I think I shall pass along some of these tips to my daughter, who has struggled in her previous attempts to drive a manual transmission.
I especially like the suggestion to find the 'friction point' on the clutch without using the accelerator pedal - just do that a number of times to get a feel for when the clutch engages, then depress again without stalling.
As the poorly animated characters in the Guiness commercial says - "Brilliant!"
Take off your shoe will have a better feel for the exact friction point. Once you master it, you can have your shoes on. This is what I taught my son and he learnt it pretty fast. By the way I learnt stick shift by myself by using the same theory of shifting a motorcycle. The only difference is you use your left foot to shift the gear instead of your right hand and you use left hand to engage and disengage your clutch.
Guys, if we tell someone who wants to learn how to drive stick to go find a beater car, he's likely to just drop the whole idea. We have to try harder than that to keep stick alive.
I have a friend who bought a WRX Sti without knowing how to drive stick, and he simply stalled a billion times on the way home. But now he can drive it. You'll probably have to commit to buying the car first. And some cars are known for weak synchros (Subarus, mostly). On those, after a few weeks of figuring out how to drive it, go online and read up on heel-and-toe shifting. It'll take you a few hundred tries to get good at that next step in stickshift driving.
That said, it's better if you can find a beater. I have a feeling that mechanics are the best resource for this; many of them like manual transmissions and would be happy to increase their number. They also tend to receive junky cars. Talk to local mechanics, and they may be able to find you a car that someone wants to get rid of - or find one to lend you.
to teach me stick when I was 15. Dad had a VW Fastback in his stable at that time. It had a 3-speed stick and a fairly peppy little engine in it and Dad patiently taught me and "waited me out" while I killed it again and again. What was so cool about that fastback was how resilient it's clutch was in combination with that engine and tranny. It seemed that it just snapped shut and the engine died fast if I missed with my footwork. The stick had average-sized throws that you could easily get used to with a normal amount of practice time.
But that clutch was tough, or I was getting better at it slowly but surely. Dad wouldn't stop my training if I got frustrated he just keep letting me practice. I still remember that training fondly and that '66 VW Fastback with the slightly faded baby blue paintjob was a gem. It has been a while since I've seen a VW Squareback or a VW Fastback on the streets, ya know that? You mean they aren't collector's items?
An even better idea- ask around and you might find a dealership where the salespeople don't go on test drives with you. There are several in my area (if you look respectable enough). Take one of their cars out and practice. It's not your clutch!
Another idea, obviously, is to ask a friend who has a stick to teach you how to drive it. I've taught several friends (including a 20-year old girl at work and the 45-year old doctor my sister works for- he'd always wanted a Corvette and he ended up getting one with the 6-speed). If you have a little patience, it can be fun teaching someone else to drive stick. If you're lucky, you might even get free dinner out of it.
My father tried several times to teach me when I was a teen, but he made me so nervous that I could never do it.
Then, when I was 31 - my wife took me out in a hay field behind my folks house in an old pickup (3 on the tree and a *heavy* throw on the clutch) - told me to drive. It didn't take long for me to get it.
Funny thing is, now my wife, because of arthritis does not want to shift, and made me get an automatic on my new truck.
....my dad tried to teach me on his then-fairly-new VW Scirocco. The combination of the notchy shifting on the car and my dad barking at me soured my interest. Fortunately, a friend's mom had just bought a new Civic that year ('85) and wanted me to drive her daughter around. When I said, 'but I don't know how to drive stick', she just said 'you'll learn' and threw me the keys. Worked out great; two teens in the car, in the suburbs, late at night, killing the car at about half the stop signs.
for the day (which will probably never come) that they start making new drivers learn on stick shift and pass a test on a stick before they can get their license. After all, they do that in many other countries from what I understand.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
You're in for a long, long wait. They'd be better drivers for knowing how to drive a stick but it'll never happen. I sometimes fantasize about how nice the roads would be if there were no ATs, power steering or Power brakes.
How many people would drive oversized cars and trucks if they had to put some muscle into it? :P
Hehe, my 1970 Dodge Challenger had two out of three. Unassisted steering, manual transmission (with a very heavy clutch), and vacuum assisted disc brakes. I still have the original window sticker from the original owner around somewhere, and I've always wondered why he ordered it that way.
