easier. Might also teach him how sensitive the petrol pedal is.
 
I say auto initially to get a feel of what's it's like to drive. The first few lessons can be daunting for him and nerve racking for you.

Once he's comfortable start with manual. He'll be confident enough at this stage to actually learn manual much quicker than it would normally take.
 
marco79 said:
My 16 year old is starting to learn for his Learner's Test. He is pretty eager to learn how to drive.
We have 2 hatchbacks, 1 auto & 1 manual.

Would it be better to teach him how to handle a car with the auto initially? Or do I skip the auto and get him to learn everything fresh on the manual
Click to expand...

Get him a Bike. Let him learn the clutch, throttle and gear sequence. Once he has that down, applying it to a car is simple as fark. I learned on a Motorbike when I was about 4 years old, given it only had 2 gears. I was driving a tractor at age 8 and driving car at about 10.
 
WaxLyrical said:
I say auto initially to get a feel of what's it's like to drive. The first few lessons can be daunting for him and nerve racking for you.

Once he's comfortable start with manual. He'll be confident enough at this stage to actually learn manual much quicker than it would normally take.
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Unless he's starting the kid out on the open road there's no reason he can't start with manual. Go the school grounds, or somewhere similarly safe and sit in the car starting with a few minutes of theory of gear shift and driving before he takes his first roll forward. That's what driving schools do (or at least how the instructor started me out).
 
If it was me I would make him do the first few lessons with a driving school. That lessons will be hard on your clutch.
 
R13... said:
Unless he's starting the kid out on the open road there's no reason he can't start with manual. Go the school grounds, or somewhere similarly safe and sit in the car starting with a few minutes of theory of gear shift and driving before he takes his first roll forward. That's what driving schools do (or at least how the instructor started me out).
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Driving schools are prepared for grinding gears, stalling, jerking, overstarting, hard braking, over- revving etc.
 
R13... said:
Unless he's starting the kid out on the open road there's no reason he can't start with manual. Go the school grounds, or somewhere similarly safe and sit in the car starting with a few minutes of theory of gear shift and driving before he takes his first roll forward. That's what driving schools do (or at least how the instructor started me out).
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+1 for this, manual shift and find a school or sports fields where you have no obstacles and lots of free space to work on gear changes.
 
Try an old parking lot its like a road.
 
RedViking said:
Manual.

Teach him the two most important rules:

1. Teach him how to park.

2. Show him where the fog lights are so he remembers to drive with them switched off.
Click to expand...

My #1 important rule is clutch control. You fail for rolling back in the test. And you fail at life if you do it in the real world too because you're too unconscious as a driver to realize you're on a hill and there are people behind you.
 
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