So last night I was talking with scooby about when we learned to drive a stick and i forgot how horrible my first time was...lol I had just turned 16 and my dad had bought a manual 1987 subaru wagon with 4wd and said i had to learn to drive it. Me being a 16 year old girl with no real interest in cars at the time didn't see the importance but off we went.:ugh: I got it down...kinda and my dad made me go through the burger king drive though, at lunch...with everyone else wanting food from the bk lounge also... at this point in time IF i could get the car going it was fine...it was the stopping then moving foward that i couldn't do. We order the food and are told to pull forward and i couldn't get the car to not stall out... my dad just kept telling me to go again and again and again.... mean while there is a long line of cars behind us who are hungry and angry, and the bk employees hanging out the window laughing at us. I was so frustrated and on the verge of tears and was bagging my dad to switch spots with me since we had moved halfway to the window....he refused and said i had to figure this out sometime. i kid you not....it took me over 5 min to get from the ordertaking spot to the pick up window..... when we get the the window the lady takes the money and is like " first time huh?" and is just laughing..... after we get the food and park im still forced to drive home! my old man is a slave driver, but im glade he made me do it! now whats everyone's first time stories?
My wife (then girlfriend) had a friend with a mid 80's Toyota pickup, with what seemed like an eight foot shifter. The truck had seen better days and more miles than my mom...but it was a stick and it was available for me to learn on. To make matters worse my wife was my instructor. I still find it amazing she didn't run out of the truck screaming. I've never uttered that many obscenities at one time. We were out in a large gravel parking lot at a lake in the middle of nowhere, and I was convinced that I couldn't have a foot on both the clutch and the gas at the same time. After figuring out that yes, you can ease off of one pedal as you apply pressure to the other, the swearing cut down considerably.
The first time I learned was in Las Vegas, my dad rented an s2000 and we took it out into the dessert [yes I was too young to drive the rental car *gasp*]. That poor poor thing though. Granted those things can rev up quite a bit, mis-shifting into 4th instead of 6th was not a pleasant experience at the time.
I learned how to drive a stick in a lil two seater convertible car. Forget the brand and what not. My step dad Mike taught me how to drive it. Took me weeks to get it right. Kept being told that everyone around you can wait. My first car was a 91 Mazda MX-3 1.8v6 5spd. I had the right idea on how to drive it. But sucked for a few days at it. I also remember sitting at light with a friend looking over at some chicks. And while trying to show off... I lauched foward and killed it... Ha Ha I still kill it every now and then!
My first time was in the back seat of my car errr edit: first time driving a stick was when I was 15 with my permit, had to drive my Dad's Geo Metro, lol. I tried downshifting 1st gear at 50mph (I didnt realize that you didnt have to go into first gear when you make a turn, lol.)
Hey, this thread isn't what I thought it was! I showed up in Salt Lake City having driven by brother's A4 a few times. I had to get it back to CA. That was exciting.
my '85 subaru. I bought it, had a buddy trailer it up from Iowa, and he dropped it off at my house. due to some communication issues, I didn't get the title for a couple weeks after that. So I spent my time driving the car up and down the driveway. until I got bored with that, and put it into 4Lo and started driving it in the ditch. it came fairly natural to me. although I'd ridden dirt bikes before, so the "concept" of the clutch was familiar, just had to use a different limb to control it. Tried to teach my ex......yea....either I'm a terrible teacher, or she was just terrible. or some of both.
1951 McCormick Farmall Super M tractor. I was 8 That made it easy, by the time I moved to the '91 Jetta diesel when I was 10 I already had the motions down, just had to get used to a different clutch. I have to admit, I also thought this thread was going in a different direction. :laugh:
I was 15 visiting my dads side of the family out in eastern PA. My uncle had a Big foot series Jeep, from what i remember. I dont think it even had a tachometer, but it did have a shift light so that made it alil easier. I actually drove it around just fine my frist time never stalled. Then when my buddy got his 90 something corolla i took it out for a spin and failed miserable.
My first time was after I bought my fisrt car an 88' iroc-z, when we were looking at it I didn't want to test drive it in front of the owner.On account of my not knowing how to drive stick. So I made my dad test it out. After getting it home I gave it a shot, stalled it a few times but got the hang of it, so I thought. About three months later I had to get a new clutch put in. I hadn't really learned the whole "pop the clutch thing" and always was on the clutch too long, after smelling that burning clutch smell a few times you know your doing it wrong.
