Today’s Pontiac GP post got a discussion going about clutches and parking brakes, for starting off in a stick shift car. Let’s open the discussion a bit more. How did you learn to use a clutch (and stick shift)? And what’s the best way to teach someone?
not me
I got an early start, on tractors when I was nine. There was no real instruction, but somehow I figured it out, with a little divine intervention (full story here). Pretty soon, I could play the clutch friction point to be able to back a tractor at snail’s pace to hook up an implement. Nothing like the farmer standing there with the hitch in hand to give me the motivation to not run him down.
Fast forward some 25 years later, and I’m called on to teach my 20-year old sister in law how to drive the Ford Fiesta she just bought, having never driven it before. We went to an empty parking lot, and with the engine idling only, I had her repeatedly find the beginning of the friction point of the clutch, and just move her foot ever so gently to bump the car along, a little nudge at a time, in both first gear and reverse. I had her “bump” the car all over the parking lot, for some time. The point being that becoming truly familiar with the friction point, and knowing how to delicately play it is essential to mastering a clutch, for parking and for starting on hills.I’ve used the same technique successfully several times since.
All too often, inexperienced drivers use the clutch like an on-off switch, or roll backwards on hills when starting because they don’t really know how to use the friction point to keep the car from rolling backwards. Even at idle, a car will generally not start rolling back much on a steep hill, if the friction point is engaged before the driver lifts the right foot off the brake. It should not take much gas or slipping the clutch at all to get going on a hill. And it shouldn’t require a handbrake either. Becoming intimate with the friction point is the crucial first step.
You’re absolutely right Paul
Once mastered, and most new drivers don’t find it difficult, it becomes a complete second nature and moving a car very slowly using just your left foot is a useful tool.
As for learning it, in Europe of course it’s a basic skill, maybe a slightly daunting and/or frustrating one at first, and the only way is practice. It’s the automotive cardoon of riding a bike – once learnt, never forgotten.
When my daughters were coming of driving age, I insisted they learn the shifter, and I provided my SAAB wagon, which survived well over 200k miles, so they didn’t hurt it too badly (the original clutch and tranny).
I told them that I didn’t care what they owned, but they had to be able to drive these things, and, today they both own shifters.
Both shared happy stories. that they LOVED offering rides at college to guys, and seeing their realization that “she can drive this cool car, but I can’t”, and additional cred with a mechanic’s shop when the extra pedal got noticed.
Way to boost a girl, I ,thought!
All five of my kids can drive a manual shift. My son and three my daughters own manuals. My other daughter’s husband won’t buy a manual shifted vehicle of any kind.
My 17 year old daughter learned to drive a manual, since all of our cars are currently manual she didn’t have much choice. I outsourced the actual teaching to a driving school, but made a point of selecting a location that offers manual cars.
She got additional practice in our cars, and passed her test in a manual car during rush hour in a big city.
I’ve also tried to teach her some basic mechanical concepts, like explaining how the clutch works using two dinner plates. I’ve also involved her in doing maintenance on her car, such as fluid changes, spark plugs, etc. Even if she never does her own work, I figure it is useful to have a basic understanding of what is involved.
I don’t think many of her friends know how to drive manual cars, but some of them seem to be impressed by the fact she does – she has got comments like “Is this your car? Do you know how to drive it? I wish I knew how to drive one of these things…” or “Nice car – it has a stick – that’s badass!”
If I had to teach someone to drive a manual myself, Paul’s method seems like a good one – but would probably be easiest with a diesel or other high torque vehicle…
Exactly, “it becomes a complete second nature”, in whatever car you drive. It’s not rocket science or a good old Fuller 13 speed….we’re talking about a synchronized 6 speed (at the most) manual transmission.
Still, when you pass your driving test in an automatic you’re not allowed to drive a manual. That is, until you pass a (new) driving test in a manual.
Not being able to drive a manual is considered to a handicap of some sort. Just look at the warning signs on cars with an automatic transmission on the used car lots in Europe. Those are the ones to stay clear of, can be had for very little money however. Frankly, I have never driven an AM car, nor spend time in one myself.
Yes CM, I clearly remember the days that automatics were only supposed to be driven by the elderly and the disabled….That’s how the little DAFs got their image. When you saw or heard an automatic in those days you just knew there was a crutch or two somewhere in the car.
I’ve got my driver’s license since 1984, my first drive in an automatic was in 2011. In a 1969 car.
Spot on Roger: basic skill. It baffles me that manuals are such a mystery to so many in other countries but if you didn’t learn from the get go on one I guess it would be strange adjusting.
Case in point – but the other way up – my first experience of driving an automatic wasn’t until I was 29 (rental in Australia) and I had to really concentrate hard on keeping my left foot bolted to the floor for the first couple of days. Even now on the rare occasions I encounter an Autobox it feels very counterintuitive.
Although it’s one of those things that takes tons of practice (it took a year or two of daily driving for me to get really proficient – completely self-taught), for me, lack of basic mechanical knowledge is a dealbreaker as far as teaching people goes. I don’t even bother teaching anymore unless I get the impression that the person has enough basic feel for cars and will eventually ‘get it’, because a good portion of driving a stick is the visceral touch and sound of the pedals/engine/shifter.
At the risk of sounding horribly misogynistic (and truthfully, LOTS of guys are equally clueless and I don’t bother teaching them either), it’s something I notice in women a lot – if they are so indifferent to cars that can barely put an auotmatic gear selector in “D” and have no idea what the RMP gauge means (or even what know what RMP stands for)… are they really ever going to learn how to drive a manual transmission?
I do have one female friend who is pretty car literate and could probably learn alright if I let her try, but when your stick shift is a leased car… the last thing you want to do is teach people on it. Too bad I don’t have a spare beater to play with.
I’d be interested to see if other people have had the same experience, though. I feel like it’s one of those things that you learn on your own, rather than having it taught to you.
RMP? That’s a new one to me 🙂
I’ve taught a handful of girls how to drive stick. More often than not they know nothing about cars… they all did fine.
