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I doubt that. Most people in the US getting into a car with a third pedal and a stick shift would just not have any idea what to do. The more enterprising would think, ok, I guess to I need to put it in first gear. So they try to move the shifter, and they can't move it. Assuming they don't break anything, maybe they figure out they need to press the clutch pedal. So they shift, and release the clutch pedal, and the car stalls. Many people would just give up right there. Those who don't, might get that they need to release the clutch slowly. So they try that, but maybe it still stalls (maybe they're on a slight incline, and the car won't move without giving it a little gas). Let's say they do manage to get the car moving. I expect that further shifting will be incredibly rough, and there will be a lot more stalling. And that's basically the best scenario. I don't think most Americans would get anywhere near this far. As an American who learned how to drive manual by accident in the Netherlands, but who already understood the basic mechanics of it, it was still very difficult. It took me over a half hour to get out of the parking lot, and then I stalled quite often in embarrassing ways over the next day or so (including on the highway during stop-and-go traffic, where I rolled back into the front of a box truck behind me). By the time I returned the rental car, I'd more or less figured it out, but I also had the benefit of my dad owning a manual car when I was young (though Mom made him get a car she could drive too by the time I was 8 years old or so). But someone who'd never even thought about a manual transmission before? Like, most Americans? Not a chance. (I did end up buying a manual car back at home, a few months later, when my existing car died. Drove it for 15 years until I finally had to get rid of it earlier this year.) Remember, we're talking about a hypothetical car thief here who hops into a car, gets it started, and then notices it's not an automatic. We're not talking about someone who has actively decided to teach themselves how to drive manual, and rents or borrows a manual car for that purpose. |
In what scenario they'd go right into driving a manual car without prior instruction, looking up some instructions online, or someone knowledgable explaining it to them like 10-15 minutes?