Anyone with an Automatic Car in Sosua wanting to give driving lessons?

J D Sauser

Silver
Nov 20, 2004
2,940
390
83
www.hispanosuizainvest.com
My wife is currently studying US driving theory.
I'd like her to have a few lessons DRIVING an automatic CAR (I have a stick shift Pickup Truck) inside the gated development in SOSUA.
She's been driving the pickup truck a few times, but it's too much at the same time with the stick shift and all.
She's smart and listens and speaks and understands English well enough.
She will do her formal driving school and license in Florida.

Anyone feeling up to it and wanting to earn a couple of extra bucks, please PM me (no "local driving style" stuntmen please!)

Thanks! ... J-D.
 

Cdn_Gringo

Gold
Apr 29, 2014
8,671
1,133
113
Sorry, no car, but I do have oodles of free unsolicited advice...

Have your wife take her time and get used to the clutch, friction point and smooth up with the left foot and down with the right foot.

Trust me, learn to drive on a standard and an automatic is a breeze. The other way around doesn't usually work out very well. Here in the DR, if you can't drive the standard transmission test vehicles, you'll have a restriction on your license limiting you to automatics. Seeing as your family owns a standard, I'd think being able to drive the family vehicle will be important one day.

It can take a few days to get the hang of a clutch. All your wife needs to do at the beginning is start and stop without stalling. No shifting, no turning. It might take a few days of practice. Start and stop as far as you can go without turning around. Then start and stop in reverse until you are back where you started. Repeat often as necessary. Then find a slight hill and practice starting and stopping without rolling backwards on the hill.

After she can do this in her sleep, then it's time to learn to drive.
 

ctrob

Silver
Nov 9, 2006
5,591
781
113
Are you guys posting while drunk? If you follow out that logic, why not just put her in a Double A fuel dragster and make her learn
in that - blindfolded? Really pile the stress on. She'll be a great driver than.
 

chic

Silver
Nov 20, 2013
4,305
1
0
i learned on a stick e z u want to drive you will learn,.....basic pattern etc
 

La Profe_1

Moderator: Daily Headline News, Travel & Tourism
Oct 15, 2003
2,293
869
113
When my daughter was learning to drive, she complained bitterly that my car was a stick shift and thus it was so much harder to drive. Once she had her license and was driving a stick shift Toyota Celica she loved the fact that oftentimes guys were amazed that she could drive stick when they couldn't. She ended up being very grateful to have learned that way.
 

Robert

Stay Frosty!
Jan 2, 1999
20,574
341
83
dr1.com
If driving a stick is all too much at the same time, how is she going to get on when faced with real life driving on the road, having to face cars and other inevitable hazardous?

If she is serious about learning, she will learn to drive a stick shift, rather than take the easy way out.
 
Oct 13, 2003
2,789
90
48
instagram.com
JD,

We had the same issue - my wife actually got her DR license before I let here drive in Holland. She took a lot of coaching with the stick and shift but eventually we made it work.

We practised together on a secluded parking lot, just stop and go until she got it right.

Best of luck!


MD
 

LTSteve

Gold
Jul 9, 2010
5,449
23
38
My wife is currently studying US driving theory.
I'd like her to have a few lessons DRIVING an automatic CAR (I have a stick shift Pickup Truck) inside the gated development in SOSUA.
She's been driving the pickup truck a few times, but it's too much at the same time with the stick shift and all.
She's smart and listens and speaks and understands English well enough.
She will do her formal driving school and license in Florida.

Anyone feeling up to it and wanting to earn a couple of extra bucks, please PM me (no "local driving style" stuntmen please!)

Thanks! ... J-D.

If your car is a stick shift than why not have her learn how to drive it. Are you going to buy an automatic? If not it makes no sense for her to learn on anything else.
 

ctrob

Silver
Nov 9, 2006
5,591
781
113
The concept of learning anything is learning the basics first. That doesn't change for learning how to drive.
 

ctrob

Silver
Nov 9, 2006
5,591
781
113
My wife is currently studying US driving theory.
I'd like her to have a few lessons DRIVING an automatic CAR (I have a stick shift Pickup Truck) inside the gated development in SOSUA.

Thanks! ... J-D.

Go to L und I Car Rental, he's just before Playa Alicia, and near Fraggle Rock Bar. Rent a beater for a week.
 

J D Sauser

Silver
Nov 20, 2004
2,940
390
83
www.hispanosuizainvest.com
I agree with most here... but

Being raised in Europe I learned on a stick shift just like everybody else. Actually, at least back then, if you past your license on an automatic, you got restriction to automatics only on you license!
The truck... well, it's a light truck, but still a truck. We tried and it went event free, but in the US all she will ever drive will be automatics.
I don't really fancy her to drive my 1967 GTO 4 speed! ;)

Teaching myself... I could teach "you", but family is a different animal... at the end there is aggravation which get taken home.
No need for that.

So, I am still looking.

Thanks! ... J-D.




Once they get to Florida he'll buy her a new Mercedes automatic, of course.

Actually, she got a brand new Chevy Camaro convertible (automatic, 6 cylinder... not sooo wild'n'crazy... but hot looking!). ;)

She earned it actually and is paying the lease. She already has her work permit and is working on my team in FL and doing great!

... J-D.