1989 Ford Ranger..."Unlimited Rust Edition" Learned when i turned 16. Out on the backwoods gravels in Iowa. My dad would LHAO at me constantly while i tried to let out the clutch. I had a tendency to hold my mouth open like an r-tard. I probably still do it from time to time. hahaha.
First time driving a stick was in Cali. My Grandpa pulled over to side of the road a told me that I am driving ( I wasn't old enough to drive). I did pretty good until we got closer to his house with was in a very hilly area. I stalled a few times because of the hills but was good after that. Then about three years later I bought my civic which is a stick and jumped in and took off. It's like riding a bike never forgot. Right now I am trying to teach my Girlfriend how to drive a stick, she does fine in a parking lot but get her on the road and she forgets everything. She gets nervous around other cars and kills it alot.
I was somewhere around 12 or 14, 1984 Ford F250. Learned to drive basically up to 25 mph hauling wagons from the back 40 to the farm - all day long. Then drove autos (occational jaunt in my bros corsica 5mt) until I got my wrx when I was 22. I need to teach my fiance how to drive a stick. Its something every girl should learn before she get's married.
My first time was: Here's a car (****ty Beretta with rust holes you can put your fist thru.) Drive it to Redwood Falls tonight, and make it in one piece. It was easy. Didn't kill it once. It just came naturally to me.
I learned on my motorcyle first which was scary cause I bought it with no experience with A. motorcyles B. a clutch after practicing getting the feel for the cluch in the garage a few times I rolled it out into the street early on a sunday morning everthing went surprisingly well but I'll admit the first time to 50-60mph was a bit scary:laugh: When we bought the STi in 05 my wife had to test drive and drive it home(I guess it was hers afterall) but the next day we took it into a parking lot at my work and afer a couple laps around the lot I was driving home. I think if you understand the mechanics of what is going on it should be easy.
I learned in my dads 87 loyal. we got it, he told me what to do, I did it, he said you dont need any more practice take us home.
I tried to teach the ex how do drive my car. She could work the clutch just fine, that wasn't the problem. She just didn't understand what was going on when she pushed the clutch and therefore WHY and WHEN. She really didn't understand downshifting.
15 years old learned on my 87 Isuzu Trooper II LS. It was a rustbucket and backfired so loud that people on the sidewalk ducked as they thought someone was shooting at them. I summarily rolled the car three months after I turned 16 and totaled it.
My first time was after school one day when I was in the 7th grade, my parents were still at work. Ahhh memories....... oh wait........... :hsugh:
18 years old, 89 dodge spirit, nearly killed my family, thought I could corner with out breaking, like in the video games... it's funny now, but was horifying back then.
I was 16 and my cousins friend had purchased a 97/98 Honda prelude SH. Everyone got to drive but me. I was so dissapointed that I made him teach me in his 89 corolla the next day. hahah That was fun. After I got the hang of it he told me to launch it. hahaha
Before I had a license (14-15 years old), I used to sit shotgun and watch my dad's feat and shift gears for him. I had the timing down and could anticipate the shift after a short time. When I got my license, my first car was a Plymouth Horizon 5 speed and I killed a couple of times in first gear, but I got the clutch point down and i was off and running. I hate driving autos. I just realized I should be driving RHD cars - I used to shift with my left hand and could do it without looking down... interesting...
My buddies 1989 mustang GT...aftermarket clutch and heavy motor mods, and there was a early november heavy snow on the ground. then it ended up being one of the most fun cars to drive once i learned how to do it well needed to learn before i went to test drive my first car i wanted to buy
Me too! Actually I dont know the year, but it was an M. My brothers made me learn on the farmall M then the H before they would let me near an actual car
I know, "first time" and that user name...I was expecting something different. My first time was with a ford probe gt. The first time I tried driving it I wanted to give up and thought I would never figure it out. But over the next few days I got much better. Then I kind of had to learn it all over again when I got a subaru. I stalled it several times on the test drive. :laugh: I blame the better clutch and this drive by wire non-sense.
