My best friends’ 24-year-old nephew is spending the summer with them, and will be going to Europe/Asia in September. We’ve become pretty friendly, and I learned that he doesn’t know how to drive a manual transmission. I’ve been thinking about teaching him on my car (a Nissan 370Z). I’ve never tried to teach this to anyone.
I know that it’s possible for someone to learn how to drive a stick without killing the clutch/transmission – I did it when I learned, back in '86 – but I’m wondering what the odds are like. Is teaching him on my beloved sports car (which is also my only car) a completely crazy idea? If I take it slow and make sure he understands what’s happening when he engages the clutch, etc., is there a decent chance that the car will survive? Will a few false starts/stalls/high revs do any damage? Any advice?
I taught my 16 year old daughter on a Miata and she learned pretty quickly. In fact she drove the Miata for 3 years and we sold it and bought her a new car, and she insisted on a clutch!
I just took her to a empty parking lot that was fairly flat and showed her and then let her try it. She killed it a few times, but I never noticed any damage to the car. One thing I did was just sit there and let her let out the clutch until it started to engage, then push her foot down, then let it out again. When she got the hang of that and understood that aspect the rest of it sort of came easier for her. Now a Miata has a very easy clutch too so that helps.
Let’s put it this way–teaching her to drive a clutch was way easier than teaching her to ride a bike without training wheels. Now THAT was difficult!
I personally wouldn’t do it on a car of mine that I cherished. If you do: stress that riding the clutch is bad bad bad bad bad McBad baddity-BAD (as I understand this will kill a clutch faster than just about anything.) Find a flat, traffic-free area and tell him it’s OK to stall the car until he gets the timing right. Stalling the car won’t hurt anything, AFAIK. Getting tense and OMG won’t help his learning process, so relax and have fun. (Heh.)
I’ve taught several people to drive a car stick shift and in the '80s drove an 18-wheeler cross country for a living, during which time I also taught several newbies to drive big bendy heavy vehicles with 15-18 gears.
I taught my gf (now wife, if that’s any indication of my skills). Biggest tip: Have them start testing the feel of the clutch in 2nd gear, not 1st. Yes, they will kill it if they release too far. But that’s a lot better than the fine line between nothing and bucking bronco you get in 1st.
I taught my younger cousin when he was about 15. We were out driving once, and he almost drove into a ditch. When he told me he couldn’t shift and turn at the same time, I told him that if he had to choose, choose “turn” instead of “shift”.
My first choice would be a gravel road, so that when they dump the clutch, they simply peel out on the gravel. Then, move to a parking lot with a slight downhill grade. Have them push the clutch in to get it rolling and then let the clutch out. Next, have them start out from a dead stop pointing downhill. Then have them start out cross grade. Finally, have them start out pointing uphill. (You can use the parking brake to avoid rolling back.)
I had trouble learning to drive a stick the first time I tried (in an old Volkswagon Bug). I didn’t get it at all my first day. I got it going a few times but I never really understood why so I wasn’t truly learning anything.
The thing that really helped me was a mechanical explanation of how things worked and why. Once I understood intellectually how the clutch worked and the concept of the friction point, I was off the next time I tried. All someone had to tell me was to let the clutch out slowly until the car started to move a little, very slowly (relatively speaking; don’t ride it for several seconds) let the clutch out from that point and then add gas from the accelerator to keep the engine from stalling and I could do it without unduly stressing anything. Popping the clutch suddenly is the most common problem for beginners in my experience and it isn’t intuitive what you should be doing instead unless someone explains it to you.
My technique wasn’t that good for a few days but it won’t be for anyone especially on hills until they get experience and the motor memory associated with that but it isn’t that hard to teach someone the basics in a flat parking lot if you give good ground lessons first.
You can also have him shift into different gears in sequence and then randomly on command while the car is turned off without damaging anything. That is a good exercise to build motor memory for the shifting sequence.
I can drive a stick like a pro now because I owned them for many years but it wasn’t the easiest thing to learn at first. Better explanations of how the mechanics worked helped someone like me. Not everyone will learn the same way but multiple approaches are good if a particular one isn’t working as well as planned. It is still going to take a few days and many miles to get it down fairly well no matter what however.
I can’t offer any help. I had to get rid of my car and get an automatic because my wife couldn’t drive a manual transmission. It was only a Honda Civic, but I really liked that car.sniff
The clutch pedal and the acccelerator pedal are like the opposite ends of a seesaw. If the clutch is all the way down, the accel should be all the way and vice versa. As the clutch comes up the accel goes down proportionately.
