Stickshift Driving -- a woman's aid to purchasing and learning to drive a manual

By:  Helen E. Orr

Published 2004, by Helen E. Orr, San Diego, California.

All contents copyright ©, Drive and Stay Alive, Inc., 2003, unless specified otherwise. All rights reserved.

IMPORTANT: click here to read the DISCLAIMER

Despite the fact that Helen Orr is clearly a likable and intelligent person, we find it regrettable that we can find almost nothing positive to write about this book.

As a guide to buying a car, for women who may be lacking in confidence, it may be useful. Though the advice about that aspect is limited to just three or four of the 68 pages.

The advice about using a clutch and manual gearbox, however is laced with errors and misconceptions that will certainly not assist other drivers in learning to use such. And worse than that is advice -- generally from acquaintances whose opinions Ms. Orr has sought -- that actually carries potential risk.

One example of the risky commentary refers to cornering with the clutch down -- something that should simply never be done. Dreadful advice is also given, by one of the aforementioned acquaintances, that a parking brake need never be used for hill starts, no matter how steep the hill.

Other bad advice?  How about "hold the brake and clutch down with your left foot"? Or "put the truck into neutral [to] brake"?

Incredibly, the last two comments are both on the same double page spread [pages 12-13] as two other statements:

-    "The main thing here you need to be concerned with is driving safely."

-    "Be careful about letting what you read affect you because usually these individuals are giving their own opinion based on what they went through."

Sadly, almost all of the pages in this book display a distinct lack of knowledge about how a clutch operates and how it should be used.

There is no way we can recommend it.