As a couple of you already know, I am currently taking driver's training and I have been learning to drive in just the past few weeks. I've "officially" driven three times so far with my driving instructor. It has been on an automatic of course, as with all new drivers (well, in the US anyway).
But the other day, just for kicks I tried out driving our stick-shift Honda and, ooooh it was not a pretty sight! I must have stalled it at least a dozen times, and at one intersection I burned so much rubber you could smell it from a block away. It turned out that I had been in third gear when I should have been in first, so the car repeatedly lurched forward violently, leaving skid marks on the pavement. Finally my dad made me stop driving, because he feared that if I drove for any longer I might burn out the clutch and destroy the transmission.
All I can say is I'm NEVER going to own a stick shift car. I don't know how you Europeans can put up with those horrible things! They're so aggravating!