Whoops! Wrote that one in too much of a hurry. Guess I fall into the category of the people I’m talking about 😛
It’s probably not a sex thing really, but more of a personality and possibility a generational trend… all of the older women in my family were perfectly fine with sticks, but I can only think of one girl from high school or college that actually knew how to proficiently drive a manual. Can’t say I know of many more guys that can, either, honestly. It’s a dying art in the United States.
What’s RMP?
RPM* (the tachometer) …. ’twas a typo
The funny thing is my Mom fits the very definition of not caring about or knowing about cars but she’s very proficient at at manual trans operation and even misses it in her current car, in fact she taught me how to go through the gears in the Jetta when I was elementary school(often she’d press the clutch and let me shift into the next gear). My Dad, conversely, who does have basic mechanical knowledge of a car and who is actually into cars himself, doesn’t like driving stick at all.
Anyone with 4 working limbs can drive a manual transmission without being explained how the pistons move the crankshaft or how the synchronizers work. I think trying to delve into the finer science of how a car works just makes non-car people’s eyes glaze over and ultimately prevents them from paying attention to the basic stuff you’re explaining in between.
I kind of learned stick shift on pop’s 93 Legacy on Central New York dirt roads and the local fire station, but my 5′ 11″ frame is a bit too big for that car. After burying the clutch pedal in the carpet fibers I would move my knee up and bash it into the plastic under the steering wheel. My dad’s 96 Legacy was better, but I did not get much time behind the wheel and I stuck a piece of wood in front of a tire so I did not roll down the sloped driveway while working on reversing. I really learned the art of Stick Shift driving on an 88 Saab 900 Turbo that had terminal rust. Saab’s are tricky when it comes to their stick shifts so I got some extra experience that way. When the situation is right I am going to buy a used stick shift Honda or Toyota to practice on some time in the future.
I’m intrigued as to how you could be too big for a Legacy. I’m 5’11” and I’ve never found a car that didn’t fit me. That includes Fiat Seicento, Hyundai Atoz, and other tiny cars unknown to the US market.
Having said that, I’ve never driven a Legacy.
I almost always drive or ride withe seat nearly all the way back. Rarely are my knees bent at a 90 Degree angle because I get cramps and pains if I cannot sprawl out. I only use my ankle for the accelerator, but use my lower leg for the other two pedals.
I just took a motorcycle riding class and they used the exact same method for teaching the new riders how to use a clutch, and it was very effective.
Me? I was taught on a ’41 Farmall B with very little clutch travel. I also learned later on with that tractor that if the clutch was dumped it would pop the front wheels up, great fun for a young kid, until someone told the parents!
For a automobile, I was asked to move a ’83 Toyota pickup that was parked on a hill, and left to my own devices until I finally figured it out, its a little different going from a hand throttle to a foot throttle and not having a torquey tractor engine.
Tractors are not like cars (trucks) in that the engines speed is usually set by a control lever, not foot operated. I drove tractors before I did much other driving. Will be running a 16 ft device to cut hay this summer.
First thing I ever drove was a John Deere 70 with the wide spaced front tires while I was way younger than 16. Probably about the same age as that kid in the picture above. Driving it is more akin to running an old steam engine than a car. To pop the clutch in, I had to stand up and give it a good heave. The breaks were more for keeping it in place than for slowing it down (throttle and clutch were used for that). The friction point that Paul wrote about is where it comes into play in comparison to driving a manual car.
We had an 8N when I was in Middle and High School, so that was likely my first experience. A Sunday School teacher also took a group of us camping on his farm one weekend and we each got to drive his old MG around “dual” and then “solo.” Dad got the ’71 Vega around this time, and it’s highly possible I may have made some clandestine practice circuits in the back yard when opportunity arose.
I taught my wife in my Suzuki Samurai after breaking my (clutch) leg in a motorcycle accident. I had my brother take the passenger side front seat out (I was in a toe-to-hip cast) and we practiced in the driveway first, then out on our local streets. I tease Beth to this day that I’m 1/2″ shorter on the left side because of those lessons.
Both my sons learned on my own 8N and then in my New Beetle (Herbie).
More recently, our niece stayed with us last summer, and I taught her to drive a manual, first on the 8N, and then in Herbie.
Jason’s comment below prompted me to add that we had a 1966 Sears Craftsman SS12 garden tractor (3 speed, I think), and I got a *lot* of seat time on it growing up. Dad still uses it.
I spent a lot of time on lawn mowers (3 and 4 speeds of early ’80s vintage) plus my father’s Ford tractor and his F-150 around his seven acres. That helped a lot to get the feel for the clutch, its engagement point, and coordination of it all. Transitioning to the road was no big deal as I had been driving various types of vehicles since age 10.
Teaching this skill is a different world entirely. I sort of taught my sister (you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t throw it in) and she was ultimately able to navigate her ’92 Ford Ranger five-speed well enough. It was like Paul said, a matter of taking off repeatedly to get the hang of it all. It also helped my sister to know that she had a four hour drive to college right after getting the pickup, so she was on her own.
Some people simply have the finesse needed – admittedly, it isn’t a lot – and some don’t.
I’m curious to see how my offspring does when I start teaching that skill using my ’63 Ford. Driving a manual transmission is, sadly, a dying art in the United States.
My experience mirrors Ed and Jason’s. Only the equipment was different, consisting of a riding mower my father bought from Trustworthy Hardware, followed by a John Deere Model B (with a lever clutch) and an Oliver 550. All before age 13.
The first car with a stick was my cousin’s 69 MG Midget. Sadly, I have not had a stick shift car to pass this skill to my offspring. There is probably still time, though.
I learned quite simply by watching my parents drive… when the opportunity arrived and my parents were gone for a day, I took advantage of a long driveway and a second car with a 4 speed. After a couple hours of stop and go between 1st, neutral and reverse I had it down.
The third time I practiced apparently my parents were coming home earlier than expected. I saw them in the rear view mirror. Their view was over 200 yards, so I proceeded to quickly put the car back into the garage, ran to the house, put the keys back where I found them and disappeared into my room (I was 14 at the time). I heard hello we are home, and nothing more. I got away with it?
