how do you go about learning to drive stick shifts?

[mAdD INDIAN]

Why is it that in North America most cars are automatics? Everywhere else in the world it's manual tranny with autos being the minority. Even in India, whne 16-18 year old girls learn to drive, they learn on a 800cc or 1000cc standard car. You guys have any idea how hard it is to drive a 800cc car?? Its unbarably slow and extremely hard to start in 1st.

 

[SWScorch]

<< put right heel on brake, right toe on gas, left foot on clutch. Put the car in 1st gear. Put a little pressure on the brake with your right heel, and rev the car up to about 4500 rpm with your toe. Drop the clutch, put pressure on the brake as neccesary to keep you from moving.

oh, wait, that's how you do a burnout >>



dont even need the brake to burnout. I can leave a patch 20 feet long in my mom's Jeep Cherokee without ever touching the brake..... just lost of gas and a sudden clutch release

 

[Luden]

I'm going to go get a '78 280z (manual) with a new engine for $100 to play with. of course the engine isnt already in it...

 

[thraxes]

the other way round is alittle weird though aswell: I learnt stick shift and I only know stickshift...

until recently when I drove a rented Audi Automatic... Well the first few meters were OK but then when the engine was in good revs I just lifted my left foot and jabbed the nearest pedal: "OKEEYY.. the brakes work and i gotta remember this thing don't have clutch!" man I felt dumb

 

[gygheyzeus]

i did two hours of manual trans. in driver training.... that taught me the basics... then i drove my moms car a bit...

my first car i bought (last summer) was a 2000 civic (which i still have).

the first week was the hard part with that car. i must have stalled 30-40 times that week.

it just took practise... now that i know what im doing, ive drove a lot of different manual trans. cars... supra TT's, BMW Z3's, 300ZX, etc....

and i can say that the best clutch for any of those has to be a tie between my civic and the Z3. they're both very easy clutches.

 

[cx32m4]

i tried but no rental companies carry any 5 spd trans cars.
Unless you want to pay tons o $$ and rent yourself a ferrari to learn stick but that' really bad idea.
the only way is to find someone who knows, or find a driving school teaching stick.
Ask the dealer, if I know one dealer in my town will teach stick but only after you paid for the car.

 

[walrus]

The trick is to remember that it is the last inch or two of pedal throw when the clutch engages, most new drivers get nervous and after slowly releasing the clutch with no response for the first few inches, release it too fast when it finaly engages.

 

[Scootin159]

<< Why is it that in North America most cars are automatics? Everywhere else in the world it's manual tranny with autos being the minority. Even in India, whne 16-18 year old girls learn to drive, they learn on a 800cc or 1000cc standard car. You guys have any idea how hard it is to drive a 800cc car?? Its unbarably slow and extremely hard to start in 1st. >>



I have a 1200cc car (as I mentioned above)...get 4 people in that thing & it's a challenge to get it to start.

 

[eLiu]

rent a car for a day or two...get some basic idea of wtf to do

go into an empty parking lot...practice, practice, practice

my mom did it that way...now trust me, if SHE could learn, anyone can learn (sorry mom...hehe)