Remember that your car has a telescopic adjustment for the steering wheel. That was added to remedy problems with short or very tall drivers.

It seems to me your wife has a total mental block against driving stick shift If that is the case, nothing in the world will spark her interest in learning to drive it (Just ask me as my wife flat out refuses to learn to drive my '05 MCS manual).

The auto Clubman S is VERY IMPRESSIVE. I took a 600 mile roadtrip this weekend. One word..WOW!

 

Ditto my wife - thus Clubman S Auto on order for me.

That in fact was one of the clinchers for me when I went car shopping 2 months ago. It was down to resigning myself to a slushbox or having to battle my anti VAG wife for an Audi/VW DSG equipped car. In what I consider to be a case of serendipity she test drove the Clubman and loved it and I found the Auto box to be many steps up from your average slush-box - no settling required.

CS - what kind of mileage did you get on your roadtrip?

To the OP - good luck resolving this thorny issue.

 

The problem is pushing in on the clutch. The steering wheel is all the way in and it's still too close to her chest. But I think the mental block certainly has a whole lot to do with it too.

 

Rexicon, I averaged 39 MPG in the Clubman S. Look for a brief review coming up in a few minutes...

 

I once had a mental block against driving stick shift. It was overcome when my parents said that either I learned how to drive one or I wasn't getting a car. (It was either my mom's old car or nothing.) I'm glad they did that, because now I like driving a stick a lot more than an automatic. Too bad you can't do that to your wife.

 

Yes, too bad indeed.

 

If pushing the clutch in is the problem, they do make pedal extenders (like for LPs...) I know they make them for gas pedal and brake, and I'm pretty sure they'd do the same for the clutch pedal...

but maybe that's not the bigger picture? I don't know, just a suggestion.

 

Me thinks you should put up the car for sale in a few months and order an automatic. I am very happy with mine and very pleasantly surprised on how good the auto in the Clubman S really is.

Not a good situation to be in, but better to cut your loses now than later.

 

What are people getting for mileage on the automatic (non-s)? I've been getting between 37 and 39 on Lucky.

 

Too early for me to give you a good read...as I haven't driven it all that much (local short hops to "the store", etc. just a mile here, there, here, there) and practically no highway miles yet, but it says 30mpg.

Here's a thread I started but never got too many responses, though ClubmanS very nicely did. https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ight=Automatic

 

Hey, I might have found a solution:http://www.m7tuning.com/parts/produc...roducts_id=123

I don't know how much it will cost, or if it will be available for the R55, or if she'd like it... but it has potential.