The Chit Chat Chit Chat Thread

MinnieM123

MinnieM123

Premium Member
FutureCEO said:
I always thought manuals were cheaper,a t least if you build a car online. Only 1K cheaper but still you never see manuals on the lot.

But on the gas mileage note, my car is still getting great mpg. I'm averaging 43.5 with 15,000 miles. And I don't have a hybrid or anything.
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Yes, manuals "were" cheaper. Now, this still might vary slightly from dealer to dealer, but this is the newer trend in pricing.

Great news about your gas mileage!! :)
 
Songbird76

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
Rista1313 said:
It doesn't help that you are having to learn on a manual. I'm guess that's the norm over there, and not all automatics like over here?
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Well, that's the whole point...to learn manual. I had my drivers license in the US for years before I moved over here. So I know how to drive, I just needed to learn manual, and a few differences in laws. There are 2 types of drivers licenses here. If you learn stick shift, you can drive both stick and automatic. If you learn automatic, you can ONLY drive automatic. And most cars are stick here...automatics are becoming a bit more popular, but they're still few and far between. So I need to be able to drive a manual.
But the style of driving over here is much more aggressive than in the US. There are a LOT of roads that are really only made for one lane, but go both ways, so you have to be very careful to move over enough that someone else can get by, and to do that, you have to drive in the bike lane, so you have to be careful not to hit a cyclist, and you aren't supposed to slow down TOO much. You are only supposed to slow down or stop if you absolutely have to. Otherwise, you keep moving. My instructor told me to turn left, so I put on my blinker, I go to slow down to take the corner and he says no, don't hit the brake, but I was going too fast to take the corner and I had to shift while turning. Because he wouldn't let me brake, I was past the turn before I had slowed enough to take it....I was so confused. I so don't understand the reasoning behind not braking. If you can't slow down enough in time, why can't you brake?? But I wasn't supposed to brake to take the corner, I wasn't supposed to brake to get down to a lower speed limit, I wasn't supposed to brake at the intersection where I didn't have the right of way and had to wait for other cars. It doesn't make sense to me. It's so counter-intuitive. And to have to re-learn all of that while learning to shift and such is really frustrating. There have been a couple of times where I've pointed things out because he told me to hit the gas for example, but I'm already over the speed limit. Or he tells me to do something that there's a sign there that says you can't do that. And then he says "Well spotted." but I don't know if it was like a test to see if I'm paying attention, or if he didn't see it himself, in which case that's not good! I'm just really frustrated with it. DH says after 10 lessons it will be natural, but I came home last week all jittery and it took me an hour to stop shaking. I walked into the house on jelly legs and then I burst into tears telling my husband about the lesson. My lesson today was canceled because someone in the instructor's family is in the hospital with pneumonia and I was kind of relieved that I didn't have to deal with it this week. I know I need to do this, but once I get the license, I don't see myself driving beyond to work or choir, and occassionally if we go out to eat and DH wants to have a beer with dinner.
 
King Racoon 77

King Racoon 77

Thank you sir. You were an inspiration.
Premium Member
Songbird76 said:
Well, that's the whole point...to learn manual. I had my drivers license in the US for years before I moved over here. So I know how to drive, I just needed to learn manual, and a few differences in laws. There are 2 types of drivers licenses here. If you learn stick shift, you can drive both stick and automatic. If you learn automatic, you can ONLY drive automatic. And most cars are stick here...automatics are becoming a bit more popular, but they're still few and far between. So I need to be able to drive a manual.
But the style of driving over here is much more aggressive than in the US. There are a LOT of roads that are really only made for one lane, but go both ways, so you have to be very careful to move over enough that someone else can get by, and to do that, you have to drive in the bike lane, so you have to be careful not to hit a cyclist, and you aren't supposed to slow down TOO much. You are only supposed to slow down or stop if you absolutely have to. Otherwise, you keep moving. My instructor told me to turn left, so I put on my blinker, I go to slow down to take the corner and he says no, don't hit the brake, but I was going too fast to take the corner and I had to shift while turning. Because he wouldn't let me brake, I was past the turn before I had slowed enough to take it....I was so confused. I so don't understand the reasoning behind not braking. If you can't slow down enough in time, why can't you brake?? But I wasn't supposed to brake to take the corner, I wasn't supposed to brake to get down to a lower speed limit, I wasn't supposed to brake at the intersection where I didn't have the right of way and had to wait for other cars. It doesn't make sense to me. It's so counter-intuitive. And to have to re-learn all of that while learning to shift and such is really frustrating. There have been a couple of times where I've pointed things out because he told me to hit the gas for example, but I'm already over the speed limit. Or he tells me to do something that there's a sign there that says you can't do that. And then he says "Well spotted." but I don't know if it was like a test to see if I'm paying attention, or if he didn't see it himself, in which case that's not good! I'm just really frustrated with it. DH says after 10 lessons it will be natural, but I came home last week all jittery and it took me an hour to stop shaking. I walked into the house on jelly legs and then I burst into tears telling my husband about the lesson. My lesson today was canceled because someone in the instructor's family is in the hospital with pneumonia and I was kind of relieved that I didn't have to deal with it this week. I know I need to do this, but once I get the license, I don't see myself driving beyond to work or choir, and occassionally if we go out to eat and DH wants to have a beer with dinner.
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Can Hubby not take you out between proper lessons say to an empy carpark and you just practice the gear change side of things without having to worry about traffic. Might help it become more second nature so you can concentrate more on the cyclists and signs etc without having to think about clutch control etc on your lessons .
 
