Thai
Elite Member
73 Years of Driving a Standard Shift
By Bob Levey
The only time she has fallen off the wagon was in the 1960s. Her father had died in Alabama. He left her a ton of stuff -- and his Oldsmobile. It had an automatic transmission.
At first, the woman was afraid to drive the car home to Virginia, even though she knew the conventional wisdom: A gearshift that says PRNDL is supposedly easier to handle than four on the floor.
"But I had never driven an automatic before," she said. "And I have never driven one since."
The woman asks that I not report her name because "I'm a devout coward." But I will certainly report her feat.
Since she learned how to drive at 14 "in a big, boxy Buick" in her hometown of Granite City, Ill., this woman has spent 73 years driving nothing but standard-shift cars.
The Guinness Book of World Records has no entry for what this woman has done. Memo to Guinness: You do now.
At 87, this stick-shift queen owns a pale blue 1991 Honda. She tootles all over hilly North Arlington in it -- taking meals to shut-ins, grocery shopping for incapacitated neighbors. She loves the Honda's floor-mounted gearshift so much that she says she'll never change.
"I have more control" with a stick shift, says the woman, who has two children, two grandchildren and a terrific collection of memorabilia from the days she and her husband, an Air Force officer, were assigned abroad.
"And I don't have to use the brakes a lot. I downshift, and there I am," she said.
In marketing terms, this woman is playing a losing hand. Jeff Beddow, a spokesman for the National Automobile Dealers Association, said only 10 percent of vehicles sold in the United States in 2002 had standard transmissions. That figure was 19.9 percent in 1996 and 12.2 percent in 2000. It may well be zero -- or darn close -- one of these days.
I suspect one major reason is my favorite whipping boy, the cell phone.
Yeah, I know, pal, you are a force of nature, so you can juggle a phone, the gearshift, the steering wheel and the radio, all at once. The rest of us veer toward PRNDL out of a lust for convenience -- and survival.
My stick-shift-loving Arlingtonian said her habit was cemented by her husband, who died in 1987.
He "didn't believe in automatic transmissions," she told me during a visit last week. "He said, 'The more automation, the more problems.' "
In fact, the opposite has just proved to be true. The 73-year stick-shift fan was sitting at a red light two weeks ago on Old Dominion Drive in McLean. When the light turned and she tried to move off, she went nowhere.
She suspected right away that the clutch had burned out -- a malady that PRNDL people know nothing about. It was 8 p.m., and she was an elderly woman alone. What to do?
Two employees of United Rental in Sterling -- Keith and Mark -- immediately approached and asked if she needed help. They pushed her dead car around the corner and lent her a cell phone with which to call a tow truck.
More than $1,000 later, this woman's Honda has a new clutch -- and she has nothing but praises for her two knights in shining armor.
Still, was that huge repair bill a sign that it was time to bail out of her lifelong "lean" toward standard shift? She scoffs at the thought.
How could she do that when she and her husband drove a 1953 MG -- with standard shift, of course -- all over Germany?
How could she not recall that spirited young bride who held her husband's waist as he drove a motorcycle up Route 1 in California? Do you think that Harley of long ago had PRNDL?
The woman doesn't drive as much as she once did. Her standard-shift Honda has only 68,000 miles on it.
But now that the car is whole again, she will go on loving it and go on driving it. "It's what I know," she said, with a soft, slow smile.
Here's another identity I'll keep to myself -- because the person who told me the story doesn't realize how foolish she sounds.
She called the other day to ask me to do a column french-frying National Car Rental. "They humiliated me," she said. "I'm going to sue them for big coin."
The details sound like something out of a Disney movie. The woman rented a sports car from a National location near Los Angeles International Airport. She had reserved a "boring Taurus," but she decided to splurge.
"I had never driven a stick shift before," said the woman, who is 31. "I just never learned how. And National didn't warn me that the car I requested had a stick shift."
The woman hopped behind the wheel and tried to zoom away. The car bucked and stalled. She tried again. It bucked and stalled again. Throughout, she says, a bunch of fellow car-renters (all male, natch) were guffawing at her.
The woman finally came to her senses and exchanged the car for one with PRNDL. But she says National owes her a queen's ransom for humiliating her.
I'm very grateful that you called me with this story, gentle reader, and I'm sorry your feelings were hurt. But the cure has nothing to do with money.
Besides, your chances of collecting any are nil. A judge would laugh even louder at your claim than the guys at the airport did.
Go find a friend who can teach you how to let the clutch out -- nice and ea-a-a-asy. Then you'll be able to rent and drive all the sports cars in creation without so much as a twitch.
