Teaching a kid born in 2001 to drive manual

"ImmoralMinority" (araimondo) 04/08/2018 at 08:48 • Filed to: None

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I got really sick coming back from Italy, and after buying the Subaru yesterday, I collapsed and slept for almost 11 hours. My son was dying to drive the car, and I was in no way up for going anywhere.

I am figuring out how teach him to drive a manual, as he will be daily driving this 5 speed Subaru. We are not entirely inexperienced in this, as I started teaching him on the Sunchaser, first in the parking lot at my office, and eventually around the neighborhood. What I am getting at is that I let him take the car and go out by himself to practice rowing gears. I figure I have shown him the basics, and he just needs practice. I told him to go slow and stay in the neighborhood.

He says he thought he did well, and he did not crash or break the car. I learned to drive on a manual, and took the test in one. My dad made me start on step hills and parallel park before he was satisfied. Today I am going to go out with him and see how much he has learned.

shop-teacher > ImmoralMinority 04/08/2018 at 09:11

7

Practice is what it will take. A buddy taught me the basics in his Dodge Ram. Then I bought a cheap Subaru, and figured out the rest myself. First couple weeks were rough, but I figured it out. I’m sure he will too.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > ImmoralMinority 04/08/2018 at 09:14

3

Practice indeed...our family only ever owned automatics, but I was hell-bent on getting a stick for my car when the time came (much to mom’s chagrin). With the help of an old high school friend and a friend from university (I didn’t need to get my own car until my 4th year of university, as much as I wanted to as it would not have made financial sense at the time), they gave me a few brief lessons in parking lots and very straight dirt roads, I learned a bit.

...I learned the rest when I picked my 2002 Impreza wagon up from the garage that did the pre-sale inspection for me and had to drive it home in rough hour traffic. Never have I learned so much so quickly! :P

One of the nice things with the Impreza, I found is that if he gives it too much gas or clutches in too quickly, it’s harder to accidentally spin the tires on a steep hill or some such because drive is going to all four wheels rather than just 2!

pip bip - choose Corrour > ImmoralMinority 04/08/2018 at 09:14

2

all he can do is practice.

honestly, do you know when or if the clutch has been replaced?

if still original, start budgeting for one.

Ash78, voting early and often > ImmoralMinority 04/08/2018 at 09:22

2

My best teacher was an up-and-coming Formula 3 contender from Colombia. He just said “Learn to hold the RPM at 1,500 and release the clutch, but keep the RPM at 1,500 (with throttle)”

It’s not the smoothest, but not jerky either. Focusing on the tach first was the key for me. Then as I gained experience I learned the feel.

My dad and others had all learned in cars without tachs, so they tried to teach by feel, which IMHO is much harder to convey to people. My first car was a 5MT even though I couldn’t drive it at first.

Totally worth it.

smobgirl > ImmoralMinority 04/08/2018 at 09:44

3

I made it a game when I was teaching myself. Every trip (point A to point B) without stalling earned a point. If I stalled, I lost all of the points. When I got 50 points I earned a giant cupcake from my favorite bakery...and it also seemed like that was about when I’d really gotten the hang of things. I can be pretty competitive so it really forced me to pay attention!

FSI > ImmoralMinority 04/08/2018 at 09:44

2

Basically what shop teacher and pib bip said, it will become the most natural thing with practice. I either gave it too little or too much gas when engaging the clutch thus making it a horror for me when I had to start from a complete stop in the beginning. Even hill starts are super fun for me now.

HondoyotaE38: A Japanese and German Collab...wait a minute > ImmoralMinority 04/08/2018 at 09:46

1

Your son is only 2 years older than me?! Nice. Y’all are lucky though, and you’re a cool dad. My parents can’t just buy another car as easily as you can and even if they could if I wrecked the other, they wouldn’t lol. But on a side note, since I’m buying my first car, I’ll make sure it’s a manual even though I’m trash at driving stick, but I’ll drive it in my neighborhood until I get good and in the meantime use the CR-V on the main roads.