About an hour later I emerged for dinner. After the plates were full and I had my first bite of food in my mouth, my mother asked how my “driving lessons” were going with her car. I choked big time and we had a good laugh. Their only requirement was stay off the road.
Good times.
That’s kind of like A Christmas Story but without Christmas.
I also watched my parents drive their Honda Civic hatchbacks and that ingrained the concept. I also intently watched my school bus driver (in the late 1980s, our school buses were still stick shifts, these huge, awesome floor shifters) while she/he drove.
When I got my learner’s permit, my dad took me out in his old truck which was also stick and had no power steering (Mazda B2300, stripper). We spent the first 3 weeks driving slowly around a cemetery and then back streets until I got the hang of the clutch. Then hilly back roads until I could learn not to stall out on inclined stop lights.
After all that, he bought me a 1987 Crown Victoria and let me take the actual test in it. What a breeze compared to that truck.
I would teach a child the same way, in a safe, quiet place where stalling is not embarrassing (i.e. no other 16 year olds to point and laugh and discourage).
My Dad took me to the car dealer and we test drive a ’93 Probe GT when I was 16…that’s how I learned.
Then, when I was 19, I worked for an automotive paint store, and all our delivery trucks were sticks, so that’s when I became proficient.
Now, three of my six cars are sticks. My wife doesn’t really want to learn to drive one all that badly, so even though I’ve had my 2012 Focus almost three years, she’s only driven up and down the driveway with it, just enough to be able to move it.
I taught her to get it moving without using the gas pedal, just to get a feel for the clutch takeup.
Wow, a 2012 for three years, it is like I am in a time warp, but that is totally believable.
2012 Focuses came out in April 2011, smart aleck. 🙂
My older brother taught me the rudimentary basics one afternoon in a big church’s parking lot that was on a slope. A lot of emphasis was placed on the “bite point” as he called it. The old man gave further “on the road” instruction once I could start and stop on hills without holding at the bite point – that was considered something women did was a no-no. This was in the foothills of eastern TN. He grew up in rural West Virginia and if he could get started with out holding with the clutch on steep mountain grades, so could everyone else, especially his youngest son who only had to deal with TN hills.
The old man was a big fan of Jackie Stewart and his driving smoothly technique, which he did very well. At 78 he’s still smooth if a little slower.
The only person I’ve every taught was a simple minded, but likable and hard working fellow who I worked with when I started my career with my state’s DOT. At that time, most of our trucks were stick shift hair shirt specials. No A/C, radio, etc. He had never heard of or discovered the “bite point” and compensated by full throttle applications while simultaneously letting the clutch out. This does wear clutches out fast. I showed him what little I could and he then only revved to half throttle and would pause for a nanosecond near the bite point, but the quarterly clutch replacements did stop so I guess it was progress. We started getting automatics after this time period and he and the maintenance shop were very happy.
I don’t guess my 11 year old will ever learn because I don’t have or know anyone who has anything to teach her on. This may be justification for a curbside classic!
We had an abandoned WW2 AAF base just west of Dodge City. Dad took my sister and I out there with his 49 chevy (three on tree) and tried to teach us. My sister wound up learning from me as he ran out of patience. Learned how to drive and learned the problems associated with 3OTT.
Paying it forward my son learned on a 79 Datsun truck with five speed. The woodlands mall just north of Houston was being built and he learned in the JCPenney parking lot. Pretty much the way you described both times. Clutch is always more difficult than shifting.
Interesting question. The way Paul describes teaching the friction point is an excellent way to start, but it helps a lot to have a car with a nice linear clutch takeup and decent pedal effort. I taught several family members how to drive a standard using my wife’s ’92 Civic Si. It always went well after a bit of practice. The same exercise was a lot harder once they “graduated” to my ’83 F-150 with a 300 six and granny gear 4 speed. Trying to start someone off on the Ford was always an ordeal, but fortunately I had the luxury of teaching the basics on one of the easiest manuals to use in the Civic.
This experience came in handy later in my career, when one of my duties was acting as the driver trainer for my employer. Teaching people whose primary job was not driving or operating, such as electricians and bridge workers, to drive trucks equipped with 13 or 18 speed transmissions was always interesting. Today such trucks are invariably equipped with the excellent Allison automatic, but back when this was an expensive option and the transmissions were not nearly as robust or flexible as they are today. Most people picked it up fairly quickly, but I had a few otherwise excellent tradesmen who had never driven a standard transmission vehicle before. When that happened I started them out in the Toyota pickup we used for an office runabout and worked up from there. I don’t recall anyone who didn’t get it eventually, but it did cost me a few clutch jobs!
Here downunder (NZ) it was ‘normal enough’ for a child to ‘drive’ on his/her father’s knee (ie: doing the steering for a while on a back country lane or whatever).. as soon as the legs could reach the pedals then it was ‘game-on’!!! For me, this happened at age 12. My dad just stopped the Zephyr, and said, ‘You take over’ lol ..changing gear was just a natural thing we did without any instruction needed as we had been watching this for years anyway, and every time dad left us in the car we would slide over and ‘practice driving and changing gear’! On my first driving experience i floored the throttle (as i always did when ‘play-driving’) and alarmed my dad a tad ..’Don’t press the throttle so hard, you’re going too fast!’ …a petrolhead was created at that moment.. nothing has changed since …i don’t even know how many cars and bikes i have anymore ..most are 8 cyls ..some 6’s of various config ..5 ..4 cyls ..3 cyl ..2 cyls ..and singles ..some blown ..some turbo ..some not ..3 handbuilts ..rest factory products
First drive in a Maori Mustang vcool
I learned how to drive with a clutch when I borrowed my father’s 1986 Jetta Turbo Diesel as my first car was automatic. I had to borrow his car quite often because my car was often needing repairs!
