How to drive stick shift? Options

[xs94st]

old pickup ftw!

[RickJamesBish]

Just test drive standard transmission cars at car dealerships. Learning to drive stick is really tough on a clutch so take it out on random cars. Go back day after day to different salesmen at different dealerships until you have a good idea of what you are doing. And remember that too much gas is better than not enough gas

Right, and then the salesman isn't gonna get pissed when it turns out you can't move the thing two feet...nice try.

[Taskbot]

Okay I did this recently too (like 4 months ago) and I ended up learning it pretty quickly.

The best thing you can do is make a night of it once you learn how to launch it of course. Just fill up the tank and take it to the streets. Nobody will be around so nobody will care if you mess up. Country roads are the best, and make sure you do some hill stops. Just spend like an hours at it, take a break, and than another hour. After that, sleep. Then wake up and think about what you did wrong and how you can improve your driving. After you've done this you'll probably be itching to go out and do it again.

I did something like that for a while, however I owned the car before I could actually drive it. Since you'll probably be taking a friend's car you might not be able to get a routine like that going so you might want to work on the basics and save the routine for when you get the car you're going to buy.

[RickJamesBish]

I wouldn't advise taking it on public roads if you don't know how to drive it yet, there's still people out...like people have said, empty parking lot is best.

[mrgrape]

Okay I did this recently too (like 4 months ago) and I ended up learning it pretty quickly.

The best thing you can do is make a night of it once you learn how to launch it of course. Just fill up the tank and take it to the streets. Nobody will be around so nobody will care if you mess up. Country roads are the best, and make sure you do some hill stops. Just spend like an hours at it, take a break, and than another hour. After that, sleep. Then wake up and think about what you did wrong and how you can improve your driving. After you've done this you'll probably be itching to go out and do it again.

I did something like that for a while, however I owned the car before I could actually drive it. Since you'll probably be taking a friend's car you might not be able to get a routine like that going so you might want to work on the basics and save the routine for when you get the car you're going to buy.

sick man
i think i might have my friend test drive it
and have him drive it back and teach me with the new car...
is that legit???
what does everyone else think of that

[RickJamesBish]

Once again, that sounds terrible...have fun wrecking a new car.

[CelicaST_CALI]

all i can say is dont be a robot...every time u shift gears is different...

[Taskbot]

Once again, that sounds terrible...have fun wrecking a new car.

Hahaha you're acting like this is something completely different. A car is a car. Standard or Automatic, it makes little difference when it comes to actually being on a road because the only thing that is really changed is getting it to move and shifting. He can still swerve and stuff, plus he'll probably have someone in the passenger seat.

When I learned to drive standard I was thrown into the mix. Me and my dad were test driving a 96 Accord Coupe and he stopped at the side of the road and was like "okay now you drive."Although it took FOREVER to launch that thing, The clutch was definitely not stock, it was like a light switch. I managed to get it back to the used car place. The scary part though was pulling the thing onto a 4 lane 80km/h highway. I thought I was going to stall it for sure.

Still, you should do a little parking lot stuff before you actually take it to the road but when you take it to the road, take it away from the city to the countryside. If you ever get in anyone's way just put on the blinkers. There's really nothing that bad about it.
------------------------------


It should be alright to let your friend test drive the car, I mean for all the owners know he could be buying it and he should still be okay to drive it back to your place, transfer of ownership usually happens after you have the car in your possession but so long as you have the signed ownership you should be okay.

[mrgrape]

wow i was in my friends z28 today and OMFGGGGGGGGGGGGGG WHAT A FREAKIN BEAST COMPARED TO THE CELI....
it was frickin insane..... i really am amped on driving stick.
ill prob buy it and practice on my own...
i heard its another new world of driving cars!!!!
i missed out on this 300zx twin turbo CLEAN title 70,000 5speed for 10grand
I SHOULD OF JUMPED ON IT!!!!!
o well if any other ideas come up let me know.
I NEED STICK!

This post has been edited by mrgrape: Sep 2, 2008 - 12:19 AM

[JonMarkos]

So a salesman gets pissed and...does what?

[RickJamesBish]

I'm not talking about driving in general, of course that's not gonna be a problem, but getting the car to move at all...why would you let somebody continue to test drive a car when they can't even get it to move? So then you try to pull into a busy road like you described, and you get your nose into traffic and then BAM you stall. What happens then?

[Taskbot]

I'm not talking about driving in general, of course that's not gonna be a problem, but getting the car to move at all...why would you let somebody continue to test drive a car when they can't even get it to move? So then you try to pull into a busy road like you described, and you get your nose into traffic and then BAM you stall. What happens then?

Hahaha I was talking about like country roads at 2am. its 9:40 and nobody has passed my farm in 20 minutes. Its pretty deserted and I think all traffic stops dead around here at about 2 until about 5 and I'm only about 20 minutes from a large city. Besides, if you have a car with a reasonable clutch you should be okay. Ideally though he'll probably have some seat time in a parking lot learning to make it move. But that would only take about 10-15 minutes. There's only so much you can do in a parking lot until the learning curve is negligible and you need to move to a more open space.

I dunno though, I'm a different learner and I learn okay under pressure.

[richee3]

I NEED STICK!