Your boy, BJR > ImmoralMinority 04/08/2018 at 09:51

7

I’ll never forget how I learned manual. I bought a manual Saab 900S with zero experience on manual at all. The first week I had if, my mom took me out a few times and gave me lessons, but it wasn’t really sticking (I’d take her car to school and work and she’d take the Saab until I got good).

So one night, my mom and stepdad went out on a date (pre-them being married) and my stepbrother came over to my moms house to chill with me while they were on their date. They left and I grabbed my Saab keys (didn’t have the house key on them yet) and wanted to show my brother the car real quick. This was December on the NJ coast, so it was cold and we didn’t have jackets (we were just checking out the car real quick). We got locked out of the house, and right then and there I knew my options were learn manual and drive to the restaurant to get my moms house keys or freeze (well, go to a neighbor’s house, but I didn’t think that far ahead). So I learned how to drive stick that night.

I’m not saying that you should lock your kid out of the house in the cold and make him nut up or shut up, but I’m not not saying it either.

Khalbali > Ash78, voting early and often 04/08/2018 at 09:56

1

Similar for me, I bought my first car, a crx si, having only had one quick lesson a year or two before, basically taught myself with a little help from the internet although there weren’t YouTube videos for everything back then at least that I can remember. The 1500 rpm thing was something I picked up on pretty quickly myself and that’s how i teach others too. I used to start in 2nd though lol, 1st was so short and notchy/jerky that I had a really hard time with it for a while and the car was so light 2nd was fine.

functionoverfashion > ImmoralMinority 04/08/2018 at 10:19

1

I learned on an old tractor with a hand throttle that you’d just set and leave. So you had to be smooth with the clutch, you couldn’t really balance with the throttle.

Liam Farrell > Your boy, BJR 04/08/2018 at 10:22

0

My mom bought a 900 too without knowing how to drive manual, she had the salesman teach her or she wouldn’t buy the car.

WilliamsSW > ImmoralMinority 04/08/2018 at 10:27

2

I like this plan. Giving him time to practice while he’s alone in the car reduces the stress level a bit, as he’s not trying to impress you. He can make mistakes, stall it, whatever, and just move on.

I learned originally on a small U-Haul truck (basically an old Ford Courier), then spent the rest of the summer driving all kinds of different cars, some manual, some automatic. Not really the best way to learn, but I ended up getting a feel for different clutches, shifters, etc.

Have fun with him today!

shop-teacher > HondoyotaE38: A Japanese and German Collab...wait a minute 04/08/2018 at 10:31

6

I bought my first car with my own money. I was damn proud of it, and you will be too. Nobody can take that away from you.

WilliamsSW > shop-teacher 04/08/2018 at 10:32

3

Yeah - after you figure out the basics, the rest is practice and feel, and there isn’t a lot of value in having an instructor with you, I think.

shop-teacher > WilliamsSW 04/08/2018 at 10:38

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I agree. Once you know the steps, an instructor isn’t much good helping you feel it. As it is, I drive stick so rarely (only when I’m in the RallyMetro), that I can be pretty rough at times. Whenever the RallyMetro dies, I’m going to replace it with something a bit better, with a fully functioning manual trans. My wife wants to learn to drive stick, and now that I don’t haul kids around every day, I’d like something smaller to tool around in.

Under_Score > ImmoralMinority 04/08/2018 at 10:50

0

Did he want a manual in his “new” car? If so, I glad you’re helping him out and I hope he enjoys it.

On a side note, I remember back when y’all got the Sport Trac, I was thinking “Y’all have a lot of money and ties to Infiniti; get him a CPO G37 or something”. But after seeing what happened, I think it’s better to stick with basic cars like these for now.

e36Jeff now drives a ZHP > ImmoralMinority 04/08/2018 at 10:51

3

I think one of the best things my Dad did when teaching me was making me drive up a steep hill 3' at a time. To this day I can do a hill start on the steepest of hills with no parking brake and virtually zero rollback. I think it also helps that I learned on a car with very little power(‘84 318i, had a whopping 102hp) so I wasn’t able to bail myself out from a bad clutch engagement via brute force. One of my buddies that learned in a V8 mustang had terrible clutch engagement and I strongly suspect it’s because it was virtually impossible to stall.