A few years ago, my current 1993 Toyota truck made me learn how to drive without a clutch as the clutch slave cylinder went bad. At least, the clutch cylinder is easy to replace on these and I fixed it the next day! A friend of mine had the same issue with a 1995 Mazda B2300 but he kept driving it without the clutch until he sent it to the junkyard as replacing the clutch cylinder on this Mazda (and on Rangers) requires to remove the transmission and it already had quite a few other issues…
I learned on a motorcycle, specifically my dads 76 cb750 super sport, in a parking lot. A bit nerve wracking, given his yelling commands I couldn’t hear through my helmet, plus the fear of dropping his bike, and not to mention the way it would buck when I didn’t get the clutch quite right, but having a multi plate wet clutch to start on allows one a little bit more forgiveness of slippage before one masters the bite point.
We usually had at least one manual car around when I was growing up, so I knew the concept well. When I took my drivers test though, it was on an automatic (’67 Ambassador).
My first car, a 1950 Mercury, was offered to me with the caveat, “if you can make it run and drive it out of here, it’s yours.” That was the first time I operated a car with a manual transmission; no one ever actually gave me any instruction.
Here’s what I think makes a successful manual driver:
#1- Desire / interest. I taught my wife to drive a stick before we were married. She can do it; she just has NO desire to do it. “Why go through the trouble when you could just put it in drive?” As a result, I am on my third vehicle that she has never driven. I am hoping to get a little more enthusiasm from my middle daughter, about to turn 15, because she will probably end up with my manual PT Cruiser.
#2- Some level of understanding of things mechanical. I believe it really helps to know what is actually happening when you depress or release “that pedal”. The feel of the friction point is easier to get if you have some idea of what you are manipulating. I have already started to explain it to daughter #2 and haven’t lost her yet.
By the way, I have always used Paul’s technique to teach people- no gas pedal! Works great.
I had a brief lesson on a Schramm Pneumatractor when I worked at their factory one summer. But a couple summers later when I needed a vehicle to get to work at an engineering shop, my dad showed up at work one afternoon with my new (to me) 76 Courier and said, “here, drive it home.” I at least knew intellectually how the clutch and gears worked from having watched thoughout my childhood, but it was still an exciting trial by fire, including a couple of uphill stop signs, and an uphill stoplight that was (mostly) yellow as I went through it… Luckily it was a fairly torquey engine. (Trial by fire was Dad’s teaching M.O though – I learned to drive first in their 77 B body Impala wagon on I-95 between Providence and New Haven with the whole family in the car.)
Number 1 son watched enough Top Gear that he insisted on a manual for his first car. (I may have had a little to do with it too, but don’t tell his mom that! 😉 ) He learned on his Mazda 6 in a parking lot last summer with a process similar to Paul’s – basically, learn to get it going with only the clutch pedal. He harasses his buddies who can’t drive stick, and is gearing up (so to speak) to teach his sister later this summer.
(Interesting how many of us learned first on tractors. The Schramm Pneumatractor is fascinating – straight six block using three cylinders as engine and the other three as air compressor – it would make an interesting CC if anyone ever sees one and posts it to the cohort…)
I first learned at age 10 on a tractor then in an Austin Gipsy though that was the entire driving experience not just the clutch that thing is where I learnt Double declutching too no syncro on first plus if you doubled it you could get out of low 4×4 on the move, Im going to teach my 13yr old daughter these skills shortly down the river in my $200 Dunga Nissan she had a go previously in the Corolla and muffed the takeoff but steered it fine and hit nothing, she first drove in the Corona diesel automatic we had on the front lawn at 10 so off to a good start.
Manual transmissions were still very common when I was growing up in small town/rural midwest in the 50’s and 60’s. My paternal grandparents never owned an automatic in all their decades of driving. The only time my grandmother ever drove one was when her new Chevy II (she got one of the first of the 62s with the four cylinder and three-speed and drove it for about ten years until her eyesight was failing and the family decided it was time to stop) was in the shop for some timing adjustments. She professed to hate the Powerglide-equipped loaner!
Anyway, I think I learned a lot by riding with them and my Dad who drove manuals in the 50’s/early 60’s. My grandfather let me sit in his lap and steer and even “shift” his 58 BelAir from gear to gear while he clutched. You kind of get a good feel for a manual from all that childhood observation and “experience.” When I got my learner’s permit in 65, my grandmother encouraged me to drive her everywhere in the Chevy II and by then I was quite competent with a three speed. Although my driver’s training car was an automatic, I took my driver’s test in a Falcon with a manual. I bought a 60 VW the following year and thought its four speed on the floor was a piece of cake compared to the three-on-the tree set-up.
I’ve never taught anyone to drive a stick but have gotten a lot of laughs from watching people do it on YouTube. Out of a network of family and friends today, I only know two or three people who continue to drive sticks. One just bought a new Mazda 6 with a six-speed. Urban traffic has pretty much wiped out the pleasure of shifting for most of us.
You got that right. Living in Vancouver, I try to avoid going into/out of Portland during working hours with my 5-speed Versa. It’s no fun clutching 100 times per mile just to get onto the I-205 bridge.
It was so long ago that I don’t really remember much about it, other than just getting in a car and learning through repetition. A couple of friends had access to VW Bugs and those were what I mostly learned on. My father viewed cars purely as transportation appliances and the first automatic car he ever had (1954 Plymouth) made him a firm believer in two pedal driving. The first few cars I owned were all automatics; the first stick shift I purchased was a VW Super Beetle. I remember the drive home from the dealer was a little hairy because of rush hour traffic but I managed.
I taught my wife to drive a stick in my Mustang GT. I took her to an unused parking lot and showed her how to engage the clutch and move the gear shift; the biggest hurdle was convincing her that killing the motor would not hurt the car. Once she realized that she caught on pretty quickly and even had a Celica GT with 5 speed as her daily driver for a few years. I haven’t owned or even driven a stick shift car for over 20 years now. Maybe it is just incipient old age but the thought of dealing with stop and go traffic, even in the small city where I live, makes me crazy. One of things I have on my retirement list is to acquire another car with a stick to take out once a month and run through the gears.
I also grew up on a farm, so it was a lot of stuff, an IH 560 and a JD 4010, along with a ’51 Chevy 3100 “Advanced Design”. After that, a ’65 C15, and then what seems like dozens more after I got my ‘farm license’.
