Comments on: I will never buy a manual car again!

By: Bill Wilson

Bill Wilson — Sun, 21 Aug 2005 22:22:56 +0000

1. Keep the heel of clutch foot on the floor. Much better control that way. The same applies for your gas pedal foot.
2. Always push in your clutch when you apply the brakes hard.
3. Keep your foot off of the clutch when you are not using it and don’t use your clutch foot for anything else, exspecially the brakes for any reason.
4. If you have your clutch in even alittle bit by the time you reach 8-10 mph you’ve held it in to long. Even getting it out by 5 mph is good. It all depends on the amount of gas you apply. If you apply too much, of course you are going to stall and jump or spin your tires.
5. Sure use your clutch to slow down but only to a certain point not in close quarters like traffic.
6. Learn the sound of your engine and the feel of your car. Don’t depend on your RPM indicator all cars don’t have them anyway.
7. Adjust your seat so you can push your clutch in all the way everytime you shift.

By: Bill Wilson

Bill Wilson — Sun, 21 Aug 2005 21:54:02 +0000

Sorry for all the trouble you folks have had. Learning to drive a clutch is just like learning anything else, patients and time. Normally I’d tell you to quit your whining and buy an automatic if you can’t stand it. If I had the choice I wouldn’t drive anything else because you have complete control of the vehicle and the power sent to the wheels and when. The new automatics are great and do an excellent job of that these days. I still like clutches better. It’s one of those things you have to have a taste for. You shouldn’t knock it just because you don’t have the knack to learn it. Automatics limit your ability to down shift when you really need to and they don’t stay in the lower gears long enough when you want to really hit it hard because they are set up for the best fuel economy. There are racing automatics that you can setup any way you want, but try buying one on a budget.
If you end up on a hill with a stop light at the top try using your hand brake. That way when you take your foot off of the brake you don’t roll back. If you hold the button in you can gradually let the brake off as you let the clutch out and apply power. Go practice where there isn’t any traffic. My wife is a little Thai woman and loves her stick shift because it stopped her friends from wanting to borrow her car all of the time because they could not drive a clutch.

By: Reina

Reina — Thu, 20 Jan 2005 18:04:35 +0000

i have had the same problems when i first started learning to drive a stick. i bought a 1988 mustang from one of my good friends who had recently bought another car. so i was excited when he brought the car to me after my firs payment of course. but as i started to drive it i would have alot of questions but no one to talk to because everybody i knew drove an automatic and really, to me, no one person can tell you how to drive it you just have to get in and go. so i would practice in the yard with the parking brake and feeling the engine start whine down but that didn’t help. i’ve been driving for 4 years now and really only 2 years ago i started driving my car everywhere. just like you, there were certain places i wouldn’t go in my car because i was scared i’d stall and have people looking at me or that i couldn’t get out of a parking space because i was scared i’d be hitting the clutch too hard and people would look like, ‘gosh! does she have to hit the clutch so hard to get out? she’s going to need a new clutch before long.’ if the car was moving and i wanting to go reverse the car would make this like cranking noise. but after my mom’s car broke down i had to drive my car everywhere. there was no dropping my car off at her job and going to where ever i had to go in her car. so after a long while, i was just like hey! forget it. if i mess up, i mess up. i had to learn and now i’ve learned to downshifting trick and i can’t stand when someone in front of me hits on brakes hard but its ok, i just downshift and i won’t have to hit my brakes so hard when i do slow down. its mind over matter.