I'll just take the bus

I always hated this instruction. When instead I had it explained that one can think of it as fading the clutch out and fading the accelerator in (and that points in between are fine too) I immediately understood and never had an issue again. Admittedly I stalled a few times when switching to a different car whilst I learned its specific tolerances, but conceptually I was golden.
...now I drive an electric car.
- Also it's never taught that you should lift the clutch to the bite point and keep it still until the car builds up some momentum. I think people do it so subconsciously that it doesn't occur to them that that's the key to moving from a standstill.
  
  I love teaching my friends how to drive stick. The first lesson is how to make the idle car move by lifting the clutch foot so slow that you can feel the car move and keep going slowly until the foot is off the clutch pedal. It's about a 15 minute lesson and the driver understands what to do with the clutch. The gas is easy.
  
  This wasn't taught to me either but this is the best thing for teaching others. I've explained this to a few people before that were struggling to learn and it made the process much easier.
  
  It's like learning to ride a bike. There's all this balance going on, but after you're good at it it's just natural and you kind of forget how to explain what to do because you stopped thinking about it so long ago.
  
  I was taught that. I learned driving in Germany, though.
- Really depends on the amount of torque your car has at idle, in some you don't need to touch the gas pedal at all to set off.
  Or how good the anti-stall system is, the car I learned in was basically impossible to stall by letting the clutch up too fast, it would just automatically fade in power.

I enjoy driving, so I drive a manual. People who don't enjoy driving, or who merely drive because there's no other alternative, should not drive a manual.
That being said, nobody should drive a tesla.
- I love driving but I will not drive a manual unless there’s no other alternative, it’s 2025 I shouldn’t have to be doing that for my car
  
  I don't like my car doing anything I didn't explicitly tell it to, or not doing what I do he'll it to, like not downshifting when it's time to downshift.

My father in law decided randomly one day I was going to learn to drive manual. So he started up the pickup truck, and said "it's easy to get started going down hill" as he demonstrated rolling down a steep hill. Then he u-turned, parked the truck at the bottom of that steep hill, turned off the engine got out and said "your turn". Dick.

My parents insisted I learn on a manual, and while I didn't appreciate it at the time, I do now.
The regional DMV office where I took my driving exam had the most notorious parallel parking setup in the state. It was two traffic cones next to a very large, 3 1/2 foot diameter log (representing the curb) and was on the side of a circular cul-de-sac. So not only did you have to account for the curvature, if you got too close to the "curb", you were gonna have a very bad day lol.
If you're wondering: I nailed it (they let you practice after hours which helped).
- What does manual transmission have to do with parallel parking?
  
  Nothing other than increasing the difficulty for a novice driver. Mostly it's me going on a tangent and reminiscing about defeating that fucking log lol.
  
  From my experience it's a lot easier to drive slowly just woth the clutch instead of the gas pedam
- What's wrong with just driving through the nearby streets and searching for a fitting spot for parking?
  
  AFAIK, it's mostly due to how the driving exams are structured.
  First you have to pass the written exam. If you fail that, you don't continue.
  After the written exam is the parallel parking test. That's done on-site. If you don't pass that part, you don't continue to the road test.
  The road test is last; it's up to the instructor where you go for that, but it usually is a route that covers various scenarios that were on the exam (4-way stops, crosswalks, speed transition zones, school zones, etc).
  I'd guess it's setup that way because of how many people fail the parallel parking test; best to do that in a controlled environment where there's no risk to regular people's cars out in the wild.
  Edit: This probably varies state-by-state, too. I'm just describing how it was here.
  
  If you don't have control over the finer movements of your car, parallel park is a pretty good way to weed it out. And if they don't, you're gonna fuck up harder in a place that actually matters.
  Fuck up when it doesn't matter so you don't fuck up when it matters.

To anyone wondering why some people prefer the control a stick offers over automatic, I tell them: it's like listening to Beethovens 5th over the radio vs ACTUALLY CONDUCTING the orchestra.
- As someone who's never conducted an orchestra or driven a manual, this simile doesn't really help at all.
  