Anyway, the car wasn't too difficult to drive until I put some fairly wide BFGoodrich Radial T/As (with raised white lettering) on it during the summer of 1978. Naturally I was living in Los Angeles back then and trust me, it was a handful when it came to maneuvering around the city.
A friend from work was telling us about his 1968 Chevy Camaro that had super-stiff steering, not power-assisted in any way. I found that so strange for a muscle car like the Camaro...he said it was a workout to steer it!
An all manual Challenger wasn't what I had in mind, it's too big and heavy. My '70 GTO had PS and I doubt I could've driven it without it. It was in fact my first car to have a power assist, my previous Truimph, Fiat and Honda didn't need 'em.
Manual steering on that 1970 Challenger was, ummm, errr, a challenge to drive in town, parking was yet another story. :P I have no doubt that the 1970 GTO would have easily been as much of a handful.
The flip side of all of this was my 1979 Scirocco that didn't have automatic/power anything and was an absolute ball to drive. That was such a fun car that I still have fantasies of buying one from that era and stuffing in one of VWoA's new 2.0T 200 HP four bangers. Damn wouldn't that be fun plus.
My first two cars had no power steering and were manual transmission- '85 CRX and '91 Civic. They were both so light, though, that you couldn't tell they didn't have power steering except under about 5 mph. Funny how basic those cars were, but how much fun they were to drive..especially compared to today's over-assisted, numb cars with far too many electronic/computerized systems.
Someone should bring back a sporty, light sub-compact with non-assited steering, manual transmission-only. I hear Lada (in Russia) still builds them (except the sporty part) and they tend to fall apart.
The truck I mentioned in my prior post was a 1967 F100 - the power steering was dead, and of course there was the three on the tree with a very heavy clutch - and a manual choke (I wonder how many folks remember or have ever seen that?).
Yeah manual chokes can be a PITA, the one in my Fiat Spider used to stick open in cold weather and you'd have to get out of the car, unscrew the nuts holding the aitcleaner cover, the push the butterfly valves manually and resecure the three nuts holding the aircleaner on--all in the freezing cold!
...and I don't think i'll go back to an auto for a while. Odd thing is, i've heard subaru clutches are trick...I test drove an 05 WRX and an 06 WRX (i'm thinking of getting a WRX soon), and the clutches were EASIER to manage than that of my 99 civic.
Even with an automatic choke, how many remember the procedure for dealing with a flooded carb by pushing the pedal all the way to the floor and holding it.
For that matter, even the procedure of pumping the gas pedal a couple of times before turning the key.
Although I am 28, my first car was a 66 Galaxie, so I know all about the pumping and choke. I hate carbs, I love FI. The Galaxie always had a carb issue, especially bad when the car was cold.
At the time my dad had a 68 Fairlane as a hobby car, it had manual steering, manual brakes, 3 on the tree - no options but the V8 and an AM radio. I made it a point never to drive that car, it was a workout.
LOL, now there is a blast back to the 60's cars for us baby boomers learning to drive in the 70's. IIRC the '66 VW Fastback that Dad taught me to drive stick in had a manual choke knob on the dash somewhere that had to be pulled out during warmup periods. I might be confusing that rig with another one of that era, but distinctly remember on one of the first rigs I drove having to pull out a choke knob.
I wonder if it was on Dad's '63 GMC Jimmy pickup truck ( in that awful light green color and white large G M C lettering across the back of the bed door) that also had a manual tranny. Now that I think more about it I think the GMC Jimmy pickup had the choke pull-knob on the dash. It only took about 5 minutes and then you had to pop in back in flush against the dash to shut it off. The parents had so many rigs with both automatic and manual tranny's and didn't mind me driving any of them so I got spoiled with a large variety of 60's-70's era cars and trucks to drive back then. A great way to enamor one to vehicles, though.
I'll never forget how nice and quiet a ride my Mom's 1968 Buick LeSabre was. 400 c.i. V8 w/automatic tranny, of course, that would just plain haul out in an instant if you only touched the accelerator pedal.
I ever drove with a manual choke was one of those eartly 70s Honda minicars, the first Civics. Ran fine as long as you used the choke properly.
