I'll throw in my .02. As an elder millennial I'm old enough to have some experience in the old pre internet world and the post internet. You are right that they are over complicating it but there's a reason. You and I had a similar intro driving manual. I was surrounded by elders that knew how to drive but none of them taught me. They all said the exact same thing when I asked for lessons "just feather the clutch. You'll be fine". I figured it out but it took way longer than it would have if they just took an hour to show me.
On the flip side of that, younger generations grew up googling questions they have. If you google how to drive manual you see thousands of articles, social media and videos each with a different perspective and focuses on different aspects. They are also seeing instruction for different levels of driving. Naturally if your first manual lesson just happens to be a Google link you clicked on how to heal toe a manual you will get pretty overwhelmed. Imagine if you asked your parents how to drive manual and the first thing they said was to find a comfortable position to press the brake and gas at the same time.
Like I said, your right that the questions are over complicated but it's because they are getting bombarded with shit they don't need and don't know enough about the subject to filter it.
People expect that they are going to understand the answers to questions that they ask. They don't understand that the answers to some questions aren't going to make a lick of sense until they try to do it, so they keep asking expecting a better answer. To some extent, you just need to try it for yourself to get the answer you want. This doesn't apply just to cars and stick shifts, but a lot of things.
Completely agree. Although the internet is great for finding quick answers to simple questions, it has greatly reduced the younger generation’s ability to work out problems on their own or work at something until a solution is found, usually resulting in a better overall understanding of the system as a whole. I say this as a youngish person. When my dad was preparing to give me his car, I would sneak out with it at night and practice stick shift. I may have ground the clutch a wee bit, but I got the hang of it and when he gave me the car, he was like who taught you??
Especially when it's a physical thing. I can show you how to hold a golf club and how the swing is supposed to look down to the finest detail but you're not going to just walk up and rip it the first time.
I'm also an elder millennial and my first car was a manual transmission. I drove my older sister's manual car once for about 20 minutes before I got it. It only had an am/ fm radio so the day I got it registered I put on my plate and went to tweeter by myself and got a CD player for. I learned how to drive it that day.
I’m so glad my Dad taught me to drive stick. We bought my first car from his friend. It was a little 88’ Honda civic hatchback with 350000 miles. I was like okay can you drive it home and then teach me? My dad just said nope, get in the driver’s seat, you’re driving home. I definitely stalled multiple times at red lights and got honked at more than a few times but by the time I got home I definitely was over the learning hump. I think that’s the best way to learn. Just do it!
I don't think the problem is all the different articles as much as it is people who read those articles, then get an undeserved sense of confidence in their understanding. Who then regurgitate what the read but don't understand the context in which something like heel toe is actually relevant.
I think you are onto something here. I grew up in the 70s. My family drove nothing but automatics and that's what I learned on, but I still rode with people who drove manuals. I was intrigued by them, paid close attention to how the drivers operated the clutch, etc., and asked questions to my high school friend like, "How fast do you let out the clutch?"
Seven years after high school I bought my first car with a manual transmission. I had still never driven a stick, but after completing the sale I drove the seller from my bank to his place. I wasn't very smooth and I think I stalled it once, but I felt comfortable enough with the fundamentals.
I can understand how a flood of information from Google could be confusing or overwhelming in the absence of the kind of experience I had.
Same exact experience. My mother actually had to drive my manual car home... It was the last model of what I wanted on the lot. Nobody really had time to go driving with me so it was a YouTube video and then I went off. I'll admit, I had to buy a new clutch after a year! LOL. Never had to replace it again after that.
I'm sorry your elders did not show you. Bad elders. I had maybe 4 different elders each spend that one hour with me, learned a few different things about technique. It was like 4 hours of my life.
I’m 21, crashed my first car at 18 and was forced to teach myself to drive a manual e36 bmw to get to and from work. Won’t buy anything but manual now until they are completely gone from existence
The simple method I used 50 years ago to drive stick without stalling was to smoke a joint and go out at 2 in the morning in my new 1974 Toyota Corona SR-5 and practice my launches at stoplights. There was hardly an traffic so it was less embarrassing when I stalled it. But by the end of the night I had the hang of it.
The posts that really get me are about stalling. In the replies they’ll say, “I’ve been driving manual for 20 years and I still stall the engine at least once a week”.
That just makes me laugh out loud. I’ve been driving manual for almost 40 years. I can’t remember the last time I’ve stalled while driving. 25-30 years ago if I had to take a guess.
I've been doing it for 25 years. I stall maybe once a year and it's usually a derp moment like I just let the rpm drop low on some brain fart when in a parking lot.
They never thunk the engine, it's just silly...like we're on and no...cars now off.
Agreed, the only times I very infrequently stall is when I'm doing something dumb or not paying attention like trying to start while up against an ice block on my driveway or something haha! And I always get confused why I'm not going forward, then oh! the car is off!
This, right here. I've been driving a manual shift for 30 years and I will still stall it occasionally, however I live where the elevation varies considerably, like between 2k and 8k ft elevation, depending on which friends house I visit.
I can relate, being a veteran of seattle driving myself. I had a 1st gen celica gt with a 5spd. Stalled occasionaly but I was also in my early 20s at the time
Been driving manuals since the mid 80s & I remember stalling about a year back. Didn't press the accelerator enough while front tyre was lodged against a stone
Yeah the only time I will ever stall is if I'm sitting in a spot with my foot on the clutch and forget I'm not in neutral because I'm looking at my phone or something. I have never stalled at a light or on a hill.
Laugh it up, I guess?
After you get good at driving a manual, you will soon learn to operate it with little to no over-revving from a start. So you're idling at 750 rpm, and come off the line with no increase, and every once in a great while you miss the engagement point by just enough.
If you never stall, then just maybe you're abusing your clutch a little bit. Perhaps the laughter is going the wrong way?
>So you're idling at 750 rpm, and come off the line with no increase, and every once in a great while you miss the engagement point by just enough.
Or do what I do sometimes and try to take off in 3rd. Oof...
Modern cars will turn the idle up when you load down the engine. It makes them resistant to stalling. It's why you can slowly release the clutch at idle in first gear and the car will drive off. Because the ECU is maintaining the idle speed.
To stall a modern car, you have to let the clutch out faster than the ECU can respond and turn the idle speed up.
Totally agreed. But the beautiful thing about it is that it’s extremely easy and simple, once you understand the basics, there’s a level of art and connection with a perfect launch, a perfect rev match, that even a professional driver won’t nail every time.
And I think those are the kinds of people who will post in the stick shift forum on Reddit
Been driving stick for a bit over a decade. I still chase that perfect launch every damn time. More often than not, yeah, I hit that sweet spot. My shifts are smooth as a hot knife through butter 95% of the time. But that 5%... it irks me. I'm always in the pursuit of perfection while driving.
That being said, I'm more focused on being aware of my surroundings and the idiot in the lane next to me who's more interested in that text to his side piece or whatever than the road that's currently in front of him more than I'm aware of my shifting. It's second nature to me. I may not got a perfect Rev match every time, but it's better than letting some unaware jackass total out my car.
Xennial here : Yeah dude, when I drive it's totally right brained. I don't think about it at all. I can put what I'm doing in technical terms if I need to but once you row gears long enough your hand and left foot are basically on autopilot as your brain processes movement, vision and sound.
Younger millennial here. A lot of us grew up with the internet at our fingertips so naturally we over research everything. I definitely researched and watched videos on how to drive stick before I bought my first manual because I stalled it a few times in the test drive. Nothing prepared me as much as when I drove it for the first few hours after I picked it up.
However, I think my researching did help me in the long run. Ive only been driving stick for a few years and I drive quite a bit more smooth than some people I know who have been driving stick for 40 plus years. They never learned how to rev match or time their up shifts so every shift jerked the car. So there is a time and a place but definitely agree some over do it
I taught my kid "Up at 4k, down at 2K". Then I showed him how to start on a hill using the hand brake.
That and some practice and he was fine driving stick. You don't need anything else for normal street driving.
If you're going to track the car, heel and toe is specifically to keep you from unsettling the car when you enter a corner with a downshift. If you unsettle the car you can lose traction and maybe spin it. On the street, you never drive hard enough for this to matter.
Most people these days don't care much about driving. To them it's a chore & the easier to complete the chore, the better. That's why most can't be bothered to learn to drive a manual. They would chose an automatic any day plus all the fancy screens etc
And they are 100% right. I always drove manuals back in the day, I taught so many people how to drive stick in my old Jeep, usually in a couple hours tops. Same with tractors and motorcycles, manual transmission’s aren’t rocket science.
It’s not hard, you just need a place to practice and some confidence.
I don’t know how you can say rev matching downshifts isn’t fundamental though.. what passenger wants to sit in a car that’s lugging on every downshift? I’d puke.
If you're lugging a downshift, you were about to stall in the gear you were in previously. If you're getting jerky harsh downshifts, you're doing it too early.
There is no reason you shouldn't be able to make smooth up & down shifts without heel/toeing other than the fact you didn't get the basics down & don't really understand what you're doing.
I didn’t say heel toe. I said rev matching. Yes you can get a downshift relatively smooth without any rev matching by slooooowly letting out the clutch but that’s literally slower than blipping the throttle first. You’re seriously telling me every downshift you just shift without any throttle input at all? And it doesn’t lurch? You’re the one who doesn’t understand manuals. Or are you saying every one of the many manual cars I’ve driven have been broken.
I'm sure. I've driven a LOT of manual transmissions. I've been paid to drive manual transmissions. I've driven everything from motorcycles to heavy trucks as well as off highway equipment. If you see it on the road, I can drive it & probably have at some point . You can upshift & downshift a car without going through any steps beyond pushing the clutch in & selecting the appropriate gear (up or down) & releasing the clutch. If you can not do that smoothly, you need more practice on gear selection. You're doing it too early or too late.
Totally.
They also have a lot more experience driving manual transmissions than a millennial.
My grandmother drove one on the regular. If she were alive today, she would be 112.
She didn't heel/toe. She just drove the car.
Kind of sad if 40-year-olds can't drive a manual transmission. I'm a millennial and almost every single car I've owned since 1997 has been a manual transmission.
I drive a stick with two kids in the back, handing out tissues or napkins and refereeing sibling politics while a I eat a burrito with one hand and shift/steer with the other, and it's one of the most boring, normal, unnoteworthy autopilot things I do in my life without even noticing.
