Tips for teaching someone how to drive manual.

Going to try & teach someone how to drive a manual car for the first time & I don't know where to really begin. It's been almost 20 years since I learned to drive a stick so it comes natural now & I've never taught anyone else. The car is an 03 Matrix XRS which is a bit sloppy at shifting but the clutch is only a few months old & grabs well. Any tips on how to instruct someone from Step 1?

Step 1: Learn to get the car rolling by releasing the clutch and not touching the gas.

Dirt roads. A bit of wheelspin is a lot easier to manage than hop hop hop.

I've never tried it, but EvanB's suggestion is how I was told to teach someone. Go to an empty parking lot and have them practice getting the car rolling without using the gas pedal. Then transition to having them practice rolling on the throttle while in the engagement zone of the clutch.

I had terrible teachers; they actually made it worse for me. They kept saying "release the clutch and give it gas," so I kept doing it, in that order. Once I got my own manual trans car and it was sink or swim, I figured out that you should give it gas WHILE releasing the clutch. That made things much better!

+1 to Keith. I learned on gravel roads and taught both my kids on gravel roads. Minimal stalling helps the newbies confidence.

Rog

Find a big empty parking lot, a lot of patience and start at the beginning. If the person really wants to learn it will be a big help. I taught my wife by having her just slowly let the clutch out without any gas pedal, just feel for the friction point then push the clutch back in. You want to do this in a flat area. After trying this for a little while, then add in applying a bit of throttle as they are letting out the clutch. Do this exercise for a while, just stay in 1st gear, get the car rolling and then stop and try again. if you can find an area that is slightly downhill it will help a little. Depending on how well that goes you can progress to shifting from 1st to 2nd. If the newbie is having a hard time with the first two steps, then just stop after a 1/2 hour or so and let them regroup and try another day. For some people coordinating all the movements together can be difficult, see if you can add one process at a time once they have mastered the previous step. My plan would be; find friction point without stalling, then get car rolling by adding throttle again practice until stalling is at a minimum, once rolling they will need to learn that the clutch pedal must be pushed in when stopping, practice getting going and then stopping, once that lesson is complete then add in shifting up to gain speed. After you get going you can add in different scenarios, stopping quickly, down shifting to go down a hill, getting started on a hill, etc. If it is a person you care about the most important thing to remember is be calm and patient. Try and give good descriptions of what you want or need them to do, ask if they understand the descriptions you are giving and adjust as needed. Remember to tell them when they get something right and remain positive. Good luck and have fun, order a new clutch...

I have taught a few, and always start with just the clutch pedal. Have them slowly release the pedal just until they start to feel the clutch engage, then push the pedal back in; repeat several times until they are really acquainted with that feeling (and over the shock of the few times they stall). Next have them move past that to getting the car just starting to roll forward, again with no gas and again pushing the clutch back in as soon as any movement is detectable. Both of these exercises habituate them to the "push the clutch back in" response that they really need to develop more than anything else.

At this point you can start to add in gas; I tell students to pretend there is a string tied around one ankle that loops up and over the steering column and down to the next ankle, so that when they pull up with one leg (clutch) they get enough string to push down with the other (gas). It seems to work well to help them visualize just how connected the clutch-out gas-on inputs need to be. Again, repeat several times, having them move forward in first and then pushing the clutch back in and going back to neutral.

At this point you can start letting them go a little further, up to the top of first gear. Let them hear and feel what it is like to run up the revs and have the power fall off. Again, do several times. They should start to understand WHY second gear is there, so you can start to add it in, as well as third gear. After that run around on real streets, but choose slow, light traffic, flat roads--they'll be so uptight at their first few real stop signs that they'll stall and hop and general forget everything, but just stay calm, make sure you tell them to push the clutch back in as soon as they start stalling, and don't let them out no matter what until you've made at least a couple of fairly clean circuits. You'll want to quit as much as them, but they need the success, and pretty much everybody can get to this point in just an hour or two.

After that, it's really just practice and confidence. Drag them out as much as possible. Buy lots of Tylenol for yourself. Expect setbacks and bad sessions. Rinse and repeat.

Margie

A 4WD in low range makes things easier as well. I swear everyone in England learned how to drive on an old Land Rover.

I learned on Tim's '66 Shelby Mustang. Torque was my friend.

Margie

And to go with Keith's comment, never try to teach someone on a modern VW / Audi product... Those clutches are the stuff of nightmares for learning (especially when you're thrown in a 2 year old S4 having never driven a manual and having no instruction, just a mental picture of how it's supposed to work).

NA Miatas are another easy car to learn on.