By Bob Levey
The only time she has fallen off the wagon was in the 1960s. Her father had died in Alabama. He left her a ton of stuff -- and his Oldsmobile. It had an automatic transmission.
At first, the woman was afraid to drive the car home to Virginia, even though she knew the conventional wisdom: A gearshift that says PRNDL is supposedly easier to handle than four on the floor.
"But I had never driven an automatic before," she said. "And I have never driven one since."
The woman asks that I not report her name because "I'm a devout coward." But I will certainly report her feat.
Since she learned how to drive at 14 "in a big, boxy Buick" in her hometown of Granite City, Ill., this woman has spent 73 years driving nothing but standard-shift cars.
The Guinness Book of World Records has no entry for what this woman has done. Memo to Guinness: You do now.
At 87, this stick-shift queen owns a pale blue 1991 Honda. She tootles all over hilly North Arlington in it -- taking meals to shut-ins, grocery shopping for incapacitated neighbors. She loves the Honda's floor-mounted gearshift so much that she says she'll never change.
"I have more control" with a stick shift, says the woman, who has two children, two grandchildren and a terrific collection of memorabilia from the days she and her husband, an Air Force officer, were assigned abroad.
"And I don't have to use the brakes a lot. I downshift, and there I am," she said.
In marketing terms, this woman is playing a losing hand. Jeff Beddow, a spokesman for the National Automobile Dealers Association, said only 10 percent of vehicles sold in the United States in 2002 had standard transmissions. That figure was 19.9 percent in 1996 and 12.2 percent in 2000. It may well be zero -- or darn close -- one of these days.
I suspect one major reason is my favorite whipping boy, the cell phone.
Yeah, I know, pal, you are a force of nature, so you can juggle a phone, the gearshift, the steering wheel and the radio, all at once. The rest of us veer toward PRNDL out of a lust for convenience -- and survival.
My stick-shift-loving Arlingtonian said her habit was cemented by her husband, who died in 1987.
He "didn't believe in automatic transmissions," she told me during a visit last week. "He said, 'The more automation, the more problems.' "
In fact, the opposite has just proved to be true. The 73-year stick-shift fan was sitting at a red light two weeks ago on Old Dominion Drive in McLean. When the light turned and she tried to move off, she went nowhere.
She suspected right away that the clutch had burned out -- a malady that PRNDL people know nothing about. It was 8 p.m., and she was an elderly woman alone. What to do?
Two employees of United Rental in Sterling -- Keith and Mark -- immediately approached and asked if she needed help. They pushed her dead car around the corner and lent her a cell phone with which to call a tow truck.
More than $1,000 later, this woman's Honda has a new clutch -- and she has nothing but praises for her two knights in shining armor.
Still, was that huge repair bill a sign that it was time to bail out of her lifelong "lean" toward standard shift? She scoffs at the thought.
How could she do that when she and her husband drove a 1953 MG -- with standard shift, of course -- all over Germany?
How could she not recall that spirited young bride who held her husband's waist as he drove a motorcycle up Route 1 in California? Do you think that Harley of long ago had PRNDL?
The woman doesn't drive as much as she once did. Her standard-shift Honda has only 68,000 miles on it.
But now that the car is whole again, she will go on loving it and go on driving it. "It's what I know," she said, with a soft, slow smile.
Here's another identity I'll keep to myself -- because the person who told me the story doesn't realize how foolish she sounds.
She called the other day to ask me to do a column french-frying National Car Rental. "They humiliated me," she said. "I'm going to sue them for big coin."
The details sound like something out of a Disney movie. The woman rented a sports car from a National location near Los Angeles International Airport. She had reserved a "boring Taurus," but she decided to splurge.
"I had never driven a stick shift before," said the woman, who is 31. "I just never learned how. And National didn't warn me that the car I requested had a stick shift."
The woman hopped behind the wheel and tried to zoom away. The car bucked and stalled. She tried again. It bucked and stalled again. Throughout, she says, a bunch of fellow car-renters (all male, natch) were guffawing at her.
The woman finally came to her senses and exchanged the car for one with PRNDL. But she says National owes her a queen's ransom for humiliating her.
I'm very grateful that you called me with this story, gentle reader, and I'm sorry your feelings were hurt. But the cure has nothing to do with money.
Besides, your chances of collecting any are nil. A judge would laugh even louder at your claim than the guys at the airport did.
Go find a friend who can teach you how to let the clutch out -- nice and ea-a-a-asy. Then you'll be able to rent and drive all the sports cars in creation without so much as a twitch.
