shameful admission #22. I don't know how to drive a manual transmission- teach me

[alva]

He didn't say anything about hills either.

[Dauphin]

You should be using the handbrake, not the footbrake, in such a situation.

Manual cars seem hard to learn, but they quickly become second nature.

[rah]

Yeah, My sister in law bought my brother's manual car, and when she came to pick it up, she confessed that she had never driven a manual. I took her out and showed her and after 30 minutes practice, she drove it home. (she later confessed that it was a hairy ride home but said after a week she was fine)

[alva]

Hehe, finally. Someone who knows what he's doing.


Would this be a good time to mention that I don't have a driver license at all.

[rah]

hahahahahah, but it doesn't matter if you've had some practice.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

Why press the brake when you're holding the clutch down?

its in neutral originally, and then you move it into 1st.

You should be using the handbrake, not the footbrake, in such a situation.

Manual cars seem hard to learn, but they quickly become second nature.

lets start easy here. coordinating the downpush on the handbrake and the left-right clutch-gas combo takes a little bit longer to work on.

[Atahualpa]

Driving manual transmission is not that difficult.

Assume the gear is in position 1 and no slope present.
1. Push the clutch all the way down
2. Turn on the engine
3. Remove the feet from the clutch slowly while at the same time increasing the pressure on the gas pedal. If everything goes fine you'll be driving away smoothly. If the engine is howling you should either remove more from the clutch or reduce gas. If the engine is stuttering you need to increase pressure on the clutch slightly and also on the gas pedal.
If it begins to stutter too much, quickly push the clutch all the way down and remove the gas completely to start from new. Otherwise it will die.
4. You should be driving in the first gear now. To switch to the second, push the car to some speed (you'll hear it when the engine is working too hard). Step of the gas while stepping on the clutch and pull the gear into the 2nd position. Now step on the gas again while stepping of the clutch.
5. You are in the 2nd gear now and so on.
6. Remember that whenever you want to come to a halt you have to push the clutch (if you are standing with running engine for longer it's recommended to move the gear into the neutral zone and get off the clutch).

With slopes, things get much more complicated, especially if you are facing uphill. Either you pull the handbreak and remove the clutch somewhat while pushing the gas so that you can drive away when releasing the brake (you'll notice that the car seems to be eager to go yet the handbreak is holding it back) or you are fast enough to switch between brake and gas while releasing the clutch so that you don't roll backwards. For beginners the handbreak is recommended.

One thing prone to error is to for example leave the gear in the 2nd or 3rd position while coming to a halt and forgetting to put it into the 1st before you go again. It's of course possible to go directly from the 3rd gear, but it's very slow and requires precise handling of the pedals (usually way more gas).

After some time you've got it all in your back and don't even need to think about it.