[SoCal]

Agree with Perfectlap. Don't sell your wife short on learning to drive a stick and enjoying it.

Twenty-five years ago, I taught my wife (then girlfriend) to drive a stick shift in a fully loaded U-Haul rental truck at 1:00 am in the empty parking lot of a closed supermarket just outside of Solvang.

We were moving down from Berkeley, southbound on the 101. We'd packed and I had loaded the truck that day. I was getting tired, and it was time for her to take a turn driving.

She had never touched a manual transmission before then. After the usual stalling until she figured out the clutch pedal position, she got the hang of it in about ten minutes. After that it was smooth sailing, except for a few times trying to pull away from a stop in third.

Now, she enjoys driving a stick. So, my recommendation, go rent a U-Haul for the weekend and have fun. It's like learning to type on a manual typewriter (if you're old enough to know what I mean). Once you can do that, you can fly on an electronic keyboard.