For those of you who drive....can you drive stick?

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no tears here. i prefer to drive a stick.

I meant no offense to women. It's just that all the women i've talked to about this (and I don't talk to many about such things...or anything for that matter) claim it was incredibly frustrating and made them cry.

the fun part is when you decide it's time to learn street racing. you'll need to learn power shifting. that's where you keep your right foot planted on the accelerator while you QUICKLY depress the clutch pedal,shift,release clutch pedal and hope your shift was completed. just great fun. also good for learning the art of working on clutch assemblies and transmissions.

practice, practice, practice. suggest you DO NOT use your father's car if you want to remain on speaking terms with him. save money for inevitable adventures with your local police department official.

also a great way to lose your driver's license.

ok, best to just forget street racing.

i didn't figure you meant any offense.

just offering the information.

I didn't think you did....but i'm always worried that I said something politically incorrect. I will admit that it does seem like women cry more readily than men. I don't think this is due to something innate in women. Rather...I believe men have been indoctrinated to believe it's not OK for them to cry.

I think I forgot street racing long before I was born. Cars generally don't interest me except as a means to an end. It feels good to overcome the challenge involved in driving a stick, but again, the car is serving as a means to end in that situation. I'm sure street racing is a great challenge, but not one I have any interest in undertaking. I'll stick to higher mathematics and other academic things i'm weak in if I really want a major challenge.

My parents only had stick shift cars, so if I wanted to drive I had no choice but to learn. I remember absolutely hating it and my parents at the time. My mom tried to teach me but would end up clenched into a ball by the end of the lesson so my dad took over...he was much more laid back. His teaching method was taking me to an almost unused old back road and just making me stop and go and stop and go for the entire lesson...he said once I got first gear down, the ready would be a cinch. I really hated those lessons.


Once I got my license I began looking for used cars, the only one within an acceptable price range that was in decent shape was a stick. My desire for mobility outweighed my hatred of stick shifts.

I now can't stand driving automatics. I love the control stick shifts provide. I had to rent a car not too long ago (it was an automatic) and it drove me absolutely mad not having the control I was used to.

I remember the first time I tried to learn from my dad when I was 19. Horrible experience. I think the difference between a good experience and a bad experience depends on how good a teacher you have.

My dad was too dumb to explain how to inch forward in a slow and controlled manner by keeping the clutch near the friction point. Based on his words I thought the clutch always had to be either all the way in or all the way out. As a result I kept either stalling or ramming the car into the curb when I tried to park. This lead to a massive altercation between me and my father, involving him yelling at me and me in response throwing a tire pressure guage across the car at him.

I know how to drive a stick now though I'm still not as comfortable as I am with an automatic. It's really not that hard though once you know how to do it though. The hard part is getting someone who can explain it well.

My biggest problem was nerves. I told myself I couldn't handle any added distractions, and I do think I would increase my risk of actually causing an accident because it's all I can do to pay attention to everything as it is. But I figure if I learned to drive on the freeway (California) I could probably learn to drive a stick.

The complication and the thing that sent me into a panic and made me refuse to try again... These California hills. The lady showing me how to drive had me try to do the the clutch thing on a small hill and it stalled. She meant it only as a demonstration but I just saw this happening at a traffic light and got out and refused to drive a stick again.

Ever tried a non-synchromesh transmission?
Freaky; when you depress the clutch pedal you have to put the gearbox in neutral, release the clutch and hold engine speed at the speed you anticipate it will be at once you actually finish shift - this is to get the gearbox shafts spinning at near enough speed for the dogs to engage - then press the clutch in and quickly shift into the gear.
Only one I drove was a Model A Ford.

Everyone here drives manual transmission. That's not true actually - you can get an automatic only licence, but very few people do. First time I drove an auto I struggled to get it off the parking lot - my left foot would go down looking for the clutch and catch the edge of the brake pedal.

seriously guys do you need some teaching driving atm/stick i been driving both and moved from stick to atm with 2hours of driving

Oh hell yeah! My '93 XJ has a NV3500 manual transmission. I've known how to drive a stick since I was a kid (sticks were a lot more common back the mid 80s), but I didn't get really good at it until I got into offroading about 6 years ago. Man, there's nothing quite like having to carefully crawl over a bunch of big rocks to get you familiar with your clutch. You have to constantly shuffle your two feet between three different pedals. Eventually someone suggested I install a hand-throttle and, wow, what a great idea that was - now I can have one foot on the clutch, the other on the brake, and my index finger managing the throttle! Very handy for those times you have to start on a really steep hill.

If you want to learn how to drive a stick and you have access to a vehicle with a transfer case you're in luck! Put that thing in 4LO and, at least in 1st and 2nd gear, you simply can't stall it. The gearing is so low that even at idle the engine can easily keep the vehicle moving. Very nice for getting a feel for how a clutch works without constantly stalling.

It's not a big deal. It's all about getting a feel for the clutch, which can vary from vehicle to vehicle, but once you find that "sweet spot" where it engages/disengages, it's not long until you're shifting smoothly.

I prefer manuals because they are lower maintenance than automatics. You also have more control over your torque options in poor driving conditions.

I drove with a manual shift from the git-go. I never owned a car with an automatic transmission although I have driven such cars.

ruveyn

My dad only owned 2 automatics and this was due to the deals at the lot..........otherwise it is always a manual/stick.

An old rule of thumb is that it was $500 less than an "auto," and back in the day the auto tran's were long term unreliable due to the overdrive part.....(too much expense to rebuild at 90 - 100,000 miles).
And before the "locking torque converters,"(this 4 speed overdrive) , you had only a 3 speed automatic that naturally slipped at the torque converter and would lose fuel economy. This hydraulic coupling here was just that, fluid to fluid at the converter, with no mechanical lock up between the engine and the final drive at the wheels.

I think the 'steering column shift' was phased out decades ago, but I don't know for sure. I believe it was an option for the truck and vans, at least for G.M.

I recall you can bump this "shifter" with your knee and knock it back into neutral.

I've owned one ( 5 speed stick) and if you got the horsepower than it's fun, but high traffic wears the left leg out.

Last edited by Mdyar on 29 Sep 2010, 7:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.