Reply #38: Yup, had to teach myself so I could "thieve" my older sisters VW Bug

[riderinthestorm]

She was away for the weekend and I was desperate to get to a party. The car was sitting there - full tank of gas, so inviting. I figured I'd seen her drive it TONS of times, how hard could it be??

Damn tricky it turns out. But by Sunday eve when she got back, I had it. That was 34 years ago and we still have a standard VW Beetle in the family. Our farm truck is a standard and both my kids learned to drive it by the time they were 10 yrs old.

I agree with the poster upthread who said it's probably a good anti-theft device. Not too many joy riders are going to steal a car they can't drive. I think it's a dying skill in the US. It's much more common in other countries however who recognize that a standard gets better gas mileage than an automatic.