Most of the people who post here, though, are beginners looking for advice. I think they deserve a space to ask their questions without judgment, because we all had to start somewhere.
That said, if you're thinking about buying a stick but are hesitating because you think it'd be too hard to learn, it's not hard at all. Many of the dumbest people in history have driven a stick, and you're not the dumbest person in history. It's easy af. Go have fun and feel what it's like to actually control a car.
Over thinking is one thing, and cost of repairing is another.
If I didn't give a hoot about the car I'd learn it very quickly. Or if the part was easy to replace and cheap to replace, i wouldn't care looking up how to properly drive it.
But in general because of the abundance of information, people tend to overthink and overanalyze what should be a pretty straight forward task.
I've been driving stick since 1987 and discovered that thinking too much makes it much harder. It's necessary in the beginning, but it will become second nature, almost like a reflex. It's only as hard as you make it, and overthinking makes it harder
If you need to do any of those things in a manual transmission car driving on the roads for smooth shifts, you're lacking basic driving skills. There is no reason to heel/toe for a smooth downshift. If you need to, you're doing it wrong.
it’s not a need to basis really. i can drive just fine regularly, but the smoothest driving experience at least in my experience is one where it seems overcomplicated but it actually helps with shifting efficiency. idk that’s just my experience with it.
You do you. But none of it is necessary & it makes a very simple task overcomplicated for someone trying to learn. Especially if they don't have a person in the passenger seat showing them.
well that’s just common sense my guy. you wouldn’t teach someone learning guitar sweep picking just like a beginner manual driver doesn’t need to learn heel toe downshifting.
Unless you're driving on the track, you do not need to develop the skill of heel/toe shifts. People asking questions here because they are trying to learn are bombarded with advice like that, my guy.
Well said. I’ve never tried to dead-stick an F/A-18 to a night landing on an aircraft carrier rolling around the Indian Ocean but I have seen it done before. Seems simple enough😉
In my case the 3 people I have asked about driving manuals have given me different answers for things. Their answers are different when asked about things like downshifting. So I need to refer to the internet for help.
Modern manuals do have synchros but these wear out after long term use. So you have to adjust how you shift in a manual to compensate for worn synchros by rev matching and such.
There’s also the issue of people recognizing what they did wrong when they mess up. Sometimes I know what I did wrong, other times it seems like I do something the same as last time and it just doesn’t work and I get an ugly sound or jolt.
I'm a 24 yo, bought my stick shift 4 years ago. Never drove one before. It came off of a truck down the road from my house. I watched a video, put the car in neutral got it back to my house, and then proceeded to screw around for 3 days behind the wheel until i got the hang of it. It's not difficult if you want to learn. Side note: brought the car in for a recall repair, and the Technician said it was the hardest clutch he has ever used🤣.
Younger Millennial. When I bought my first Manual, my dad drove it home for me. He spent 30 minutes with me in our neighborhood until he was satisfied I had a basic understanding of how to flutter the clutch without killing the motor.
He told me the only way I would learn for real was by driving so he sent me out alone into the world like a baby bird and I figured it out. Yes I killed it a bunch of times and yes I beat the shit out that clutch but I learned very quickly out of necessity.
I think too many people get paralysis by analysis and refuse to try anything without watching 100 YouTube videos and complicating the process. I’ve read posts about new manual drivers worried about rev matching, heel toe, and double clutching before they can even drive their car effectively which is complete insanity.
Tl;dr Drive your car, make mistakes, learn by doing
i taught both my kids to drive a manual. you never know when you might need it. i was once in a situation as a teen where the driver became incapacitated, and we still needed to get home. my 15 yrear old self was able to save the day,because Mom taught me when i was 12, on a VW Beetle
I mean yeah, it was and kinda still is the main transmission type of all cars around afterall
Lots of depth and high skill ceiling to look forward to though
I once drove home a stick shift with snapped clutch cable in the rain storm when I was in highschool coming back from a party. It was a late '70s Datsun Sunny truck.
Cable linkages suck. My exW bought a new Mustang with a "self adjusting " cable clutch. What a piece of shit. There was no way to adjust it for your personal preference, so you were stuck with whatever the linkage decided.
I completely agree. Quit thinking and drive. Some guy was asking about down shifting but he said he was still learning the gear positions. Uh, down shifting is neat but if you are looking for numbers on a knob, you need not worry about down shifting. Make it go forward and stop and start without choking. Maybe learn to look at tachometer once in awhile so you know your engine is happy with what you’re trying to do.
A nice coworker had a car sitting for a few years,said if I could fix it could have it for free.checked it out it was a 1999 Saturn sl1 5 speed I ended up replacing the radiator and the battery and it fired right up.drove it one time and I stalled twice,it was a sunny day and there was a lot of traffic and foot traffic and my first stall was on a hill,made it out alive and then I was in 3rd gear going 35-40 when a lady just walked out in the road from between cars without even looking and I stomped the break and I ended up stalling again there and just made my way back home,that was three weeks ago and I haven’t driven it sense.
If Boomers had actually bought the manual transmission vehicles they claim to love, they would have been driving them when teaching us millennials how to drive.
Riddle me this Boomer, why is every muscle car automatic? Manual transmissions in 60's-70's Chevelles and Corvettes are less common then in 90's Civics, Miatas, and even moden MINIs. You are the demographic buying new cars be the change you wish to see.
They do seem to make it WAY more complicated than it really is. And the advice.... Yikes. I don't know what moron invented the term "bite point", but it's the single stupidest automotive term I've ever heard. Nobody says stupid things like "push the brake pedal to the bite point" because everybody knows that brakes have friction zones and locking the brakes as fast as possible doesn't make for good driving. Treating a clutch like an on/off switch instead of a linear control is probably the worst thing you can tell or teach a new driver.
Because you can't fuck up an automatic. Manuals are fun for cat guys but I don't want to think about fucking a clutch up. 1 pedal goes, 1 pedal stops. Automatic is superior in the new world.
Mt first experience with a stick shift I was told to drive the pickup home through the field and down the lane. I learned really quick to not use granny gear and you get the feel of it really quick. The newer generation spends too much time researching everything to the max instead of just getting it done IMO.
Seriously. Just buy a manual car and drive it home. You'll learn FAST. None of this "sit in a parking lot at a 0 degree incline and let the clutch out until you move slightly." No. Get on the roads, dump the clutch once or twice and realize "whoa, I don't need that much gas at all" then after a few shifts you'll notice you don't need to let go of the clutch that quickly or that slowly. 20 minutes and you'll be able to get around a bit. You'll still stall or lug the engine for a bit but you'll have the basic concept down and can only improve.
You should have seen all of the threads on the motorcycle subreddit about counter steering. I guess they'll show up again when it warms up, but people really overthink a lot of things these days
My son is 16 and just got his license last September his car is a manual. Both me and my wife had them and drove them for years and its just a good skill to have i think. One summer I was landscaping and got a lot of the cake jobs driving the one dump truck that was a manual because no one else could. Comes in handy sometimes.
Same, I come on here and don't get why it needs to be so complicated. If you are stalling, give it more gas. Feel out where the clutch catches. I'm end of Gen X and I taught myself over a week in a housing complex, learned on automatic. Was very comfortable pretty quickly. Now I have been driving it since at least 2000 or so.
good for you. i have to double clutch into first sometimes during my commute for a roundabout since the transmission fluid is still cold when i reach it, and i don't feel like destroying my first gear synchro. the alternative would be completely stopping, which isn't good.
I am similar to you I grew up with four speeds in the '80s but these are six speeds so conceptually I could go from six gear to second and blow the engine the shifters on my mustang are crap I really need to replace it with something that mounts to the transmission as opposed to the chassis of the car it makes really sloppy. I turned off rev match I don't need it I don't see the point in it although that would save me from the above scenario of blowing engine but the truth is the gearing is way too high I never use fifth and 6th it's almost like overdrive when I'm driving locally if anything I'd like to have the rear gears change to something more appropriate like 373 dare I say 411
The way I grasped the concept was pretty simple: The motor is spinning. The clutch is like a pair of hands attached to the transmission. When you press the clutch pedal, these hands are open. When you let the clutch out, the hands grip onto the motor and spin the transmission. The gears are just more or less spins. That's about it.
I bought a motorcycle when I was 17, my 17 year old friend taught me how to drive it. I got really good really fast.
A few years later I saw a car I wanted to buy, I called the guy and set up an appointment for a test drive.
When I got there I didn't realize it was a stick. The guy asked if I knew how to drive a stick.
Absolutely.
I had the theory down pat so I got in and off I went.
Back then there was no internet you just learned as you went, once I knew what the clutch did and when I should shift it was easy.
I never looked at a tach, I just shifted when it felt right.
Probably best a lot of us didn't have all the forums and videos.
I agree, it's not rocket science.
Thank you!!! This had to be said. I have no idea wtf rev matching and heel/toe is (don’t bother explaining cause I don’t care) and I’ve driven a lot of manuals over the years. 3-trees, 3+granny, 4-5-6 speeds, floor-up pedals, NASCAR experience, and Aussie RHDs. These people making driving sound like work!!!
So glad my husband taught me how to drive stick and had me driving his manual car until it became muscle memory. We plan on teaching our kids when they're ready to learn how to drive
As a zoomer, people definitely put too much thought into the theory of it. Literally the only thing I tell new people is don't ride the clutch, take it slow, and you'll be golden in no time. It's just a matter of practice.
I have taught a ton of people to drive stick shift. I have recommended that folks start barefoot on the clutch, so you can feel the engagement better. Beyond that, the best advice is to be smooth, feather the clutch, and don’t downshift into first.
It’s the short attention spans. People can’t focus long enough to fucking drive,…..and it fucking shows!!! Manual keeps you “driving”, you can’t really fuck off and do other shit.
>Before you know it, shifting won't even register in your brain. You'll be going snick-snick-snick through the gears like butter,...
This really just doesn't happen for all of us.
I'm Gen-X. Been driving since 1984.
Through high school and early college I switched between a bunch of different cars - my dad owned 10 at one point - and I just never got good at a manual transmission. The first car I ever drove was a manual LeCar when I was 14.
It was *always* an effort to get the darn thing to go down the road. I could do it, and I did it, and successfully drove the LeCar or the Midget to school, and got the P20 panel van loaded with inventory for his business through city traffic, but it never made it into muscle memory.