  As someone who drives a manual, I'm going to go try and conduct an orchestra
  
  It's raining out and the road your on starts going up a hill. Theres a lot of water on the road so you're not driving fast. An automatic sees your rpms dropping because you need more power to go up the hill. It doesn't know its raining. It downshifts to give you more power to get up the hill. You went from 50 mph at 1300rpms to 45 mph at 5000 rpms. All that power now going to your tires creates more opportunity for your wheels to loose traction in the rain and fishtail.
  In a manual you put in a gear that keeps your rpms high enough to maintain speed but not 5000 rpms to "go faster". The power to the wheels stays exactly where you want it to be based on the road conditions. Replace with snow, sleet, etc etc.
  
  Its like being a meteor instead of a satellite orbiting the earth
  
  In an automatic the car decides when to shift gears and to which gear. And it also decides how softly or hard it should do this.
  In a manual car you have to do all of this yourself, but that also means you decide when and how to do it.
- Every car I owned so far was a manual and only rentals were sometimes automatic. But that's purely due to cost. I dive out of necessity, not for fun and an automatic is so much more relaxing in stop-and-go rush hour traffic than a manual stick shift.

Lol volkswagen autostart
Slows down for speed bump.
Engine turns off.
- Wait this happens?? Lmao
  
  Yeah. Know problem in my polo. Have to turn stopstart each time you start the car
- 🤮 So glad my stop-start has been broken on my Hyundai for years now, everything else works though
- Autostart and lane assist are turned off in my car.

Heard the manual vs automatic argument million times. I learned to drive using manual, my first few cars were all manuals and this is all I knew for a long time.
When we bought our first car together with my wife we got an automatic. She is a less confident driver, and wanted an automatic car. I dont mind it at all, got used to it and now I don't miss manual at all. She is a much safer driver, under stress or in a sticky situation the manual transmission is a an extra thing to worry about and I feel calmer knowing that she can fully concentrate on the road instead of shifting.
I think manual is great for experienced drivers, but automatic is so much safer for beginners and people like my wife.
- i had a manual mustang cobra a long time ago and dealing with the clutch in stop and go traffic could get exhausting. my leg would actually start getting tired after a while.
- I also learned on manual in Europe and switched to automatic when I moved to the US because it's the only option.
  i like driving while being able to rest one arm out the window, or sip from a drink or something.
  If I need to quickly accelerate out of a busy turning I put it into Sport mode and turn Eco Mode off

Press the clutch with your left foot, slowly release it as you slowly press the accelerator with your right foot.
- To be fair it is more complicated than that. You have to feel the car start to move, hear the revs react, adjust the rate at which you release the clutch and how much gas you give accordingly and for some vehicles/situations you even need to pause the release of the clutch for a moment to let the vehicle start to gain speed. It's all something you eventually get used to and can do without thinking but there is a significant frustrating hump to get over in the learning curve.
  I feel like those who say they don't understand why people like driving manual are people who never got over that hump. Because once you get over it, it is a lot of fun. And even if you still prefer to drive automatic after that because of your personal preferences, you still get why some do like it.
  
  I’ve taught a half dozen or so people to drive manuals. Each one did something I’d not have expected. My favorite was the person who pushed the clutch down only as far as they pressed the brake when coming to a stop. Of course the car died. Once we could break that habit they did alright.
  I pretty much just start with having them stall the car to prove the world doesn’t end…it’s fine. It’s gonna happen a dozen or so more times. Let’s move on.

Or do as the little old lady next to me in a car park yesterday: push the accelerator until the little needle is at 6000 (because you need to get up at 6), put the car in reverse and slowly adjust your speed with the clutch.
Either Honda accords have a pretty good clutch, or she was on her 9th by the look of the car.
Update: it went something like this https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VCNzvKvIRhk it's in Danish, but I think it's pretty self explanatory
- When I taught my brother and sis, after they got frustrated not finding the balance or the car dieing, I just told them to give it some real gas. If they're apprehensive about it. I told them to just floor it in neutral to show nothing is gonna happen to the motor and it just hits the limiter. So after 30 minutes of them just focusing on slowly releasing the clutch while revving high, they had it down. Another 15 minutes and they were going up to 2k rpm while working the clutch.
  Yes, I had to replace the clutch after teaching them both. Small price to pay for them now being able to drive anything.
- That's how learned basically, we have a lot of free way exits that leave you going uphill at a red light so that's how I kept from rolling back into the car sniffing my exhaust

