Basic Trope: A character who's never driven a car with a manual transmission is forced to drive one with expensive results.
- Straight: Alice needs to drive Bob's car. Bob's car has a manual transmission which Alice has never used before. She ends up grinding the gears badly enough to require repairs.
- Exaggerated: Alice needs to drive Bob's car, but can't even figure out how to start it or use anything else in it.
- Downplayed: Alice knows how to drive a manual transmission car, but Bob's has a different shift pattern than what she's used to and still runs into trouble.
- Justified: Alice learned to drive in a country where knowing how to use a manual transmission isn't required to get a driver's license. She wasn't planning on driving often, so she never learned that.
- Inverted:
- Alice has trouble figuring out anything in Bob's car, except for the manual transmission.
- Alice can drive a manual, but Bob's car has an automatic and she repeatedly shifts into neutral.
- Subverted: Alice needs to drive Bob's manual transmission car despite having never driven one before. However, she manages to get the car into third gear without issue...
- Double Subverted: ...then she tries to shift into fourth and strips the gear.
- Parodied: While Alice is struggling to get Bob's car into gear, she inputs the motion for Ryu's Dragon Punch and the car performs a Shoryuken.
- Zig-Zagged: Alice has never driven a manual transmission car before. She has to drive Bob's car which has a manual and struggles with getting the car into the right gear. She practices with a manual car and later has to drive Claire's car which also has a manual. This time, she handles it easily. She later has to drive Daniel's car which has an automatic. Over time, Alice falls out of practice and when she has to drive Eric's manual car, she again struggles with the shifter.
- Averted:
- Alice is well versed in the use of a manual transmission.
- Bob's car has an automatic transmission.
- Alice never has to drive Bob's car.
- Enforced: The show is sponsored by a chain of auto repair shops. They ask to have Alice struggle with the transmission so she can respond with the shop's slogan.
- Lampshaded: "What is it about my life that tells me Bob's car would have a manual?"
- Invoked: Alice's parents decided not to teach Alice how to drive a manual because they didn't think she could handle it.
- Exploited: Bob deliberately buys a car with a manual transmission because Alice can't drive one.
- Defied: After Bob buys a car with a manual transmission and learns Alice doesn't know how to use one, he teaches her how to drive his car in case she needs to.
- Discussed: After Bob buys a car with a manual transmission, he talks about it with Alice who complains that she'll have difficulty driving it since she can't use a manual.
- Conversed: During a casual conversation about driving, Alice mentions that she doesn't know how to use a manual transmission. Bob asks what she plans to do if she needs to drive a car with a manual and she can't answer.
- Deconstructed: Alice tries to drive Bob's manual transmission car and destroys the transmission. This sours their friendship and Bob has to spend a lot to get the transmission replaced.
- Reconstructed: After Bob calms down, Alice agrees to pay for the repairs to the transmission in his car. She also asks him to teach her how to use a manual to keep that from happening again.
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