Now it can be told. This must have happened late 1941, before the attack on Pearl Harbor, as my father was still alive at the time, so I must have been a few months shy of five years old.

My father had a Packard. Rather than trying to teach my mother to drive, he sent her to a driving school. When she was ready for the test, the instructor went with her and as was the practice in NYC at the time, the instructor slipped five bucks to the examiner and added it to my father's bill. This insured that short of a fatal crash, my mother would pass the test and get a Driver License.

The first time out as a licensed driver, she had to stop facing uphill, for a cop directing traffic at an intersection. When the cop waved at her to proceed she stalled the car trying to get it going uphill. After re-starting and stalling several more times she set the parking brake, got out of the car, walked over to the cop, and asked him to park the car for her.

We went home in a taxi. My father went to retrieve the car. After that one attempt as a licensed driver, my mother never got behind the wheel again for the rest of her life.

VW Bus

1978 Plymouth Sapporo.

85 Ford escort station wagon. Fun car to learn on.

Then got a 71 beetle then a 65 corvette then a 98 GT mustang then a VW Jetta then golf and now my Tacoma. All manual trans

Made my 16 year son take his DMV test a few weeks ago in the manual trans Tacoma

1965 Chevy 1/2 ton. 3 on the tree.

58 MGA, No synchros!

Hyundai Accent, don't remember the year. I bought it from the dealership for a stupidly low price because people didn't know how to drive stick and my older neighbor taught me how to drive it. Surprisingly fun little car.

VW Jetta. While drunk.

Drove a variety of farm tractors - my first real job was on a dairy farm. Learned to drive stick (on a car, as tractors are quite different) on my dad's 1955 Chevy Belair convertible in the 1980s.

How I wish I owned that car now. . .

early 80s my dad had a late 70s Peugeot.
Can't remember the model. It was light blue is all I remember.

Late 70s Dodge van with 3 on the tree

57 VW Bug my grand dad had

I learned to drive a manual in my dad’s old Ford Fiesta. It was a bit rough at first, especially with the clutch, but I got the hang of it after a few weeks.

Grandpa's 1956, 3 on the tree Chevy farm pickup.

Fiat Spyder 2000

69 1/2 Chevy work pickup. Granny gear plus 3. I taught both of my kids in a 96 Civic.

1948 Jeepster 3 on the tree -

quote:

Originally posted by sandmatt:
66 Chevy truck with three on the tree.

In my former work, I had a regular client who drove one, also with manual steering and brakes, a woman 86 years old.

All of em.

Grandmother's 1970 Ford Maverick

170 CU I6 - Three on the tree.

While learning, the farmer down the road, Tack Kent, flagged me down and said:

"Son, you are a menace"

Tack was a great man but a huge grump.