At least it had 4 speeds in the transmission. I had a friend with a '78 Fairmont that was a THREE speed manual. That thing revved like CRAZY on the highway, for such a large engine.
Add to the list: Ford Fusion, available with a manual (this is brave on Ford's part. Will anyone buy one so-equipped?). Whether they are plentifully available or not, at least the time was taken to engineer one and certify it. Another good sign for the future of the manual. :-)
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
First car that was "mine" was a 6 year old '68 Datsun 510 (before they took the Nissan company name) - choke, clutch, manual steering and brakes, even the after market AM radio was a non-pushbutton model. It was actually an easy to drive car (from what I remember) with a very smooth clutch and transmission until the transmillion blew at about 100K. After driving dad's various station wagons (especially his '70 AMC Matador) adjusting to no power wasn't much of an adjustment. The Datsun had a bad habit of not wanting to start, usually when I was parked off campus in a "bad" neighborhood, but I met the neighbors and a little sand paper on the distributor cap or a shot of Gumout in the carb usually worked.
Wow, that was a few years a go - now driving an Highlander Hybrid where you turn on the key and it says "Ready" and then just sits there waiting to go. Would be a kick to drive the Datsun again (I'm sure it's recycled by now, was rusting out when we sold it to a neighbor sometime around 1980, he drove it for a couple of years and the last time I saw it was driving through the city - dad had painted the rusted chrome bumpers with dark green paint, a one of a kind...). But I'll take the Highlander and its technology any day. - John
An indespensible adjunct to a manual transmission is a tachometer. Shifting by sound does not always work as there are two sounds to contend with, engine sound and drive train plus road noise. A tach, original equipment or added on later, enables the driver to choose a regime, either economy or performance, and maximize it. My favorite reason for using a MT, or why I dislike ATs so, is the fact they seem to up shift at the worst possible moment. In city traffic if a light turns yellow and you let off the gas anticipating coasting towards the the stop light the AT will will will read the signal of less gas pedal pressure as coming to cruise mode and shift up and loose any compression braking the engine might have provided. With a stick shift just leave it in the lower gear, use compression braking and save some wear and tear on the wheel brakes.
my Sportage 4x4 5-speed. I did it with the '99 Kia Sephia 5-speed all of the time, too. It really does cut back on brake wear a bit.
With the Sephia's and Sportage 4x4's 1.8L and 2.0L motors, respectively, I really can tell when somebody with an automatic is behind me (yes, about 92% of the other drivers out there!!) because they're right on my tail as I start out in first and as I transition to 2nd gear they're still right up on me. As 25 mph approaches, 30 mph, etc., and I shift into 3rd I can finally start opening up some distance between cars leaving a stop sign or stop light.
When slowing down I at least get it into 3rd to compression slow myself down. It works like a champ to decelerate.
nippon...I really like the fact that the Ford Fusion will be offered in 5-speeds. That keeps it within my scope of interest, if only slightly as it's larger than the average bear that I like to buy.
And responding to davidkeith, I dislike that both the manual cars I've driven a lot don't have tachometers. It makes it very hard to learn rev-matching. Impossible, actually. I get lucky sometimes and get smooth shifts, but it's hard.
I basically shift by speed though. The owner's manual says that 1st gear's max speed is 30mph, 2nd gear's is 55mph (I've hit 60 though), and 3rd gear's is 85mph. I approach those speeds when I need to. My engine redlines at 6800rpm, according to the internet, so I can guess my rpm's in a given gear since the speed-rpm relationship is linear (within 500-1000rpm).
Generally, I shift at 10-15mph, 25-30mph, and 45-50mph. Then I'm out of gears. Those speeds are a little under the speeds at which the noise becomes tiresome. (I can't imagine driving a quiet car without a tachometer - I've heard low-trim Echos are like that, though it may have been a Canadian version.)
Yeah, 20 years ago it was still fairly common to see cars without tachometers, especially in less expensive models. These days, it just looks cheap, a cost-cutter move, when a car comes without a tach. They are useful for shifting, especially rev-matching.
