Current Events > how hard is it to learn to drive a manual car?

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only ever drove automatic before but all the fun looking cars are manual. id like to learn but i would be afraid of fucking up in traffic or stalling on a highway or w/e

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Honestly it's not that hard. Due to car issues when I was 16 I was given the option of learning to drive a manual in a few days or put off taking my driving test. I was able to learn it and passed my test on the 1st try.

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You'll stall a lot in the beginning. Lots of practicing in parking lots and such. Might take a few days to internalize the muscle memory. Then it'll be a few weeks of nervous driving in low-risk traffic conditions. By a month you'll feel comfortable and by a few months you won't even think about it.

Starting off into 1st is the hardest. Doubly so on a hill.

It's not so much hard as it is just encoding the muscle memory to know just how much to pull out the clutch and how much gas to give so as to not stall and/or have a super jerky start. You can't force learn that, it's just practice.

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BlameAnesthesia posted...

Starting off into 1st is the hardest. Doubly so on a hill.

yeah this is the only thing you really need to practice.

Switching gears while driving is easy, which means you will never stall it while driving fast on a highway or something. Unless you are reaaaaaally dumb and switch from 5th or 6th into first or something.

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Its not that hard. If I can learn you can. I've only driven manual on the two cars I've owned but started with automatic.

It seems to me the newer manuals are harder to stall or slide down hills. I have a 2015 civic si but I started with a 2000 Mazda protg. The civic is very easy to drive but the Mazda had a tough first gear for me. It also didn't have that hill slide protection feature.

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you can learn in like 20 minutes if you have a good teacher

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Can easily be done in an hour or 2. The hardest part for most is learning how to start on a steep road/hill. It's all about knowing how your particular car's clutch responds to your inputs.

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Ive always driven manual.
It took a week to get OK, but years to get gud

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BlameAnesthesia posted...

You'll stall a lot in the beginning. Lots of practicing in parking lots and such. Might take a few days to internalize the muscle memory. Then it'll be a few weeks of nervous driving in low-risk traffic conditions. By a month you'll feel comfortable and by a few months you won't even think about it.

Starting off into 1st is the hardest. Doubly so on a hill.

It's not so much hard as it is just encoding the muscle memory to know just how much to pull out the clutch and how much gas to give so as to not stall and/or have a super jerky start. You can't force learn that, it's just practice.

Sums it up better than I could've phrased it. Easiest way to learn the clutch bite point is to just sit in a vacant lot with the car in gear, slowly let out the clutch without pressing the gas and feel when the engine starts to struggle. Depending on the kind of engine, it might not even stall at all.

Romulox28 posted...

only ever drove automatic before but all the fun looking cars are manual. id like to learn but i would be afraid of fucking up in traffic or stalling on a highway or w/e

Funny you mentioned that, my first day out driving my first 5 speed car I rolled backwards into someone at a red light.

Its like riding a bike. It seems daunting at first but once it starts to click its as easy as breathing.

You need a wide open area to practice in tho.

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afternoon in a parking lot and side streets gets the basics down. after that its just working on timing.

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Zodd3224 posted...

Funny you mentioned that, my first day out driving my first 5 speed car I rolled backwards into someone at a red light.

Its like riding a bike. It seems daunting at first but once it starts to click its as easy as breathing.

You need a wide open area to practice in tho.

How do you let that happen? You feel the roll feeling even when your car has barely moved so you should have been able to break before you hit them. Unless you were really bad with the clutch or something.

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I panicked and kind of froze up

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My panic driving resulted in a worn out clutch because I was always afraid of stalling. That old car had though was just trash though.

I think I've only stalled 3 times so far in my current car. They were just random brain facts when I was at stop light and trying to start again.

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Ok these replies make me nervous, if I bought a manual car Id immediately have to take it and merge on highways to get to work, there wouldnt be too much time for me to gradually ease into it

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That isn't feasible imo. You won't learn how to drive it in a day. My friends took me out to practice in theirs multiple times and I still had issues in the early going.

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My 2016 Chevy Colorado with a manual transmission has a 'hill start assist' that detects when the truck is on an incline and holds the brake while you let the clutch out so you don't roll backwards.

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Yeah, don't hop onto the highway right off the bat. That's a good way to freak yourself out.

Romulox28 posted...

Ok these replies make me nervous, if I bought a manual car Id immediately have to take it and merge on highways to get to work, there wouldnt be too much time for me to gradually ease into it

do you know anyone with a manual car who could teach you in like an empty parking lot or something?

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Choco posted...

do you know anyone with a manual car who could teach you in like an empty parking lot or something?

Sadly no but Ill look into seeing if I can rent a manual car or something

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Merging in aint that scary. The issue you'll have is more so not being able to start moving the vehicle and have people pissed at you, not actually crashing.

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Patty_Fleur posted...

Merging in aint that scary. The issue you'll have is more so not being able to start moving the vehicle and have people pissed at you, not actually crashing.

that awkward moment where you stall at the green light, the cars behind you start blaring their horns, and you're so jittery you cant start the car before it goes red again...

