The first time I ever drove a car was fifty years ago on a backwoods road in rural Kentucky. Believe me when I say that fifty years ago a backwoods road in rural Kentucky was isolated, indeed.
The car was our column-shift family car. Do they make column-shift, standard shift cars any more? My dad, who had gotten his first car when he was 14, thought that it was high time for me to learn to drive. He explained the pedals and shifting to me, had me sit in the driver’s seat, and turned the wheel over to me.
I didn’t hit anything or run over anybody.
Oddly, Dave, the Mercedes S and E class have column shifters. Different mechanism, of course- electronic- but it’s on the column.
Here’s a quarter, Drew.
I learned in a vehicle I currently own – a 1971 chevy Blazer. 4 spped manual and no power steering. Learn to drive that and you can drive just about anything.
I drove a column shift car a couple of times in my youth. I can see why that arrangement went away.
Do they make column-shift, standard shift cars any more?
Wow, I can’t even remember the last time I saw one. It might have been back in the 1970s!
Andy, I think power steering, brakes and windows have led directly to the obesity epidemic. You had to WORK to do the simple things back in the day!
A while back I read an article to the effect that modern drivers would have enormous difficulty in driving the cars of the 1930s or 40s any distance. Not just the lack of power steering and brakes but the sheer weight of the vehicles.
I once drove an old Hudson Terraplane. Now that was a workout.
I added power steering to my Blazer for my wife’s sake. It’s still a challenging vehicle to drive, especially in traffic. That clutch wears out the left leg pretty quick.
It’s kind of sad, but it’s difficult to even find standard transmissions anymore, but I guess it was inevitable once automatics became reliable and more fuel efficient.
Second car I drove was a Rambler with the push button transmission, (friend’s car). Learned on a Chevy Impala. Big car. Was there ever a column 4 -speed? Only remember 3s. Think the first 5 speed for me was a Karmann Ghia.
Steve
For a short while there were European and Japanese cars that had four forward speeds on a column shift. I know I’ve driven some but for the life of me I can’t remember which cars.
Daddy wouldn’t let me drive his truck because he needed it for work.
I have a b x w photo of you driving for what I remember as the first time. It was one of the trips out west, and Mama was in the front passenger seat, with her bandana on her head blowing in the wind. The rest of us in the back of the car were probably giggling and squealing, worried silly that we were going to crash.
No, I’d driven once before, a year or so earlier, in Kentucky.
The old Chevy station wagon. It had a column shift.