Driving a stick?

Question

In my almost six years driving experience I never learned to drive a stick...now I'm looking to buy a car and half the one's I'm looking at are manual transmission. Is it hard to drive a stick? Would it take long to learn?

Answer 1

Learning to drive a manual transmission just takes some patience and practice. This is probably over-detailed, but should help you gain confidence with the basics in a few hours:

First, find a flat wide road or parking lot where there's a minimum of traffic, obstacles and distractions, etc. Turn off radio, and roll down a window or two so that you can hear the engine, and possibly be able to smell a burning clutch. Next, start the car in neutral with clutch depressed, let the car idle and begin by not touching the throttle, just hover your right foot over the brake.

Select first gear, and with your left foot depressing the clutch pedal, very slowly release the clutch pedal; the car will move forward. As you release the clutch you will notice the engine will pull the car forward, and, if your car has a tachometer, you will see the engine speed begin to drop. At that point depress the clutch pedal back in and repeat this process until you get a feel for exactly the point of travel in the clutch pedal where the engine begins to transfer power to the wheels.

As you're learning to do this, you might stall the car a couple of times; just restart and keep practicing, but if you notice a burning smell, stop the car and let the clutch cool down before you try again.

Practice the take-off from a start without adding throttle until you're comfortable, then try take-offs from a stop by now using the throttle in combination with the clutch. You'll find that once the clutch begins to grip and transfer power, that in a see-saw motion you can apply more throttle; As the clutch is being engaged, with left foot moving up, the throttle should be depressed with the right foot moving down in a smooth kind-of rocking motion.

Once you've gotten the take-off mastered, it's just a matter of up-shifting as you gain speed; use the same motion as with the take-off, only shift from 1st to 2nd, and so on up through the gears. Keep in mind that you want a smooth transition of power from one gear to the next so that there is no damaging driveline shock OR clutch slip.

Down-shifting is similar, and is where a manual has an advantage over an automatic, because you can use the engine as a brake which saves brake wear. This is a particularly important technique for mountainous driving. To down-shift, lift off throttle, disengage clutch, shift into one gear lower, engage clutch, apply throttle.

In down-shifting, be aware that you're trying to match the ground speed and engine speed up as the clutch is engaging so that you get a smooth, but quick, transition of power transfered to the wheels as you switch gears. If you have a tachometer in your car this will be easier because you can not only hear and feel what is happening, but see this displayed, too.

Learning the take-off on a hill, you'll need to apply the handbrake to hold the car as you take-off; just hold the handbrake with pin depressed so you can release the brake evenly as you take off. Also, you might try a heel-and-toe technique where you depress both brake pedal and throttle simultaneously by holding both with right foot and use a sideways rocking motion to apply more throttle while releasing brake. This will take some practice to master, so start with a low slope hill.

When parking, whether your car is facing up or downhill, always put the car in Reverse and set the parking/hand brake, because reverse is usually a lower ratio gear than first. This way, if the brake doesn't hold, the engine will usually hold a car in place.

Finally; The worst thing you can do to an engine is to stress or lug it (the car will "buck" or shutter when this happens), try not to stress it to the point that the engine stops. It is easy to ruin an engine by over-stressing or over-reving, too, but damage by over-reving usually only happens at high RPM near red-line. So when driving, it's better for the engine speed to be a little too high than to be too low.

Hope you find this helpful.

Answer 2

No, but then I'm in UK where we the other way round and 99% of our cars are stick shift. Lot more fun to drive, auto's are heavier so as long as u don't go mad prob get better fuel economy too. First few times you drive it you will Kangaroo start (release clutch too quickly so car "hops". If u can find an instructor over there that teaches stick maybe worth a couple of lessons or practice on an empty lot somewhere. As for the people who moan about being hard work in traffic jams that's just laziness... after all that's why Neutral was put there!

Answer 3

It is a matter of co-ordination and listening and feeling. Something like skipping rope.
Sounds like alot, it is more than an automatic....you can drive home drunk in an automatic. And while you can in a manual, you can't be as drunk.
Find somebody with a manual transmission that is willing to let you have a go at it in a parking lot.
The hardest part is starting from dead still. After that it becomes a piece of cake.
The purpose of shifting is the same as riding your 10 speed bike(that is manual transmission) - your legs are the engine.

Answer 4

the hardest part is when you're at a stoplight on a hill, pointing upwards and there is a car behind you. Your car will want to roll down towards the person behind you when you take your foot off the brake. You must practice moving uphill from a stop. Once you can do this, you are all set.
It's easy to practice this off the road in a safe place. But, clutches wear out, and are 800 dollars to replace, so learn fast!!

Answer 5

I know how to drive a stick but both rigs at home are automatics and the other pickup that's out at the ranch is a stick.

Answer 6

as with anything, its all about yoru attitude. if you want to conquer driving stick, you can. but how well you drive it depends on your attitude. i know people who have been driving stick for most of their life and still get clunky gear changes. in some cars that understandable, but not all cars have bad clutch feel.

anyway. its easy. just remember, in case of anything/ emergency engage the clutch. if you can do that you can drive a stick.

driving a stick will also help you to "be in touch" with the car. and as far as im concerened it makes you a better driver as you have to be aware of what your car is doing.

Answer 7

it can be easy to learn as long as you know someone that can teach you on a used vehicle
like a toyota or some other little foriegn car.
just make sure you are comfortable with driving a stick because it is very costly to replace a burnt out clutch espeacially on a front- wheel
drive vehicle .

Answer 8

driving a stick has a pretty steep learning curve, but it doesn't take long to get it down. once you get moving, it'll get easier and easier. don't worry about stalling the car...we've ALL done it. so, go have fun...it's easy once you kow how.

Answer 9

it is a lot different from auto. you have a third pedal which is clutch which you have to push down when you shift gears. Once you get used to it, it wont be that bad. However, it does get pretty annoying when there is a lot of traffic because you'll have to keep shifting gears.

Answer 10

Consider putting away, your lipstick, eyeliner, soda, cellphone, burger, and all the other things you normally do while driving.

They are fun, but get monotonous in downtown driving.