My ex tried to teach me to drive stick on the way home from urgent care.. my urgent care. Because it was convenient for him at that time. He refused to teach me several times before then because it was inconvenient. (why yes, I did leave him decades ago over abuse, thanks for asking! Tho it was not the specific thing)
I don’t care if manual is superior in some irrelevant way; I refuse to learn now due to trauma. Pretty sure I looked just like this picture.
- Meh, stick is simpler so if anything goes wrong it's easy to fix or less things to break. The only other reason is that it forces you to pay attention to your driving, so, if your into cars, it's more enjoyable to go for a drive.
  Automatic is superior, especially now. You aren't missing much.
- Thing is, it's not superior in any way, quite the opposite. Maybe things were different decades ago.
  
  Though I drive an automatic now, I do still feel like manual transmission gives you a little bit more control. I miss being able to use the clutch in the friction zone for fine control at low speeds or even reversing. Plus I miss being able to downshift at higher speeds for a bit more torque. The last one is achievable by just pressing the accelerator to make the automatic shifter understand what I want to do, or by using it's manual override but that feels less natural to me for some reason.
- Different technology, different pros/cons. You don't need to learn it in the same way you don't need to learn to calculate the sheer force of a raindrop on a window: you just don't need to.
  Learning manual is one of those things that requires some understanding of what's going on, a lot of time, and patience. It's a feel thing, but you need context. After that, it's muscle memory - and context.
  Honestly, most people do all parts of it wrong. So don't feel bad.
- Hey glad your free of that

Put it in H!
- What country does this car come from?
  The country it comes from no longer exists!

laughs in electric drivetrain
- Voltage up.
  Voltage down.
  Simple. No additional headache.
  
  3 phase synchronous motors want a word with you!

"Press the clutch, release it slowly and accelerate." Bus enginge turns off
- "Lead with the foot that is going down" is missing from this.

I feel like learning manual is easy if you already know how to drive. My newest car is a stick shift and I just started driving it. Took like a month to be comfortable, but I was able to drive it and get from point a to point b without being good at it. Really just first gear that's annoying.

A tip for this: the accelerator is less important, slowly release the clutch until you feel the car vibrating, then you can release the brakes and the car will not move, or start moving slowly, then you can start accelerating and releasing the rest of the clutch.
- What if you're on a hill?
  
  You try not to park on hills haha. But the concept is the same you just get better/quicker at doing it. When you're letting off the clutch, the engine is connected to the wheels. Its enough to not need the brakes so you give it a bit more gas to get over the resistance of trying to go up a hill versus flat ground.
  But some manuals will "hold" the brakes for a few seconds after you let off the brake pedal.
  Also, everyone who drives manual stalls. You just laugh at how dumb you are and try again.
  
  Use the handbrake. At least that’s how I learned it. Back when the handbrake was a lever connected by a steel cable to the break pads. Man I’m old.
  
  Depends how steep. If it's not steep just add more gas. If it is ise the handbrake.

Just get an automatic transmission instead. That might be my American perspective showing though. I know manual transmissions are more common in Europe (or at least I've heard), but I don't know if that's just driver preference or for some other reason (like cost).
- Automatics had a bit of a bad reputation, for quite a while. They don't/didn't play well with our road layouts. E.g. they could be slow to downshift when climbing a hill, and kick when they did decide to play along. I believe they have improved a lot, but most people are used to manuals, and so more manuals are sold. This makes automatics more expensive and rarer.
- I will say when I rented a car in Wales in the mid 2010s they had like literally 2 automatics and they were double the rate. It wasn't at all common there then.
- In France they're only starting to get traction. They just weren't a thing until say ten or fifteen years ago. Top of the line cars had the option, but it was very rare. It's a matter of culture. We have an automatic now (wife is more comfortable with it), it handles gear changes shittily but it appeases my left leg, so we're even.

