I learned in the car I have now at 16, when it was my dad's. Since then I've taught:
2 Girlfriends
1 Cousin, a lot more are in line.
1 Sister - her first start was perfect. Mimimal slip, nice and smooth. I thought she knew how and was messing with me. Then we got to hills, and I realized she was a newbie.
My current roomate (2000 Maxima driver) wants to learn, so does this girl I know. I only have 30k on this clutch, and the old one that I learned on was 2/3 gone at 110k, so maybe I'll let them. The key is to start them in a parking lot, and let them start the car with no gas about 20 times. This gives them a feel for the clutch while keeping the revs down enough to limit clutch wear. Once they know the friction point, the rest is easy. I think being relatively powerful, having a somewhat soft clutch, and relatively slow throttle response make the contour an easy one to learn on. Imports tend to have less clutch feel, and you need to slip it a lot more, since they have no low-rev power in the 4 cyl engines. Plus the engines rev very fast, meaning an anxious newbie has to work harder and controlling their right foot.
I managed to get it through to my mother than you stay between 2k and 4k during street driving. She had a 2 Honda Civics in the 80s, and a Vega before that, so power below mid-range rmps was new to her. Heck, power of any sort was new to her! She routinely got 5mpg less than my dad and I, who tended to drive it faster.
How could you say no to that?