A choke is something a carburetor had in cars of old. It is what made the car rev high and run rich when it was cold, so it would run better and warm up sooner. By the 70s they were mostly automated, operated by pressing the gas pedal. But prior to that most of them were hand-operated by a lever you pulled inside the car. You had to pull it out to make the car run right first thing in the morning, then push it back in once the car had warmed up. Even if EFI had not been on the way, hand-operated chokes would never have made it very far in the age of regulated smog emissions.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
I learned to drive on a stick w/o a tach (did have a manual choke though!) I also had quite a few beaters in my younger days without a tach, so I got used to shifting by feel/sound. You become pretty attuned to what the car is doing using your ears and the "seat of your pants". Now, I still basically shift when I know to, without having to look at the tach. I think I look at it more in our Odyssey to keep track of what gear it is in!
When you first start a carb equiped car, you want to run fuel rich. There is a plate that can restrict the flow of air into the carb, and acheive this condition.
In older cars, there was frequently a knob that one pulled out when starting a cold engine. Once the car had been going for a bit, you pushed it back in, and normal air flow into the carb was restored. Or, if you were me, you forgot, and wondered why the truck stalled later and was flooded...
Certainly a tach is neccessary for a car with a real sporting motor that likes to be wrung out to high rpms but for more pedestrian vehicles it is not. I learn to drive a shift driving a '65 VW w no tach. I shifted according to the small markings on the speedo.
After mastering basic techniques I find I didn't even have to look at the speedo, you knew ny sound and feel when to shift. It was geared to encourage driving in high gear as much as possible.
FWIW compression braking is fairly easy to accomplish driving a good manumatic. I often drop down a gear or two using the Steptronic on my Bimmer when descending hills. For that purpose it works just as well as a three pedal shifter.
My first car (a '73 MG Midget w/ a non-syncronized first gear) had a manual choke. At the time I used it as an idle speed regulator because the dual carbs were always "self-adjusting" themselves and causing the car to stall at stop lights.
Come to think of it, the Midget also eschewed power steering and power brakes (they weren't really missed on such a small car), though it did have a tachometer. I guess it was ahead of its time in that regard. A friend with a manual Dodge Dart(?) didn't have a tach either. Oddly enough, it had the high-beam switch on the floor under the clutch pedal. At times he had to choose between shifting gears and not blinding the driver of the on coming vehicle.
Just to make a long story boring: I think the first time I saw a tach in a car equipped with an automatic transmission was on a '80-something Ford Mustang my Dad bought. Looked cool going up and down on its own, but I didn't see much of point to it.
Tachs were the norm in sports cars but for a long time they were the only cars that had them (except for a small number of sports sedans). Mostly it was to reinforce the "almost a race car" conceit but there were a few that actually needed them.
The torque curve on my Fiat Spider was such that it kept coming right up to and past redline. Without the tach, you might shift up too late to prevent valve damage.
In sportscars of the day that were used for production sports racing it was common to rotate the tach in the dash so that the needle pointed straight up at peak power.
The '02 WRX had issues with the clutch/tranny, but in '03 Subaru tossed in a force-limiting valve to essentially prevent clutch drops and that tamed the problem. The new models should not have that problem.
With the small engines I've driven, I've wrung 'em out to the rev limiter on some hills and onramps. I'd say a tach is close to a necessity... in a sports car you WANT to rev high, and in these cars you NEED to rev high, sometimes. And as some of us have said... rev-matching. Any ounce of smoothness you can get is a great help in enjoying the car.
==
And thanks for the choke explanation, everybody. I remember now, I've seen them in movies and on TV shows.
My '85 CRX was carbeurated. I remember how much fun it was to start in freezing cold weather. Or how if you tried to drive it before you let it warm up it'd stall out and NOT restart for a while. Fuel injection is a modern feature that I'm actually quite fond of.
Yes, the Fusion AND it's good looking twin Mercury Milan both have a manual available, but only with the 4-cylinder, not the V6. Interestingly, from some posts I've read, more Mercury dealers are stocking manual Milans than Ford dealers are manual Fusions. Hopefully they'll both have plenty of them available. They seem like good cars. FYI- due to some last minute engineering changes, the 4-cylinder/automatic combo won't be available for appx. 3 months on either car. That should mean more manual cars, so they'll have some lower priced ones available.
Also, for the first time, the '06 Honda Accord EX V6 Sedan has a 6-speed manual available, not just the slushbox. The Accord manual is a blast to drive, but the $27k sticker is a bit rich for my blood.