Just get an auto with paddle shifters, best of both worlds without having to feel like you’re operating Victorian era machinery. Modern auto boxes change faster than you can, and give better acceleration and economy.
I love driving and passed my test in a manual. I wouldn’t go back now.
- I thought paddles would be cool. My first 335i was a dct and I eventually sold it for a real manual 335i. It's really gonna suck when manual is truly gone :(
  
  6mt 335 gang unite. I love mine.
- No thanks. I like a manual gearbox because it's fun, I feel in control. I don't want to rely on electronics for something less fun. I don't care if automatics are now faster, or if paddles are faster. They're not as fun.

It’s not just the clutch. Rev up the engine too.
- Now you killed it while lurching forward! Exciting!
  While learning, don't touch the gas. Learn how to take the car out of neutral and into first using only the clutch. Then the whole process makes a lot more sense for when you need to do it faster.
  
  No, you didn't "kill it", you gave it what it needs and then released the clutch. Slowly letting go till it bites doesn't make any sense, especially when going uphill. The clutch can take moving a tiny bit faster, the engine cannot take it moving a lot slower. If you lurch, you gave it a ton of gas, instead of keeping it at like 3k range max.
  Basically, train on a level surface. Push in the clutch fully, break fully. Then let go of break, and push the gas in slightly. Learn how far you need to push it to keep it at 3k or so, depending on your vehicle. Then, the most important part. Gas doesn't make your vehicle go, the release of the clutch does. Once you figure out that it's the left leg that makes it "go" instead of the right, you'll get it every time, uphill or not. It only needs the tiny amount of initial gas to be good.
  None of this "wait till the cars starts rolling and then you have a quarter of a milisecond to add gas before it dies on you.

Man y'all might as well be speaking Greek in this thread.

Automatic transmission ❤️
- Try as I might I don't think I'll ever understand people who like manual transmission. I think it's like some kind of elitism thing? I can drive the annoying esoteric vehicle so I'm better than you?
  It's not like it actually makes you go faster, automatic transmissions are pretty good these days. I've tried to drive manual vehicles and it just required way too much of my attention for what should be a simple means of conveyance.
  
  annoying esoteric vehicle
  You're making it sound a lot harder and more painful than it is. Do you also judge people who ride 2-wheeled vehicles that "require attention" for staying balanced?
  "I don't like X, therefore people who like X can't possibly like it for real and must be pretending. In fact, they are elitists who only do it to feel superior to me."
  C'mon mate.
  
  Esoteric? I've only encountered a handful of automatic cars in my life here in the UK. Having a licence that only covers automatic has historically been rather limiting here. The only person I know that has that has dyspraxia.
  For me the appeal of a manual transmission is in engine braking. When driving an ICE car I barely need the brakes because the majority of my speed management is through engine braking. Fortunately my electric car has the option for pseudo engine braking - and it charges the battery too!
  
  Because they like it. It's engaging.
  But it also forces you to pay better attention, I'm just not going to get snippy about it.
  You complaining about the attention.... Terrifying. Jesus, you can kill someone.
  
  Had a previous car that was manual. Then I bought a car with a CVT (continuously variable transmission) and it’s such a nuisance because it is always unpredictable when it will shift. So you go to pass someone, step on the gas and sometimes it takes off and other times it fiddles with shifting for a second before giving you any power. Can also be a real pain in stop and go traffic because it will have unpredictable amounts of power when starting from a stop. I’ve had this vehicle since 2017 and it’s always been this way. I don’t miss having to shift constantly but I do miss having a reliable amount of power when I’m in a certain gear - that’s what is so nice about a manual transmission. You feel more in control of the car. That said, my daily driver now is electric with no transmission and that is the best of all.
  
  It's more enjoyable is the main thing. It's more fun to drive a manual car to many people and that's their appeal. There are a few other advantages to it as well. They're generally more reliable and have better fuel economy and performance than automatics that were offered until the 2010s.
  
