France: My Adventures in Their Clutches

[cpzilliacus]

N.Y. Times: My Adventures in Their Clutches

Europeans mostly drive cars with manual transmission, and their rental cars reflect that preference, whether you're in England, Italy, Greece or any of the curling-roaded lands that for centuries were traversed by carriage, cart, horse and goat, and whose byways have not been noticeably widened since. Online, I found that I could rent an automatic car for $1,000, a stick shift for $300. By spending $100 in New York for a 90-minute training session, I could save $700 in France. Pourquoi pas? I asked myself. How hard can it be?

The day before my flight found me scuttling herky-jerkily around the loop of the Stuyvesant Town housing complex in Manhattan in an ancient hulk of a training car whose clutch was so stiff that depressing it felt like working a gym leg press. Nonetheless, after 10 minutes of fits and starts, I hardly stalled at all. I even parallel parked, and did three-point turns. Cheered, I set off for Europe, eager to put the pedal to the métal.

[Brandon]

^^ Reads like the author has a complete lack of driving and parking skills.  He needs to spend more time in the suburbs and rural areas and get the hell out of NYC for a few days.

[vdeane]

Actually, I'd say that suburbs contribute to a lack of parking skills, with the large parking spaces and ability to effectively avoid using street-side parking for one's entire life.  Street-side parking is largely optional unless you're in a city or village downtown.

[oscar]

^^ Reads like the author has a complete lack of driving and parking skills.  He needs to spend more time in the suburbs and rural areas and get the hell out of NYC for a few days.

Actually, driving in NYC (or better still Boston) seems to be much better training for Europe than, say, driving in Nebraska. While the author's driving skills were still not up to all the gotchas Europe throws at you, many rural/suburban drivers would've done even worse.

[corco]

Actually, I'd say that suburbs contribute to a lack of parking skills, with the large parking spaces and ability to effectively avoid using street-side parking for one's entire life.  Street-side parking is largely optional unless you're in a city or village downtown.

For sure- other than a couple years in Tacoma, in the entirety of my driving life, much of it either in the rural west or Tucson (which has few places where streetside parking is necessary), I haven't been in a situation where I've needed to parallel park more than once or twice a year. I was never taught how to do it in driver's ed, and didn't have to do it to get my license, so I'm self-taught. I can do it if I have to, but I'm first to admit I'm not the greatest at it. Since I did have to do it frequently for a little while in Tacoma, I can pick it back up to the point of being decent at it pretty quickly if I need to, but if I were to go to Europe I'd probably practice beforehand.

[firefly]

Online, I found that I could rent an automatic car for $1,000, a stick shift for $300.

Americans in Europe have at least a choice.

[agentsteel53]

I have to admit, that my current car ('97 Taurus) makes it extra tough to parallel park.  usually I'm pretty good with it, but this one is so ovoid that I have to guess at where the edges are, and I have about a 4 inch margin of error for front and rear.

[Joe The Dragon]

Online, I found that I could rent an automatic car for $1,000, a stick shift for $300.

Americans in Europe have at least a choice.

and they then pull there scam where any damage to Clutch even basic ware and tare.

http://elliott.org/the-troubleshooter/help-my-car-rental-company-is-charging-me-for-a-burnt-clutch/
". But what you might not know is that burned clutches are common problems with American renters in Europe. We don't have as much experience driving standard-transmission, and are presumed guilty for every ruined clutch."

[agentsteel53]

actually, this is probably the most alarming sentence in the entire post.

credit card disputes that go in your favor are automatically sent to a collection agency.

now, collection agencies themselves are dirtbag companies, but a necessary service in the case of dirtbag debtors. 

however, anyone that hires a collection agency on something even a tiny bit more equivocal than "debtor has given us middle finger" is a company to avoid doing business with.  I once had a collection agency sicced on me because T-Mobile didn't close out an account correctly: they stopped sending me bills, deactivated my online access and my phone number ... and kept running a monthly service charge, due to some billing glitch.  the first I heard about it was when the knee-breakers came calling, at which point T-Mobile declared that the problem had been sold to a collection agency, and therefore was no longer their problem.  I had to pay a lawyer $190 to get them to cancel the ~$600 debt and issue me an apology.

they never did issue me the apology.  (in other news, fuck T-Mobile.)

[formulanone]

But what you might not know is that burned clutches are common problems with American renters in Europe. We don't have as much experience driving standard-transmission, and are presumed guilty for every ruined clutch."

Unless they are intentionally trashing the car, it's far more likely that the so-called inexperienced American drivers are grinding the gears, or stalling it repeatedly; neither of which will damage the clutch or transmission, unless it's done around 50,000 times. There can't be that many clutch-riders out there, so it sounds like a scam. Or because Europe makes its fair share of crapboxes.

However, with less than 5% of all new cars offering a stick, the inexperience is not shocking. (Parallel parking isn't much different between a manual and an automatic vehicle, although there's a slightly different procedure between rear and front-wheel drive cars.)