Both are great signs for manual transmissions, though.
Tachometers should be standard on any car with a manual transmission. Only one of my cars was missing one, and it was a '91 Honda Civic hatchback. Never got used to not having it. I was a kid back then and usually just shifted when I hit the rev limiter. You do learn "seat of the pants" intuitive shifting once you get to know a car, but a tach is still awfully nice to have.
The only new car I know of that doesn't have one is the Ford Focus. It's optional on most models that don't have it, though. Still doesn't make sense though. Wouldn't it be easier (and cheaper) to only manufacture one set of gauges for a car?
Isn't is funny how they're standard on virtually every car with a slushbox. I wonder how many drivers have no clue what they even mean...
Anyone remember those fun upshift lights that came on more economy-oriented models to tell you when to shift for best fuel economy? They basically just came on around 2500rpm and that was that. I think the Saturn Ion still has one.
Errr, IIRC, it was Audi who pioneered the upshift light. They convinced the EPA that folks would follow that light and as a result the EPA ran their tests according to the light, yielding higher EPA mileage ratings for cars so equipped. Both my 1981 Audi 4000 4M and my 1982 Audi GT Coupé were equipped with these lights, however, I don't remember either model as being "economy oriented models". ;-)
you no longer have your Fiat Spyder, I'm assuming? A co-worker of mine back in Washington state had a Fiat Spyder and loved it. He had a realistic view of it's attributes, but loved to spend money on it..I...I mean repair it...I mean...enjoy it.
He had it painted in a classic British racing green around 2002 sometime, it looked good, even though the car is Italian-made! Ha-ha. I like it's body design, though. Was it reliable, or did it suffer from the Triumph TR-4 and/or MGB Roadster rust-decay disease and/or electrical failures, etc. that those lovable British roadsters seemed to have, despite best intentions?
I love my manual-trannied Sportage 4x4's tach, couldn't imagine not having it. Shifting by ear and even motor vibration works but one needs to monitor the real RPM's in play at the time.
Comments
I especially like the suggestion to find the 'friction point' on the clutch without using the accelerator pedal - just do that a number of times to get a feel for when the clutch engages, then depress again without stalling.
As the poorly animated characters in the Guiness commercial says - "Brilliant!"
By the way I learnt stick shift by myself by using the same theory of shifting a motorcycle.
The only difference is you use your left foot to shift the gear instead of your right hand and you use left hand to engage and disengage your clutch.
I have a friend who bought a WRX Sti without knowing how to drive stick, and he simply stalled a billion times on the way home. But now he can drive it. You'll probably have to commit to buying the car first. And some cars are known for weak synchros (Subarus, mostly). On those, after a few weeks of figuring out how to drive it, go online and read up on heel-and-toe shifting. It'll take you a few hundred tries to get good at that next step in stickshift driving.
That said, it's better if you can find a beater. I have a feeling that mechanics are the best resource for this; many of them like manual transmissions and would be happy to increase their number. They also tend to receive junky cars. Talk to local mechanics, and they may be able to find you a car that someone wants to get rid of - or find one to lend you.
But that clutch was tough, or I was getting better at it slowly but surely. Dad wouldn't stop my training if I got frustrated he just keep letting me practice. I still remember that training fondly and that '66 VW Fastback with the slightly faded baby blue paintjob was a gem. It has been a while since I've seen a VW Squareback or a VW Fastback on the streets, ya know that? You mean they aren't collector's items?
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
Another idea, obviously, is to ask a friend who has a stick to teach you how to drive it. I've taught several friends (including a 20-year old girl at work and the 45-year old doctor my sister works for- he'd always wanted a Corvette and he ended up getting one with the 6-speed). If you have a little patience, it can be fun teaching someone else to drive stick. If you're lucky, you might even get free dinner out of it.
Then, when I was 31 - my wife took me out in a hay field behind my folks house in an old pickup (3 on the tree and a *heavy* throw on the clutch) - told me to drive. It didn't take long for me to get it.
Funny thing is, now my wife, because of arthritis does not want to shift, and made me get an automatic on my new truck.
