driving a stick

B

BigOrange

100+ Posts
How hard is it to learn after you have driven nothing but an automatic for your entire driving career (6 years)?
 
it was easy for me, but then again I had lots of experience driving a tractor growing up which was pretty close to the stick shift on my first truck, only difference was on the tractor the throttle was a handle on the dash and on the truck the throttle was a foot pedal (obviously)
 
not hard at all...the biggest problem I had was letting out the clutch a little too fast and stalling out. Of course, if you live in a big city, driving in rush-hour can be a ***** at times.
 
That big *** break pedal is a killer. I drive a stick and have for pretty much my entire driving career. My boyfriend drives an automatic. When I drive his car, I almost always go for the clutch and slam on the breaks at least once. That **** sucks.
 
It was difficult for me but then again this was happening while I was just learning how to drive. 98 Dakota with a V8 and the biggest ***** of a clutch that was ever put into existance.

Since you have been driving for a sizeable period of time and, as mentioned above, if you can find a good teacher, it shouldn't take any longer than a couple of days.
 
no harder than it is for someone learning at 15. i learned on a stick but had an auto for my first car. then i got a manual for the most recent car and had no problems picking it back up. it's not that much difficult except your left foot and right hand become a bit more active. once you have the timing down on letting the clutch out and giving it gas, you're golden. then it's just a matter of smoothing it out as you get more experienced. my friend got a stick for his second car and drove it home from the dealership with me as a passenger. it was a little bumpy on the way, but he made it home with only a couple stalls.
 
If you're learning, learn on a vehicle with some decent torque and nice smooth clutch engagement. Both of my rotary powered vehicles have little torque and require quite a bit more finesse to drive smoothly than a mustang for instance.
 
It's easy, especially if you are in a small car that doesn't weigh much.

I learned to drive on a full size 1982 pickup. You had to press the clutch down something like 18 inches.

But little lightweight cars are super easy to learn the standard transmission.

Before you really get out on the road, go find some place where you can practice starting from a complete stop, while going up an incline. It's uncomfortable when you are first learning to start 1st gear while on an incline.
 
I simply can't drive a stick. I'm one uncoordinated schmuck. So I get in my auto and enjoy the fact I only need two limbs to drive instead of four.
 
It's not that hard to learn, and once you do, it's hard to go back.

I learned to drive in my dad's manual shift '74 240Z and it was a blast. I've insisted owning mostly manual transmission vehicles ever since. It's hard to imagine getting the same pleasure of driving in an automatic. Just brake, gas, and steering wheel feels like a big go kart to me.

When I lived in the U.K., I drove an Alfa Romeo GTV coupe that was a right side drive. It was strange learning to shift with my left hand, but it was a lot of fun to drive on those small, twisty roads. (especially the "B" roads)
 
No can do. I tried and tried and tried to learn but just can't seem to do it. Thank God for automatics or else I'd need a chauffeur.
 
I learned when I was 15. Some girl I knew had a van with a stick. She taught me how to drive her stick and then I taught her how to drive mine. It really comes in handy. Not that I still drive one but I can always drive friends cars if needed and the rental car I was given in ireland was a stick. Nothing like being on the wrong side of the road and on the wrong side of the car driving a standard.
 
I hs, I had a 67 GMC pickup with a '3 on the tree'. I taught a girl how to drive it in a couple of hours.....she was probably 16 at the time. I now have a 16 yr old daughter. I drive a 97 Accord 5 speed and I wanted to teach her so she could have that car and I could buy a new pickup. She really wanted the car but just can not get the hang of it.

She will learn to drive it before she leaves for college though. Everyone should know how to drive a stick. The girl I taught to drive my '3 on the tree' drove me home a couple of times when I too wasted. Probably saved my life.
 
it might be easier to learn somewhere flat. for me, the hardest part was starting / stopping on a hill. mostly the starting. get the basics down before you try anything like that.
 
You get the hang of it pretty quickly, if you use the sink or swim method. I had to drive my car home from the dealership by myself, so I picked it up in a matter of days. The method of learning that seems to click for a lot of people is to first find the friction point of the clutch.

Start the car up on a flat surface, put it into first, and then slowly ease of the clutch. There will be a point you can feel as it starts to grip, and the car will begin to move forward a little without any gas. That is the point where you will need to give it gas while driving, or you'll stall. Once you do it a few times to get a feel for the location, give it a little gas at the friction point and continue to let up on the clutch.

Once you have that down, do it on a hill, because, as pointed out, that's where you're going to stall out the most at first.
 
Learned back in the early '80s because my wife decided she wanted a certain style of car that was available immediately only with a stick. I picked it up easier than she did.

It is a good skill to learn because if you are borrowing a car, it's nice to be able to say, "Yes, I know how to drive a stick."
 
Oh, and that slamming the brake pedal on an automatic thing gets me every once and a while. You don't realize how unnecessarily large that pedal is until you regularly drive a standard.
 
Do like I did, my dad taught me one day on his beat-up old pickup truck. The next day I had to go to work, he says take the truck. So I had to do it to make it to work on time. I did allright until the last turn into work...stalled in traffic on an incline. Seemed like an hour but was only a minute of fumbling about. After that I was pretty much ok.

I didn't feel like I really mastered it until I could reverse up an incline (our driveway had a big slope).

The only reason I drive an automatic now is because I got into a bad habit of rolling the clutch at lights. Just rocking her back and forth, rolling ever so slightly. Harmless until I rolled into someone. It happened a couple of times, never left a scratch, just really embarassing.
 
I dont know what the deal is with this "big brake pedal" talk. The pedal may be big, but how is it that you don't just have your left foot on the dead pedal where it should be anyways?

I guess I never feel the inclination to pick up my left foot when I'm in an auto - ever.
 
I learned to shift with my left hand when I was in hs. I had a buddy who had a little S-10 pickup. We used to double date in that thing, so he would drive and I would shift from the passenger’s side. Funny to think about now, I’d have a girl on my lap, and my hand between his date's legs. Good times.
 
Vehicles I have driven that had a stick:

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Cab over Peterbilt

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Cab over Ford CL 9000
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Cab over Freightliner

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Good ol' Mack conventional

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Never got to drive a Kenworth though, dangit.
 
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