I’m in Australia and manual or stick as you call it is normal here. The idea that you might kill a car through learning to drive on it or riding the clutch is nonsense or at least being exaggerated here beyond all recognition.
Simply, clutches wear. They wear in perfectly normal use, every single time you use them. Riding the clutch is totally normal at very low speed (such as when parking) or in hill starts.
I learned to drive in Brisbane which is very hilly, and after I’d got the basic hang of it, my older brother who taught me to drive took me to the steepest streets around to improve my starting skills. I rode the hell out of that clutch. My older brother did the same when he learnt to drive in the same car. The car lasted for probably a decade after that without clutch replacement before it was sold, and for all I know is still going strong (OK probably not because it would be about 30 years old now).
If I haven’t convinced you, consider this: the cars operated by driving schools around here last for years and years doing nothing but teach people to drive stick. Yes, they go through clutches faster than normal, but the clutches still last years.
By teaching someone to drive on a manual, you will shorten the life of the clutch, by some very small margin. At worst.
The best strategy I’ve heard of for learning is to gradually develop muscle memory by repetitive action. Taking this approach, it’ll be perhaps 10-15 minutes before the driver is actually supposed to attempt a complete launch, but it should be a much less frustrating experience.
The process goes something like this:
With the car parked (parking brake on) and in neutral, spend 2-3 minutes repeatedly using your right foot to bump the engine up to 1500-2000 RPM and hold it there briefly. By the time you’re done, your right foot should have a good feel for what it takes to do that without a lot of hunting.
Next:
With the car parked (parking brake on) and your right foot off of the accelerator, push clutch to the floor and select first gear. Ease the clutch out until the engine RPM just begins to dip, then push clutch to floor again. Repeat for 2-3 minutes, until your left foot develops a good feel for where the edge of the friction zone is.
Next:
With the parking brake off, clutch-in and select first gear. Now combine both foot actions: rev the engine up, and ease the clutch out to the edge of the friction zone so that the car *just barely * begins to move, then clutch-in and release the throttle. Repeat for 2-3 minutes.
Next:
Repeat the previous step, but get a bit deeper into the friction zone, letting the car get up to a couple of MPH before clutch-in/throttle-off (brake car to stop). Repeat for 2-3 minutes.
Next:
Finally, you’re ready to attempt a complete launch. It probably won’t be really graceful, but at this point, your feet should have enough muscle memory to do what they need to do with the throttle and clutch to avoid stalling completely.
Not much new to add to the other great advice in this post, but I learned to drive a manual at the age of 20 by buying one before I could drive it. I needed a car and was determined if the best deal I found was a manual, I’d buy it and by God I would learn. Had to have a friend test-drive it and drive it home for me.
My biggest problem was thinking that letting out the clutch was an all-or-nothing action, so once I hit the friction point I let it go and it would inevitably stall. Once I learned to “feather” the clutch, that I could just push the clutch back down a little if I felt it start to stall, it was an “aha” moment and I quickly got the hang of it after that. That might have contributed to a little extra wear, but the clutch lasted a long time after that, so I don’t think I did too much damage.
I tried to teach my ex-wife and there’s no way she could do it. It was like juggling and riding a unicycle at the same time to her.
She could not drive, change gears, turn the steering wheel and pay attention to all other things simultaneously. It was a huge failure. I think some people just can’t drive a stick. When I bought the car I had never driven a stick, yet I learned during the test drive with the dealer in the car. I mean, how hard is it?
I taught my wife some years ago in a parking lot, after which she was able to succesfully drive us a couple of miles through town - but she hates it, and never wants to drive it again. She doesn’t like driving at all in any car, but when she was driving my manual, she says she was fearful about stalling it in traffic and drawing the wrath of other drivers for not getting the car moving promptly. I tried to tell her that it gets better with practice, so that stalling is something that ultimately will happen only once in a great, great while, but she wasn’t having any of it.
He should take a lesson with a driving instructor first. After that, if you do take him out, get him to practice changing gear with the engine off. This is to develop the muscle memory.
BTW I don’t know about other countries, but here in the U.K., if you didn’t pass your test in a manual car, you’re not allowed to drive one.
That IS a pretty good indication; I came in to this thread specifically to advise people NEVER to try and teach a significant other. The results are never good.
I’ve taught a few people, although it’s been a while. I’ve always started by driving around with them in the passenger’s seat and shifting with their left hand while I do the pedals. I think it’s helpful to get a sense for when and how often you shift before you get behind the wheel.
P.S. Successfully taught my hubby to drive a stick before we were married, on busy narrow streets in Chicago. Lived to tell the tale.