Wayne
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
How many people would drive oversized cars and trucks if they had to put some muscle into it? :P
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
Anyway, the car wasn't too difficult to drive until I put some fairly wide BFGoodrich Radial T/As (with raised white lettering) on it during the summer of 1978. Naturally I was living in Los Angeles back then and trust me, it was a handful when it came to maneuvering around the city.
Best Regards,
Shipo
A friend from work was telling us about his 1968 Chevy Camaro that had super-stiff steering, not power-assisted in any way. I found that so strange for a muscle car like the Camaro...he said it was a workout to steer it!
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
The flip side of all of this was my 1979 Scirocco that didn't have automatic/power anything and was an absolute ball to drive. That was such a fun car that I still have fantasies of buying one from that era and stuffing in one of VWoA's new 2.0T 200 HP four bangers. Damn wouldn't that be fun plus.
Best Regards,
Shipo
Someone should bring back a sporty, light sub-compact with non-assited steering, manual transmission-only. I hear Lada (in Russia) still builds them (except the sporty part) and they tend to fall apart.
Wayne
We're totally spoiled today. Does anyone walk out to their car and not expect it to start right up on the first try?
-juice
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
Maybe it's just my imagination.
For that matter, even the procedure of pumping the gas pedal a couple of times before turning the key.
Wayne
At the time my dad had a 68 Fairlane as a hobby car, it had manual steering, manual brakes, 3 on the tree - no options but the V8 and an AM radio. I made it a point never to drive that car, it was a workout.
I wonder if it was on Dad's '63 GMC Jimmy pickup truck ( in that awful light green color and white large G M C lettering across the back of the bed door) that also had a manual tranny. Now that I think more about it I think the GMC Jimmy pickup had the choke pull-knob on the dash. It only took about 5 minutes and then you had to pop in back in flush against the dash to shut it off. The parents had so many rigs with both automatic and manual tranny's and didn't mind me driving any of them so I got spoiled with a large variety of 60's-70's era cars and trucks to drive back then. A great way to enamor one to vehicles, though.
I'll never forget how nice and quiet a ride my Mom's 1968 Buick LeSabre was. 400 c.i. V8 w/automatic tranny, of course, that would just plain haul out in an instant if you only touched the accelerator pedal.
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
At least it had 4 speeds in the transmission. I had a friend with a '78 Fairmont that was a THREE speed manual. That thing revved like CRAZY on the highway, for such a large engine.
Add to the list: Ford Fusion, available with a manual (this is brave on Ford's part. Will anyone buy one so-equipped?). Whether they are plentifully available or not, at least the time was taken to engineer one and certify it. Another good sign for the future of the manual. :-)
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Wow, that was a few years a go - now driving an Highlander Hybrid where you turn on the key and it says "Ready" and then just sits there waiting to go. Would be a kick to drive the Datsun again (I'm sure it's recycled by now, was rusting out when we sold it to a neighbor sometime around 1980, he drove it for a couple of years and the last time I saw it was driving through the city - dad had painted the rusted chrome bumpers with dark green paint, a one of a kind...). But I'll take the Highlander and its technology any day. - John
With the Sephia's and Sportage 4x4's 1.8L and 2.0L motors, respectively, I really can tell when somebody with an automatic is behind me (yes, about 92% of the other drivers out there!!) because they're right on my tail as I start out in first and as I transition to 2nd gear they're still right up on me. As 25 mph approaches, 30 mph, etc., and I shift into 3rd I can finally start opening up some distance between cars leaving a stop sign or stop light.
When slowing down I at least get it into 3rd to compression slow myself down. It works like a champ to decelerate.
nippon...I really like the fact that the Ford Fusion will be offered in 5-speeds. That keeps it within my scope of interest, if only slightly as it's larger than the average bear that I like to buy.
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
And responding to davidkeith, I dislike that both the manual cars I've driven a lot don't have tachometers. It makes it very hard to learn rev-matching. Impossible, actually. I get lucky sometimes and get smooth shifts, but it's hard.
I basically shift by speed though. The owner's manual says that 1st gear's max speed is 30mph, 2nd gear's is 55mph (I've hit 60 though), and 3rd gear's is 85mph. I approach those speeds when I need to. My engine redlines at 6800rpm, according to the internet, so I can guess my rpm's in a given gear since the speed-rpm relationship is linear (within 500-1000rpm).
