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I need some tips on driving a manual car
- Thread starter velociraptor
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David Incorporated Esq.
Member
I'd suggest reading something on how manual transmissions work. It can be a little daunting if you're not mechanically inclined, but having an understanding of the bits and pieces involved can really help.
My mom and brother use the clutch whenever they use the brake, and then don't rev-match when they get off the brake and clutch. It makes for the worst driving experience and they don't correct it because they don't understand why it's wrong--even after I've told them.
My mom and brother use the clutch whenever they use the brake, and then don't rev-match when they get off the brake and clutch. It makes for the worst driving experience and they don't correct it because they don't understand why it's wrong--even after I've told them.
I once saw a man teach his wife/girlfriend how to drive on a Daytona USA arcade machine. Not sure if it helped but I'm curious to know how many credits they used.
Lol that must feel patronising as fuck. Embarassing too.
Honda Civics had it in 2006. The real question is why would anyone pick a Golf over a Civic in 06?
That's why we gotta be good instructors and save those poor clutches
You'll eventually learn it all through practice. Clutch control is a funny thing. One day it's all so foreign and you can't do it, then it just clicks and you can feel the small weight movements in your feet, hands and back and you've got it.
Regarding shifting in turns. I'd recommend not doing this. Don't brake either if you can get away with it. Concentrate on doing one thing at a time. So, corner coming up, let off accelerator and onto brake (if required) to shed excess speed, select gear to allow smooth balanced cornering, come off brake, turn into corner. Spread them out nicely so you're not totally overwhelmed by 4 or 5 things at once.
Regarding shifting in turns. I'd recommend not doing this. Don't brake either if you can get away with it. Concentrate on doing one thing at a time. So, corner coming up, let off accelerator and onto brake (if required) to shed excess speed, select gear to allow smooth balanced cornering, come off brake, turn into corner. Spread them out nicely so you're not totally overwhelmed by 4 or 5 things at once.
That's why we gotta be good instructors and save those poor clutches
I'm pretty sure instructor cars are 100% doomed to have destroyed gearboxes and clutches at 100x the rate of a normal car!
Well, yep. As soon as I start pressing the clutch the foot comes off the accelerator as normal.
And it's not a problem when depressing the clutch, I always give it a little bit of gas when doing that so it doesn't jerk after I shift the gear. It jerks as soon as I press the clutch in. For example if I'm in 2nd and rev to 3500 (I like to drive a bit aggressively sometimes) and press the clutch pedal in, the passenger always jerks a little bit. Is that just normal?
When I shift at 2000 of course this problem doesn't really happen.
Brand loyalty and reliability are the only reasons I can think of.
chickdigger802
Banned
Honda Civics had it in 2006. The real question is why would anyone pick a Golf over a Civic in 06?
That's why we gotta be good instructors and save those poor clutches
holy shit. I kinda want. Curious if those games support 'stick layout' on the controller. You'd need like a n64 controller for 3 triggers lol... or not 4 triggers... and right analog stick for shifter? hmmm...
My driving instructor actually had an older car (Volvo S60) with 120k km and it did drive well though I'm not sure how many clutches it had gone through
The way we do it here really helped me. I had to spend some time in a couple of meetings with the driving instructor for basics and got a license to drive with an adult who was experienced from age 16. There were still things to learn as I was inexperienced in city driving when I started driving with the instructor, but it really helped that I could shift and do hill starts. I understand that can be dangerous some places (we have small roads and the highest speed limit is 100...), but it was a cheap way of learning the basics.
There's your fix?
I dunno, but when the car is at high revs it can easily be accelerating quickly or decelerating quickly (engine brake) which can be why why car jolts when it starts to coast. You could try pressing the clutch quicker or later to see if that helps. It could also be that the engine is moving, but that's just a theory I have that I have never heard of happening.
It did have stiff suspension, but it's a rocket ship so who cares.
I've tried mapping the clutch in a PC sim to the right analog on my 360 controller. It was interesting to say the least. I had to push it all the way forward when driving.
The G27 (or a used G25) is actually not that expensive. Some older games (90s) actually had joystick support and could use it as a gear leaver after calibrating it. Probably not the most realistic gearshifts
I think for all newer games you need buttons for the gears which would make it very hard with a controller unless you had six-seven buttons not doing anything.
