How To Drive A Stick Shift Car

Learning how to drive a stick shift car can be very beneficial. Stick shift cars are generally more fuel efficient. Brakes also last longer on stick shift cars. For those interested in learning how to drive a stick shift car, here are a few tips.

You will need:

• Manual transmission vehicle.
• Your vehicles owner's manual.
• Empty parking lot to practice in.

1. Get a feel for the car. Before driving a stick shift car, it is a good idea to practice shifting gears and using the clutch. Take time to sit inside the car and get a general feel for its controls. It is very important that a new stick shift driver becomes comfortable using the cars gear shifter.
2. Learn the gear positions for the car. Usually newer stick shift cars come with five-speed transmissions. This means that the car will have six gear positions (the five-speed positions and the reverse gear position). With the ignition turned off and parking brake on, push the clutch in (the pedal to the left of the brake). Use the left foot, as it is pushed in, change gears. Once in the desired gear, disengage your foot from the clutch. 
3. Learning how to drive. To learn how to drive a stick shift car, find an empty parking lot to practice in. It is a good idea not to use the gas pedal at first while learning to drive a stick shift. This should be done so that the driver can get a good feel of how much pressure to apply on the clutch in order to make the car move slowly on its own. If  the driver's foot is taken off of the clutch too much, the engine will stall. If this happens, just restart the car and try again.
4. Gaining speed, slowing down and stopping. Using the same method as above, get the car moving but now add in the gas pedal. At the same time, push in the gas and remove your foot from the clutch. If you want to go faster, simply take your foot off of the gas, push in the clutch, change the car into second gear, pull out the clutch while pushing the gas. If you need to brake quickly when you are in gear, push the brake and clutch in at the same time,if this is not done the car will stall before coming to a complete stop. If you need to slow down simply downshift the gears. To downshift without the use of breaks, simply wait until speed decreases, push down on the clutch and downshift the gears. Make sure to use the breaks when downshifting so that drivers behind you know that you are slowing down.

If you use these tips, you should successfully be able to drive a stick shift car in no time!