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Fun cars use paddle shifters for the last few years. Unless you're looking for classic muscle or a few hangovers like the shelby gt350 just get the paddles. The technology behind them at this point is better than classic manual which is why hypercard use them.

As others mentioned it's not hard to learn you just ideally want a friend who can let you borrow their car. It's more so it's very tedious for your daily driver.

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It's hard to learn and will seem extremely silly to begin with after driving an auto for so long, but once you know how it eventually becomes muscle memory, and you won't even think about it consciously.

You'll get to the point where any time you drive an automatic you'll inexplicably reaching for the central console to change gears as you slow down at the lights without even realising it.

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Romulox28 posted...

Ok these replies make me nervous, if I bought a manual car Id immediately have to take it and merge on highways to get to work, there wouldnt be too much time for me to gradually ease into it

Wait does your driving license allow you to drive a manual??

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pinky0926 posted...

Wait does your driving license allow you to drive a manual??

Not a thing in America

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pinky0926 posted...

Wait does your driving license allow you to drive a manual??

You can drive whatever non commercial car you want with an American license

I Like Toast posted...

Fun cars use paddle shifters for the last few years. Unless you're looking for classic muscle or a few hangovers like the shelby gt350 just get the paddles. The technology behind them at this point is better than classic manual which is why hypercard use them.

I was thinking like a Civic Si or WRX or something

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The wrx (30k) has paddle the wrx sti(40k+) doesn't. And civics are never fun

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my brother impulse bought a camaro and it took him like 2 days. he keeps wanting to teach me but im not sure why since i drive an automatic

I Like Toast posted...

The wrx (30k) has paddle the wrx sti(40k+) doesn't. And civics are never fun

more fun than my impreza now probably

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Just go to a business parking lot on a Sunday and go crazy. You'll be able to drive home in under an hour. It helps to imaging your feet are on a see saw, let off one, press on the other

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my pops likes to joke I gave him whiplash when he was teaching me to drive a stick because I stalled the car so many times. then again, he had me try and learn on a hill

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Manual cars is 1 reason why my xgirlfriends parents hated me. They live in Lake County Florida and they have a huge amount of land to drive /practice on. Back in 2000 I bought at 66 1/2 GT mustang that was only manual.

We kept the car at her house.
My gf could drive manual , so on the weekends id come over and she'd try to teach me how to drive manual. Her parents didn't enjoy it cause I tore the shit up out of the grass everywhere. Like it mattered the closest house in either direction is half a mile, her parents were just mad I was with there daughter and they couldn't get over it.
But hey let's love the next BF that gets her pregnant and then leaves her never to come back.

Still can't drive manual

modern clutches are easy compared to the 79 Datsun 210 I learned on.

couple hours in a parking lot practicing low gear driving should be all you need.

It took a couple afternoons for me to learn when I was 16. Once you understand the basics, the finesse comes pretty quickly.

It's also much easier to learn on a car with decent power or torque. My first two cars were little 4cyls and you had to apply a decent amount of gas to get going. My 6cyl and the following diesel you just had to let the clutch out a bit and you were off.

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I tried to learn in high school, but I live where there's tons of hills. Stop signs and stoplights at the top of grades.

I could get the thing around just fine, but I was bad at coming off stops, and worst coming off stops at the top of hills. It seemed needlessly stressful so I stopped trying.

I wish I had the skill now. There are vehicles I want that are manual only. But I can't drive them

I should note, I have a 2018 WRX Limited with the CVT . I want to get a STI when the new designs roll out. But I need to learn to drive a manual before then.

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I miss driving stick but I share a car with wife these days and she gets too stressed to learn it.

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Zodd3224 posted...

That isn't feasible imo. You won't learn how to drive it in a day. My friends took me out to practice in theirs multiple times and I still had issues in the early going.

You can most definitely learn in a day. I learned in 15-20 mins. I wasnt great, but I was good enough to get to school.

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You guys are quicker than me. Took me weeks to feel comfortable driving around in Mass with the Masshole drivers abound.

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Zodd3224 posted...

You guys are quicker than me. Took me weeks to feel comfortable driving around in Mass with the Masshole drivers abound.

learning in NJ will be even worse for me, everyone drives 80mph+ at all times here

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monkmith posted...

that awkward moment where you stall at the green light, the cars behind you start blaring their horns, and you're so jittery you cant start the car before it goes red again...

lmao, why would you get jittery? Because you're inconveniencing someone? Who gives a shit. Start the car and get on with it.

Romulox28 posted...

I was thinking like a Civic Si or WRX or something

Hah, I used to have a 2014 Civic Si and just recently traded in for a 2020 WRX. I fucking love the WRX. It's definitely a fun manual car.

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Rex mates

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New cars are incredibly easy to learn.

Older cars jerk around like you're gonna die if you let the clutch out too fast.

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