Teaching Fiance How to Drive Manual?

Cully77

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Feb 20, 2009
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My fiance wants to learn how to drive a manual-- which I'm all for, but she wants to learn on my car...

Granted I learned on my car, but if I fucked it up, it had only myself to blame. But I caught on pretty quickly.

I have no doubt she can do it, but she gets frustrated when she doesn't get the hang of something quickly. And when she gets frustrated she tends to ignore my advice/help.

The first car I drove stick was a Cruze (just a couple laps in a parking lot), which was much easier to get the hang of than the Camaro. So I've been looking at beaters for like $1,200 or less, but I'll be pissed if the thing craps out on me.

Has anyone done anything similar? Any tips?
 

Flyn

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Empty parking lot. Clutch in. Put in gear. Clutch out. Clutch in. Stop. Take out of gear. clutch out. Clutch in. Put in gear. Clutch out. Etc. Repeat until she is confident with starting out. Once you have that confidence, the rest is easy. Plus, if she learns the parking lot way, the worst she will do is ride the clutch a little or kill the car a few times.
 

Bob Kazamakis

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The hardest part for beginners is starting. Getting the feel for the friction point of the clutch will be the best thing to start with. No throttle, just the clutch pedal.


She's not going to break anything. The other thing that helped my wife learn was explaining how it functions and that it's not an on/off switch.
 

Cully77

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Empty parking lot. Clutch in. Put in gear. Clutch out. Clutch in. Stop. Take out of gear. clutch out. Clutch in. Put in gear. Clutch out. Etc. Repeat until she is confident with starting out. Once you have that confidence, the rest is easy. Plus, if she learns the parking lot way, the worst she will do is ride the clutch a little or kill the car a few times.

Yeah, just takes practice of course. I did exactly that with my dad over the summer, but he still burnt the clutch a couple times and/or bucked the hell out of it

The Cruze was easy because you could feel the friction point and give it almost no gas to start rolling. The friction point was much harder to identify as a new learner in the Camaro.
 

Turk

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The Camaro will be easier to learn on than a beater. Cars with power are a lot harder to stall, and she can actually get the car moving in first gear without using the gas pedal. That won't happen on a $1200 civic.

The notchy feeling of the stick will also help hear have a feel for what gear she's in. A lot of the econo boxes feel like complete slush, unless you've been driving the car for awhile, it's hard to tell sometimes if you're in 1st or 3rd, or 2nd or 4th.
 

rocket5979

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Nov 15, 2005
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The key is zero throttle at first. Just clutch.


I agree. Get the hang of one before they try to learn the other.


The Camaro will be easier to learn on than a beater. Cars with power are a lot harder to stall, and she can actually get the car moving in first gear without using the gas pedal. That won't happen on a $1200 civic.


I could not agree more with this statement. Cars with more torque are considerably easier to learn on since they are very hard to stall. I have taught people how to drive manual on powerful and not-so-powerful cars, and they always got the hang easier with the more powerful ones because they were more forgiving.

OP, Find an open parking lot with plenty of room or an old back road and let the lessons begin. If she get pissy and stops listening to you then shut the car off and end the lessons until she cools down. Remember to be supportive about her accomplishments, even little ones. Focus on what she does good instead of what she does wrong; unless it is something huge and unsafe. If she gets frustrated and wants to quit, then feel free to mention the growing pains you went through when you first learned so that she knows she isn't alone in her frustration.
 

Ear Rak

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The Camaro will be easier to learn on than a beater. Cars with power are a lot harder to stall, and she can actually get the car moving in first gear without using the gas pedal. That won't happen on a $1200 civic.

The notchy feeling of the stick will also help hear have a feel for what gear she's in. A lot of the econo boxes feel like complete slush, unless you've been driving the car for awhile, it's hard to tell sometimes if you're in 1st or 3rd, or 2nd or 4th.

Its funny you mention that. I taught a friend of mine how to drive stick in my old mustang and in his brothers srt4. He always said the mustang was easier to drive because of the stiffer clutch and not enough throttle needed to move it.
 

Cully77

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I agree. Get the hang of one before they try to learn the other.





I could not agree more with this statement. Cars with more torque are considerably easier to learn on since they are very hard to stall. I have taught people how to drive manual on powerful and not-so-powerful cars, and they always got the hang easier with the more powerful ones because they were more forgiving.

OP, Find an open parking lot with plenty of room or an old back road and let the lessons begin. If she get pissy and stops listening to you then shut the car off and end the lessons until she cools down. Remember to be supportive about her accomplishments, even little ones. Focus on what she does good instead of what she does wrong; unless it is something huge and unsafe. If she gets frustrated and wants to quit, then feel free to mention the growing pains you went through when you first learned so that she knows she isn't alone in her frustration.

Absolutely. I'm very supportive, but it helps to hear you all just say just give her a shot in the Camaro. The Camaro was the last thing I did as "a single guy." I met her literally a week after I bought it. While I was used to sharing my old cars with family, literally nobody in my immediate family knows how to drive stick. So the thought of anybody else behind the wheel is just a little intimidating.

thanks all
 

Ear Rak

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I only got one lesson from my dad. Took me to a parking lot and let me figure out the clutch on my own. Second time ever driving stick was when i asked for more lessons and he tossed me the keys to the mustang and said to go drive it around town. His exact words were..."You learn stick a lot faster when people are honking at you."
 
Learned stick in a pos geo metro. Within an hour i had it down. It was awesome!!
My dad taught me. My gf at the time learned to drive my turbo prelude with a clutchmasters stage 3 clutch and an act 12lbs light flywheel. My left leg became more muscular than my right leg. Lol
p.s. i ended up marrying her. :fy: she loved driving that thing and bragged to her gfs about it being stick.
 

Lord Tin Foilhat

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I learned in the first manual car I bought, then drove home from Kalamazoo Michigan. First couple toll booths were left doing burnouts.

Same here. Bought a 90 integra and never drove manual before. Learned on the 45 min drive home from Rockford. I stalled that shit at the tolls 3 times and had a nice line behind me :rofl: It is true you do learn faster with people honking at you!

I started teaching my nephew how to drive stick and the first thing I did was no accelerator, clutch only in a parking lot. Took him a few tries but after that it was easy. If you can get it rolling without the accelerator then with it should be a piece of cake.
 
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