  Most people have manual cars in the UK. Automatics are the weirder, more esoteric ones to us.
  I think it's more or less a cultural thing at this point
  FWIW I believe competitive drivers prefer manual control (even if the gearbox itself is automatic) because controlling when the gear change happens can make a difference in a race
  
  Manuals are more engaging. Getting a smooth shift or a perfect rev match on a downshift is very satisfying. Shifting gears when your have a car with a smooth, very mechanically connected shifter feels even more satisfying.
  If you ever have to gun it in an emergency with a manual the acceleration is instant. In an automatic you have to wait a few seconds for the transmission to figure out what gear it wants to be in before anything actually happens.
  Generally, in an automatic, the connection between the engine and the wheels doesn't feel very mechanical. It feels like they are connected by a rubber band.
  In a manual you feel much more like the car is an extension of you.
  Going back to driving an automatic usually feels like you're being handed a children's toy. The whole experience feels hollow and neutered like it's missing something substantial.
  I guess there can be some elitist mindset to being able to do something that fewer and fewer people can do. But thinking that this is the main reason why people love driving stick is downright ignorant.
  
  It's just more fun dude. Manual transmissions make shitty cars bearable, and nicer cars exhilarating. Plus I really like having that direct control over the car. Plus they tend to be more reliable and cheaper to repair. There's not much else too it.
  I've tried to drive manual vehicles and it just required way too much of my attention for what should be a simple means of conveyance.
  That just means that you haven't developed the muscle memory yet, you had that same learning period with every other aspect of driving, operating a manual transmission is just one more. So you know, if you're serious, practice.
  I've been driving manuals exclusively for so long that I actually have the opposite problem, In the rare situations that I need to drive an auto, I have to be super careful and mindful. I've literally stabbed the brake before in an auto with my left foot instinctively looking for the clutch, so I have to conciously keep that foot still.
  
  I believe they're just cheaper and technically they allow you to get a bit more from your car, but yea apart from that, not much
  In some countries there are more manual cars so I get them, but trashing on automatic is just dumb. It's much more enjoyable (people I know told me that). Most manual drivers have muscle memory so it's not really something that takes too much place in their mind, but I guess having to remember less could make you more focused on the road.
  Disclaimer: I have an automatic driver license, and no manual driver license haha
  
  I've tried to drive manual vehicles and it just required way too much of my attention for what should be a simple means of conveyance.
  Driving a manual doesn’t require any more attention than an automatic. Here almost everyone learns in a manual and by the time you get your license it’s something you don’t need to think about.
  If you’re used to manual, driving an automatic for the first time is a pretty scary experience. Half the controls you need to operate the car are missing.
  It’s not an elitism thing as almost everyone drives a manual. My late mom drove a manual at 72, including dragging a big caravan all across Europe.
  Used to be that the only people who drove an automatic were people with (mental) health issues. If you got a manual-only license it used to have a big stamp across it that said ‘AUTOMATIC ONLY’. If you got one of those as a physically healthy 18yo it might as well have said ‘removed’, as that would have been the only reason to get one.
  Nowadays with electric cars becoming more common having an automatic-only license has become socially acceptable.
  
  At some point in time it was argued that manual allowed finer control of engine efficiency to automatic which simply shifted at certain speeds or rpms that weren't always ideal. So properly driving a manual meant you saved gas.
  I dare say in the decades since that argument began, automatic transmissions have gotten way better and reasonably as efficient as the average manual driver.
  Also, when manuals were more generally common, they were generally cheaper than automatics. I don't know if that's true anymore, but I think the average person will have a hard time finding a manual new (consumer grade) vehicle in any given dealership in the US these days -- you'd have to get it ordered.

Only thing I drive is OP's mom wild with pleasure.

Ahh but its so worth it. Also just take the bus lol, driving should only be for fun. Make all fuel eco and its gonna be more expensive but cars as a form of transport are horrible. I like driving but i also like swimming and that doesnt mean i want to swim to school/work.

Just get an automatic

laughs in automatic

You don't have to drive stick...