Back 'round the turn of the century I had an ancient car with a dying starter.

It was a manual, so sure I could start it on a hill. But sometimes you just have to whack the starter itself and it will work!

I think I went months with a straight wooden axe/sledgehammer handle in the trunk as my starter starter until I replaced it.

Hill/push starting a car was pretty common occurrence when I was a teenager, since there was so many proper shitboxes in the town

Starters being dead...99% of the time actually aren't fully dead. The solenoids fuck off and if you wack the shit out of them with a chunk of 2x4 usually it'll get them to engage. Doesn't mean it's going to just keep working but I've done it a few times to get something started and into the garage.

Old Honda. Could be manual