Teach him the basics in an empty parking lot and a hill then let him drive around for a month or so. After that he'll thank you for life.

I had a used car salesman teach me in about an hour. Course, I let it stall off and on for a month til I got the hang of it. I love sticks now, except when I'm in heavy traffic...

 

I just got my first car (91 toy truck) about 3 weeks ago and it took me about a day and a half to learn to drive it...you gotta let him practice alot...don't get frusterated it will happen sooner or later

 

I'll chime in on this one. I was horrible at driving a stick until it became my daily driver, and now driving any stick is like second nature. I feel like a fish out of water when i drive an automatic (eg. planting my left foot on the floor when i go to turn the key, and realzing nothing is there)

Shifting through the gears isn't *that* hard, the hard part is starting. What i forced myself to do was go on a LONG uphill road, and stop and start (it was a guy's driveway i nkow, so it wansn't bad for me to stop and start) over and over again until i could engage the clutch and drive forward without slipping the clutch too much, without rolling backwards, and without almost stalling it. Once you can do this on an uphill, normal starts are CAKE.

 

Definately teach him this!! I go nuts when I ride with somebody in manual that has this concept that the engine will die everytime they try to push on the brake pedal and it's in gear. I know a guy from work that must have to replace his brakes a couple times a year. Even in an automatic you have a little engine braking compared to just pushing in the clutch and stopping the full weight of your vehicle with the brakes. For what it's worth my little sister could drive our 4X4 Nissan 5 speed at the age of 10. She probably had 5000 miles under her belt before she even started drivers ed this year at 14. This was all on gravel backroads for those wondering.