Just realising I read that the wrong way around, I thought it would be the Civic over the Golf.
Golf vs Civic is an easy choice, Golf every single time.
Dark Octave
Banned
My biggest question used to be how do you know when to shift, but now I never even notice I'm doing it. It's all by sound. Sometimes there will be a huge or loud vehicle next to me and I lose my shift point because I can't hear my engine.
When shifting down (freeway traffic) I use sound and my speedomiter to determine what gear I should drop to. General rule 20mph = 2nd, 30mph = 3rd, 40mph = 4th, ect... but it depends on the car moslty.
Other's may not agree with this, I don't know, but if you ever get stuck on a huge hill, say if your at a light and it just turned green, it's very stressful if you don't know how to balance the clutch and gas. My suggestion at that point is to gun it. Let go of the clutch and put a good amount of gas, like almost all of it. Hopefully you're in a weak enough car that you won't peel out but you won't roll back or stall out either. Make sure noone is in front of you if you do this.
When shifting down (freeway traffic) I use sound and my speedomiter to determine what gear I should drop to. General rule 20mph = 2nd, 30mph = 3rd, 40mph = 4th, ect... but it depends on the car moslty.
Other's may not agree with this, I don't know, but if you ever get stuck on a huge hill, say if your at a light and it just turned green, it's very stressful if you don't know how to balance the clutch and gas. My suggestion at that point is to gun it. Let go of the clutch and put a good amount of gas, like almost all of it. Hopefully you're in a weak enough car that you won't peel out but you won't roll back or stall out either. Make sure noone is in front of you if you do this.
chickdigger802
Banned
2nd gear for hills!
That speed to gear rule is something that isn't quite the same in every car. The gear ratios obviously affect what gear is suitable for what speed. My car actually acts like a dick and jerks if I try and drop into 2nd at 20, it wants me to go all the way down close to 15
Lol I personally can't advocate going for a nuts all out acceleration on the hill. He'll most likely stall out trying to break off quickly.
Not very long; it's a bit like riding a bike in that sense. Although your driving probably won't be as smooth.
velociraptor
Junior Member
I've played GT5 with the wheel. While I was pretty good at this, it just doesn't compare to driving around in a road, with traffic, with cars around you. Also, paddle shifters
Dark Octave
Banned
True, that's why I said it depends on the car. The only way to know what works for you is to test it out with your own car, but they won't be too far off from each other. The basic idea is what matters.That speed to gear rule is something that isn't quite the same in every car. The gear ratios obviously affect what gear is suitable for what speed. My car actually acts like a dick and jerks if I try and drop into 2nd at 20, it wants me to go all the way down close to 15
Lol I personally can't advocate going for a nuts all out acceleration on the hill. He'll most likely stall out trying to break off quickly.
Not very long; it's a bit like riding a bike in that sense. Although your driving probably won't be as smooth.
The hill thing is a tricky situation for a beginner. I'd probably rather jet up the hill and stall out from breaking at the top instead of rolling backwards into traffic behind me. Both situations are dangerous and scary though.
You can't stall out if you apply a shitload of throttle, but you will most likely end up messing up the car.
Best would be to constantly keep one hand on the hand brake and do it "normally" so if he stalls out he can just use it to stop the roll back and keep trying. Also if it's at a light or something, he doesn't accidentally zoom off after trying so many times and the lights change when he finally succeeds.
Most important though would be to ignore the moron drivers around you beeping at a learner. My instructor was great and just told me verbatim "Fuck them, just do it at your own pace". That combined with gradually starting with less steep hills and going onto harder ones....but I suppose that's something he's probably gonna do without me saying anyway!
Dark Octave
Banned
The break thing isn't a bad idea as long as they can manage to make some forward progress with each attempt to balance it out. Each falure brings you closer to the car behind you. That would be my biggest fear.
Yeah that's a big thing dealing with honking cars when you already have very shaky confidence on the road. That alone could be enough to make it impossible for any beginner to function properly behind the wheel.
What I did was have someone ride with me to work for a month to both calm my nerves and remind me of things to look out for. Good news is they say once you got it, you got it and like riding a bike, you never lose it. I've never owned a car that wasn't manual and have a hard time adjusting to automatics. I'll begin to shift or press on a nonexisting clutch. I've used my left foot to press on the gas which is desastrous and scares everyone in the car to death. It takes me a second to figure out what the letters on the gear shift mean. It's boring except for when on the freeway and in traffic.