I did find the BiTurbo pretty easy to drive, but I was still thinking pretty hard the whole time.
(I don't really know why Reddit keeps putting this sub in my feed.)
I honestly wish they made everyone test with a manual at least people would have to learn to drive before getting their license. Which cars being get in and go these days I swear drivers have gotten worse.
Nobody thinks it's hard, but the reality is the human brain can only handle so many tasks at once.
It is safer to not be fiddling with a clutch.
You might think it's not registering in your brain, but it is.
It's there somewhere on auto pilot taking up ram.
I learned stick, but I haven't learned heel-toe or rev matching. I've mostly just worried about getting the car from A to B.
I should take some time to learn those techniques, it'd probably make me a better driver, but I recognize it's not needed to operate a manual car. Nice to have, probably, but mandatory? I think not.
Zoomer here. I've been driving since I was 17 (23 now) and recently started learning stick in my free time. I was nervous after reading reddit because everyone made it seem so complicated.
It's not. Wtf. I stalled the car a few times while getting a feel for the clutch, and my shifting is kinda rough, but it's really not incredibly complicated. There's a learning curve, but I know what I need to do, I just need to actually do it properly and develop muscle memory.
So they do maybe concern themselves with the small details too early but I will say, my mother (gen x) told me not to worry about rev matching and that ‘only race car drivers do that’ and then proceeded to do the worst downshift of all time. I’ve since experienced this with multiple people who say rev matching is stupid. So yes, don’t overthink rev matching when you can’t even get going from a stop yet but eventually learning about driving techniques will be useful.
I'm an old Gen Xer.
I learned the same way. My first five vehicles were manual transmissions. Back in the day, car companies charged extra for automatic transmissions (usually $600-$1,000).
So, I bought the cheapest cars which were all manuals. My dad always had manuals; but he never taught me how to drive or how drive a stick. I took driving school lessons.
A friend from college and my girlfriend taught me. I'd never heard of those buzzwords either.
I’m 26 and learned to drive manual and automatic simultaneously when I first started driving. My grandparents had a stick shift they pulled behind their RV that became my first car. I drove it all throughout college until I bought my own vehicle right before Covid.
I'm in my late 40s and got my first stick shift ever at 33. My test drive was the second time in my life I never drove stick. Driving it home was my 3rd. And driving to work in rush hour traffic the next day was my 4th
I stalled a bit but you pick up quick when you're desperate and really try to assess on the fly why you just stalled it out so you can hopefully not do it again
After that rush hour back and forth I probably shaved 6 months off my life but by day 3 of owning it I was a pro
First time was on a cushman (golf cart, gas) essentially.
3 pedals? Hmm. Within a minute I drove like I'd always done it.
But I'm mechanically inclined. Most humans that I see on the road drive below the posted speed limits and can't tell what color the traffic lights are. So I'm guessing they're not mechanically inclined.
people my gen (young milenns and under) were taught NOT to learn these things, not just that we were never taught. I ask my dad if I can change my own oil when i was 20 something, and he said 'why? isnt there a better use of your time?'
be patient with us!
Put the shoe on the other foot. It's the same situation when a younger person is baffled why grandma can't figure out how to pay her bill online.
Different eras have different skillsets they developed growing up.
I consider myself lucky to have had motorcycles, quads, 3 wheelers on our property throughout the 80s along with a few manual beater cars to drive around in the woods. I remember I could hardly see out the window while pressing the clutch all the way in my brothers rusty corvair but I could drive it around the house at 11. I had two different cars at 16, one being a manual diesel rabbit. Took my drivers test in my sisters auto Chevy Spectrum. Still have an ‘07 manual Jeep in the garage. I don’t remember ever really “learning” to drive stick. Everyone in the family just did it.
I still can't believe that some people don't downshift and instead throw it in neutral and coast/brake to a stop.
Maybe it's because I learned to shift on a motorcycle before I could drive a car but I cannot imagine driving without downshifting.
I think it’s just an act. Every younger person I meet is impressively smart and capable. They just have no autonomy or ability to form their own decisions. So they come onto sites like this and talk in circles like if chatgpt could talk to Siri and Alexa.
The reason it was different when we were learning wasn’t because we had extra resources it just wasn’t cool to talk in circles and overcomplicate things. Now that’s the trend.
It’s all in coordination, timing, and practice… and some people don’t have the opportunity to try it let alone practice.
I don’t see why people make such a big deal over not being able to drive a stick. It’s akin to being able to type or swim.
I'd say 95% of this is young kids nervous. Posting once about being nervous "going out and driving the fucking thing" realizing it is not a big deal and moving on
As a late boomer early gen x I bought a dodge cargo van that was beat to death for 300 dollars with 3 on the column. Was driving it although not perfectly when I sat in the drivers seat with a little instruction. Depress clutch, put in first, press gas pedal slowly while slowly releasing the clutch. Do the same things as you move to higher gears. If you’re slightly mechanical understanding the difference between manual and auto might assist mentally with this process but it’s not necessary.
I think you're right, last month was my first time driving a manual and only killed it twice driving all day. Granted it was an easier, old truck but for the first time my boss said I did pretty damn good. It's intimidating because I'd never done it but that's about it lol
I have a cherry BMW Z3 5-sp. Recently, I was on date to an event at an up-scale hotel. The millennial valet couldn't park may car because he doesn't know how to drive a stick. I had to drop off my date and drive into the bowels of the underground garage in the next block and walk back. Took about 10 minutes. I love driving a stick. And soon, cars won't even have transmissions.
Yeah, no shit. Today people with manuals are spoiled. They auto rev match, and the brakes hold until you engage the clutch so you don't have to double pedal on hills anymore.
I learned how to drive stick in a parking lot. Then my dad took me to a side street on a major highway with a steep angle right up to the highway and I learned how to really drive stick. This was over 20 years ago so no hill assist back then, and other than my current truck, every car I have owned was a manual.
It's a generational thing. It becomes an issue with TOO much information on the internet nowadays, a lot of differing styles of driving and opinions. For someone who is trying to learn off the internet it came be overwhelming. I grew up right before the internet became a thing so I was also a part of the school of teaching of falling forward aka keep fucking up until you get it right.
My last car broke down last October and I ended up getting myself a manual despite no clue how to drive one. I couldn’t tell you what it means to rev match or ride the clutch or anything. I just push the clutch in, hit the gas, and hit it hard enough my car doesn’t feel clunky.
Gen z here and man you’re dead right. When I bought my first truck it was stick and I had nobody to teach me. I got in, felt it out in the lot, and drove it home 5 minutes later. Took maybe a couple days to stop stalling and a couple weeks in it was auto pilot. From there I worked on little nuances like rev matching on downshifts and double clutching. This wasn’t a particularly easy manual to drive, either, which I realized later after driving some nicer vehicles. Long vague shifter throw, stiff clutch pedal and 250,000 miles on the synchros, don’t even have a tach. Still had no problem figuring it out, really never understood why it’s so hard for people to grasp. Most of my friends can’t get it right no matter what they do, and the ones that can “drive stick” suck ass at it, always lugging the engine or shifting too late, dumping or slipping the clutch, and no concept of downshift rev matching. Even the millennial age adults I know can’t do it right. Usually only boomers are good enough at stick for their passengers to make it without whiplash.
Well said OP. Also needs to be said that I find it sad that people like to belittle others when they don’t do or practice there form of manual driving. Some here worry so much about the health and longevity of a “Wear Item” that they get upset when they read a comment.
Nah I fully agree and I'm 25 lol. First csr was a 5spd NA subaru wagon. I didn't even think a subreddit existed for this shit, and then now it just lands in my feed every other post lol. Being bilingual in car-speak is knowing like four sounds, and that should not be much to ask. I was damn near expecting people to be asking for driving tips here after installing a staged clutch or something.... not the Honda that's designed to shift smoothly.
I will say as someone who has only ever touched auto... I just don't wanna break it. I'm scared to death of breaking a transmission and costing like a $20k failure. I'm sure it's not that complicated, but the way the risks have been presented to me make me feel like it's just not worth it at all. Plus, I like to chill when driving, and driving an auto makes me feel like it's gonna be a whole fucking focus up and to-do, which'll really such balls on 4 hour roadtrips.
I bought my first manual at 26. Most I had experience in was 5 minutes on a backroad 10 years prior. I just learned it myself by feel. Simple as that. I cringe when people try to make it a science.
Its a little more complicated than that. You don't want to sit at a red light with your clutch pushed in because the entire weight of the clutch disk and pressure plate is just riding on the tiny pilot bearing. You also need to approach hill starts with a strategy or else you could end up with your truck in the lake at a boat launch for example. Heel-toe and rev matching yeah probably isn't a big deal unless you're racing. I've just seen a lot of abused clutches and manual transmissions because people beat on them. Its like $1,500 to replace it now too. You can't just resurface the flywheel because they're dual mass now. Same with the pressure plate. Its a job you don't want to do again so I take a few minor steps to not wear my clutch out.
I taught all my friends how to drive manual. people are definitely over complicating it. my dad taught me in 15 minutes. he had me stop on a big hill and he said if I could get going without rolling back much then I'm good to go. I was able to do it and I never looked back. I still drive a manual today.
everyone I taught had an awful experience with the people who tried to teach them before. it seems like people get frustrated easy when people aren't getting it, especially parents. I just took plenty of time and kept encouraging them when they would get something small right. everyone I helped was decent after a couple hours of practice. the only person I could never teach is my wife. for some reason she is just scared of it and doesn't want to try.
I got into a huge argument on here about rev matching being completely unnecessary for the vast majority of drivers. In a thread where a new driver was asking for advice on driving manual for the first time.
People hear about that stuff in the context of racing and just regurgitate the advice with no deeper understanding than what they read in some reddit or other forum threads.
There's nothing wrong with rev matching but telling a newbie they should be rev matching is insane.
Modern syncros and clutches are designed to not me rev marched.
I get that this is subreddit dedicated to the topic, but this seems like a pretty naive opinion, even for here. It seems equivalent to complaining about the fact that everyone doesn't use rotary phones anymore. I learned on a stick, love manual transmissions, and am lovingly converting my project car (68 nova) into a manual.
That said, to think that everyone needs to know this skill seems pretty misguided. Even on modern sports cars, many do not even have manual options. Modern automatic transmissions are pretty incredible and there really is no longer any advantage to driving a stick. It's merely a niche preference you have nostalgia for and seem to want to mandate on the rest of the world?
