I recently turned 18, so my parents signed me up for driving school. When I showed up at the academy, I was surprised by the cars they had available for students to learn on. They told me to pick whichever I liked best, and I chose the Mercedes-Benz G500.
Red '89 Civic hatchback. It lacked power steering so I had to turn the wheel a hundred times to make it turn. It felt ancient to me and it was manual transmission. My dad wanted me to learn manual even though most cars are automatic in the US. No power steering absolutely sucked, but it turns out knowing how to drive manual can be pretty useful.