The rental worked like this. You start as a passenger. The employee drives you out explaining all of the rules. You stop in a parking lot and demonstrate that you can drive to the employee's liking. If he does not like your driving in the parking lot, he can go back to driving and you just get a ride. If he thinks you are ok, then you get to drive on the street.
Actually when you get there, the first two things the employee asked us, was "Can you drive stick?" and "Can you follow instructions?"
There were some odd rules:
1) Shift at 2500 rpm. What fun is that? How can you make any noise?
2) When coming to a stop, don't down shift, put the car in neutral and brake. Apparently they would rather replace brakes than replace the clutch.
3) At first I was told to stay in the right lane behind the slow traffic on the highway (actually it was not really a highway).
4) Don't go over the speed limit, they want to stay friendly with the local police.
5) Don't use 5th gear.
I was not familiar with the area. I was told which streets to drive on. Many were 45, 40 and some were 25 mph.
Near the end, I was traveling on what he considered to be a highway. And he told me he wanted me to go off an exit up ahead. I figured he would want me to pull over to the slow lane behind a bunch of traffic. But instead he told me to pass all of the slower traffic. I obliged.