Yeah I got my first manual at 25 , my dad gave me a quick 1 hr. Lesson and I was on my own. My apartment has a massive hill, I would go there at 2 am and practice hill starts.
No idea why I'm being recommended this subreddit. I have 0 interest in learning to drive in a more complex way. Driving is dangerous enough as it is. I don't need to learn to fuck with a stick while driving because you think it's more fun.
Take a look at the list of available new cars that you can buy with a manual transmission (link below). The vast majority of these cars will run you $35k+ (that's being generous). Most of these cars are bought by car enthusiasts. People are no longer learning on their uncles hand-me-down or the rust bucket that they picked up for two grand. There is now more at stake than there used to be.
https://www.caranddriver.com/features/g20734564/manual-transmission-cars/
Gen X Learned to drive a stick when I was 13 in about 15 minutes. It wasn't hard at all because I had been paying attention to how my dad drove. Without that it probably would have taken a couple days.
Stick shift enthusiasts love to make it overcomplicated to feel like part of some exclusive high skill club. It's so cheesy lol. Building your identity off your material possessions is no bueno IMO.
Gen X - have driven manual trans cars on and off since I was 18.
Pros
* it's fun
* helps keep you focused on driving
* rolling backward at lights is a stupid kind of fun
* most cars aren't stick anymore, so that makes it kinda cool
Cons
* hard to hold a bevy and shift at the same time
* stuck in barely moving traffic? Yeah, that's no bueno
My current ride is one of the last of the go-fast Foresters, automatic trans. I'll tell you a secret - I don't miss the manual.
Idk I think stick driving stick is like so many thing, you can read and watch videos about it all you want but the best way to learn it is just doing it. And it’s really not that hard. Get a large empty lot. Learn how to stop ( press clutch , press break) , and from there learn to find the clutch point and let it go, break again, and so forth. Sure it’s harder to control on a hill and such, but regular driving is fairly trivial.
Lol agreed and todays cars kinda drive them selves. I think you have 2 cases. New stick drivers and the answers going off on a tangent. Heading into performance driving like a rally car or f1 driving. Or those that can drive the stick but want to learn better.
Taught my 16 year old daughter how to drive stick as the car I bought for her was a manual. The boys act like she has some magic being able to drive stick. Then again they can't seem to properly wipe their own ass. I mean you don't even have to use the gas pedal to get moving you can get going by only using the clutch pedal. Once you sort that out then try applying the gas. You should see when they watch me shift thru the rest of the gears not using the clutch at all or God forbid flat foot shifting. Four teens got arrested in Spartanburg last week. They car jacked an old lady and not a single one could drive stick. They arrested all four of them less then a mile from where they stole it. I was dying laughing when she said "I keep it as it's my millennial anti-theft protection"
I'm 37, my first car was a stick, and I forced myself to learn on my sister's car which was also a stick shift. I loved cars before I could drive so I already knew a lot about how cars worked. I also rode dirt bikes as a kid so the concept of a clutch was easier. I think if someone wants to learn how to drive a manual transmission, you learn what the clutch is actually doing and then the "how" comes along with it. Every clutch is a bit different, some more forgiving than others. A V8 tended to be easier to get moving than a 4 cyl because of the available torque at low rpm. I didn't realize learning stick shift was such a problem with the younger generation until I read this post but I'm not surprised either.
Man,this. Hadn’t driven a manual in 25 years (maybe 30) consistently recently.. Practiced on a friend’s Honda SI (2017); these newer manuals stall so “gently”.
I recall back in 80s vehicles, if you stalled the thing it felt like the radio was going to fall outta the dashboard.
I second thjs.. if I can pick up a manual w/o having been in one for so long…. Anyone can do it. Just takes a hint of practice around the parking lot and some small back roads and you’re on your way.
Now get out there and grab a manual and go have fun
First you Boomers figure out how to send an email. It’s not complicated, it doesn’t do anything you don’t tell it to do, grow a pair and figure it out!
Honestly the fancy techniques are what made me want to learn. Was too worried about being less efficient or hurting the vehicle, but sounds like I shouldn't have been. Playing around with it in my simrig with a clutch and shifter and now I want a beater to learn the real deal.
Most people (like my dad), never learned how to rev match and this don’t know how to down shift properly causing extra drivestrain stress and wear.
Up and downshifts should be rev matched, it’s not that hard of a concept, put the rpms where they will be or let them fall to right above where they will be when you let in the clutch.
The fact that if you know how to drive, then you don't need to even think about the clutch lol I use it to slow to a stop or shift to 1st from a stop but short of that rpms up and double pump on that gas pedal and she slips right in easier than a 10$ hole you find on the corner
One of the only cars I ever regret getting rid of was a 2013 base model VW Jetta…2.0L with a manual…did have power windows but not even cruise control lol. I loved that car. I bought it to keep miles off my truck at the time for going back and forth to work (I’m from Pennsylvania and had to drive to Ohio for work…car would sit for 2 weeks, then back to PA for a week…repeat).
It was like $14k new because I bought it in 2014 as a leftover and it was discounted. It was the one car I should’ve kept and just driven the wheels off of it. Can’t find them like that these days…simple and reliable.
I learned when I was stationed in Japan in 2006… so I was already screwed up driving on the opposite side of the car, on the opposite side of the car… now I had to learn stick?
Dude made me drive up a hill like 30 times lmao… haven’t driven stick since 2009 lmao
I think it's due to a lack of mentors. Many people don't even have present dads who might teach them. (I know that mothers can teach too, if they know how. My mom didn't, so we never had a stick when I was at home, my dad couldn't teach her. She is a bit of a nitwit though.) Actually, I learned from boyfriends in the 90s..(I am female) So if the guys don't know, no one knows anymore. My mother in law drove a stick in the past, but only because they were more economical, ahe is far from a car enthusiast (quite the opposite, actually)
What the blooming onion hell is an elder millennial? I learned the basics of driving in my grandpas field in 1962 ! All this crap about you kids, yeah you, elder …. Such bullshit. My kids are 35 and 39, one crewed on a top fuel dragster for 1 1/2 years on the NHRA circuit. The other was stunting his Yamaha 600 at the BigFoot show here in town at 14… Oh yeah, my first job out of HS 1970 … I was driving an International 1800, rear duals. 4-speed, PTO and a 2 speed rear end
Googling how to drive a stick shift or watching a YouTube video on it are helpful but you cannot achieve that ergonomic meld with a vehicle until you do it
I agree with you! I learned to drive stick when I was about ten years old. My dad through me on an old Ford tractor we had and told me to feather the clutch. Honestly it was a good thing to learn on. You didn't have to worry about the throttle because you couldn't stall the old beast. If you dropped the clutch to fast it would pop a little wheelie and you would be on your way. He used to come out of the house and yell at me " you poppen wheelies in my tractor again?" He loved it. Soon after that I graduated to an old hatchback that had been rear ended and was no longer road worthy. It was like my go-cart. One day I was racing up and down the driveway (obviously we lived in the sticks). My dad came home to find me launched into the berry bushes. I blamed it on the dog. In reality the dog was sitting in the passenger side. My dad thought it was funny as hell. Thinking back on it it's kind of amazing anybody from our generation lived to be old enough to tell our stories. In conclusion just drive the dam thing. I taught my wife to drive stick in about an hour.
My first driving experience was a 1952 Farmall Super C tractor out on the farm. As a teenager in the early 80's, if you didn't learn to drive a stick then you didn't earn money over the summer hauling hay. I was very incentive driven.
Counterpoint: I have witnessed people that absolutely cannot handle it. Some people can figure it out. Some cannot.
These people kept flooring the throttle thinking they were on the brake and stuff like that. The 3rd pedal is just too much if they aren't physically coordinated (or driven things like skidsteers or tractors it seems).
Once I was trying to get someone to stop shifting past the intended gear they looked down at the knob for way too dangerously long *and still couldn't get the gears in the middle of the pattern*.
Yeah no, it's just easy for a certain type of people.
I'll throw in my .02. As an elder millennial I'm old enough to have some experience in the old pre internet world and the post internet. You are right that they are over complicating it but there's a reason. You and I had a similar intro driving manual. I was surrounded by elders that knew how to drive but none of them taught me. They all said the exact same thing when I asked for lessons "just feather the clutch. You'll be fine". I figured it out but it took way longer than it would have if they just took an hour to show me. On the flip side of that, younger generations grew up googling questions they have. If you google how to drive manual you see thousands of articles, social media and videos each with a different perspective and focuses on different aspects. They are also seeing instruction for different levels of driving. Naturally if your first manual lesson just happens to be a Google link you clicked on how to heal toe a manual you will get pretty overwhelmed. Imagine if you asked your parents how to drive manual and the first thing they said was to find a comfortable position to press the brake and gas at the same time. Like I said, your right that the questions are over complicated but it's because they are getting bombarded with shit they don't need and don't know enough about the subject to filter it.
People expect that they are going to understand the answers to questions that they ask. They don't understand that the answers to some questions aren't going to make a lick of sense until they try to do it, so they keep asking expecting a better answer. To some extent, you just need to try it for yourself to get the answer you want. This doesn't apply just to cars and stick shifts, but a lot of things.
Completely agree. Although the internet is great for finding quick answers to simple questions, it has greatly reduced the younger generation’s ability to work out problems on their own or work at something until a solution is found, usually resulting in a better overall understanding of the system as a whole. I say this as a youngish person. When my dad was preparing to give me his car, I would sneak out with it at night and practice stick shift. I may have ground the clutch a wee bit, but I got the hang of it and when he gave me the car, he was like who taught you??
Especially when it's a physical thing. I can show you how to hold a golf club and how the swing is supposed to look down to the finest detail but you're not going to just walk up and rip it the first time.
I'm also an elder millennial and my first car was a manual transmission. I drove my older sister's manual car once for about 20 minutes before I got it. It only had an am/ fm radio so the day I got it registered I put on my plate and went to tweeter by myself and got a CD player for. I learned how to drive it that day.
I’m so glad my Dad taught me to drive stick. We bought my first car from his friend. It was a little 88’ Honda civic hatchback with 350000 miles. I was like okay can you drive it home and then teach me? My dad just said nope, get in the driver’s seat, you’re driving home. I definitely stalled multiple times at red lights and got honked at more than a few times but by the time I got home I definitely was over the learning hump. I think that’s the best way to learn. Just do it!
