Dan Beaton

"Steve" (yeah@right.com) writes:
> Sally has always been interested in cars. She's 19 and is trading in her 93
> automatic corolla for a 98 Civic EX coupe. we pick it up on Saturday. She
> has never driven a stick before. I have owned standards before and grew up
> driving motorcycles but I haven't had to teach someone to drive stick
> before.
> Any suggestions would be appreciated. I read that you should have them try
> to get the car going without using the gas. Just by slowly letting the
> clutch out you can feel the transmission engage.
>
> Should be an interesting drive home on Saturday...
>
>
> TIA
>
>
> Steve
>
>

Wow! Lots of responses, some of which completely miss the point; how to
teach a qualified driver how to use a manual transmission.

I taught both of my kids and my approach is similar to some that have
been suggested. I found a level stretch of country road that dead-ended.
Then, had the driver start the car in motion in first gear, with only
the clutch, no gas. After that became easy, do the same in second gear.
After that, just to prove that it could be done, start in third gear.
The repeat starting in first gear but with application of gas.

Then start over, the same exercise, but on a modest incline.

Finally, a similar exercise, but on a steeper incline (enough that
the car will roll back in short order), and use the handbrake to
prevent rollback. Unless you drive in very hilly country, you shouldn't
need the technique very often, but it can come in handy when you need
it.

This very quickly trains the left foot. And for those who have never
done it, no, it is not hard on the clutch to start in second with no
gas on a level road.

(Or you could do what my sister did; just drive it home. Nothing like
necessity to create skills quickly.)

Dan

(This account is not used for email.)

Elmo P. Shagnasty

In article <dfsi3b$d70$1@theodyn.ncf.ca>,
ag564@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Dan Beaton) wrote:

> (Or you could do what my sister did; just drive it home. Nothing like
> necessity to create skills quickly.)

My wife did that many years ago. (She came from a father whose opinion
was "girls can do that".)

Michael Wojcik

In article <0MSdnShLP6uxB73eRVn-vw@giganews.com>, "Steve" <yeah@right.com> writes:
> Sally has always been interested in cars. She's 19 and is trading in her 93
> automatic corolla for a 98 Civic EX coupe. we pick it up on Saturday. She
> has never driven a stick before. I have owned standards before and grew up
> driving motorcycles but I haven't had to teach someone to drive stick
> before.

I taught my stepdaughter to drive using a manual-transmission car
(my '93 Civic EX coupe, in fact). She was also taking driving
lessons at school, but they use automatics, and frankly I'm not sure
the class was particularly useful. My wife and I both believe it's
useful to know how to drive a manual; also, we didn't own any
automatic-transmission vehicles at the time.

We were in Nebraska, so wide open spaces and back roads were readily
available.

My advice:

- Keep reminding her, and yourself, that learning to use the clutch
takes practice, and driving will be rough and frustrating for a
while no matter how careful she is.

- Sometimes just driving back and forth in the driveway can be good
clutch practice when you're first learning.

- Start in an empty parking lot or similar. Move on to low-traffic
roads without significant hills when she's comfortable with starting
and shifting. Some people develop a tendency to hold the clutch
pedal down and freewheel around curves when they're first learning to
drive a manual; I'd recommend correcting that, if it appears, before
heading onto real roads. (Don't want to lose control going around a
curve and run into oncoming traffic...)

- Once she's good with level roads, practice with things like hill
starts.

Really, though, it's just a matter of being sensible and practicing.
I don't think there are any shortcuts. The main things are to avoid
tackling something before she's ready and not quitting out of
frustration (which is what happened when my father tried to teach
me; I ended up learning on my own, driving a Toyota Tercel around
town in the wee hours of the morning when there were no other cars
to worry about).