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > ImmoralMinority 04/08/2018 at 11:00

1

That is very trusting of you to let someone learn manual on your prized classic car.

aquila121 > Ash78, voting early and often 04/08/2018 at 11:07

1

My stepdad taught me in a bit of a different way: he said to ignore the gas, and focus on being excruciatingly slow with the clutch. (I know it’s not good for the long-term, just for the initial learning process.) His rationale was that the first step is to feel the engagement point of the clutch, and if going slowly enough through the pedal travel, the engine can get the car moving even at idle. Once I could do that consistently in first, he said “Do it in second.” Same exercise, just even slower at that engagement point. Then start from a stop in third—still no throttle. After a session doing that in a parking lot, I had an idea of where to slow down a hair in the clutch travel and started to add gas to smooth it out (and be able to speed up the process). I’ve passed that on to a few of my friends who wanted to learn stick, and I think it works well because you’re focused on one singular thing; there’s no coordination of your left and right feet to start, just feeling where the clutch bites and the car begins to move. Then once that sinks in, you can add to that knowledge and refine the technique.

Mercedes Streeter > ImmoralMinority 04/08/2018 at 11:08

1

I learned to drive manual in an old Saturn SC1.

One day I’ll be one of those weirdos that’ll buy a low mile, mint SC1 for nearly MSRP just because of those memories.

Side note, my boyfriend is only like three years older than your son (19, soon 20).

aquila121 > ImmoralMinority 04/08/2018 at 11:10

1

Thanks for passing on the knowledge.

MM54 > ImmoralMinority 04/08/2018 at 11:15

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It’s a subaru, just hold it at 4000RPM and dump the clutch, right? :)

Maxima Speed > ImmoralMinority 04/08/2018 at 11:20

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Nice, I didn’t catch you post yesterday on it. Has he been allowed to drive the Sunchaser yet? That car was definitely NP.

Logansteno: Bought a VW? > ImmoralMinority 04/08/2018 at 11:27

1

Just toss him into rush hour traffic on one of the cities busiest roads and tell him good luck. That’s what my dad did when I bought the S10 and had to get it home. Those poor rear tires didn’t know what they had coming.

Spanfeller is a twat > ImmoralMinority 04/08/2018 at 11:55

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Out of all the people I have tried teaching manual, only my 14 year old sister actually knew how to do it. It was in a Kia Rio that had a very muted and rubbery clutch. I learnt in a Morris Mini, and it’s clutch travel is probably best measured in micrometres.

Cé hé sin > ImmoralMinority 04/08/2018 at 12:20

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Is it common to take your test in a manual over there? I’m in one of those places where taking a test in an automatic gains you an automatic-only licence and if you want to go on to a manual you have to begin from scratch - which people don’t normally do so everyone bar the disabled and the timid takes their test in a manual.

Sampsonite24-Earth's Least Likeliest Hero > Cé hé sin 04/08/2018 at 13:03

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Most of the drivers Ed cars I’ve seen or been in are autos

Ash78, voting early and often > aquila121 04/08/2018 at 13:28

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Excellent. I will say that method works a lot better in a V8 or diesel where the torque at idle actually useful. In the Hondas and VWs I learned in (85-120hp) that was pretty tough!

aquila121 > Ash78, voting early and often 04/08/2018 at 16:02

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You’re right, but even in a low-powered car you can manage it. I learned on a ‘95 Escort wagon, that advertised 88 hp, 108ft/lbs.

dogisbadob > ImmoralMinority 04/11/2018 at 21:53

1

If he can do the old yellow car, the (much newer) Subaru should be easier, right? Doesn’t your have that hill holder clutch? I know Subaru used to do that.