Autos 101: How to drive a manual

July 27, 3:20 PMBirmingham Autos ExaminerJonathan Alexander

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A stick shift may be intimidating, but is not as hard to drive as many think.

The standard manual transmission vehicle is a dying breed here in Birmingham and the United States in general. No longer is the ability to operate a stick shift taught in driver's education classes and most would rather opt for the ease and convenience of an automatic gearbox anyways.

But a few facts that still remain are that you can save a considerable amount of money on fuel consumption by driving a manual transmission car instead of an automatic. The weight is lighter, and there are usually more gears for the transmission to run through without straining itself. Those who do drive a manual transmission claim that they would never go back to driving an automatic and they recieve pleasure from operation a stick shift. It gives you more control over the car. You can really get a feel for the engine and how your car works and establish a sort of connection with your automobile by driving a stick shift.

The fun factor is always one that comes into conversations when discussing the pros and cons between an automatic and a manual transmission, but those who have never driven a stick shift are somewhat turned off by the idea and intimidated by the thought. Most will claim that it looks like alot of work and some are afraid of blowing the clutch, transmission, or even worse, the engine out due to their inexperience driving a manual transmission.

Truth be told, learning to drive a stick shift is not as hard as you may think. A manual presents one extra pedal on the driver's side. That would be the clutch, over to the far left. Everything you know about driving your car is the same exact thing as on an automatic transmission car, the only difference is that clutch. What you must do while learning how to drive a stick shift is become one with that clutch. For example, when starting the car and shifting into drive or reverse most beginners "pop" the clutch and end up stalling their car. This is because they quickly release the clutch and move straight to adding some gas to the engine. You must learn to slowly ease off the clutch while adding gas slowly. Once this method is mastered, one of the hardest parts of learning how to drive a stick shift is mastered.

Once started and moving down the road, the main thing you will have to keep your eye on while driving a stick shift is your vehicle's RPM gauge. You will want to release the gas, depress the clutch, and switch to the next gear when around 2,000 to 2,500 RPM's. After shifting gears, the art of slowly releasing the clutch while adding gas comes into play again. For coming to red lights or stop signs the process is as easy as hitting your brakes as you normally would, except you'll want to depress your clutch at the stop before your car comes to a complete stand still and eventually stalls. Once stopped, you could shift to neutral if you will be stopped for long periods, or shift back down to first in preparation for when you start excelerating again.

It's alot to take in at once, I know. But with a little practice, a skilled automatic transmission driver could learn how to drive a stick well enough to get around fairly easily within 30 minutes to an hour of trial and error. And they could be experienced and drive a stick with no problems after 2 to 3 hours of practice.

If you're interested in learning how to drive a stick shift and need more detailed instructions, including tutorial videos, there is tons of information available on the internet via Google search that with a little studying could get you ready to drive a manual transmission before you even crank the car up. Below are a few of the best videos I have ran across on YouTube to help you learn how to drive a stick shift.

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