I finally learned to drive stick

[xanis]

Took me long enough, but I finally got around to learning it. Borrowed my mom's friend's kid's car ('06 Elantra, 5spd) since they were out of town and had my dad teach me.

I probably looked like a complete retard trying to drive it... took me a while to get the feel for the appropriate gas/clutch points; I still am not that good and getting going from a complete stop. Hills can also go fuck themselves.

Any stories/tips for the newbie? I'd love to practice some more and hone my skills a little bit, definitely more interesting to drive than an auto, but also a bigger pain in the ass since I'm not good yet.

 

[KLin]

Make use of the ebrake on hills when facing uphill.

 

[xanis]

Make use of the ebrake on hills when facing uphill.

My dad gave me this tip. Tried it out and it made life A LOT easier.

 

[BoomerD]

rrrrrr-rrrrrr-rrrrrrrrrrrr <gawd-dammit!> rrrr-koff-koff-shudder-die.<gawd-DAMMIT!>

 

[Stifko]

don't ride the clutch, make sure the gear is either fully engaged or fully disengaged. you will get good at it eventually and it becomes second nature. it gives you much better control over the car, especially when slowing down.

 

[SKORPI0]

 

[Newbian]

Ugh, hated it when I drove a old truck that was stick but the light switch for brights / dim was on the left hand side of the floor so that didn't help either.

 

[Demo24]

Trick for hills is to find that spot where the clutch just engages enough to hold the car, and then apply steady pressure to the gas pedal. As the car starts to move you steadily release the clutch while keeping gas relatively constant (too much, you'll just burn it or lurch forward..not enough and you'll bog). You can find this point with the brakes on, just pull it up slowly until you feel the car tug and the rpms dip.

Pretty much any manual car will be able to get going under it's own power at just idle, so a really good way to learn where it engages (cause ever car differs) is to either a)wear no shoes b)wear shoes that let you feel the pedals, then on a flat surface practice engaging the clutch slowly enough until the car moves with OUT touching the gas. Takes a bit longer, but once your going about 2 mph you can just let go and the car will idle around at 5mph.

 

[ra1nman]

If you're in an empty parking lot, try getting out of 1st w/o using the gas. Let off the clutch really slow and you can feel when the clutch "catches"....that is where you would normally start pressing on the gas to keep it from stalling out.

 

[spidey07]

Just try to be smooth, you'll know when you can upshift or downshift and the car doesn't change momentum.

 

[KentState]

I remember avoiding certain roads when I starting driving stick because they had lights at the top of hills.

 

[iCyborg]

I've only done about 500km on automatic on rentals, friend's cars etc. All the rest, and I've had license for quite a few years now, is stick. In Europe, stick is much more prevalent, or it was 10 years ago when I moved to N. America. So I had to learn it when I was in HS since there was no choice really.
I still drive manual, and love it. Blipping the throttle on downshift, or engine braking mmmm.
Diesels are easier to drive with manual, harder to kill the engine as it has more torque in lower rpm. I could keep it on a fairly decent incline in place just with the clutch and no throttle.

 

[jlee]

If you're in an empty parking lot, try getting out of 1st w/o using the gas. Let off the clutch really slow and you can feel when the clutch "catches"....that is where you would normally start pressing on the gas to keep it from stalling out.

That's how I teach people - seems to work pretty well.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Story:
Learned on the farm to drive a stick; No power steering or braking.
Took driver's ed in school.
Vehicles were automatic transmission w/ power brakes and extra wide brake pedal for the noob.

Shifted the vehicle into drive and headed down the slope from the school parking lot to the main road.
Put my foot on the clutch and brake for the stop sign. :biggrin:

Instructor hit head on dash (even with the lap belt).

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Wimps! Real men learn to drive stick on a International Travelall with a 3 speed mystery shift while transporting an injured friend to the doctor 40 miles away.

 

[iCyborg]

Story:
Shifted the vehicle into drive and headed down the slope from the school parking lot to the main road.
Put my foot on the clutch and brake for the stop sign. :biggrin:

I sometimes try to brake with my left foot just for giggles, and no matter how much care I put, I almost always brake way too hard, it's hilarious how insensitive my left leg is for this purpose.

 

[Demo24]

I remember avoiding certain roads when I starting driving stick because they had lights at the top of hills.

Heh, I use to do that as well. Of course one day I decide to go an alternate way home and of course hit the red light on a decently inclined hill and to top it all off a cop decides to stop within a couple of feet of my bumper. I made it, but certainly got my adrenaline going

 

[spidey07]

Story:
Learned on the farm to drive a stick; No power steering or braking.
Took driver's ed in school.
Vehicles were automatic transmission w/ power brakes and extra wide brake pedal for the noob.

Shifted the vehicle into drive and headed down the slope from the school parking lot to the main road.
Put my foot on the clutch and brake for the stop sign. :biggrin:

Instructor hit head on dash (even with the lap belt).

You're OLD.

 

[skyking]

Story:
Learned on the farm to drive a stick; No power steering or braking.
Took driver's ed in school.
Vehicles were automatic transmission w/ power brakes and extra wide brake pedal for the noob.

