Many customers at Orange auto sales can remember the first time they ever drove a manual transmission. Perhaps, a parent took them to an abandoned parking lot, so they would have free range to practice shifting to every gear at the appropriate moment. Driving stick is a dextrous art of balancing the clutch with the right gear change and quickly moving your foot to the acceleration.
From time to time, many manual car drivers hear the jerky, almost busted car sound when the clutch wasn’t pressed enough or at all when the gears were being changed. That was all part of learning to drive stick, and it didn’t matter anyway in an abandoned parking lot. Everyone at Orange County auto sales has that sense of nostalgia when they reminisce about the first time they drove a manual transmission.
How Do You Drive A Manual Car?
Despite the fact that at Orange auto sales vehicles with manual gearboxes are customary, automatic gearboxes are increasingly becoming more popular. The art of driving a stick is endangered.
Some of us were not as fortunate to learn how to drive a manual transmission and want to learn the basics. So, Orange auto sales have created an easy guide to teach you how to drive a manual car.
Learn The Basics
Before you set out with a manual car, you should be aware of the three-pedal they normally have. That is the clutch, brake, and accelerator, which are in that exact order from left to right.
Operating the brake and accelerator pedals are very easy. You press the brake to slow down and the firmer you press it, the faster you will lose velocity while pressing the accelerator increases the engine’s revs and results in you speeding up, essentially the firmer you press it, the faster you will speed up.
The only difference between a manual transmission to an automatic is the clutch pedal which makes a stick more challenging to drive.
The clutch is the two metal plates that connect the engine to the drive wheels. Therefore, when you press down on the clutch pedal, you are disconnecting the engine from the wheels.
How To Drive A Manual Car In Nine Easy Steps
- Get in the car and put on your seatbelt
- Put the key in the ignition and turn all the way until the engine starts
- Put the clutch pedal down (this the pedal on the far left)
- Place the gear stick into first gear
- Use your right foot to press down on the accelerator slowly to increase the engine’s revs just a bit
- Slowly lift the clutch pedal using your left foot until it starts to vibrate gently
- This vibration is known as the car’s “bite point” – this is where the clutch plates start to come together.
- Release the handbrake and the vehicle should begin to move slowly
- Increase the revs while slowly raising your foot off the clutch unit you are moving forward with only the use of the accelerator pedal
Keep in mind that if you are too quick at lifting your foot off the clutch, or you don’t dive the engine enough revs, the are will stall: that is when the engine cuts out and the red lights glow on the dashboard.
When this happens, apply the brakes, turn the engine off, return the gear stick to neutral, and start the process again.
Modern Manual Transmissions
Nowadays, modern manual transmissions not only have smoother shifters that pair with more merciful clutches, but many instances pack technologies designed to enhance performance, increase efficiency and improve the driving experience. Let’s have a look at a seven-speed manual transmission and the best seven tech features that upgrade the down-to-earth manual.
Downshift Rev-Matching
Before you had to nail the art of heal and tow shifting to get the most performance out of your manual transmission, but downshift rev-matching technology now makes anyone look competent enough to be behind the wheel of a manual car.
Downshift rev-matching technology is a feature that automatically adapts the engine speed to the gear you have chosen for smooth, seamless downshifts.
It is specifically useful during tough racetrack driving, however, you can make your go-to winding road more pleasant as well.
No-Lift Shifting
When you learn how to drive a manual, you are taught to release the gas pedal while shifting gears. This general rule does not apply to vehicles with a no-lift shift feature. This feature allows you to change gears without taking your foot off the gas, which avoids any power interruption from the car’s twin-turbocharged V-6 engine.
Hill Start Assist
Hill start assist isn’t only available on stick-shift cars, but the feature makes it easier to become an expert in one of the toughest skills of driving a manual: starting on a hill without rolling backward. Without hill start assist, quick footwork on the gas and clutch — or a hand-operated parking brake applied as a team, is required to prevent you from rolling backward. However, if you get it wrong and you stall the engine. Hill start assist gives you more time to start off by briefly holding the brakes after you’ve released the brake pedal.
Smart Technology
Over the years, many things have become “smart” such as watches, doorbells, electrical outlets, and a whole lot more. The Toyota Corolla Hatchback’s manual transmission has become smarter, too, and it can do things that required a lot of practice beforehand. Downshift rev-matching is one such feature, but the car can also automatically adjust engine speed to minimize lurching during an ill-timed shift.
Extra Forward Gear
Manual transmissions haven’t experienced the hurried increase in forward gears that automatic transmissions have with the rise of eight-, nine- and 10-speed automatics. What’s the advantage of such a feature? The extra seventh gear is very tall, which means better gas mileage during highway cruising.
Engine Stop-Start
Engine stop-start technology has escalated in automatic-transmission cars as car manufacturers try to stuff extra efficiency from internal combustion engines, but they’ve found a way how to bring the fuel-saving feature to stick-shift cars, too. for instance, vehicles with this feature have an engine that can shut off to save fuel when the car is stopped, the gear selector is in Neutral and the clutch pedal is released. Push down the clutch to get into gear and the engine restarts.
Gear-Position Indicator
Upshift indicators are nothing new, but such fuel-saving babysitters are the burden of enthusiasts who enjoy revving their car’s engine a bit. However, a different readout in modern manual-equipped cars — the gear-position indicator is slightly more useful, especially as manuals have added forward gears in recent years. For example, a seven-speed manual with a gear-position indicator in its instrument panel. is a helpful reminder of the gear you’re in.