Getting Manual-ly Schooled the MINI Cooper Way
MINI Cooper has a class that teaches you how to switch gears
Every now and again a fellow automotive writer, typically male, will say something to me about not driving manual. To be honest, I’ve never really been bothered by it. But I was never against it either. Now I did try it a few years back and let’s just say it didn’t go as well as it could have, considering I got stuck for a minute because suddenly I didn’t really know how to make the car go again. Fortunately, I got out of that jam and made it back home. I can’t remember exactly how long ago that was, but I do know I never attempted driving stick again. But when MINI Cooper said it wasn’t giving up on selling manual cars in the US and there was a MINI Manual Class at the BMW Performance Driving Center in Thermal, California, near Palm Springs, to show you how drive them, I figured I was being given a chance to learn how not to ever get stuck again.
Apparently, I’m very much on trend. See MINI, which is powered by BMW if you didn’t know, commissioned a survey and found that while nearly half of all the Gen Z responders and over 40 percent of all the women responders didn’t know how to drive a manual, more than half…
