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It was 2006, Maine, USA. I was 16 yo.
I was visiting there as an international exchange student.
>I had back then a '70 Toyota Corona as a ice track racing car
>'70 Toyota Corona is Not an ice track racing car :DDD
>however it had an Excellent cabin heater
>also I made friends by bringing thermos coffee and excess sandwiches from our family bakery
The family I acquainted back then in Maine, all of them were used to automatic gearboxes. I am not kidding here.
My host family was planning a trip to Canadian ski resort. The other car broke down at the eve of the trip and the only option for transport was a '91 W124 diesel Mercedes 300 TDi (TDi = longroof) owned by the godmother of the mother of the family.
>yeah, I can drive that
>I have driven manual gearboxes since 12 yo (true)
We took that Merc to an abandoned industrial parking lot (Maine has those, really) and I there I showed to "Val" (20 yo) and "Cal" (18 yo) on how to drive a car with a manual gearbox.
It took two days and both of them were doing smoking donuts with the Merc at the same time while visiting highways and Drive-Ins. Two days.
The visit to Canada next week went without a hitch. "Cal" took the helm for the most of the trip. "Val" took the car at least three times to visit a pot dealer to get joints. She handed those to me as well.
So, manual gearbox experience can be a genuine happy come-together journey to Americans.