With manual, I just love the fact that you're using every limp of your body to drive. My friend once said you can't drive until you can drive stick. It's a little snobby for sure but I agree with him to an extent.
chickdigger802
Banned
Don't forget upshifts make you go faster, always
My standards for interiors aren't that low.
That would have looked ugly in the 80s.
Find a hill somewhere with no traffic (like a gravel road) and train hill starts with the hand brake. It's really easy and you don't have to give much gas to get the car going.
My standards for interiors aren't that low.
That would have looked ugly in the 80s.
Train to use the handbrake and take it slow. Don't be afraid to stop if you have to try again of even rolling back a bit. If you stop behind a car in a hill you should leave a meter in between so that the other car can roll back a bit.
Find a hill somewhere with no traffic (like a gravel road) and train hill starts with the hand brake. It's really easy and you don't have to give much gas to get the car going.
My standards for interiors aren't that low.
.
Damn, I just realized I'd be in trouble if I traveled overseas and had to shift with my left hand.
My standards for interiors aren't that low.
That would have looked ugly in the 80s..
Base model wasn't that attractive no, but higher up variants were nice enough
Each to their own. It has aged a lot better than the one in the Civic at the time, plus look a lot better in the flesh. Civic will likely be more reliable but the Golf rides and handles better, styling hasn't aged as badly and it has a VW badge not a Honda.
I don't get this idea that boring cars age less. Sure some radically styled cars have aged, but the cars that haven't aged much weren't boring.
That's the fucking early 70s BTW. I've seen similar lines in brand new interiors.
VW vs Honda was fun BTW
Here's 2013 vs 2006:
Early 90s. I know which one I think has aged the most
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I just get a bit angry when cars turn so boring looking (look at what they did to the newest Civic) and when you see the new Golf 7 which looks like the Golf 6 which looked like 5 which was similar to 4...
This is a design from 1991. In today's world of tall headlights and styling that can't harm anyone it's hard to find cars this sleek that regular people can afford and that saddens me :/
I haven't forgotten about manual gearboxes BTW. Notice how much prettier interiors are with manuals
SneakyStephan
Banned
Practise with a diesel car, they are a hundred times more forgivable for gear changing and clutch operating.
In most diesel cars you can take off without using the accelerator pedal at all, just releasing the clutch and it'll start going (a normal petrol engine would stall)
Other than that it's just practice.... shouldn't take more than a few hours to be able to take off without ever stalling , a few more hours to get used to downshifting etc.
Driving a manual gear box really isn't a big deal you'll have it in muscle memory pretty fast.
In most diesel cars you can take off without using the accelerator pedal at all, just releasing the clutch and it'll start going (a normal petrol engine would stall)
Other than that it's just practice.... shouldn't take more than a few hours to be able to take off without ever stalling , a few more hours to get used to downshifting etc.
Driving a manual gear box really isn't a big deal you'll have it in muscle memory pretty fast.
My instructor went off in 4th from still on flat ground using just the clutch in my petrol. I was amazed.
But yea, Diesel doesn't really require a clutch to move off from. I quite liked that, since I learnt in one. It was actually weird for me moving to a petrol and having to learn to give gas as I took off in my own car.
It's what Golf buyers want though, conservative styling. Plus it helps VW maintain the residual values of the older models if there isn't a radically new model.
I'm not a fan of the gloss black in the new GT Golf models, the SE looks nicer
Everything is cool, but I sincerely dislike that knob on the right hand side of the wheel. It's ridiculously out of place and looks whack. Fog light controls should be on your indicator stick/arm. Also the gearstick looks stubby as hell. I like mine to show a lot of length. Not gay, but the big phallic representation does it for me
GodParticle
Member
Nothing hastens learning like fearing for your life haha
Everything is cool, but I sincerely dislike that knob on the right hand side of the wheel. It's ridiculously out of place and looks whack. Fog light controls should be on your indicator stick/arm. Also the gearstick looks stubby as hell. I like mine to show a lot of length. Not gay, but the big phallic representation does it for me
I've always viewed cars where the lights are controlled from the indicator stock as being 'cheap' ones. That gear stick is reasonably nice in the flesh and feels nice enough.
