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Hey fellow 2k1 and 2k2 members...can you guys ...ummmmmm.....tell me about stick shift and how to drive it...lol.....i have a auto right now...and the guy at the car shop wont let me drive it cuz he thinks im gonna blow off the cluctch thing...so give me some few pointers..and if you guys are gonna flame on me..dont reply..cuz it is just a waste of time![IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/IMG]

 
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Get an old beater to practice on, find an empty parking lot late at night, and remember that the clutch is your friend. If you ever get in a situation where the gears grind, the car sounds like it's about to stall, and you have no friggin clue what gear you're in, just push in the clutch [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/IMG]

 
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clutch (far pedel to the left)

push clutch down to start car put shifter in first. give it some gas and gradualy let the clutch pedel out. this is the hardest part and its all about feel. wind the geer out a bit to 3-4 rmps and clutch then move stick to the next gear.

when braking push the clutch in or it will stall.

but pratice is the only thing, find a friend who knows

 
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The hardest part is 1st gear. Just get an old beater like htowncivicEX said, get in an empty parking lot and go at it. Once you get 1st gear down the rest is easy.

 
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i learned on my old 88 dodge omni. the hardest part is starting in first gear. until you get more used to it, you should give it more gas than you need to get started in first, that way its a lot harder to stall it. let the clutch out slowly (but not too slowly) and give it a little bit of gas at the same time. if it feels like its gonna stall, quickly push the clutch all the way back in and start again. try not to stop on any steep hills until youre used to it at least a little and remember youll need more gas on a hill and youll roll backwards until you get it in gear

 
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<< Get an old beater to practice on, find an empty parking lot late at night, and remember that the clutch is your friend. If you ever get in a situation where the gears grind, the car sounds like it's about to stall, and you have no friggin clue what gear you're in, just push in the clutch [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/IMG] >>



and if you cant get a beater to use, rent a 5-speed [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/IMG]

 
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I abused my friend's dakota when I started out and boy, I remember when it felt like everything was going good and I was in the groove---&gt;next thing ya know I'm at an intersection having stalled 5 times and there were drivers above the age of 65 saying things about my mom [IMG]i/expressions/laugh2.gif[/IMG]

once you got the feel for starting in 1st, everything else is no problem [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-cool.gif[/IMG]

 
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go test drive whatever car you want.. an say you can drive stick.... that way you get at least 2-3 tries at it before he kicks you out.... jus go form dealer to dealer till you get it right

 
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<< go test drive whatever car you want.. an say you can drive stick.... that way you get at least 2-3 tries at it before he kicks you out.... jus go form dealer to dealer till you get it right >>



[IMG]i/expressions/laugh2.gif[/IMG]Thats how you SHOULD do it. I just learned how to drive a stick on my 2k2 in February (thank goodness I totalled that one). I was out on the main roads fearlessly within a couple days. Its not near as hard as most people make it out to be. 1st gear is the only hard part (when starting out)...oh yeah, and hills too. If someone's on your *** on a steep hill and you feel like you're going to roll back into him, don't hessitate to use the E-brake. It comes in handy. Good luck!

 
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go to a pretty steep hill where not many people will be driving on, or late at night, have a friend that knows what he/she is doing,
and practice all on that hill, youll get it in no time, hopefully

 
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i've been driving stick since I was a youngin, its easy to learn but give yourself some room and DONT LOOK AT THE SHIFTER or else you may pull the steering wheel while you look and go off the road

 
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Our cars aren't bad to learn how to drive a manual... I learned on mine. Someone else here learned on theirs and their clutch lasted them 50,000 miles. I dunno how long clutches last since my Civic is my first 5-speed since last November in 2001. All I know is both the shifter and the clutch (on newer Hondas and Acuras) are easy to use.

 
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I'm 16 and I learned how to drive stick with this car and it only took 2 1/2 weeks before i started taking it to school. That may seem like a lot but most of that time was mostly just practicing. I got the basics down in a few hours. I'm sure many would recommend that you practice on a hill... If you master that, the rest is cake

 
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Try San Francisco's hills! I burned the sh't outta my tires, paranoid about falling back to far! [IMG]i/expressions/laugh2.gif[/IMG] I got it down now...

You could use your e-brake on hills, but that's cheating. [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif[/IMG]

 
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OH YEAH...

When it comes to getting used to 1st gear, it does not matter how much you press down the gas when you wanna move forward slowly... you can shoot it up to 7,000RPMs, let off the clutch slowly and the car will move slowly. (DON'T give it that much gas for practice, you'll be using the life of your clutch when you can do much better things with it later.) The point is, if you happen to rev it up too much (4,000 would be too much) accidently before letting off the clutch, just let off of it slowly. It takes time using both feet at the same time to move the car. I got it down in an hour. Once you master going up hills you can drive a manual anywhere.

If you're on level ground, just let off the clutch and let the car move forward by itself (even if the car moves back slowly from a complete stop). Let it off enough so that the car will move forward by itself (IN 1ST GEAR).

Don't be skeptikal to use neutral either. I remembered I would ALWAYS have my foot on the clutch when my car was completely stopped in traffic cuz I thought that was the only way I'd have the car on... then one magical day I payed attention to the fact that the car stays on by itself when it's in neutral. When driving, neutral also saves gas! But go back to the gear that suits the MPH for that gear when you need to accelerate.

DOWNSHIFT. THANK THE CAR GODS FOR DOWNSHIFTING in those times when you need to stop! But make sure when you downshift, the gear you go into is under 5,000RPMs to be courteous to your engine cuz you don't want the needle to remain at high RPMs for a long time. Sure you can shoot them up when accelerating. It's like gravity... what goes up, MUST come down so don't defy it!

You'll probably learn a lot of kew stuff when driving a stick... I know I have... I am so glad I got a 5-speed instead of an auto.

EDIT:
You can't downshift into 1st... (there's no point of it anyways)
Try not to rev the engine too much in reverse... as far as I've discovered, this is the easiest way to burn the hell out of your clutch.
DON'T MIS-SHIFT. (I.E.: Speeding up on the freeway with pretty high RPMs in 3rd gear, and instead of going to 4th you go to 2nd...) It's like downshifting without expecting to slow down as you're prepared to give the car gas to go faster, you'll possibly destroy your transmission if you downshift and give it gas to a lower gear once it redlined. This is a possibility for newbies, as it's happened to me twice but I was not going fast thank goodness. As long as you're not power shifting or going really fast in 3rd then it's kew. Just quickly get on the clutch and get into the proper gear. Your chances of this happening double if you drive a 6-speed. The gearbox in a 6-speed for shifting from gear to gear is closer than a 5-speed's gear box. The engine can survive the redlining (probably), but the transmission will definitely take it's toll first and the car ain't sh't without it.

Ok, I've said enough! (That's one big *** edit!)

 
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haha..thanks for the help guys[IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/IMG]

 
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hey....

don't use the clutch to slow yourself down (downshifting w/o using the gas to slow yourself for a stop sign, etc...). Its much easier to replace brake pads than it is to replace a clutch disc. Don't rest your foot on the clutch pedal either, you'll wear down a cruicial component that way.

The best way to learn is to get your body used to feeling the engagement point. This way you can get into any car and use that clutch no matter where the engagement point is.

Try this:

Put the car in 1st, and w/o touching the gas let the clutch out and get the car rolling w/o stalling. do this a bit and you'll start to learn how to feather the clutch juuust right. Dont rev the motor first then engage the clutch, just barely engage the clutch and then give it some gas as you continue to let the clutch out.