Shifted the vehicle into drive and headed down the slope from the school parking lot to the main road.
Put my foot on the clutch and brake for the stop sign. :biggrin:

Instructor hit head on dash (even with the lap belt).

That instinctive stomp can be such a sTOmP!

 

[Jeff7]

My dad always owned manual transmission cars, until periodic arthritis flare-ups made it too painful to constantly be shifting gears. But he did let me have a go at driving one. He said that I seemed to pick up on it rather quickly. I didn't think it went so well, so I don't know how it went.
Once the car was moving, shifting was terribly simple. Getting it moving wasn't so easy. I was told that I would be able to easily feel when the clutch "grabbed," or something of that nature. If anything was supposed to be felt while pushing the pedal, I never found it. I had to go by the distance the pedal had been pressed to approximate when it was ok to give it gas.
On the plus side, I never made that awful gear-grinding sound. I just stalled the car constantly when trying to move from a stop.

I don't have much benefit for manual transmission in any case. A car is a way of getting me from one place to another. Manual transmission adds one more complication to meeting that goal.

I did recently test-drive a car with the CVT type transmission, and its manual-shift capability simulates 6 gears. That kind of manual transmission is fine with me - since there's no clutch to bother with, it's quite simple, and it's optional to use it at all. But the manufacturer also says you get better gas mileage if you let the car figure out the gearing ratio.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

My dad always owned manual transmission cars, until periodic arthritis flare-ups made it too painful to constantly be shifting gears. But he did let me have a go at driving one. He said that I seemed to pick up on it rather quickly. I didn't think it went so well, so I don't know how it went.
Once the car was moving, shifting was terribly simple. Getting it moving wasn't so easy. I was told that I would be able to easily feel when the clutch "grabbed," or something of that nature. If anything was supposed to be felt while pushing the pedal, I never found it. I had to go by the distance the pedal had been pressed to approximate when it was ok to give it gas.
On the plus side, I never made that awful gear-grinding sound. I just stalled the car constantly when trying to move from a stop.

I don't have much benefit for manual transmission in any case. A car is a way of getting me from one place to another. Manual transmission adds one more complication to meeting that goal.

I did recently test-drive a car with the CVT type transmission, and its manual-shift capability simulates 6 gears. That kind of manual transmission is fine with me - since there's no clutch to bother with, it's quite simple, and it's optional to use it at all. But the manufacturer also says you get better gas mileage if you let the car figure out the gearing ratio.

This isn't meant as an insult, I think that perhaps you just suffer from what the majority of youts seem to which is being terminally unobservant. If something can't be easily pointed to and explained by demonstration, there's no incentive to learn. Anything that takes longer than a few moments to master, other than a game, is relegated to unimportant/boring status. It's a very real phenomena I refer to as short attention span theater.

 

[busydude]

I grew up in India.. where almost all the cars are manual. Even here.. I prefer manual to auto. My first car was a Manual.. and I had good fun with it until it lasted.

 

[IGemini]

Just started to learn manual in the past couple weeks, since my latest job is doing GM car swaps. Gotten a few manual Sonics and Cruzes. The latest was going from a 5- to a 6-speed Sonic, the 6-speed clutch is more touchy (at least on that car). Still ironing out my stop-go transition.

Semi-related, I got to try a manumatic Cruze: manual shifting w/o the clutch. It's amusing enough, I don't feel like I'm going to trash the transmission when driving one.

 

[JackBurton]

Took me long enough, but I finally got around to learning it. Borrowed my mom's friend's kid's car ('06 Elantra, 5spd) since they were out of town and had my dad teach me.

I probably looked like a complete retard trying to drive it... took me a while to get the feel for the appropriate gas/clutch points; I still am not that good and getting going from a complete stop. Hills can also go fuck themselves.

Any stories/tips for the newbie? I'd love to practice some more and hone my skills a little bit, definitely more interesting to drive than an auto, but also a bigger pain in the ass since I'm not good yet.

lol. 1st gear and 1st gear on hills is always the toughest part to get the hang of when you first start. But it will become second nature to you in no time.

 

[Jeff7]

This isn't meant as an insult, I think that perhaps you just suffer from what the majority of youths seem to which is being terminally unobservant. If something can't be easily pointed to and explained by demonstration, there's no incentive to learn. Anything that takes longer than a few moments to master, other than a game, is relegated to unimportant/boring status. It's a very real phenomena I refer to as short attention span theater.

Or the "sour grapes" syndrome.

I did certainly see benefit to manual transmission in one application though: Need For Speed 3. However, I rarely need to evade police at high speed though while driving to and from work.

What are the benefits of manual transmission? (Not asking this rhetorically, but practically.)
Yes, it gives more direct control over one aspect of the vehicle's function, but it's at the expense of needing one hand on the gearshift more frequently, and another (small) thing to think about. Automatic also afford the ability to effectively downshift, even if the downshifting just tells the circuitry to use a different set of rules for shifting. My 14-year-old Hyundai Elantra's automatic shifting isn't terribly bright, and it doesn't always make up its mind quickly when accelerating - do I want a quick acceleration, or a more modest one? If I bump it down from Drive into 2nd, it doesn't hesitate at all: Gas = move NOW dammit!