My son and daughter both learned on a ’74 VW thing, my grandson (he’s 7, and very tall) will be learning this summer.
We have a Jetta 6 speed TDi wagon at work, and it automatically raises the engine speed as you reach the friction point, in both forward and reverse.
One of my co-workers has a ’12 VW CC (he picked it over an Impala), and it has ‘auto hold’ which makes it even easier to drive. My how technology has advanced…
One of the other Jetta TDi’s has DSG, which is a marvel of engineering and software, but it does need to be serviced on a schedule.
When I was in high school, I had an older friend who had just been given a very used ’85-ish Mazda 323 sedan by his parents, but no lessons on how to work its 5-speed transmission. We were going out to lunch at school on the first day he had it, and by the 27th or so time he stalled it out on our ~1 mile trek, someone else suggested I drive. They incorrectly assumed I had a license and actual knowledge of how to drive one because they knew I was into cars, but I did not hesitate to hop in the driver’s seat. I knew how to work a stick shift in theory; I’d practiced so many times in a neighbor’s junked TR-7 when I was a wee lad, and I’d driven my dad’s (automatic) van many times in traffic already, so how hard could it be?
Not hard at all, as it turns out! I’m sure it wasn’t pretty, but I got it done and felt like a pro on the way back. I stalled out once at an intersection, but it was as the car was coming to a stop and I’m not sure anyone even noticed – forgot to take the shifter out of gear! I drove that car a few more times and then got my own a couple years later, which was a much different driving experience than the Mazda (a CJ-7 with a V8 and 3-speed – somewhat trickier to drive!)
I always taught people how to drive by the same method Paul mentioned, and I taught lots. I was never worried about messing the car up and confident in my “students” abilities. The only one that was a real disaster was a friend who was the biggest gearhead I knew at the time – letting him drive that same Jeep, which I thought he’d handle without any problems. Huge mistake – by the end of our ~1 mile trip home from the school parking lot, the transmission had separated itself from the bellhousing. I shit you not – he was that bad!!! I had to take over and nurse the poor CJ home in 2nd gear with the transmission partially disconnected from the engine.
I have to disagree about not using the parking brake on steep hills. Sure, you can accomplish it very smoothly with enough practice – but no one is perfect. No one ever gets it right 100% of the time. Why not do things the easier way? I commented on this in the other article, too, but I’ll mention it again here: I spent several years not even realizing that you could lock the back wheels and then take off on a hill. It just never occurred to me, and I got really good at them without it… but once I realized you could do that? Why the heck wouldn’t I do it every time?!
I may have driven a tractor before this, but I remember learning in my grandfather’s Subaru Brumby ute, including stalling a few times at first because it had quite a high bite point and I would get impatient slowly letting the clutch out as instructed (no mention of bite point!) with nothing happening, then rush the latter part and stall.
I think Paul’s method is spot on. I remember teaching my sister and despite protestations that she didn’t care or need to know how a car works, a basic explanation of what a clutch does ie bringing a stationary and spinning friction plate together helps I think. Having a basic idea of the how/why behind what is happening when you move the pedal has to assist.
I also got her to experience brake lock-up at low speed on a gravel road and then try to stop without locking, plus slalom the car a bit to feel it starting to slide. I think it is much better not to experience these things for the first time on a wet road in an emergency.
I’m currently teaching my teenager how to drive a stick shift. We have no automatics, so she has no choice in the matter; she needs to get comfortable with the stick shift before we let her out on the roads. We’re using my Honda Fit. Interestingly, she’s picked up the basic idea of the clutch friction point faster than anyone else I’ve seen learn to drive a stick shift. I’m wondering if it’s because she has no experience driving and just doesn’t know any other way!
A thing I suggest to people that I’ve never done but seems like a good idea is something like this:
If you want to teach someone to drive stick, don’t use a new car or a car you care about keeping. Find a ~$500 beater with a five-speed, buy it, use that as your instructional vehicle, and then, provided you haven’t wrapped it around a tree, sell it when you’re done. Generally, $500 cars don’t really depreciate any more as long as they’re functional, so your actual net cost is taxes, license fee (generally not a lot on a $500 car), and a few bucks of extra insurance for a month or two, which almost certainly adds up to less than the cost of a clutch job on a newer car. Even if the learner grenades the clutch or synchros or blows the engine and you end up junking the car or calling one of those “donate your old beater” places, your outlay is still probably less than a clutch job.
I learned by driving my daddy’s 47 Studebaker pickup around the pasture when I was ten.
I taught my youngins by showing them how it’s done while explaining it to them. Then I put them behind the wheel. Its cost me a couple of clutches (thanks Robbie and Karrie 🙂 ) and a transmission (thanks Debbie 🙂 ) but they all can drive a manual shift and have taught or are teaching their kids.
I taught myself to drive stick last summer on the ’75 Camaro project car I purchased. 3 speed with a straight 6. I took it around the block (side streets) quite a bit before I got brave enough to take it on the main road. I don’t drive it much (it is a project so it still needs work) but at least I feel good that I taught myself a valuable skill.
One of my favorite family stories is when my grandparents purchased a brand new ’78 VW Rabbit. My Dad was in college then and remembers Grandma coming home to say the new car would be at the dealer in a few weeks but she had one problem. To keep the cost down they ordered the basic model (only options AM/FM radio and a sunroof) with the 4 speed but she didn’t know how to drive stick. Dad had a ’72 Beetle at the time and he used that successfully to teach her to drive stick. She had no problems driving her new Rabbit and was still able to drive stick until age 70 when it became too hard on her left knee.
One of my sister’s old boyfriends let me learn on his old Mazda 808. I got the clutch pretty quickly, but ground the gears a few times getting the shifter down. My sister let me practice on her old 4-speed Civic, and that was pretty easy. A few years later I inherited my mom’s old Datsun 310 with a 4-speed and it was my daily driver for three years. I even taught an old girlfriend to drive stick on the Datsun, and she got it pretty quickly. I had a couple more vehicles (my ’84 Cavalier and ’92 Nissan King Cab), both with 5-speeds. I tried to teach my wife (a trucker’s daughter) to drive stick in the Nissan, but she didn’t (and still doesn’t) really have much interest in it. Our last car was automatic, and it’s a given that the cars we rent are automatics. I miss driving manual, and I still like to borrow a car with a stick once in a while just to keep myself in practice. If we ever have the space and money for two cars I’m going to make sure one has a stick.