John park hopper

John park hopper

Well-Known Member
donaldtoo said:
I first learned to drive in a ‘63 International Harvester pickup with 3 on the tree.
I drove 5-speed manuals for about 27 consecutive years, and loved them. Generally, better gas mileage and, at one time anyway, about $800-$1000 less on sticker price, although we haven’t bought a new car in decades. I know that there are still plenty of folks drivin’ manual tranny vehicles, at least around these parts. I taught my DWifey to drive stick (minds outta’ the gutter, please...except mine, obviously :cautious::D:hilarious::cautious:) shortly before we were married. She’s very proficient at it. The only reason the car I’m now drivin’ isn’t stick is ‘cause it was given to us...manual tranny or not, a free car is a free car...!!!!! :D;):hilarious:
My pop owned both a ‘55 Chevy and a ‘57 Chevy with a Power Pack (4 bbl carb, dual exhaust, and I also believe a more high performance cam, solid lifters, and lighter and larger intake and exhaust valves). To this day, pop regrets sellin’ the ‘57.
Your ‘56 sounds SWEET...!!! :)
Although, obviously, not original, as the largest small block V-8 you could get that year was the 265 c.i., and the only manual tranny offered was 3 on the tree. Yours definitely sounds like a higher performer...!!! :)
Do ya’ have any pics ya’ can share...?

Anyhoo, pops ‘57 Chevy looked pretty much like the one below. If you look really close you can see some of the gold trim that designated it as a Power Pack option. The pick below that shows the touches of gold trim more clearly...!!! :)

View attachment 452272
View attachment 452271
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That 2 dr 57 looks awesome yes I wish I still had mine it was originally a 6 cylinder automatic pulled all that out and dropped in the 327 4 speed, painted it a metallic green. When I went over seas I left it with my brother and he sold it. To this day we don't talk about it --I could have killed him. No way I could afford to buy one now. In 57 you could get the 283 with the power pack yea both me and your dad are saying if only I still had it. I bought a 55 chevy before I got out of the service and was working on it, decided to go to college so I sold it (needed the money) yet another wish I still had it. I'll look for pictures--Tell your dad I feel his pain HaHa
 
King Racoon 77

King Racoon 77

Thank you sir. You were an inspiration.
Premium Member
donaldtoo said:
I first learned to drive in a ‘63 International Harvester pickup with 3 on the tree.
I drove 5-speed manuals for about 27 consecutive years, and loved them. Generally, better gas mileage and, at one time anyway, about $800-$1000 less on sticker price, although we haven’t bought a new car in decades. I know that there are still plenty of folks drivin’ manual tranny vehicles, at least around these parts. I taught my DWifey to drive stick (minds outta’ the gutter, please...except mine, obviously :cautious::D:hilarious::cautious:) shortly before we were married. She’s very proficient at it. The only reason the car I’m now drivin’ isn’t stick is ‘cause it was given to us...manual tranny or not, a free car is a free car...!!!!! :D;):hilarious:
My pop owned both a ‘55 Chevy and a ‘57 Chevy with a Power Pack (4 bbl carb, dual exhaust, and I also believe a more high performance cam, solid lifters, and lighter and larger intake and exhaust valves). To this day, pop regrets sellin’ the ‘57.
Your ‘56 sounds SWEET...!!! :)
Although, obviously, not original, as the largest small block V-8 you could get that year was the 265 c.i., and the only manual tranny offered was 3 on the tree. Yours definitely sounds like a higher performer...!!! :)
Do ya’ have any pics ya’ can share...?

Anyhoo, pops ‘57 Chevy looked pretty much like the one below. If you look really close you can see some of the gold trim that designated it as a Power Pack option. The pick below that shows the touches of gold trim more clearly...!!! :)

View attachment 452272
View attachment 452271
Click to expand...
Can't claim anything that cool. But i do have a huge long list of cars owned from a large selection of manufactures.
 
King Racoon 77

King Racoon 77

Thank you sir. You were an inspiration.
Premium Member
John park hopper said:
English, Dutch on my fathers side, trace that side of the family back to before the Revolution (settled in upstate NY) ancestor fought in the Revolution colonist side (sorry Mr Ferret). Mothers side German great grand father (mother side) came from the Black Forest region of Germany
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No need to apologize to me it was a little before my time. Heck it was before @Goofyernmost 's time.
 
ajrwdwgirl

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
I'm a mix of a bunch of European stuff the majority is Norwegian, Swedish, French and English. We thought there was some German but my cousin did some genealogy stuff and found out the German may not be in our mix but Irish. He also found out we had a relative that was in North America as a French fur trapper way before we thought we had relatives here. We thought our relatives had all arrived after the Civil War, well I guess on my dad's side turns out they were here well before that. My mom's relatives arrived after the Civil War, one set of her grandparents arrived in the early 1900's from Norway. Her grandfather spoke Norwegian and English but it took her grandmother a long time to learn functional English. Apparently he wouldn't let her leave the house until she learned some English, which seems like a horrible idea as often immersion is a fantastic way to learn a language. I wish I knew a little bit more about the family history but a lot of family links that knew info aren't around anymore.
 

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