Cheap? Seems to be an economical use of space. Considering you can also push it back and forth to use high-beam or low. Pretty sure most cars operate that way. It also prevents a hideously redundant knob being smacked on the dash.
This will make me sound snobby but it's something I've always associated with brands like Vauxhall and Ford.
VWs work the same way, push the stalk back for full beam and pull it in to turn it off. The nob is there to activate the automatic lights, sidelights and dipped beam, as well as the fog lights. The full beam is still on the stalk.
Although in saying that Vauxhall are moving away from that now to do the same
Edit - As are Ford
Seems everyone is moving to having a small dial now instead of the stalk.
The best thing about VAG dashes is they all have the same layout. Switching from VW to Skoda was perfect, everything was exactly where I expected it to be.
I mean compare that Golf Dash to the Seat Leon dash:
Or the Skoda Octavia dash:
Or the Audi A3 dash:
Personally I'm not a fan over overstyling. Not everthing I see needs to round, or angled. I don't need a seperate button for every function on my dash, give me buttons that can do multiple things at once so that I don't have to look at the labels to find the right one during driving.
Also, please give me a knob for the lights. You turn them on and they're one, I don't need this function on my steering wheel except for the big light switch for when it's dark. Put other functions on the lever instead.
I mean compare that Golf Dash to the Seat Leon dash:
Or the Skoda Octavia dash:
Or the Audi A3 dash:
Personally I'm not a fan over overstyling. Not everthing I see needs to round, or angled. I don't need a seperate button for every function on my dash, give me buttons that can do multiple things at once so that I don't have to look at the labels to find the right one during driving.
Also, please give me a knob for the lights. You turn them on and they're one, I don't need this function on my steering wheel except for the big light switch for when it's dark. Put other functions on the lever instead.
fabricated backlash
Member
Was basically how I learned it on my first day in a car.
It also helps to learn driving in an older car (mid 80s-90s). The lack of electronic aides and supported steering means you have a much more direct sensory feedback of how a car behaves in corners, when accelerating/slowing down, shifting and breaking.
Skoda, Seat and VW for their Golf based cars have yeah but this generation Audi has taken the A3 more upmarket and away from those designs
Man those interfaces look futuristic as shit. My car doesn't have all that snazzy shit
I'm just happy that my sterring wheel has volume control :lol
Something that most basic VWs still don't get for some reason :lol
Mweh, the buttons are still in the exact same locations. All they change is a few bends here and there really, just like they've always done.
Of course Audi will get new designs before the rest, have to justify that high price somehow.
VW drivers all wannabe-racers innit. They don't need volume control cos they are constantly listening to dat mad engine sound.
Mweh, the buttons are still in the exact same locations. All they change is a few bends here and there really, just like they've always done.
Of course Audi will get new designs before the rest, have to justify that high price somehow.
Come on
when you put them side by side Audi has done a fair bit more than just tweak the inside of the Golf
They share basically nothing interior wise now.
Come on
They share basically nothing interior wise now.
So you do not see that every dial and every button is in the exact same position on both cars?
The only exception is the audio/nav system. But that was nescessary due to the ease with which the old build-in double-DIN ones could be stolen.
Yeah, but that is how it is in most well-designed cars.
Take the Kia Cee'd for example, same rough layout
1. let the rpm hit around 2000 and slowly release the clutch, once the rpm starts to drop you can put on some more gas and slowly release the clutch while applying more gas. This takes time to master, it's harder if you don't have a RPM meter, but when you are comfortable with it, you don't need it any more.
2. Just a matter of clutch vs gas. it takes time to find the right way for your car.
3. don't worry about it, once it feels good it will come, after some time you will do this automatic. And even then, i often pull up in 5th gear when slowing down to 50km/h. you pull up slow, but smooth, depending on the power of the car.
4. changing gears while turning is not advised. During shifting the power from the engine to the wheels is interrupted for a short amount of time, if you start sliding at that moment you are fucked, the engine cannot control the speed of the wheels so it's a lot more difficult to get out of the spin, instantly releasing the clutch will only make it more difficult. Find the right speed and gear before you start turning.
I usually go in 2nd or 3rd gear on a roundabout.
I'd forgotten Toyota used to stick the speed in the middle of the dash on the Yaris.
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