My dad insisted I learn to drive manual during my driving lessons and I thought he was cruel as hell for doing that.
Obviously I was wrong because with the exception of a 81 Escort, all cars owned since are manual shift. I use the same method, empty parking lot, showing the friction point, explaining how the clutch works and lots of patience.
With that method I’ve taught my ex wife, sister and now my current girlfriend to drive stick and will soon teach my 13 year old, who can’t wait. My girlfriends daughter, not so much, but I’m working on it.:)
Taught my daughter how to drive in 2006 with my 1989 mazda b2600 4wd truck. we went out onto the seasonal use highways (logging trails, essentially) before she turned 16. put the truck in 4wd low range. max speed then was about 30 mph in 5th gear. your could pop the clutch in 1st and not stall the thing in 4wd and not get going very fast either. this made a great trainer for controlling the mass of a motor vehicle, and the concept of how to shift without the constant stall humiliation while learning the technique. soon we were able to get up to 3rd gear and speeds of 15mph. then transitioned to the paved approaches to seasonal use roads and switched to 2wd hi range to learn the clutch friction point “for real”. future rides, looked for small straight upgrades and practice starting on slopes in 2wd hi. by the time she turned 16 and was ready for permit test, she had a fair bit of beginner skills. we had ordered an 06 mini cooper around then. in 2.5 mos she was ready for road test and took and passed in the 5sp std MINI. from my experience in teaching her, i feel an 80s-90s Japanese sized 4wd compact truck with lo range in transfer case is about the perfect teaching vehicle to learn clutch technique. she is better and smoother with the shift and engine awareness than I am and has taught several friends and her husband how to drive std.
yeah, once they have some concept of the friction point, time spent on a slight upslope “catching” the car, holding it in place at moderate/low rpm on clutch and gas pedal only, then releasing and catching it again to hold it from rolling really reinforces the friction point familiarity. our section of upstate NY is really hilly, so this is an essential skill.
I taught myself in an 83 Mercury Lynx. I was 16 years old and had just bought the car…I learned to drive a manual on the way home. That was back in ’92. I taught my oldest daughter how to drive a stickshift about 4 years ago when she was 16. The clutch in my 96 Toyota Tacoma 4×4 had just begun to slip. We went to a deserted fairgrounds and put the truck in 4 low. She could pop the clutch and not stall the engine…from there she progressed to 2 high.
I first drove a manual transmission on a rental car in Athens (Greece, not Georgia). It wasn’t hard to learn and I haven’t lost the skill, due to occasional re-exposures to stick shifts over the decades since.
But I’d never consider trying to teach someone else how to do it…I don’t have the personality of a teacher…would probably stomp off and tell them to forget about it and get an automatic.
Never mind manual gearboxes; my wife insists on driving our automatic mercedes with her left foot permanently on the brake. Getttit off I say; to no avail.
My parents insisted that my younger sisters and I learned in a manual car, so the family cars were always manual. I learnt in 1989 in a 1985 Ford Sierra, my middle sister in 1991 in a 1985 Toyota Townace, and my youngest sister in 1995 in a 1990 Ford Telstar. The minute my youngest sister passed her practical licence test, my parents traded the Telstar on an auto Subaru Legacy and have owned (and loved) autos since.
My first drives were in the paddock on the family farm in 1988 in our MkV Ford Cortina, which was traded on the Sierra a week or two later. The Cortina had heavier controls but the traditionally lovely snickety-snick Ford gearbox; the Sierra was easier to drive, but the gait was too close so I frequently went from 2nd to 5th instead of 3rd.
My first car was a manual 1971 MkI Ford Escort, but I followed that with 3 successive Sierra autos and an auto Honda Accord – my work vehicles for all this time were manual though. In 2001 I bought my first Nissan Laurel, a ’92 diesel which was manual. I was helping out a Church youth group as a leader at that time, and as most families drove autos, I ended up teaching several of the young guys to drive in the Laurel. Ironically it was an ex-driving school car from Japan, and had a spotlight to shine on the driver’s footwell, a second rear-view mirror (which I removed as it looked dorky) mounted where the passenger side sunvisor should be, and extra footrests on the passenger side. Oh, and hockey stick mirrors way down the end of the front guards. Having driven for a living for several years, I’m pretty patient and unflappable when it comes to driving, so I really enjoyed teaching them all. I found the best way to teach them to master the manual was to tailor the lessons to the person. For example, for a pianist I could compare the pedal action to those on a piano. Great fun!
I sold my last manual car, my R33 Nissan Skyline, 4 years ago. Wish I hadn’t, as flinging it around winding back roads was such a delight. But you never forget – the Transit motor home I had in the UK last year was manual, and I loved driving it! There’s nothing quite as satisfying as learning a car’s clutch/gearbox and working in unison with them – it’s almost like a symbiotic relationship when you get it right!
I so agree with you Scott.. 🙂 …there is nothing like chucking a manual rear drive high-powered car around on our back country roads… particularly if it’s bent eight or a decent six… you know the State Highway from Bombay to Thames? (yuk!..boring AND DANGEROUS!!) well.. i instead used to rip along the winding coastal road via Clevedon Kawakawa Orere Kaiaua Miranda every time i could) now THAT one is a FUN drive to Thames, don’t you agree?? (no cops) (a few nice throttle openable Front Miranda Road 200kmph plus straights)
Snap my friend! I convey my own local church folk around the Thames-Paeroa-Waihi-Te Aroha area in an old Estima camper i picked-up off TradeMe for tuppence hap-penny complete with a healthy 3CT/AWD drivetrain 🙂
My Uncle sent me to the auto parts store in a VW Station Wagon, told me, ‘You’ll know how to drive a clutch buy the time you get back! He was right it was easy to drive a clutch in the VW Type 3 Squareback.