It helped my nephew to see a youtube video of how a clutch works so that he could visualize what was actually happening. That and 20 minutes practice in the yard was enough to get him rolling. Then I taught him how to cheat with the e-brake for big hills until he could handle it without panicking, and threw him to the wolves to drive his own ass home. I now hold a lock on making fun of the BIL for not being able to help his own son - because he can barely drive a stick himself.

Marjorie Suddard wrote: At this point you can start to add in gas; I tell students to pretend there is a string tied around one ankle that loops up and over the steering column and down to the next ankle, so that when they pull up with one leg (clutch) they get enough string to push down with the other (gas). Margie

That is brilliant.

Marjorie Suddard wrote: I learned on Tim's '66 Shelby Mustang. Torque was my friend. Margie

Well now you're just bragging.

Marjorie Suddard wrote: I learned on Tim's '66 Shelby Mustang. Torque was my friend. Margie

THIS!!! I use to teach people in my 75 formula 400. The car intimidated people but I explained that it was actually easier to learn on this car and then go to the econo box than the other way around.

I'm teaching my 13 year old daughter to drive a stick. She is having a blast!

Of course, we cannot go out onto public roads.

I learned to drive in a 53 Chevy and a 51 Plymouth, both 6 cylinder engines with three on a tree and manual steering. I think everybody should have to learn in something like that.

Lots of screaming and yelling is good. Remind them by screaming - DONT RIDE THE CLUTCH.

I'm the worst teacher.

EvanB wrote: Step 1: Learn to get the car rolling by releasing the clutch and not touching the gas.

You imply the vehicle has sufficient torque.

I'm certain my MR2 couldn't do that, nor my 4 banger 86 mustang. The Bronco II we had growing up would start bucking if you didn't give it enough gas while letting the clutch out.

In reply to Grtechguy:

I have used this method in all types of cars with new auto tech students(whose fathers told them you don't need to know how to drive manual trans because nobody buys them anymore). The idea is just move the car and stop, not hole shots or quick get a ways.

Marjorie Suddard wrote: I learned on Tim's '66 Shelby Mustang. Torque was my friend. Margie

I first drove stick on a Toyota Land Cruiser (a diesel LWD J45, ha!) literally in the middle of the Australian Outback. Low range and dirt Then I had a while to think about it, and the next chance was in a 1986 Honda CRX Si. Because I'd had time to think - like three years - the CRX did just fine. I then drove a 1986 RX-7, and a 1980 626 where I finally got some real seat time. Other than the Toyota, I didn't get my chance to combine torque and a clutch until...umm...maybe our M5, 20 years later?

Way back in HS I had a friend and her father try to learn me on a her anti-cramit. They were terrible teachers.

My mom on the other hand, was awesome. The method she used was simply holding rpms at around 2-3K and slowly letting out the clutch. Once I learned the engagement point it was (lumpy) gravy after that. Removing the element of timing the throttle with the clutch made it a lot easier to understand the engagement point while simultaneously reducing the chance of stalling (the clutch-only method never would've worked on the cars I had access to).

Make absolutely certain they know which pedal is the brake!

Let them roll the car and stop it. Again, and again, and again!

It's okay to stall the engine.

Then do it again and have them push the clutch in each time. This will keep you from impacting objects. This and a parking brake in the console you can grab.

I was teaching my daughter, and she was having a hell of a time, until I got behind the wheel and realized I'd been telling her the wrong thing.

I've been driving manual transmission vehicles since 1966, when I was 6, and I'd forgotten that you need to pause letting the pedal up when it starts to bite...I put her back in the drivers, corrected my instruction, and off she went. She's 25 now, and still drives with 3 pedals.

I don't know if it helps, but I always illustrate by turning a bicycle upside down and spin the back wheel a bit and tell them to use their fingers to stop the back tire from spinning. Once they get the idea that is what they are doing when activating the clutch pedal, it might help. Still nerve wracking.

Also a proponent of flat surface and just use the clutch to get going. Once the are good with that, find a slight slope where the car Juuuuussssttt starts to roll back and do the same thing. Cheat and raise the idle speed if you have to.

Never teach your wife or GF.

Grtechguy wrote: You imply the vehicle has sufficient torque. I'm certain my MR2 couldn't do that, nor my 4 banger 86 mustang. The Bronco II we had growing up would start bucking if you didn't give it enough gas while letting the clutch out.

Yes it can, you just have to let the clutch out more slowly. It's not the gentlest thing you can do to the clutch life, but if the engine has enough torque to keep the car rolling in 1st gear with the throttle closed, then it has enough torque to get it up to that level using just the clutch.