Believe it or not ... Aunt doesn't know how to drive an auto car. She wants to know if she comes for a visit to Canada if she can rent a manual transmission vehicle. Pickup preferably in the London (Ont) area. Checking all the major car rental companies, no one seems to rent stick. Only autos....... Any help appreciated.

Just tell her its easier and mind numingly boring to drive than a stick but she will appreciate a auto in the traffic. Seriously it is nothing to stress about, I'm sure she's driven a bumper car

As u know Goz it's easier than easy

Just tell her an Auto in the UK is usually refered to as a "disability Vehicle"

If you can drive a manual you can drive an automatic.

I know in the past it was possible and people would rent them for a day or two to see if they wanted to buy one...many manual transmission cars were returned to rental places in poor shape and the regular rental car places got rid of them.

You may be able to rent a Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini for the day from the same sort of place that would rent out fancy cars for a wedding etc.

This website gives you the lay of the land.

Learn to Drive Standard Toronto - StickGTA

How does one not know how to drive an auto exactly?

I could see not being able to drive a manual, but an auto?

Doesn't know how to push/pull a stick in one axis without the use of a physical clutch pedal but can move a similar stick on multiple axises whilst coordinating engine revs with movement of left foot and right hand

Um, yeah...

Get used to auto, take driving lessons?

When I came to Canada I didn't have a clue how to drive an auto car either, having only ever driven manual. Just show her what the different stick positions mean (P D R) and keep the left foot out of the way and that will be enough to remove her confusion and enable her to drive a 'kiddie car' without problem.

We've told her its really easy but I guess the combo of driving on the wrong side of the road *and* in a transmission she hasn't driven before is rather frightening.
What I may suggest is to rent an auto for a day in Malta before she visits so she might get used to it on familiar roads.

If driving on the OTHER (not wrong) side of the road in gear would frighten her, wait until she drives on other side of road and needs to deal with a clutch and stick shift. She'll be f*****g terrified.

Put it into drive and hit the gas. Couldn't be easier.

Tell her to go to her local car school and book an hour lesson in an auto. That's what my mum did when she made the shift.

Question: Does whatever car she currently drives have an owners manual with it? If so, have a look and see if it mentions the automatic gearbox. If the model has one, then it should be included in the owners guide. That'll give a clue as to how they work, and that, one would like to think, should help out a bit.

I could see how going from auto to stick would be a challenge, but the other way round, less so.

Ok, I'll grant you that the column shift vs floor shift auto does bring a little difference, but not much.

Pun intended?

As it stands I think you'll all agree that the major car rental companies simply don't rent out manual shift do they?

Thanks for all the help.

My experience of renting in Saskatchewan has been that all the cars are autos. Every single I have seen.

By my own admission, I'm not the best driver in the world but I learnt how to drive auto in the space of 2minutes. Bury your left foot, put on the brake when you start and just go. Can you spend 5 mins with her when she goes to collect it?