Nice article, Paul Niedermeyer, and in the article you described a very good technique for teaching. I wish my driving instructor had taught me some more about mastering the clutch before sending me out into traffic (driving students in Europe have it hard – quite often, instructors fail to really teach them how to skillfully operate the transmission, and then they have to go out into traffic, too many new things at once).
As for your last paragraph on starting uphill, however, I think using handbrake is a good idea if you want smooth starts and not wear out your clutch too soon. On European cars, handbrake lever is between the seats, and (at least for me) it’s much easier to coordinate left foot (clutch), right foot (gas) and right hand (handbrake), than to smoothly transition the right foot from brake pedal to gas…
As Roger put it in the first post, this is a basic skill here and was just something I learned from my driving instructor along with the rest of driving.
My memory blurs the whole experience together but I’m pretty sure I spent some of the first couple of lessons learning to feel the clutch, often with the handbrake on iirc – just engaging and feeling it start to pull then disengaging. By the middle of my second lesson it wasn’t something I had to think about any more.
A couple of years ago my good friend Hamish, who emigrated here from Canada, was studying for his UK driving test. He was really struggling with getting the hang of “stickshift”.
He was especially frustrated by what he called the “stoopidfukenclutch” on his partner’s VW Polo when out practicing in between lessons. Listening to him talk it was clear he’d just about mastered the clutch on his instructor’s car, but hadn’t learned to feel for the bite point, so couldn’t adapt to different manual cars. Without that context though from his perspective the Polo’s transmission was just this baffling, frustrating barrier to driving. People telling him it was a thing you’d learn to feel wasn’t helping either – it’s pretty vague advice after all.
A few months later with the Polo’s transmission still a baffling mystery to him, they decided to get a new car together and plumped for a Suzuki SX4. A manual (Autos are expensive and relatively rare here).
Hame was still very unsure of manual transmissions, and specifically worried he wouldn’t get the hang of their new Suzuki. He asked me (as his car-nut friend) for help. Since they live in Wick I couldn’t exactly pop over (he’s a really good friend, but it’s a 14 hour round trip!) so I sat down and thought about this thing I’d been doing instinctively for almost two decades so I could distill it into an email:
A few months later he passed his test and these days happily drives all over Caithness, shifting like a pro, and even enjoying it! It really is easy once you know how.
For years my Dad only bought manual transmission cars, but by the time I was ready to begin driving Mom had convinced him to buy automatics (she could shift fine, but detested it).
My first time driving a stick a stick was the summer I was 16 at the peach orchard where I worked. There was an ancient pickup that had been retrofitted with a homemade platform in place of the bed, and one of the foremen told me to “move that truck over there”. Once the starter button on the floor was pointed out to me (I had never seen such a thing), I did okay.
The second time was in my senior year of high school when a friend asked if I wanted to drive his dad’s VW Beetle (don’t know if Dad was aware of this). The Beetle was pretty easy to drive, so I was able to get it going and run through the gears around our town pretty easily, pretty much entirely self-taught.
Then in 79 when I bought the first car I chose (as opposed to getting a family hand-me-down), I bought a 79 Mustang turbo 4 speed. My first experience with the car was driving it home in rush-hour traffic, which I managed to do without stalling once (this was about 8 years after the experience with the VW, but as they say once you’ve learned how you never forget).
I only gave up on sticks in 2000 because the arthritis in my left knee made crawling down the Southfield freeway during ruch hour a painful experience. I’m thinking that, now that I’m retired and I can avoid rush hour, my next car should have a stick.
I learned in the arcade, no kidding. Dad used to be a real car guy (Impala, Isetta, Amazon, Dart, Beetle in that order), but by the time my brother and I came along, it was snoozeville… Aspen wagon or Camaro Berlinetta. But we’d go to the drag races or the fancy new arcades now and then.
Growing up with Turbo and Pole Position grounded the love of driving for me. In ’86, OutRun released and really tugged at the heartstrings – the road trip game with changing scenery, music, a passenger… but in 1989, it was Atari’s “Hard Drivin'” that actually taught me how to drive stick. A simulation with a true 4-speed and 3 pedals. Selecting manual mode meant that the clutch even had to be in to start the game.
I regularly snuck the old Berlinetta out since I was about 12, but had never driven an actual manual transmission car in my life, only that game. In 1996, at 18, I picked out my first car (a manual ’83 Volvo 245 Turbo that I still think about weekly), and wound up driving it 70 miles home without a single stall or mis-shift. Dad couldn’t believe it.
I wish today’s console games had better 3-pedal support. It almost seems like the car market’s following the game market as paddle shifters become the only option even on sporty cars like the Alfa 4C.
OutRun! God I’ve not thought of that in years. Awesome game. Good point too – games then did have better manual representation than they do now. Maybe Rockstar could make a GTA Scotland and everything could be manual 😀
I taught myself.
I picked up an article about driving a stick then when I felt I had it down in my mind, went to the Volkswagen dealer in town and took a Diesel Rabbit out for a test drive.
The Diesel Rabbit is a nice teacher. Put it in first, gently release the clutch and it starts rolling very smoothly all by itself, without touching the gas pedal. Well, a diesel pedal in this case. Only worked of course when the engine was at its normal operating temperature.
That’s what I remember from the VW Golf Mk1 diesel I had for taking the driving lessons and for passing the driving test.
Ditto a manual 4.0 HO XJ Cherokee. Actually, you don’t even have to release it gently….
Dad taught me the basics about operating a car with a stick, but when I was 14, he bought his 1960 Impala which had a 283 Powerglide. That was in 1965.
In 1968, I really wanted to learn to drive a stick, but I didn’t own a car as yet, but I planned on buying a friend’s 1952 Chevy, which was a stick. My friend’s dad’s main car was a 1966 Bel-Air 4 door sedan – it was a stick as well. Well, he drove over one evening in the Bel-Air and gave me a chance!
In our neighborhood there wasn’t much traffic, especially in the evening, and I slowly gained a feel for the coordination necessary – we had mild hills, too!
