I learned to drive with a three-on-the-tree shifter. The biggest transmission I ever drove was on a ten-ton bucket lift truck that had a split tranny with ten forward gears and two reverse gears. You had to be a double-clutching mother on that thing. My last stick was a 2001 Jeep Wrangler. Everything since that has been an automatic.
Re left foot on the brake, that’s obviously dangerous in general and anyone who took a driving course, or passed a driving test where the tester was paying attention (though that’s not 100% I guess) was told not to do that.
The exception is in some fast cars with DCT’s where you achieve the fastest starts in ‘launch control’ mode. You hold the car still with your left foot firmly on the brake, floor the accelerator, then release the brake. Sounds like hell on the transmission, but it’s specifically allowed in the user manual of my car. The 4.0 sec official 0-60 time assumes you’re doing that.
As to left foot falling asleep, as has been pointed out your left foot isn’t necessarily doing anything in a manual car on the highway. Somebody mentioned tens of miles; on long trips in my old VW bug I might not shift out of 4th for a whole tank of gas. 
And another minor advantage of the DCT in my car now is specifically that you can brace yourself consistently with left foot on the ‘dead pedal’ in tight turns rather than that foot also moving around. That’s besides the main reasons I prefer the DCT: manual version of the car is slower, the split seconds you lose throttling back to shift whereas the DCT shifts basically instantaneously, and it usually knows better when to shift in ‘drive’ mode though in some situations it’s advantageous to paddle shift; a clutch is a pain in the ass in traffic; my wife is not familiar with manuals and sometimes needs to drive it.
I can and do drive a car with a manual transmission or stick shift every day.
Not only did I learn to drive a manual car, I burned the clutch out. Pffff. Looking back, I was probably not disengaging it all the way as I was moving through the gears. My mom had a Rambler station wagon, three on the tree. I could use that for errands in high school.
My Taiwanese wife learned to drive in Japan on an automatic. They used to require everyone to take the test on a manual, but changed the regulations to allow people to get an automatic only license. We used our Japanese licenses to get Taiwanese ones when we moved here, and since Taiwan doesn’t have a similar restriction, she’s technically allowed to drive sticks, but as normal drives challenges her sometimes, she would have no interest in learning.
Sure
Sure, dozens of miles is one thing. I was thinking more about an entire hours-long trip.
I thought you were being facetious. It’s just like being a passenger in said car. Plus we can go many hours on the highway without shifting, too. Typically, though, I find myself tapping my foot along to the music, whether manual or automatic. It doesn’t fall asleep any more than in any other situation where you’re sitting for hours.
My feet would fall asleep if I were a passenger, if I didn’t do exercises. But driving manual, both feet are constantly engaged. I was wondering if it was a problem if only one of them was. I just figured I’m trained by driving manual not to make unnecessary movements with my left foot.
I’ve driven from London to Verbier quite a few times, and I can attest that once on the péage one’s accelerator foot (right, in my case) got very stiff from being locked in one position in either a manual or automatic. I do suffer from arthritis mind you, but I’m pretty sure the problem is muscular rather than skeletal.
Certainly, once I started driving a car with cruise control, leaving me free to move my feet more freely, it was a less painful experience.
If that’s a problem then you just take breaks or tap your foot, etc. I’m making a five and half hour drive later on tonight in a manual speed transmission, I expect there will be extended hours of the journey where I will not need to switch gears, unless I pull off for gas or something to eat and drink. Once you hit the highways here in the US and are in between urban areas, you can go for hours staying in sixth (or fifth or whatever your high gear is,) so no different than driving an automatic in that sense.
Do driving instructors still teach using the right foot for both accelerator and brake, and the left for neither? Do they still give the reason I was given, to reserve the left foot in the event of a clutch?
As far as I know, yes to the first. I can’t imagine otherwise. But even twenty five years ago when I was being taught, the reason had nothing to do with a clutch in an manual. The reason given was when you were braking, you didn’t want to possibly be jamming on the accelerator as well. The idea of using the left foot for the brake is just completely odd to me, automatic or not. (Though in a stick, you might sometimes hit brake and throttle at the same time with your right foot if you’re doing more advanced shifting like heel-and-toeing.)
I learned to drive on a manual. I still could drive a manual with some effort. Manual isn’t bad in rural areas. I absolutely would not want to drive a stick in heavy urban traffic.
I’d eventually burn out the clutch, if the car is my daily driver. That’s why I don’t own a truck with manual transmission.
It takes experience and a deft touch to avoid burning out the clutch. It’s one of the reasons so many people went to automatic.
It really isn’t all that bad. I drive in a city with a lot of stop-and-go traffic and both my last two manuals lasted 120K+ miles on the original clutch before I sold them. (Before that, I owned automatics–only been driving stick since about 1999). If you’re doing it every day, as long as you pay attention and don’t pick up bad habits like overly slipping and riding the clutch, it’s not that hard to make it last. I’m hardly a performance driver or a gearhead. Then again, I hear people replace their clutch within 50K miles, so who knows. Maybe I’m defter than I give myself credit for.
I remember my uncle teaching me to drive and warning me not to ride the clutch.
I know keeping your foot on the clutch is a bad habit.
I don’t remember the rules for using the clutch and shifting gears. Other than pressing it down before shifting.
Waiting at red lights can be hard on the clutch too.
yes, learned on my friend’s Ford something, shifter was on the steering column, 3 gears maybe?
but drove a 5 speed manuals for years and years. I have an automatic now. FInally used to it, i no longer slam the brake with my left foot thinking I need to engage the clutch to downshift when slowing to a stop. doh!
“Three on the tree”!
I don’t think that’s true at all, I taught myself how to drive standard on my current truck 80,000 miles ago, and the clutch doesn’t show any signs of giving out, even with a considerable amount of towing and snowplowing on it.
You take it out of gear then. No wear. If I’m only expected to be stopped a second, I may hold the clutch down, but 95% of the time at a red light, I shift into neutral and release the clutch pedal completely while waiting for it to turn.
American - Yes; but I haven’t done it in years, so I may be a bit rusty.
In forty years of driving, I’ve never owned a car with an automatic transmission. Hopefully, I never will. I have to cling to whatever scraps of masculinity I can.