SF short story about alien trying to drive car

Question

I am trying to rediscover a short science fiction story/article. It was about an alien on Earth trying to make a getaway in an ordinary automobile and of course finding the whole thing pretty much impossible, as he didn't know in which order the controls needed to be operated (switch on ignition, engage drive, press accelerator etc) and tried all kinds of combinations without getting anywhere.

I am pretty sure it was from the 1950s or 1960s and that it was intended as a parody of early pulp tales (eg E.E. "Doc" Smith etc) where characters just jump into alien spaceships and blast off.

Answer 1

I think I've found it - "So I Jumped Into the Alien Vehicle. A Turnabout Suspension of Disbelief"

An essay by Donald L. Franson from 1961 in which he says:

The minute I saw that alien auto or helicopter, I knew the hero was going to jump into it, fiddle with the controls for a moment or two until he got the hang of them, and then shoot skyward just in time to elude the hordes of local avengers, who rush to their own machines but have trouble getting them out of the parking lot.

Now the part I object to is not the hero's daring in taking this action — this is logical in his harrowing situation, and in the tradition of cliff-hanging. No, it's the ten-second, self-help driving course that gets me.

....and then he launches into a short-short story about an alien trying (and failing) to make a getaway in a human automobile...

Back in Aldebaran, I was always taught in the science fiction magazines to try everything, so I grabbed the big wheel which was so obviously a valve, and turned it courageously all the way to the right; then still hopefully, all the way to the left. Nothing. There was a lever below the valve which I was able to bend into various positions, but with no results.

Answer 2

Could you be thinking of Nicholas Fisk's "Sweets From a Stranger", which I got identified for me on Literature Stack Exchange a few months ago?

The opening scene of the story, the heroine (a girl called Tina Halliday) sees a strange man in a car asking her to get in, and offering her sweets. She's been well taught by her parents not to get into cars with strangers, but she eventually understands that this man is an alien who genuinely doesn't know how cars work.

The story ends with an ironic reversal of the opening scene, which I won't spoil for you (if you've read the story, you'll know what I mean). The whole story can be read on the Internet Archive.