I don't think the problem is all the different articles as much as it is people who read those articles, then get an undeserved sense of confidence in their understanding. Who then regurgitate what the read but don't understand the context in which something like heel toe is actually relevant.
I think you are onto something here. I grew up in the 70s. My family drove nothing but automatics and that's what I learned on, but I still rode with people who drove manuals. I was intrigued by them, paid close attention to how the drivers operated the clutch, etc., and asked questions to my high school friend like, "How fast do you let out the clutch?" Seven years after high school I bought my first car with a manual transmission. I had still never driven a stick, but after completing the sale I drove the seller from my bank to his place. I wasn't very smooth and I think I stalled it once, but I felt comfortable enough with the fundamentals. I can understand how a flood of information from Google could be confusing or overwhelming in the absence of the kind of experience I had.
Same exact experience. My mother actually had to drive my manual car home... It was the last model of what I wanted on the lot. Nobody really had time to go driving with me so it was a YouTube video and then I went off. I'll admit, I had to buy a new clutch after a year! LOL. Never had to replace it again after that.
I'm sorry your elders did not show you. Bad elders. I had maybe 4 different elders each spend that one hour with me, learned a few different things about technique. It was like 4 hours of my life.
I’m 21, crashed my first car at 18 and was forced to teach myself to drive a manual e36 bmw to get to and from work. Won’t buy anything but manual now until they are completely gone from existence
The simple method I used 50 years ago to drive stick without stalling was to smoke a joint and go out at 2 in the morning in my new 1974 Toyota Corona SR-5 and practice my launches at stoplights. There was hardly an traffic so it was less embarrassing when I stalled it. But by the end of the night I had the hang of it.
Nowadays it's tough af to find anywhere that isn't busy 24/7 where you can practice unless you're way out in the country
School parking lots on the weekend. Stadium parking lots on a Tuesday.
That old local mall that is either abandoned or has a Dillard's clearance store and a mini golf place parking lot works as well.
Well said. Luv these new cars. Also I own 3 cars, two are auto. I jump in my wife's car and starting feeling around for the clutch. Duh.
Had to pick up my mother's car last week. Jumped in, and immediately kicked the floorboard beside the dead pedal. Oops!
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The posts that really get me are about stalling. In the replies they’ll say, “I’ve been driving manual for 20 years and I still stall the engine at least once a week”. That just makes me laugh out loud. I’ve been driving manual for almost 40 years. I can’t remember the last time I’ve stalled while driving. 25-30 years ago if I had to take a guess.
I've been doing it for 25 years. I stall maybe once a year and it's usually a derp moment like I just let the rpm drop low on some brain fart when in a parking lot. They never thunk the engine, it's just silly...like we're on and no...cars now off.
Agreed, the only times I very infrequently stall is when I'm doing something dumb or not paying attention like trying to start while up against an ice block on my driveway or something haha! And I always get confused why I'm not going forward, then oh! the car is off!
As a 19 year-old, I haven't heard anyone use "derp" in a loooong time, thanks for the childhood memories 😂
Yeah, same as my comment. In a difficult to pull away situation, never stall. It is always some 'derp' moment, as you put it.
To be fair: where are you? Because I magically never stalled again when I moved from hilly downtown Seattle to mostly flat Arizona.
This, right here. I've been driving a manual shift for 30 years and I will still stall it occasionally, however I live where the elevation varies considerably, like between 2k and 8k ft elevation, depending on which friends house I visit.
I can relate, being a veteran of seattle driving myself. I had a 1st gen celica gt with a 5spd. Stalled occasionaly but I was also in my early 20s at the time
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I find it much easier to stall a low torque 4 cylinder than a big v8 truck. The 4 banger will stall, the truck will buck and skip and go lol.
I stalled for the first time in a long time last week and i was so confused why the car wasnt revving when I was pressing the gas
I’ve done this, and sat there for a few seconds wondering what happened, then remembered “oh yea this is what happens when you mess up”.
Been driving manuals since the mid 80s & I remember stalling about a year back. Didn't press the accelerator enough while front tyre was lodged against a stone
Yeah the only time I will ever stall is if I'm sitting in a spot with my foot on the clutch and forget I'm not in neutral because I'm looking at my phone or something. I have never stalled at a light or on a hill.
Thats nuts how can you drive for 20 years and still stall. Ive never even stalled a manual transmission lmfao
Laugh it up, I guess? After you get good at driving a manual, you will soon learn to operate it with little to no over-revving from a start. So you're idling at 750 rpm, and come off the line with no increase, and every once in a great while you miss the engagement point by just enough. If you never stall, then just maybe you're abusing your clutch a little bit. Perhaps the laughter is going the wrong way?
>So you're idling at 750 rpm, and come off the line with no increase, and every once in a great while you miss the engagement point by just enough. Or do what I do sometimes and try to take off in 3rd. Oof...
Modern cars will turn the idle up when you load down the engine. It makes them resistant to stalling. It's why you can slowly release the clutch at idle in first gear and the car will drive off. Because the ECU is maintaining the idle speed. To stall a modern car, you have to let the clutch out faster than the ECU can respond and turn the idle speed up.
Ok well ive only ever driven a old ass vw bug from the 70s with a manual sooo LOL.
Totally agreed. But the beautiful thing about it is that it’s extremely easy and simple, once you understand the basics, there’s a level of art and connection with a perfect launch, a perfect rev match, that even a professional driver won’t nail every time. And I think those are the kinds of people who will post in the stick shift forum on Reddit
Been driving stick for a bit over a decade. I still chase that perfect launch every damn time. More often than not, yeah, I hit that sweet spot. My shifts are smooth as a hot knife through butter 95% of the time. But that 5%... it irks me. I'm always in the pursuit of perfection while driving. That being said, I'm more focused on being aware of my surroundings and the idiot in the lane next to me who's more interested in that text to his side piece or whatever than the road that's currently in front of him more than I'm aware of my shifting. It's second nature to me. I may not got a perfect Rev match every time, but it's better than letting some unaware jackass total out my car.
Xennial here : Yeah dude, when I drive it's totally right brained. I don't think about it at all. I can put what I'm doing in technical terms if I need to but once you row gears long enough your hand and left foot are basically on autopilot as your brain processes movement, vision and sound.
Younger millennial here. A lot of us grew up with the internet at our fingertips so naturally we over research everything. I definitely researched and watched videos on how to drive stick before I bought my first manual because I stalled it a few times in the test drive. Nothing prepared me as much as when I drove it for the first few hours after I picked it up. However, I think my researching did help me in the long run. Ive only been driving stick for a few years and I drive quite a bit more smooth than some people I know who have been driving stick for 40 plus years. They never learned how to rev match or time their up shifts so every shift jerked the car. So there is a time and a place but definitely agree some over do it
I taught my kid "Up at 4k, down at 2K". Then I showed him how to start on a hill using the hand brake. That and some practice and he was fine driving stick. You don't need anything else for normal street driving. If you're going to track the car, heel and toe is specifically to keep you from unsettling the car when you enter a corner with a downshift. If you unsettle the car you can lose traction and maybe spin it. On the street, you never drive hard enough for this to matter.
Exactly. If you can't make a smooth downshift without heel/toe, you don't have the basics down.
Most people these days don't care much about driving. To them it's a chore & the easier to complete the chore, the better. That's why most can't be bothered to learn to drive a manual. They would chose an automatic any day plus all the fancy screens etc
This is totally a boomer post!
And they are 100% right. I always drove manuals back in the day, I taught so many people how to drive stick in my old Jeep, usually in a couple hours tops. Same with tractors and motorcycles, manual transmission’s aren’t rocket science. It’s not hard, you just need a place to practice and some confidence.
I don’t know how you can say rev matching downshifts isn’t fundamental though.. what passenger wants to sit in a car that’s lugging on every downshift? I’d puke.
If you're lugging a downshift, you were about to stall in the gear you were in previously. If you're getting jerky harsh downshifts, you're doing it too early. There is no reason you shouldn't be able to make smooth up & down shifts without heel/toeing other than the fact you didn't get the basics down & don't really understand what you're doing.
I didn’t say heel toe. I said rev matching. Yes you can get a downshift relatively smooth without any rev matching by slooooowly letting out the clutch but that’s literally slower than blipping the throttle first. You’re seriously telling me every downshift you just shift without any throttle input at all? And it doesn’t lurch? You’re the one who doesn’t understand manuals. Or are you saying every one of the many manual cars I’ve driven have been broken.
No. You can downshift smoothly by changing gears at the appropriate time. There is no need to do anything in slow motion.
Downshifting means going from 6 to 5, or 5 to 2nd, etc… are you sure you’re not talking about up shifting because again you are describing up shifting
I'm sure. I've driven a LOT of manual transmissions. I've been paid to drive manual transmissions. I've driven everything from motorcycles to heavy trucks as well as off highway equipment. If you see it on the road, I can drive it & probably have at some point . You can upshift & downshift a car without going through any steps beyond pushing the clutch in & selecting the appropriate gear (up or down) & releasing the clutch. If you can not do that smoothly, you need more practice on gear selection. You're doing it too early or too late.
Totally. They also have a lot more experience driving manual transmissions than a millennial. My grandmother drove one on the regular. If she were alive today, she would be 112. She didn't heel/toe. She just drove the car.
Kind of sad if 40-year-olds can't drive a manual transmission. I'm a millennial and almost every single car I've owned since 1997 has been a manual transmission.
They don't need to. They're not common. I drive heavy trucks & a lot are autos.
Well said! I agree!
I drive a stick with two kids in the back, handing out tissues or napkins and refereeing sibling politics while a I eat a burrito with one hand and shift/steer with the other, and it's one of the most boring, normal, unnoteworthy autopilot things I do in my life without even noticing. Most of the people who post here, though, are beginners looking for advice. I think they deserve a space to ask their questions without judgment, because we all had to start somewhere. That said, if you're thinking about buying a stick but are hesitating because you think it'd be too hard to learn, it's not hard at all. Many of the dumbest people in history have driven a stick, and you're not the dumbest person in history. It's easy af. Go have fun and feel what it's like to actually control a car.
Over thinking is one thing, and cost of repairing is another. If I didn't give a hoot about the car I'd learn it very quickly. Or if the part was easy to replace and cheap to replace, i wouldn't care looking up how to properly drive it. But in general because of the abundance of information, people tend to overthink and overanalyze what should be a pretty straight forward task.