--
Michael Wojcik michael.wojcik@microfocus.com

Any average educated person can turn out competent verse. -- W. H. Auden

Dr Nick

my suggestion, start out slow, when I started driving when I was 16 (am
currently 22) my dad got me and my twin brother a 92 saturn SL2. only
problem is was a 5 speed. but I couldn't exactly complain about my dad
buying me a car. I wasn't happy I learned to drive on my moms ford explorer
(which was an auto) my father took me to a parking lot and told me to start
the car witht eh clutch in, then foot off the break and then SLOWLY release
the clutch, he showed me how you can get the car moving without even using
the gas pedal. just slowly releasing the clutch to let it move the car, once
ya reach speed let it out all the way and give some gas. now have them stop,
and have them do the same thing, but with a little gas to get them moving
quicker. 2 things to remind her all the time, when you stop, clutch goes in
(I bet she will be learning to move the car before she realizes that when
you stop ya gotta push in the clutch or it will stall (took me like 5 times
or so to engrave it in my head) but take it form me, once I finally learned
hwo to drive it (i'd say took about a week to get it down to be road worthy
enough and about 2 weeks to pretty much master) now I'm so addicted to
manual trannys, I can't get an auto (hey at least it saves me 1,000 bucks
when I look for a new car, and also saves gas) good luck, like the other guy
said make her laugh cause it will be VERY fustraiting for her the first few
times.
"Steve" <yeah@right.com> wrote in message
news:0MSdnShLP6uxB73eRVn-vw@giganews.com...
> Sally has always been interested in cars. She's 19 and is trading in her
> 93
> automatic corolla for a 98 Civic EX coupe. we pick it up on Saturday. She
> has never driven a stick before. I have owned standards before and grew up
> driving motorcycles but I haven't had to teach someone to drive stick
> before.
> Any suggestions would be appreciated. I read that you should have them try
> to get the car going without using the gas. Just by slowly letting the
> clutch out you can feel the transmission engage.
>
> Should be an interesting drive home on Saturday...
>
>
> TIA
>
>
> Steve
>
>

Michael Pardee

I endorse this method. Not what I did with my wife, but this is better.

"Dan Beaton" <ag564@FreeNet.Carleton.CA> wrote in message
news:dfsi3b$d70$1@theodyn.ncf.ca...
>
> "Steve" (yeah@right.com) writes:
>> Sally has always been interested in cars. She's 19 and is trading in her
>> 93
>> automatic corolla for a 98 Civic EX coupe. we pick it up on Saturday. She
>> has never driven a stick before. I have owned standards before and grew
>> up
>> driving motorcycles but I haven't had to teach someone to drive stick
>> before.
>> Any suggestions would be appreciated. I read that you should have them
>> try
>> to get the car going without using the gas. Just by slowly letting the
>> clutch out you can feel the transmission engage.
>>
>> Should be an interesting drive home on Saturday...
>>
>>
>> TIA
>>
>>
>> Steve
>>
>>
>
> Wow! Lots of responses, some of which completely miss the point; how to
> teach a qualified driver how to use a manual transmission.
>
> I taught both of my kids and my approach is similar to some that have
> been suggested. I found a level stretch of country road that dead-ended.
> Then, had the driver start the car in motion in first gear, with only
> the clutch, no gas. After that became easy, do the same in second gear.
> After that, just to prove that it could be done, start in third gear.
> The repeat starting in first gear but with application of gas.
>
> Then start over, the same exercise, but on a modest incline.
>
> Finally, a similar exercise, but on a steeper incline (enough that
> the car will roll back in short order), and use the handbrake to
> prevent rollback. Unless you drive in very hilly country, you shouldn't
> need the technique very often, but it can come in handy when you need
> it.
>
> This very quickly trains the left foot. And for those who have never
> done it, no, it is not hard on the clutch to start in second with no
> gas on a level road.
>
> (Or you could do what my sister did; just drive it home. Nothing like
> necessity to create skills quickly.)
>
> Dan
>
> (This account is not used for email.)

JXStern

On Sat, 10 Sep 2005 07:41:12 -0700, "Michael Pardee"
<michaeltnull@cybertrails.com> wrote:
>I endorse this method. Not what I did with my wife, but this is better.

*deleted*
*deleted*
*deleted*

J.