I want to pickup a car on craigslist to learn stick on. Got about $1k to spend and hopefully can re-sell it fairly easily. I was practicing on my friends Golf GTI but I was getting worried someone would hit me in traffic if I stalled it or I'd hit something on accident. So figured this might be the best way to learn and get really comfortable with a manual gearbox.
Something light and easy like a Toyota Corolla or any Honda.
Yea, been just searching my local craigslist by manual and sorting by price. I saw a nice CIVIC for 1.5k and it sold in like 15mins.
I wouldn't mind paying a little more and getting a 4cyl manual hardtop foxbody, might actually keep that but alas haven't seen one around here.
Volvo 240
Anything that moves under its own power for the lowest possible price. Lots of $700 Saturns and the like out there.
Volvo 850s can be had in a stick.. and nobody wants a mid-sized car with a manual. I had the hardest time getting rid of mine even though it was in great condition
The hardest stick I've ever driven was my brother's delsol. If I learned on that car I would have quit.
I'll assume the civics and accords are easier?
Saturns (or even J-Bodies or Neons) would be an excellent option. There's tons of them and they're cheap.
Stick Volvos seem really hard to find in my experience, and I live in Canada where more of them were actually sold.
It shouldn't be hard to find a stick shift Ranger for under a grand.
v6 Dodge shadow
mad_machine wrote: Volvo 850s can be had in a stick.. and nobody wants a mid-sized car with a manual. I had the hardest time getting rid of mine even though it was in great condition
I had one as my first car, which was basically what I learned stick on (had one experience driving a Saturn Ion before my Volvo.) I would say there are better cars to learn on, the clutch on mine was grabby. When I replaced the 850 with an Integra I immediately got WAY smoother. Also, they're not terribly common in 5 speed form.
Actually, an Integra would be a good recommendation. I like the feel of Honda clutches and shifters, easy to rev match downshifts, cheap and easy to fix. Not sure if the Honda tax has subsided yet or not in your area, though, as it seems to have here.
Ive taught more dumb blonds and other assorted women and ditzy guys to drive a miata than any other car. Super easy to drive one, the have equal torque to hp (unlike a honda) and really light. And in canada im sure a rusted out convertible isnt worth much at all
I wouldn't go Miata for this. I really like Volkswagens. Every one I've driven seems really solid and forgiving, and very tolerant of poor throttle control in lower gears. Stab and release the throttle in first or second, and you'll be pitched about less than just about anything else I've driven. Clutch has good feel. Shifter linkage is a weak point, but that's not the hard part, and it's not generally that bad anyhow.
I'm including everything I've driven from Volkswagen with a stick. Beetles, Super Beetles, New Beetles, Jettas II, III, and IV, and Rabbits I.
basically.. it comes down to this: any Stickshift car under a grand is a good car to learn on.. as long as it still has a decent clutch that does not grab or slip.
ranger or s10.
if you were closer my mom would let her 97 4 cyl 5 speed ranger go for a grand.
Just make sure the reason the car is sub 1K isn't due to clutch/trans problems.
I will chime in and say that the only cheap car that I would suggest not learning on is a late 90s Camry V6 5-speed. There's no engagement feel at all through the clutch pedal, but they're unicorns, so no worries about that. I haven't driven a 4-cyl manual Camry, so I can't say how good or poor they are to learn on by comparison.
I learned on an 89ish Ford Fiesta... It was a blast.
A 63 Chevy 2...with a worn out front end and three on the tree ! If you can drive this, you can drive anything!!
If it moves under it's own power for $1k, you're ahead of the curve.
Personally, I think the easiest to learn stick shift on is something with lots of torque, such as a full size pick up. An engine with good low end torque can pull itself out of ham fisted clutch operation by a newbie, whereas a high rev 4 cyl needs much more finesse. I learned to drive on an '87 Dodge Ramcharger with the granny 1st gear. You had to do something incredibly dumb to stall it.
In my opinion you want a car with a cable clutch. Hydraulic clutches have very little feel and are more difficult to start on.
Mk2 or Mk3 Golf's are a good choice.
Newest Cavalier you can find for the money. I know when these threads come up everyone wants to recommend some kind of a torque monster, but honestly anything with a nice, light clutch and an easy shifter will do just fine. I think we tend to overcomplicate this stuff. Far more important than the car is the teacher.
i paid $300 for a 98 Cavalier with a 5 speed, and $200 for a 97 Cavalier with a 5 speed... granted, both of them needed head gaskets when i got them, so they were $450 and $350 Cavaliers by the time i got them on the road... i put something like 30,000 miles on one and 20,000 miles on the other... they were insanely easy to drive and also liked being power shifted (WFO upshift without using the clutch pedal)..
2200 powered (stay away from the DOHC models) Cavalier/Sunfire works assuming the headgasket is intact and the timing chain tight (both easy jobs), and the rockers and front sub frame (look at the base of the two upright sections) aren't gone. I honed my stick skills in one, beat the piss out of it every day the last year or so I had it, it never failed.
i happen to think learning on a easy vehicle is like saying "now that I've beaten the operation game, i'm going to go do brain surgery..."
i learned on an 81 bronco with an I6, highway gears(2.73), and 38's. thing would go 40 in 1st gear. if you could drive that piece, you could drive anything.
i recommend a low power, high torque, highway geared, mud tired POS that stalls easily, has poor brakes, wont idle, and has a sticky throttle cable and a mechanical lever clutch.
then, when you encounter anything else on gods green earth with 3 pedals, you wont even give it a thought.
-J0N
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