Tonight my teenage daughter, who now proudly has a learners permit,
asked to drive my Vanagon. Now let me tell you that she has only a few
hours of driving around town in a small car with an automatic and only
twice have I let her drive the syncro. Once in a big parking lot where
she dumped the clutch/killed engine a bunch of times and nailed a few
curbs. I was real calm and supportive, by the way. The second time was
on the beach where she never got out of first, but had a blast cutting
cookies and bouncing over the small dunes. But tonight, even though I
was reeeealy not ready for her to drive into traffic with my treasured
ride, I let her drive. And she did a fine job of shifting even though
she drove up the the curb only twice! Moral of the story: give the kid
lots more time behind the wheel of her mom's small car with the
automatic! And if she crashes it, the car will be lots easier to
replace.

Keith O.
90 Westy Syncro "VikingWagen"

PS Thanks Jeff for the great suggestion on how to get the hang of the
clutch! (no gas and SLOWLY let out the clutch) It worked!