Generally, I shift at 10-15mph, 25-30mph, and 45-50mph. Then I'm out of gears. Those speeds are a little under the speeds at which the noise becomes tiresome. (I can't imagine driving a quiet car without a tachometer - I've heard low-trim Echos are like that, though it may have been a Canadian version.)
A choke is something a carburetor had in cars of old. It is what made the car rev high and run rich when it was cold, so it would run better and warm up sooner. By the 70s they were mostly automated, operated by pressing the gas pedal. But prior to that most of them were hand-operated by a lever you pulled inside the car. You had to pull it out to make the car run right first thing in the morning, then push it back in once the car had warmed up. Even if EFI had not been on the way, hand-operated chokes would never have made it very far in the age of regulated smog emissions.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
In older cars, there was frequently a knob that one pulled out when starting a cold engine. Once the car had been going for a bit, you pushed it back in, and normal air flow into the carb was restored. Or, if you were me, you forgot, and wondered why the truck stalled later and was flooded...
Wayne
Sputtering '62 Ford Anglia for me...
You know how you set the lever to start, when the engine is cold? You are setting the manual choke..
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After mastering basic techniques I find I didn't even have to look at the speedo, you knew ny sound and feel when to shift. It was geared to encourage driving in high gear as much as possible.
FWIW compression braking is fairly easy to accomplish driving a good manumatic.
I often drop down a gear or two using the Steptronic on my Bimmer when descending hills. For that purpose it works just as well as a three pedal shifter.
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
Come to think of it, the Midget also eschewed power steering and power brakes (they weren't really missed on such a small car), though it did have a tachometer. I guess it was ahead of its time in that regard. A friend with a manual Dodge Dart(?) didn't have a tach either. Oddly enough, it had the high-beam switch on the floor under the clutch pedal. At times he had to choose between shifting gears and not blinding the driver of the on coming vehicle.
Just to make a long story boring: I think the first time I saw a tach in a car equipped with an automatic transmission was on a '80-something Ford Mustang my Dad bought. Looked cool going up and down on its own, but I didn't see much of point to it.
Call me "Grandpa Simpson".
The torque curve on my Fiat Spider was such that it kept coming right up to and past redline. Without the tach, you might shift up too late to prevent valve damage.
In sportscars of the day that were used for production sports racing it was common to
rotate the tach in the dash so that the needle pointed straight up at peak power.
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
-juice
==
And thanks for the choke explanation, everybody. I remember now, I've seen them in movies and on TV shows.
Obviously now the list is a lot longer, but it still includes the tach.
-juice
Also, for the first time, the '06 Honda Accord EX V6 Sedan has a 6-speed manual available, not just the slushbox. The Accord manual is a blast to drive, but the $27k sticker is a bit rich for my blood.
Both are great signs for manual transmissions, though.
The only new car I know of that doesn't have one is the Ford Focus. It's optional on most models that don't have it, though. Still doesn't make sense though. Wouldn't it be easier (and cheaper) to only manufacture one set of gauges for a car?
Isn't is funny how they're standard on virtually every car with a slushbox. I wonder how many drivers have no clue what they even mean...
Anyone remember those fun upshift lights that came on more economy-oriented models to tell you when to shift for best fuel economy? They basically just came on around 2500rpm and that was that. I think the Saturn Ion still has one.
Friend had a Dodge econo-box that had the up-shift light. If you up-shifted when it told you to while going up a hill, you'd never make it to the top.
It's been over 20 years since I last saw that car, but I still have the oil stains in the driveway to remind me.
Best Regards,
Shipo
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Also, the Focus doesn't have a redline on the tach ... very odd, if you ask me.
He had it painted in a classic British racing green around 2002 sometime, it looked good, even though the car is Italian-made! Ha-ha. I like it's body design, though. Was it reliable, or did it suffer from the Triumph TR-4 and/or MGB Roadster rust-decay disease and/or electrical failures, etc. that those lovable British roadsters seemed to have, despite best intentions?
I love my manual-trannied Sportage 4x4's tach, couldn't imagine not having it. Shifting by ear and even motor vibration works but one needs to monitor the real RPM's in play at the time.
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick