Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Stick Shifts in Taiwan

Our car is being repaired, so I have been driving the loaner from the dealership.

It's manual transmission. I have not driven a stick shift in 20 years.

Turns out, its like riding a bike - you won't forget how. Yeah, there were some moments of "if you can't find 'em, grind 'em" but that's cool because then you can say "if you can't find 'em, grind 'em"aloud and relive your salad days.

The main problem with stick shift driving in Taiwan is Taiwanese drivers. They poke along slowly, pull to sudden stops, and then shoot out of intersections. Maybe my shifting skillz are not up to scratch yet, but I find myself switching between 2nd gear and 1st gear way too often as the driver ahead of me cannot decide to creep along at 2 mph or to stop a few times, and then creep along again to get to the green light ahead of us.

So my advice is to NOT buy a manual transmission car in Taiwan.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Didn't you learn to drive a car in Taiwan?

Take the loaner back and get a little blue truck or a yellow taxi.Then you can drive at any speed!!