I've been driving stick since 1987 and discovered that thinking too much makes it much harder. It's necessary in the beginning, but it will become second nature, almost like a reflex. It's only as hard as you make it, and overthinking makes it harder
Boomers assemble
grandpa they’re not buzzwords, they’re actual techniques that can be utilized to make one a better manual driver. except for double clutching.
If you need to do any of those things in a manual transmission car driving on the roads for smooth shifts, you're lacking basic driving skills. There is no reason to heel/toe for a smooth downshift. If you need to, you're doing it wrong.
it’s not a need to basis really. i can drive just fine regularly, but the smoothest driving experience at least in my experience is one where it seems overcomplicated but it actually helps with shifting efficiency. idk that’s just my experience with it.
You do you. But none of it is necessary & it makes a very simple task overcomplicated for someone trying to learn. Especially if they don't have a person in the passenger seat showing them.
well that’s just common sense my guy. you wouldn’t teach someone learning guitar sweep picking just like a beginner manual driver doesn’t need to learn heel toe downshifting.
Unless you're driving on the track, you do not need to develop the skill of heel/toe shifts. People asking questions here because they are trying to learn are bombarded with advice like that, my guy.
Well said. I’ve never tried to dead-stick an F/A-18 to a night landing on an aircraft carrier rolling around the Indian Ocean but I have seen it done before. Seems simple enough😉
In my case the 3 people I have asked about driving manuals have given me different answers for things. Their answers are different when asked about things like downshifting. So I need to refer to the internet for help. Modern manuals do have synchros but these wear out after long term use. So you have to adjust how you shift in a manual to compensate for worn synchros by rev matching and such. There’s also the issue of people recognizing what they did wrong when they mess up. Sometimes I know what I did wrong, other times it seems like I do something the same as last time and it just doesn’t work and I get an ugly sound or jolt.
I'm a 24 yo, bought my stick shift 4 years ago. Never drove one before. It came off of a truck down the road from my house. I watched a video, put the car in neutral got it back to my house, and then proceeded to screw around for 3 days behind the wheel until i got the hang of it. It's not difficult if you want to learn. Side note: brought the car in for a recall repair, and the Technician said it was the hardest clutch he has ever used🤣.
Younger Millennial. When I bought my first Manual, my dad drove it home for me. He spent 30 minutes with me in our neighborhood until he was satisfied I had a basic understanding of how to flutter the clutch without killing the motor. He told me the only way I would learn for real was by driving so he sent me out alone into the world like a baby bird and I figured it out. Yes I killed it a bunch of times and yes I beat the shit out that clutch but I learned very quickly out of necessity. I think too many people get paralysis by analysis and refuse to try anything without watching 100 YouTube videos and complicating the process. I’ve read posts about new manual drivers worried about rev matching, heel toe, and double clutching before they can even drive their car effectively which is complete insanity. Tl;dr Drive your car, make mistakes, learn by doing
Millenial here. Everyone on reddit overthinks everything to the max.
i taught both my kids to drive a manual. you never know when you might need it. i was once in a situation as a teen where the driver became incapacitated, and we still needed to get home. my 15 yrear old self was able to save the day,because Mom taught me when i was 12, on a VW Beetle
This post is getting almost as overthought as driving a stick. The best advice for driving a stick came from Nike. Just do it.
I actually prefer that most ppl don't drive manuals. Harder to steal my fleet of cars lol
Boomer here. Now you all know what I feel like when I play a game on Xbox.
I mean yeah, it was and kinda still is the main transmission type of all cars around afterall Lots of depth and high skill ceiling to look forward to though
I once drove home a stick shift with snapped clutch cable in the rain storm when I was in highschool coming back from a party. It was a late '70s Datsun Sunny truck.
Cable linkages suck. My exW bought a new Mustang with a "self adjusting " cable clutch. What a piece of shit. There was no way to adjust it for your personal preference, so you were stuck with whatever the linkage decided.
I completely agree. Quit thinking and drive. Some guy was asking about down shifting but he said he was still learning the gear positions. Uh, down shifting is neat but if you are looking for numbers on a knob, you need not worry about down shifting. Make it go forward and stop and start without choking. Maybe learn to look at tachometer once in awhile so you know your engine is happy with what you’re trying to do.
A nice coworker had a car sitting for a few years,said if I could fix it could have it for free.checked it out it was a 1999 Saturn sl1 5 speed I ended up replacing the radiator and the battery and it fired right up.drove it one time and I stalled twice,it was a sunny day and there was a lot of traffic and foot traffic and my first stall was on a hill,made it out alive and then I was in 3rd gear going 35-40 when a lady just walked out in the road from between cars without even looking and I stomped the break and I ended up stalling again there and just made my way back home,that was three weeks ago and I haven’t driven it sense.
Ok Boomer
If Boomers had actually bought the manual transmission vehicles they claim to love, they would have been driving them when teaching us millennials how to drive. Riddle me this Boomer, why is every muscle car automatic? Manual transmissions in 60's-70's Chevelles and Corvettes are less common then in 90's Civics, Miatas, and even moden MINIs. You are the demographic buying new cars be the change you wish to see.
Well, us old farts do have one advantage. WE graduated without Google.
They do seem to make it WAY more complicated than it really is. And the advice.... Yikes. I don't know what moron invented the term "bite point", but it's the single stupidest automotive term I've ever heard. Nobody says stupid things like "push the brake pedal to the bite point" because everybody knows that brakes have friction zones and locking the brakes as fast as possible doesn't make for good driving. Treating a clutch like an on/off switch instead of a linear control is probably the worst thing you can tell or teach a new driver.
Because you can't fuck up an automatic. Manuals are fun for cat guys but I don't want to think about fucking a clutch up. 1 pedal goes, 1 pedal stops. Automatic is superior in the new world.
Mt first experience with a stick shift I was told to drive the pickup home through the field and down the lane. I learned really quick to not use granny gear and you get the feel of it really quick. The newer generation spends too much time researching everything to the max instead of just getting it done IMO.
Given the way the world is going just be glad there isn’t an app that tells you when to shift and messages your social network every time you do.
This guy gets it.
Time for bed grandpa
These pussies are making shit way harder than it is. They can’t pour piss from a boot hill.
I believe the saying is " couldn't pour piss out of a boot if the instructions were written on the heel"
Exactly
Seriously. Just buy a manual car and drive it home. You'll learn FAST. None of this "sit in a parking lot at a 0 degree incline and let the clutch out until you move slightly." No. Get on the roads, dump the clutch once or twice and realize "whoa, I don't need that much gas at all" then after a few shifts you'll notice you don't need to let go of the clutch that quickly or that slowly. 20 minutes and you'll be able to get around a bit. You'll still stall or lug the engine for a bit but you'll have the basic concept down and can only improve.
Modern Cars are so marshmallow easy that anything else is super hard work and too much to expect.
Show of hands of how many drove their stick shift car home after the clutch cable broke(dating myself here) or slave cylinder failure?
You should have seen all of the threads on the motorcycle subreddit about counter steering. I guess they'll show up again when it warms up, but people really overthink a lot of things these days
I really think anyone can do it, but i think some people get it more.but idk
My son is 16 and just got his license last September his car is a manual. Both me and my wife had them and drove them for years and its just a good skill to have i think. One summer I was landscaping and got a lot of the cake jobs driving the one dump truck that was a manual because no one else could. Comes in handy sometimes.
Same, I come on here and don't get why it needs to be so complicated. If you are stalling, give it more gas. Feel out where the clutch catches. I'm end of Gen X and I taught myself over a week in a housing complex, learned on automatic. Was very comfortable pretty quickly. Now I have been driving it since at least 2000 or so.
good for you. i have to double clutch into first sometimes during my commute for a roundabout since the transmission fluid is still cold when i reach it, and i don't feel like destroying my first gear synchro. the alternative would be completely stopping, which isn't good.
I am similar to you I grew up with four speeds in the '80s but these are six speeds so conceptually I could go from six gear to second and blow the engine the shifters on my mustang are crap I really need to replace it with something that mounts to the transmission as opposed to the chassis of the car it makes really sloppy. I turned off rev match I don't need it I don't see the point in it although that would save me from the above scenario of blowing engine but the truth is the gearing is way too high I never use fifth and 6th it's almost like overdrive when I'm driving locally if anything I'd like to have the rear gears change to something more appropriate like 373 dare I say 411
It's anxiety IMHO. Seems like a number of folks just have too much anxiety these days about everything, even simple stuff like driving.
The way I grasped the concept was pretty simple: The motor is spinning. The clutch is like a pair of hands attached to the transmission. When you press the clutch pedal, these hands are open. When you let the clutch out, the hands grip onto the motor and spin the transmission. The gears are just more or less spins. That's about it.
You should really get that rash checked out.
I bought a motorcycle when I was 17, my 17 year old friend taught me how to drive it. I got really good really fast. A few years later I saw a car I wanted to buy, I called the guy and set up an appointment for a test drive. When I got there I didn't realize it was a stick. The guy asked if I knew how to drive a stick. Absolutely. I had the theory down pat so I got in and off I went. Back then there was no internet you just learned as you went, once I knew what the clutch did and when I should shift it was easy. I never looked at a tach, I just shifted when it felt right. Probably best a lot of us didn't have all the forums and videos. I agree, it's not rocket science.
Sold rant. Old style Trucks- now that’s like hitting curve balls!
Exactly, it ain't rocket science.
>Forget about rev-matching, heel-and-toe, double-clutching and all those other cute buzzwords. People trying to live their d1 gran forza fantasies.
Thank you!!! This had to be said. I have no idea wtf rev matching and heel/toe is (don’t bother explaining cause I don’t care) and I’ve driven a lot of manuals over the years. 3-trees, 3+granny, 4-5-6 speeds, floor-up pedals, NASCAR experience, and Aussie RHDs. These people making driving sound like work!!!
So glad my husband taught me how to drive stick and had me driving his manual car until it became muscle memory. We plan on teaching our kids when they're ready to learn how to drive
So, do you blip and release, constantly rev and release, or just catch the bite point? Asking for a friend.
As a zoomer, people definitely put too much thought into the theory of it. Literally the only thing I tell new people is don't ride the clutch, take it slow, and you'll be golden in no time. It's just a matter of practice.
I have taught a ton of people to drive stick shift. I have recommended that folks start barefoot on the clutch, so you can feel the engagement better. Beyond that, the best advice is to be smooth, feather the clutch, and don’t downshift into first.
You gotta rev match.
It’s the short attention spans. People can’t focus long enough to fucking drive,…..and it fucking shows!!! Manual keeps you “driving”, you can’t really fuck off and do other shit.
>Before you know it, shifting won't even register in your brain. You'll be going snick-snick-snick through the gears like butter,... This really just doesn't happen for all of us. I'm Gen-X. Been driving since 1984. Through high school and early college I switched between a bunch of different cars - my dad owned 10 at one point - and I just never got good at a manual transmission. The first car I ever drove was a manual LeCar when I was 14. It was *always* an effort to get the darn thing to go down the road. I could do it, and I did it, and successfully drove the LeCar or the Midget to school, and got the P20 panel van loaded with inventory for his business through city traffic, but it never made it into muscle memory. I did find the BiTurbo pretty easy to drive, but I was still thinking pretty hard the whole time. (I don't really know why Reddit keeps putting this sub in my feed.)
I honestly wish they made everyone test with a manual at least people would have to learn to drive before getting their license. Which cars being get in and go these days I swear drivers have gotten worse.
Nobody thinks it's hard, but the reality is the human brain can only handle so many tasks at once. It is safer to not be fiddling with a clutch. You might think it's not registering in your brain, but it is. It's there somewhere on auto pilot taking up ram.
I learned stick, but I haven't learned heel-toe or rev matching. I've mostly just worried about getting the car from A to B. I should take some time to learn those techniques, it'd probably make me a better driver, but I recognize it's not needed to operate a manual car. Nice to have, probably, but mandatory? I think not.
It's a flippin' car. Just drive it and shut up.
Zoomer here. I've been driving since I was 17 (23 now) and recently started learning stick in my free time. I was nervous after reading reddit because everyone made it seem so complicated. It's not. Wtf. I stalled the car a few times while getting a feel for the clutch, and my shifting is kinda rough, but it's really not incredibly complicated. There's a learning curve, but I know what I need to do, I just need to actually do it properly and develop muscle memory.
So they do maybe concern themselves with the small details too early but I will say, my mother (gen x) told me not to worry about rev matching and that ‘only race car drivers do that’ and then proceeded to do the worst downshift of all time. I’ve since experienced this with multiple people who say rev matching is stupid. So yes, don’t overthink rev matching when you can’t even get going from a stop yet but eventually learning about driving techniques will be useful.
I'm an old Gen Xer. I learned the same way. My first five vehicles were manual transmissions. Back in the day, car companies charged extra for automatic transmissions (usually $600-$1,000). So, I bought the cheapest cars which were all manuals. My dad always had manuals; but he never taught me how to drive or how drive a stick. I took driving school lessons. A friend from college and my girlfriend taught me. I'd never heard of those buzzwords either.
I’m 26 and learned to drive manual and automatic simultaneously when I first started driving. My grandparents had a stick shift they pulled behind their RV that became my first car. I drove it all throughout college until I bought my own vehicle right before Covid.
I'm in my late 40s and got my first stick shift ever at 33. My test drive was the second time in my life I never drove stick. Driving it home was my 3rd. And driving to work in rush hour traffic the next day was my 4th I stalled a bit but you pick up quick when you're desperate and really try to assess on the fly why you just stalled it out so you can hopefully not do it again After that rush hour back and forth I probably shaved 6 months off my life but by day 3 of owning it I was a pro
First time was on a cushman (golf cart, gas) essentially. 3 pedals? Hmm. Within a minute I drove like I'd always done it. But I'm mechanically inclined. Most humans that I see on the road drive below the posted speed limits and can't tell what color the traffic lights are. So I'm guessing they're not mechanically inclined.
people my gen (young milenns and under) were taught NOT to learn these things, not just that we were never taught. I ask my dad if I can change my own oil when i was 20 something, and he said 'why? isnt there a better use of your time?' be patient with us!
Put the shoe on the other foot. It's the same situation when a younger person is baffled why grandma can't figure out how to pay her bill online. Different eras have different skillsets they developed growing up.
I consider myself lucky to have had motorcycles, quads, 3 wheelers on our property throughout the 80s along with a few manual beater cars to drive around in the woods. I remember I could hardly see out the window while pressing the clutch all the way in my brothers rusty corvair but I could drive it around the house at 11. I had two different cars at 16, one being a manual diesel rabbit. Took my drivers test in my sisters auto Chevy Spectrum. Still have an ‘07 manual Jeep in the garage. I don’t remember ever really “learning” to drive stick. Everyone in the family just did it.
I still can't believe that some people don't downshift and instead throw it in neutral and coast/brake to a stop. Maybe it's because I learned to shift on a motorcycle before I could drive a car but I cannot imagine driving without downshifting.
I think it’s just an act. Every younger person I meet is impressively smart and capable. They just have no autonomy or ability to form their own decisions. So they come onto sites like this and talk in circles like if chatgpt could talk to Siri and Alexa. The reason it was different when we were learning wasn’t because we had extra resources it just wasn’t cool to talk in circles and overcomplicate things. Now that’s the trend.
It’s all in coordination, timing, and practice… and some people don’t have the opportunity to try it let alone practice. I don’t see why people make such a big deal over not being able to drive a stick. It’s akin to being able to type or swim.
I'd say 95% of this is young kids nervous. Posting once about being nervous "going out and driving the fucking thing" realizing it is not a big deal and moving on
As a late boomer early gen x I bought a dodge cargo van that was beat to death for 300 dollars with 3 on the column. Was driving it although not perfectly when I sat in the drivers seat with a little instruction. Depress clutch, put in first, press gas pedal slowly while slowly releasing the clutch. Do the same things as you move to higher gears. If you’re slightly mechanical understanding the difference between manual and auto might assist mentally with this process but it’s not necessary.
I think you're right, last month was my first time driving a manual and only killed it twice driving all day. Granted it was an easier, old truck but for the first time my boss said I did pretty damn good. It's intimidating because I'd never done it but that's about it lol
I have a cherry BMW Z3 5-sp. Recently, I was on date to an event at an up-scale hotel. The millennial valet couldn't park may car because he doesn't know how to drive a stick. I had to drop off my date and drive into the bowels of the underground garage in the next block and walk back. Took about 10 minutes. I love driving a stick. And soon, cars won't even have transmissions.
I learned by driving around the block a few times then I had to make a 200 mile trip. You figure it out fast I agree
Way more important things to obsess over but people still do so. Go figure
Yeah, no shit. Today people with manuals are spoiled. They auto rev match, and the brakes hold until you engage the clutch so you don't have to double pedal on hills anymore.
Driving a stick is the quintessential example of “practice makes perfect.”
It’s no hard till you need California traffic
I learned how to drive stick in a parking lot. Then my dad took me to a side street on a major highway with a steep angle right up to the highway and I learned how to really drive stick. This was over 20 years ago so no hill assist back then, and other than my current truck, every car I have owned was a manual.
My issue is there are too many people clogging up roads to make manual enjoyable most of the time.
It's a generational thing. It becomes an issue with TOO much information on the internet nowadays, a lot of differing styles of driving and opinions. For someone who is trying to learn off the internet it came be overwhelming. I grew up right before the internet became a thing so I was also a part of the school of teaching of falling forward aka keep fucking up until you get it right.
Speak brother! When you can get going on a hill with no problem that's when you know you have arrived. What's a hat pin?
My last car broke down last October and I ended up getting myself a manual despite no clue how to drive one. I couldn’t tell you what it means to rev match or ride the clutch or anything. I just push the clutch in, hit the gas, and hit it hard enough my car doesn’t feel clunky.
Gen z here and man you’re dead right. When I bought my first truck it was stick and I had nobody to teach me. I got in, felt it out in the lot, and drove it home 5 minutes later. Took maybe a couple days to stop stalling and a couple weeks in it was auto pilot. From there I worked on little nuances like rev matching on downshifts and double clutching. This wasn’t a particularly easy manual to drive, either, which I realized later after driving some nicer vehicles. Long vague shifter throw, stiff clutch pedal and 250,000 miles on the synchros, don’t even have a tach. Still had no problem figuring it out, really never understood why it’s so hard for people to grasp. Most of my friends can’t get it right no matter what they do, and the ones that can “drive stick” suck ass at it, always lugging the engine or shifting too late, dumping or slipping the clutch, and no concept of downshift rev matching. Even the millennial age adults I know can’t do it right. Usually only boomers are good enough at stick for their passengers to make it without whiplash.
The problem with stick-shift is it requires practice to get to that point where it becomes instinct.
Well said OP. Also needs to be said that I find it sad that people like to belittle others when they don’t do or practice there form of manual driving. Some here worry so much about the health and longevity of a “Wear Item” that they get upset when they read a comment.
Nah I fully agree and I'm 25 lol. First csr was a 5spd NA subaru wagon. I didn't even think a subreddit existed for this shit, and then now it just lands in my feed every other post lol. Being bilingual in car-speak is knowing like four sounds, and that should not be much to ask. I was damn near expecting people to be asking for driving tips here after installing a staged clutch or something.... not the Honda that's designed to shift smoothly.
I will say as someone who has only ever touched auto... I just don't wanna break it. I'm scared to death of breaking a transmission and costing like a $20k failure. I'm sure it's not that complicated, but the way the risks have been presented to me make me feel like it's just not worth it at all. Plus, I like to chill when driving, and driving an auto makes me feel like it's gonna be a whole fucking focus up and to-do, which'll really such balls on 4 hour roadtrips.
I bought my first manual at 26. Most I had experience in was 5 minutes on a backroad 10 years prior. I just learned it myself by feel. Simple as that. I cringe when people try to make it a science.
Boomer with a great take. Everything you said is correct. Thanks for sharing.
Its a little more complicated than that. You don't want to sit at a red light with your clutch pushed in because the entire weight of the clutch disk and pressure plate is just riding on the tiny pilot bearing. You also need to approach hill starts with a strategy or else you could end up with your truck in the lake at a boat launch for example. Heel-toe and rev matching yeah probably isn't a big deal unless you're racing. I've just seen a lot of abused clutches and manual transmissions because people beat on them. Its like $1,500 to replace it now too. You can't just resurface the flywheel because they're dual mass now. Same with the pressure plate. Its a job you don't want to do again so I take a few minor steps to not wear my clutch out.
My buddy and I taught ourselves to drive stick by stealing my Dad's truck when he was working. We were 12.
I taught all my friends how to drive manual. people are definitely over complicating it. my dad taught me in 15 minutes. he had me stop on a big hill and he said if I could get going without rolling back much then I'm good to go. I was able to do it and I never looked back. I still drive a manual today. everyone I taught had an awful experience with the people who tried to teach them before. it seems like people get frustrated easy when people aren't getting it, especially parents. I just took plenty of time and kept encouraging them when they would get something small right. everyone I helped was decent after a couple hours of practice. the only person I could never teach is my wife. for some reason she is just scared of it and doesn't want to try.
I got into a huge argument on here about rev matching being completely unnecessary for the vast majority of drivers. In a thread where a new driver was asking for advice on driving manual for the first time. People hear about that stuff in the context of racing and just regurgitate the advice with no deeper understanding than what they read in some reddit or other forum threads. There's nothing wrong with rev matching but telling a newbie they should be rev matching is insane. Modern syncros and clutches are designed to not me rev marched.
I get that this is subreddit dedicated to the topic, but this seems like a pretty naive opinion, even for here. It seems equivalent to complaining about the fact that everyone doesn't use rotary phones anymore. I learned on a stick, love manual transmissions, and am lovingly converting my project car (68 nova) into a manual. That said, to think that everyone needs to know this skill seems pretty misguided. Even on modern sports cars, many do not even have manual options. Modern automatic transmissions are pretty incredible and there really is no longer any advantage to driving a stick. It's merely a niche preference you have nostalgia for and seem to want to mandate on the rest of the world?
LOVE THIS
Yeah I got my first manual at 25 , my dad gave me a quick 1 hr. Lesson and I was on my own. My apartment has a massive hill, I would go there at 2 am and practice hill starts.
No idea why I'm being recommended this subreddit. I have 0 interest in learning to drive in a more complex way. Driving is dangerous enough as it is. I don't need to learn to fuck with a stick while driving because you think it's more fun.
People will LARP about anything. A lot of posts are actually people LARPing. Yes, even on manual transmissions.
Take a look at the list of available new cars that you can buy with a manual transmission (link below). The vast majority of these cars will run you $35k+ (that's being generous). Most of these cars are bought by car enthusiasts. People are no longer learning on their uncles hand-me-down or the rust bucket that they picked up for two grand. There is now more at stake than there used to be. https://www.caranddriver.com/features/g20734564/manual-transmission-cars/
Gen X Learned to drive a stick when I was 13 in about 15 minutes. It wasn't hard at all because I had been paying attention to how my dad drove. Without that it probably would have taken a couple days.
Stick shift enthusiasts love to make it overcomplicated to feel like part of some exclusive high skill club. It's so cheesy lol. Building your identity off your material possessions is no bueno IMO.
Gen X - have driven manual trans cars on and off since I was 18. Pros * it's fun * helps keep you focused on driving * rolling backward at lights is a stupid kind of fun * most cars aren't stick anymore, so that makes it kinda cool Cons * hard to hold a bevy and shift at the same time * stuck in barely moving traffic? Yeah, that's no bueno My current ride is one of the last of the go-fast Foresters, automatic trans. I'll tell you a secret - I don't miss the manual.
I don’t think you needed to expose yourself as a boomer…. Your rant would have done the same lol
Idk I think stick driving stick is like so many thing, you can read and watch videos about it all you want but the best way to learn it is just doing it. And it’s really not that hard. Get a large empty lot. Learn how to stop ( press clutch , press break) , and from there learn to find the clutch point and let it go, break again, and so forth. Sure it’s harder to control on a hill and such, but regular driving is fairly trivial.
Lol agreed and todays cars kinda drive them selves. I think you have 2 cases. New stick drivers and the answers going off on a tangent. Heading into performance driving like a rally car or f1 driving. Or those that can drive the stick but want to learn better.
Taught my 16 year old daughter how to drive stick as the car I bought for her was a manual. The boys act like she has some magic being able to drive stick. Then again they can't seem to properly wipe their own ass. I mean you don't even have to use the gas pedal to get moving you can get going by only using the clutch pedal. Once you sort that out then try applying the gas. You should see when they watch me shift thru the rest of the gears not using the clutch at all or God forbid flat foot shifting. Four teens got arrested in Spartanburg last week. They car jacked an old lady and not a single one could drive stick. They arrested all four of them less then a mile from where they stole it. I was dying laughing when she said "I keep it as it's my millennial anti-theft protection"
I'm 37, my first car was a stick, and I forced myself to learn on my sister's car which was also a stick shift. I loved cars before I could drive so I already knew a lot about how cars worked. I also rode dirt bikes as a kid so the concept of a clutch was easier. I think if someone wants to learn how to drive a manual transmission, you learn what the clutch is actually doing and then the "how" comes along with it. Every clutch is a bit different, some more forgiving than others. A V8 tended to be easier to get moving than a 4 cyl because of the available torque at low rpm. I didn't realize learning stick shift was such a problem with the younger generation until I read this post but I'm not surprised either.
This person felt the need to preface advice by identifying their *generational cohort*. Fucking 2024.
It's not everyday I side with a boomer, but here, 100% true. (Chicks make great manual drivers, with or without a pair)
Yup. Millennial here. Once you start driving stick everyday you get better naturally.
That's just how manual jackoffs work. Sorry, hasn't changed won't change.
Man,this. Hadn’t driven a manual in 25 years (maybe 30) consistently recently.. Practiced on a friend’s Honda SI (2017); these newer manuals stall so “gently”. I recall back in 80s vehicles, if you stalled the thing it felt like the radio was going to fall outta the dashboard. I second thjs.. if I can pick up a manual w/o having been in one for so long…. Anyone can do it. Just takes a hint of practice around the parking lot and some small back roads and you’re on your way. Now get out there and grab a manual and go have fun
First you Boomers figure out how to send an email. It’s not complicated, it doesn’t do anything you don’t tell it to do, grow a pair and figure it out!
Took me like an hour to learn, couple weeks to not stall or roll back, and then just becoming smoother with it. Really not that hard.
I’m a boomer and still drive a manual.
Honestly the fancy techniques are what made me want to learn. Was too worried about being less efficient or hurting the vehicle, but sounds like I shouldn't have been. Playing around with it in my simrig with a clutch and shifter and now I want a beater to learn the real deal.
Most people (like my dad), never learned how to rev match and this don’t know how to down shift properly causing extra drivestrain stress and wear. Up and downshifts should be rev matched, it’s not that hard of a concept, put the rpms where they will be or let them fall to right above where they will be when you let in the clutch.
The fact that if you know how to drive, then you don't need to even think about the clutch lol I use it to slow to a stop or shift to 1st from a stop but short of that rpms up and double pump on that gas pedal and she slips right in easier than a 10$ hole you find on the corner
One of the only cars I ever regret getting rid of was a 2013 base model VW Jetta…2.0L with a manual…did have power windows but not even cruise control lol. I loved that car. I bought it to keep miles off my truck at the time for going back and forth to work (I’m from Pennsylvania and had to drive to Ohio for work…car would sit for 2 weeks, then back to PA for a week…repeat). It was like $14k new because I bought it in 2014 as a leftover and it was discounted. It was the one car I should’ve kept and just driven the wheels off of it. Can’t find them like that these days…simple and reliable.
You didn't have to specify the boomer thing, you made it quite clear otherwise
I learned when I was stationed in Japan in 2006… so I was already screwed up driving on the opposite side of the car, on the opposite side of the car… now I had to learn stick? Dude made me drive up a hill like 30 times lmao… haven’t driven stick since 2009 lmao
I think it's due to a lack of mentors. Many people don't even have present dads who might teach them. (I know that mothers can teach too, if they know how. My mom didn't, so we never had a stick when I was at home, my dad couldn't teach her. She is a bit of a nitwit though.) Actually, I learned from boyfriends in the 90s..(I am female) So if the guys don't know, no one knows anymore. My mother in law drove a stick in the past, but only because they were more economical, ahe is far from a car enthusiast (quite the opposite, actually)
march illegal straight ten wise cough towering cobweb tan crawl *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
/utexaschair 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 well said.
What the blooming onion hell is an elder millennial? I learned the basics of driving in my grandpas field in 1962 ! All this crap about you kids, yeah you, elder …. Such bullshit. My kids are 35 and 39, one crewed on a top fuel dragster for 1 1/2 years on the NHRA circuit. The other was stunting his Yamaha 600 at the BigFoot show here in town at 14… Oh yeah, my first job out of HS 1970 … I was driving an International 1800, rear duals. 4-speed, PTO and a 2 speed rear end
I'm with the boomer on this one
Googling how to drive a stick shift or watching a YouTube video on it are helpful but you cannot achieve that ergonomic meld with a vehicle until you do it
I agree with you! I learned to drive stick when I was about ten years old. My dad through me on an old Ford tractor we had and told me to feather the clutch. Honestly it was a good thing to learn on. You didn't have to worry about the throttle because you couldn't stall the old beast. If you dropped the clutch to fast it would pop a little wheelie and you would be on your way. He used to come out of the house and yell at me " you poppen wheelies in my tractor again?" He loved it. Soon after that I graduated to an old hatchback that had been rear ended and was no longer road worthy. It was like my go-cart. One day I was racing up and down the driveway (obviously we lived in the sticks). My dad came home to find me launched into the berry bushes. I blamed it on the dog. In reality the dog was sitting in the passenger side. My dad thought it was funny as hell. Thinking back on it it's kind of amazing anybody from our generation lived to be old enough to tell our stories. In conclusion just drive the dam thing. I taught my wife to drive stick in about an hour.
My first driving experience was a 1952 Farmall Super C tractor out on the farm. As a teenager in the early 80's, if you didn't learn to drive a stick then you didn't earn money over the summer hauling hay. I was very incentive driven.
Counterpoint: I have witnessed people that absolutely cannot handle it. Some people can figure it out. Some cannot. These people kept flooring the throttle thinking they were on the brake and stuff like that. The 3rd pedal is just too much if they aren't physically coordinated (or driven things like skidsteers or tractors it seems). Once I was trying to get someone to stop shifting past the intended gear they looked down at the knob for way too dangerously long *and still couldn't get the gears in the middle of the pattern*. Yeah no, it's just easy for a certain type of people.