'tis but a scratch

[Dave W]

Florida Ford GT Owner Crashes Because He's "Unfamiliar" With Manual Transmission

Not insured either! But it's probably only about 200K worth of damage.

[westen44]

Only in a place like Florida could something like this happen--"head-on collision with a palm tree."

I prefer manual over automatic, but obviously the same couldn't be said for this guy. 

[Pilgrim]

As Bugs Bunny said "Ahhhhhhh....what a maroon!"

And the car wasn't even registered or insured.  Just bought it at a high end auction.

He isn't the first to stomp a gas pedal in a supercar he knew nothing about and immediately lose control due to the unexpected power.

[uwe]

"unfamiliar with how to drive stick shift," police say ...

A rather common ailment in the North American hemisphere, is it not?

 

[gearHed289]

As a lifelong car guy from a blue collar family, I hate these kind of idiots. More money than brains. And they've priced guys like me out of the market with their little "trading cars at inflated prices" auctions. I don't have enough middle fingers for the driver and others like him.

[uwe]

My Harley-Davidson is - very audibly ... CLANK ... - a manual, but once a Volvo has a certain amount of horsepower you don't even have a choice anymore, they only offer automatic.

If you do a lot of metropolitan driving, a stick can become tiresome quick. (rhymes!)

[Pilgrim]

As a lifelong car guy from a blue collar family, I hate these kind of idiots. More money than brains. And they've priced guys like me out of the market with their little "trading cars at inflated prices" auctions. I don't have enough middle fingers for the driver and others like him.

I hear you.  I started working on cars at 18 and still do, but I tackle lighter jobs than I once did.  It's the boomers from my generation with more money than sense that are pricing interesting cars out of sight. 

[gearHed289]

If you do a lot of metropolitan driving, a stick can become tiresome quick. (rhymes!)

Yup. I have an auto in my Mustang. The 10% of the time I wished it had a stick is outweighed by the 90% of the time that I'm happy to put it in gear and go. I've got it custom tuned, which includes tweaking the shift points. No complaints!

[Alanko]

As a lifelong car guy from a blue collar family, I hate these kind of idiots. More money than brains. And they've priced guys like me out of the market with their little "trading cars at inflated prices" auctions. I don't have enough middle fingers for the driver and others like him.

The same thing is happening to used guitars and basses. A good chunk of them are as competent musically as that guy was behind the wheel.