Well, once you get the hang of it, there’s no going back! Driving a stick was fun!
I bought that 1952 Chevy that August, and some time later, I bought a 1961 Bel-Air, also a stick.
Fun, fun, fun.
One day one of my best friends taught me in a parking lot with his Ford Ranger 5-speed. I did pretty well, but haven’t driven a manual since then. I’m probably a little rusty now.
I taught myself on my Dad’s then new Ford Escort. I’d seen other people doing it, and was able to pick it up pretty quickly. I then taught my brother. After having him tool around the neighborhood, he felt pretty comfortable. He felt so comfortable with it that he drove the car to his buddy’s house that evening. Upon leaving, sometime after midnight, he realized there was one thing we hadn’t gone over–starting on a hill. His friend lived on a steep hill, and he couldn’t get the car started from the curb in front of the house.
They had to wake his friend’s father up, who cursed at him as he got dressed, went outside, and executed a u turn in front of the house. Traumatized, my brother drove the car home and, even 30 years later, has never driven a stick again.
Although my father was going to teach me, I taught myself. Age 18 (1968), so of course I knew the method of driving a stick. I just hadn’t driven one yet. Then dad got me my graduation gift, a 1937 Buick Special two door sedan. The plan was that he was going to teach me that coming weekend. Of course, I couldn’t wait. That Buick had the most forgiving and easy clutch ever made, with a very progressive take-up point, so within five minutes (and no stalling) I had it figured out.
Motorcycle clutches were learned in the parking lot of the Erie Kawasaki dealer as I picked up my first bike, a 1975 G3-SS (100cc two-stroke street). Stalled it six times before I finally wobbled out the driveway, but by the time I’d gotten home (15 miles away) I had the basics figured out.
My late wife, Patti, was the odd duck. She could handle a motorcycle (hand) clutch halfway competently, but was a complete loss with an automobile (foot) clutch. Ended up driving automatics all her life.
I’m still one of those hard cases who doesn’t like to look at a new car unless its got a manual.
I’m the guy who posted the “handbrake” comment in the Pontiac GP writeup so I guess I should give my background.
I guess the first manual transmission I drove was a tractor also, but more of a lawn tractor than a regular large tractor. I had to learn to cut our lawn (we had a pretty big yard, and it was hilly) but being allowed to drive anything was a big deal for a car crazy young guy I was at the time.
My first car was a ’72 Fiat 128, with (of course) a manual transmission. It wasn’t the car I learned to drive on, but was the first car I drove with manual transmission (my Dad had a Renault R10 with manual but traded it in for an automatic car the year I was learning to drive, and I never got to drive the R10). The Fiat 128 wasn’t too hard to learn on, but it met its demise when one of the gears in the transmission came off the spindle and trashed the transaxle, and it would be too expensive to fix (and the car was so rusty it wasn’t worth it). The Fiat had a manual choke too, and burned premium gas (but the tank I think was all of 7 gallons, so even though it got good mileage it still had to be filled up quite often.
My Dad and Mother both learned to drive manual (my Dad’s first (Ford) and second (Plymouth) cars were manuals)…but my Mom learned on a ’51 Chrysler Windsor with semi-automatic transmission. She later drove my Father’s cars of course, but to this day has never been completely comfortable with a manual. I had to give her a refresher on my GTI when she was travelling to eastern Europe with my Uncle, she wanted to make sure she could back him up (my Uncle for some reason has a tendency to have weird things happen to him when he travels, sometimes leaving him incapacitated such that he might not be able to drive). I had 3 sisters, and only one learned to drive manual; I tried to teach my youngest sister (I wanted to give her my ’78 Scirocco) but she never really learned, I think its lack of air conditioning and that she really preferred Automatic gave her disincentive to learn to drive manual.
I’ve owned nothing but manuals since I bought the Scirocco in 1981…but I think I will eventually go automatic partly because it is getting so hard to find manual cars, but also I’ve noted some times when I’ve had leg or knee problems, having to press the clutch (as innocuous as that seems) is a bigger deal when you’re not feeling well, and to only have one car with manual transmission makes it mandatory to drive it even on such occasions. I think I learned a lesson 20 years ago when I broke my collarbone in a bicycle accident and had to drive my (non-power steering) GTI with 60 series tires …the car wasn’t too heavy, but the steering was tough enough to drive when incapacitated (I had a sling on for several weeks). That plus the manual transmission was a handful.
I think the thing I’ll really miss when I go to automatics is the engine braking…I wish automatics would slow down like manuals when you let off the gas…I don’t like having to use the brake pedal to slow down all the time.
Right after I got my license in 1964 my dad had me haul some trash to the dump. I told him I couldn’t drive a stick. He told me that I would be an expert by the time I got back. He was close to right.
I got a good laugh a few years ago when a former classmate of my youngest daughter told me that when they were in school he was amazed that she drove a stick shift Ranger pickup. He said she told him ” It’s not a real truck if the gearshift doesn’t come out of the floor”.
Hey now… it can be a real truck if the column has an “H” pattern!! LOL
True. Of course she wasn’t old enough to drive the ’73 Ranchero 302 three on the tree I had at one time. Odd truck. It had lower body paint stripe and factory Magnum 500 wheels and AM radio and nothing else. I would have liked to have been able to ask the original owner about that. I finally put a Hurst shifter in it it when the column linkage broke.
My daughter will learn on my 72 F-100 Three on the Tree!!!
My wife never learned. My Father-In-Law told me he certainly wasn’t going to teach her in his 65 Vette!
Sadly, motorcycle manufactures are putting non-shifting trannys on bikes more and more. I really don’t get that at all… shifting is part of the fun!
My parents always had automatics – so it was up to me to learn on my own. Luckily, I worked summers with the town’s recreation department doing maintenance. Two of the three trucks had manual transmissions (this was in the late 70’s – early 80’s). One was an older Ford mason dump – that had the most forgiving clutch. I would putter around in that thing every chance I got until I mastered it.
However – I never got good at backing up with a trailer attached! But that’s another story.