AITA for refusing to teach my brother and friends how to drive a stick shift?
I(25M) live in a shared apartment with my brother named Matt and two friends Anthony and Alex. When it comes to transportation Matt. Anthony and Alex all use public transportation as everywhere they go is accessible by train which makes things easy for them. I, however, am different as I have been driving a 1974 Mustang for four years. This car is my pride and joy as I love manual transmission cars and the vintage nature made it a must-buy for me. I first bought this car back when I lived with my parents and admittedly I deliberately chose it because I knew that nobody except myself in the family knew how to drive manual cars. There was never any problem with this because my brother and parents accepted that I am the sole driver of it.
That was until recently Matt, Anthony, and Alex have all begun to get frustrated with public transportation. The train schedules and late busses have started to get to them and they have begun quite frustrated and want to buy a car. Unfortunately due to their jobs, they don’t have much money to spend on a car. The cars that are in their price ranges tend to be trashy and have high mileage. While searching they came across manual transmission cars that were leagues better than anything they have seen. These cars had decent mileage on them and were much cheaper the problem, however, is that none of them know how to drive a stick shift. While we all attended the same driving school at the same time they never learned how to drive manual. This was despite the school having a driving simulator and offering free lessons on driving a manual car. This has led to them now asking me if I can teach them how to drive a manual car.
I refused to teach them and told them that I do not believe that they are good enough drivers for a manual transmission car. Back when we all lived with our parents and used their cars driving skills were something they struggled with. Despite driving for two years they all had poor pedal control and driving habits like resting their hand on the gear shift and speeding. These habits would lead to the quick death of any manual car they got behind the wheel of. Additionally, I am simply not comfortable with others driving my car as it is vintage and I take a lot of pride in it.
Since refusing to teach them they have complained to my parents and called me an asshole. Am I the asshole for refusing to teach them how to drive a stick shift?
Posted May 4, 2022, 1:48 AM UTC