Finally just got my first manual transmission the other day. I feel pretty confidant about it...

Finally just got my first manual transmission the other day. I feel pretty confidant about it, but I'd like to know more.

What are some things you wish you had known earlier about driving a manual, or driving in general?

>picture is a BMW
>"2018 Chevrolet Malibu"
wut

I avoided manual transmissions for a while after learning, turns out I didn't like it because I learned in a car with cable shift linkages.

Don't be afraid to use throttle out of start.

>I avoided manual transmissions


The first time in a manual transmission was just to hard for me and I wanted to quit'

My dad just laughed at me and said keep trying, take the car go learn how to drive etc...

So glad he kept me going and I didn't get stuck with auto for life...

Its not even hard you just have no experience with manual and it takes time to learn and understand

Some people are great at teaching and some are great at listening

It just takes time, manual is fun

I use to think I would always spin tires or be too loud.

Don't lift your foot off of the clutch too fast.

I picked it up pretty fast, when my dad asked how I learned it so well I told him "video games"

Don't insert the stick shift in your anus

Ahhh alright famalam
> Don't ride the clutch
Being self taught, I didn't knoe for a good month that your supposed to rest your foot on the dead pedal and not the clutch at all time
> Revmatching
Really makes for way smoother shifts
> Always park it in gear
Didn't know shit about manual. Just used to steal my moms toyota and learn. Never knew you had to park in gear until i overheard someone talking about how their car rolled into another car when they stopped by the bank.
> Coasting
Coasting is good, no matter what people tell you. Only time it isn't is on steep as fuck downhills, you need the engine braking to help you from cooking your brakes.

confident*

What? Why not just use the parking brake?

DELETE

Slipping the clutch is fine, don't worry about it. It's designed to be used like that when you need to go extra slow.
Put a little gas on before you lift the clutch when setting off.
It's fine to use handbrake for hill starts despite what the autismos here tell you.
Coasting is retarded and dangerous. It has literally no benefits.
Double clutching is even more retarded and equally has zero benefits.

It's a failsafe. If your parking break fails or isn't tight enough or you just plain forgot to put it on, your car isn't going to fly down a hill.

THIS...I'm on my first manual car too and I was always terrified of burning the clutch so I would baby my starts but honestly that's the reason you stall because you didn't give it enough throttle.

My other tip for OP would be that you should work on shifting fast once you get going, one problem I had was releasing the clutch slow from say 3rd to 4th would cause the rpms to drop too much and it would jerk because bad rev match. Drove much smoother once I started shifting faster, I was just scared of accidentally throwing it in the wrong gear so I would slowly shift. Spend sometime throwing it through the gears when the car is off so you can get once confidence in it.

>wut

From an advertisement where somwone said the Chevy looked like a BMW

Don't be afraid to slip the clutch, but try to keep it to a minimum.

Don't be afraid of revving the engine to get moving; you'll learn the sweet point of the engine with time and practice.

Using the handbrake to start in hills is not bad, but learning to do it without is not that difficult, and may be useful if your handbrake fails.

The starter motor works less if you press the clutch pedal while starting the engine. Also a failsafe in case you forgot to put it in neutral. Also, there are cars that won't let you start without the clutch and/or brake pedal pressed.

Handle the stick as if it was made of chocolate; don't grip it too hard, and try not to force the gears in.

Sometimes, reverse will simply not engage. When this happens, put it in neutral, depress clutch, press clutch, and try again.

Proper engine braking never did damage to an engine; select the appropiate gear and let the engine save you some brake pedal. I coast a lot when coming to a stop in city driving, but always use engine braking at high speeds.

What do you mean by works less?

>depress clutch, press clutch,

those are the same thing son

I would never ever go back to manual after driving automatic.

European, recently got license, I learned on a 06 Toyota Yaris to get my license, currently have a 02 Twingo with a wore out clutch and loose clutch pedal. Seriously considering buying automatic anything just to get comfortable driving and then later go back to standard if I have to.

