Did you know that only 6 percent of cars these days have a manual transmission? That’s quite a small number, so it’s understandable if most people don’t know how to drive stick shift. At first glance, it seems complicated and not worth the extra effort. But I’m here to show you the awesome side of driving stick! First, here are a few pros to manual transmission that you may have never considered!
- better fuel economy
- more reliability
- better performance
- greater control over the vehicle
- arguably, more fun!
Amazing how many benefits come along with driving stick, right? Because manual transmissions really make you “one with the car,” some people prefer it to automatic transmissions and never want to turn back. If you’re convinced that manual transmission has plenty of perks, now it’s time to get educated on the process. I’m no authority on driving stick, but there are tons of great tutorials out there like this one. Instead, I just want to give a few other helpful tips for learning the process:
- Enlist the help of a very patient person — perhaps even someone you aren’t too close with
- Practice with the car off to get to know the controls
- Memorize where the gears are before you turn on the car!
- Don’t try touch the gas until you can get the car going with just the clutch
- Practice steady revving of the engine
- Start practicing in a flat area, then graduate to hills and more complicated terrain
- Shift gears slowly at first
- Intentionally stall the car a few times to practice getting out of the situation
- Stay cool – even if you stall in an intersection, the worst thing to do is panic
So that’s my take on how to make learning stick shift as easy as possible! Are you excited to get started? Hope these tips help you in the process!
No Comments