Well that was odd...

So as I went to leave for work this morning, I started the car and suddenly realized I had COMPLETELY forgotten the movement I had to make to get reverse... I actually had to look down at the shift pattern and then act out the motion with my left hand, and it still didn't feel natural. It's like the ingrained muscle-memory got pushed out of my head because I never thought about it. Maybe I learned one new thing too many today. Makes me wonder what else got purged in the mental flush that I don't know about...

Gah, just two more weeks 'til my job ends, then it's some serious de-stressing time. Can't wait.

I've done that if I switch up cars a few too many times in a week.

On days that I've been doing alot of running around on the lift truck at work, I have trouble when I get into my car at quitting time. I can back out of my parking space just fine, but when I intend to go forward, I put the right turn signal on. See, the lift truck's control is a simple F-N-R lever on the left side of the steering wheel, not unlike the R-off-L indicator stalk in a car.

I actually have tried to shift my ms3 multiple times recently, on the column. My car doesn't go anywhere when I do that, but my windshield is now squeaky clean. That's what I get for a Taurus winter beater.

Yeah, I usually don't have ANY problems bouncing back and forth between cars (even between LHD & RHD) but my Elan is literally the only thing I've driven since December and has been my sole daily driver for the last two & a half years. You'd think I wouldn't just randomly forget how one morning.

I forgot that the door to my garage is a pull the other day. I just walked up to it and tried to push it open, which didn't work at all. You just aren't supposed to forget stuff like that. I'm blaming the Extreme Supermoon.

In reply to EastCoastMojo:

RealMiniDriver wrote: On days that I've been doing alot of running around on the lift truck at work, I have trouble when I get into my car at quitting time. I can back out of my parking space just fine, but when I intend to go forward, I put the right turn signal on. See, the lift truck's control is a simple F-N-R lever on the left side of the steering wheel, not unlike the R-off-L indicator stalk in a car.

But the real question is: Do you expect your car to be rear wheel steering ?

I often push the clutch in on my automatic Jetta GLI... THUMP on the dead pedal followed by "Dumbass!"

Yep, that's me. Momma always said I was special.

John Brown wrote: I often push the clutch in on my automatic Jetta GLI... THUMP on the dead pedal followed by "Dumbass!"

I've done that in panic stops when driving an automatic... when my left foot instinctively pushes the left pedal to the floor... quickly... one can imagine the results in an automatic.

The shift pattern thing is more fun when you have two similar cars with different patterns... say an '03 MCS with a 6 spd and R up-left and an '07 Cooper 'vert with a 5 spd and R down-right - where 6 is in the S. Oops.

i tried to put my nissan hardbody in reverse at around 45 mph a couple times after i'd been driving the ms3 for a week or so.

First time I drove a manual in an Autocross I nearly fell out the door, "damn knucklehead the shifter is by your right hand in the USA"

I've "gone for 6th" and found reverse in the wife's Miata twice in the year since we got the GTI. What an awful noise.

Chebbie_SB wrote:

RealMiniDriver wrote: On days that I've been doing alot of running around on the lift truck at work, I have trouble when I get into my car at quitting time. I can back out of my parking space just fine, but when I intend to go forward, I put the right turn signal on. See, the lift truck's control is a simple F-N-R lever on the left side of the steering wheel, not unlike the R-off-L indicator stalk in a car.

But the real question is: Do you expect your car to be rear wheel steering ?

Surprisingly, I've never had a problem with that aspect of going from lift truck to car.

John Brown wrote: I often push the clutch in on my automatic Jetta GLI... THUMP on the dead pedal followed by "Dumbass!"

Good thing you have a dead pedal. I drive automatics so seldom (and they're usually borrowed) that I forget the brake pedal in most of them is wider than normal. I catch that stupid thing all the time when my left foot goes on its "phantom limb" type search for the clutch.

I never had a real racing cart, so my left foot is a complete stranger to threshold braking. I haven't balled up anyone else's car yet from my immediate left-footed command to flat-spot all four tires (on more modern cars, I think I've finally discovered a reason to make peace with ABS!!), but I think that's just luck. And as always..I'd rather be lucky than good.

With four cars on the road, it happens. Wait til you get to the windshield wipe/headlight dilemma!

John Brown wrote: I often push the clutch in on my automatic Jetta GLI... THUMP on the dead pedal followed by "Dumbass!"

I do this on my van occasionally. It's one of those old cars where the button for the brights is on the floor, so i just flash people unintentionally to let them know how stupid I am for thinking my econoline is a stick.

In my defense, though, it is the only automatic i've ever owned.

sevenracer wrote: I've "gone for 6th" and found reverse in the wife's Miata twice in the year since we got the GTI. What an awful noise.

LOL reminds me of a test drive I was on once. I was trying out all sorts of cars in the upper $20's lower $30's range and as it turns out the evo was the only one of those with a 5 speed! I knew this ahead of time but the part of my brain that runs muscle memory is a real meat head and never got the memo. Thankfully, it was really difficult to get into 6th, so in trying to figure out why, I realized R does not equal 6.

It wouldn't have mattered, though, because that car got stolen 2 days later. I probobly should've blended the tranny up a bit so it was in the garage that weekend, and not the lot...

Jay wrote: I actually had to look down at the shift pattern and then act out the motion with my left hand...

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RealMiniDriver wrote: On days that I've been doing alot of running around on the lift truck at work, I have trouble when I get into my car at quitting time. I can back out of my parking space just fine, but when I intend to go forward, I put the right turn signal on. See, the lift truck's control is a simple F-N-R lever on the left side of the steering wheel, not unlike the R-off-L indicator stalk in a car.

Been there, done that. I know exactly what you mean. I have had a lot of occurences of sitting in the middle of the street directly past the end of the driveway with my right turn signal on.

friedgreencorrado wrote: Good thing you have a dead pedal. I drive automatics so seldom (and they're usually borrowed) that I forget the brake pedal in most of them is *wider* than normal. I catch that stupid thing all the time when my left foot goes on its "phantom limb" type search for the clutch.

Heh, wife (then-gf) rented a Miata once. It had the automatic with the flappy-paddle shifters. Now, I'm used to automatics, but not ones that you shift. So, after taking it out for a hot-lap around the neighborhood, I come back in to our gravel driveway, go to push the clutch in, and immediately lock up all four wheels. Mind you, she was in the car when this happened, and thought I had tried to bounce her head off the dashboard intentionally :eek!: hahahaha.

Bouncing between the Bronco and Mazda5, I've been catching myself grabbing for controls that aren't there. I try to set the foot-parking brake and column-shift the Mazda and I reach for the dash shifter in the Bronco.

I got in my friend's '88 Lincoln Towncar from my old Civic. Never have two cars been so different. I felt like I was in an alien spaceship.

I havent DD'd a stick...or even operated one in over 2 years. Still, all the time I go to push the clutch in my autotragic. Whats really odd is when I back out of a spot and push the gear selector forward into park, thinking its first, and give it a blip. People in the supermarket lot think Im a maniac...

When I get out of the big truck, I run out of gears in my Accord in the way home.