When rev matching...do you guys completely dump the clutch or do you feather it a bit?

When you are bringing the clutch up, be slow enough to feel the mismatch. With engine over or under transmission rpm you feel acceleration or deceleration, either work with gas pedal or wait a bit and let it match before completing the connection. If you dump, you just send the rpm difference shock to be absorbed by the drivetrain. That double-mass flywheel might save you from the worst but it's not a good habit. Work on the throttle feel to get right rpms before getting into clutch dumping, i would say.

Don't rest your hand on the gearstick. It looks cool in media but you're risking damaging parts inside the transmission. Don't panic if and when you stall. Knock it out of gear, start the engine and get back in control.

Good shit. Too many of my rev matches have been jolty.

if you drive a naturally aspirated make a 'tssssh' sound everytime you change gears so you get that turbo feel

yes, you have to time it correctly based on your particular engine and revs

Is coasting when you sit still with the clutch depressed?

There are like 12,000 different verbs being used in relation to the clutch, it's like every person has their own clutch vocabulary

I'm euro also, recently got my first auto.

It's super comfy in city, zippier than manual for city driving too since kickdown is much faster than manual downshift. I just enjoy it much more than manual.

Downside is that during high speed highway driving you can feel how much power it robs and car is just slower than the same one with manual trans.

Fuel consumption also goes up, i would say some 15-20% or so.

I've never driven an automatic but it sounds like a very boring way to drive.

coasting is when you're moving with the car not in gear

I wish I'd known that manual transmission is just a fucking meme and that there's nothing wrong with driving automatic.

t- manualcuck who fell for the meme

Because if you park on a steep hill you're putting an enormous pressure only in your parking brake. You should park in gear, with ebrake on and if there's a slope with the tires rotated to the curb.

before going into reverse, put it in 1st real quick (don't release the clutch) so you don't grind when you put it in reverse.

I sold my stick a few months back for an auto.

It sucks, and I miss it

Don't bark your tires on the downshift. Learn to revmatch, or at least be smooth on the clutch.

You can downshift to help slow you down faster, and I will do it in an emergency for that extra bit of stopping power, but as someone once pointed out, "brake pads are easier and cheaper to change than clutch discs."

Find out where your car's power band is, and learn to shift there when you really need to move out. Especially smaller engines, you can trust the redline. Eg. if your car makes most of its power above 4,500 rpm, you are not hurting anything by shifting at, say, 6,000 rpm when your redline is 7,000. Contrariwise, you're not doing your engine any favors always shifting below 3,000. That's one example. The important thing is to get to know your engine. My NA Miata gets shifted regularly above 6,000. My V-10 Ram rarely gets shifted above 3,500.

>Clutching so hard you lose traction

Good grief.

I'm gonna do it just because I'm a new driver, and so far everything is still new.

I am in urban area with hills and for some damn reason all the red lights are at the top of the fucking hill, i need automatic right now.

If you are going down a steep hill(enough to keep your idle above 1200 rpm or so), it is also good to leave it in gear because you don't use any fuel(injectors literally spray no fuel). Where as if you put it in neutral, you would burn fuel to keep the engine idling.

You've never known any new idiot driver that did this by accident and then kept doing it 'cause he thought it sounded cool?

Never done track days with newbies who haven't learned heel/toe downshifting?

Wrong thread.

>filename
fucking lol'd

I test drove a modern manual and it felt much worse than my cable car.

I haven't heard of an American mid-size sedan without automatic since maybe the 80s

How much fun it was until the first time in crawling in heavy traffic
Trying to talk on a cell phone is very difficult
Stalling out while on an incline is fucking scary

Why does everyone think city driving in manuals is horrible?

>Trying to talk on a cell phone is very difficult
You shouldn't be talking on the phone anyways.

>Stalling out while on an incline is fucking scary
Give it some gas.

>Trying to talk on a cell phone is very difficult
dont do that.
>Stalling out while on an incline is fucking scary
dont do that either. use the e-brake.