azalea wrote on Sep 14^th, 2014 at 5:08pm:

In the "old days", I remember more than once being sure to park my vehicle with a manual transmission on a hill so I could "push-start" it if needed.

Yup, I learned to drive a 3 on the Tree manual and that was standard starting precedure back then for me and most of my friends with old hoopty cars.

Park on the hill when alone, or get your friends to push while you popped the clutch.

My first new car was a VW bug. On level ground, I could put it in Neutral, push it with the driver door open and when I got it going at a decent clip, jump in a put in gear and pop the clutch.
Low weight and low engine compression is a beautiful thing. ;)

Most of my friends with kids have to buy automatics becasue the kids can't drive stiks on the floor and can't even fathom a stick on the column. :( ::)