Teaching someone how to drive manual on the wrx is quite tricky at first if you don't know what how to word everything right, but then again, i successfully taught 4 girls how to drive manual from scratch on my 02 wrx, i spoke to them nicely and walked them through. I think it's the clutch catching point that should be mastered asap Relax, my clutch is fine, they stalled my car a few times but didn't do no harm to my clutch or transmission. My first time driving manual was when I got my wrx 2 years ago, october of 2007. I was too scared of a stalling embarrassment at my first few weeks of driving manual that I just went through yellow lights and stop signs, lmao,
when I was 16 I got my drivers license. My friends did not have theirs yet. I didnt have a vehicle but My buddy (who had no drivers license), had the hunting truck that we could take. It was a 1980's mazda 4cyl. It had 33 inch mudders on it with the wheel wells cut out. It ran and looked like crap. lol. But my buddy made me learn to drive stick in it so I could drive us around. The truck had no power due to the giant tires. It was good for a newb because you had to almost floor it to get it going from a stop. lol. Then a month later I got an 85 GMC S15 2wd 4speed.
Dad took me out just after it snowed with his '87 Bronco II when I was 17?, and I couldn't get the hang of it. 2 years later I was living in Florida and got a job running auto parts to different shops, and didn't realize all their trucks were manual.:eek3: You tend to learn things pretty quick if they affect your income. Still don't think I have it down just right yet, since I tend to muscle the shifter and linger a little on the clutch. Next lesson, how to replace my clutch.
Lol my first time driving stick.... On my way to California in a plane with a money order for 22k and the dreams of owning a car I've wanted to own for so long but had no idea how to drive.... Get picked up in my soon to be 05 STI at LAX. Get back to owners house and she asks if I want to drive to the bank to deposit the money order. I stall it a couple times and were off. I get a decent hang of it around the neighborhood. So we head to the bank once I get to a light though I kinda freak out and I stall it about 4 times in a row. I felt pretty dumb. I got the hang of it pretty quick though. The next day I was driving on the LA freeway in rush hour traffic headed to the Commerce card room before heading to Vegas then back to Minneapolis.
The first time I remember driving a stick was when I was 7 years old in my dad's 90' Tercel. He let me try to drive up the drive way. Like any good teacher of stick shift should do, he told me I had to get it going without the gas. After trying 5-6 times, and stalling it out he told me I was too young. We switched seats again and then he realized he had never taken the E-brake off. We switched back, and I got her going successfully on the 1st try. Can anyone beat that, learning to drive a stick at 7?
It was second nature to me. Grew up riding four wheelers and dirt bikes with the hand clutch. So I had the throttle and clutch engagement down already. I think the first time I drove a manual car/truck I was 12 or 13. But I was doing it since 4 or 5 with the four wheeler.
Nope. My first manual was my '93. I had to re-learn with the Hyper Single though. Definitely not a nice clutch.
1963 Alice-Chalmers with a hand clutch picking rocks and bailing hay. I was 3. But then, I guess I never shifted, just steered down the rows and my Dad had to get up to turn the tractor around at the end of the fields. I was strong enough to keep it in line, but not turn it all the way around. Now that I have a kid just about to turn 3, Dad tells me that he can't believe he had me driving tractor on the farm at that age. I told the boyo that this summer he could drive the Alice-Chalmers with his Great-Grandpa on the farm (as long as he keeps practising his steering). We moved off the farm just before 2nd grade. Aside from a few motorcycle (mis)adventures the manual transmission had to wait til I turned 16. 1984 Subaru GL Wagon. Did my driving test in it and passed first time with only one point left to squander. Most - if not all - of my lost points were manual tranny related. Thanks for the memories! Good times.
2004 International I9000 with an eaton-fuller 10speed. Semi trucks are so much easier to learn in cause you only use the clutch to take off and every gear you can just rev match it.
haha, I learned on my buddy's 91 Integra, theres nothing like the feeling of stalling the car at a busy intersection.
first time was in a old renault alliance wagon i took on a test drive. it went pretty well. second time was a dissaster in a borrowed ford EXP. however, the only dissaster was my driving. that was the weekend i started dating my wife. i pulled the shift knob off once. killed it at least 50 times. once in the middle of a hill. my solution to that one? rev the snot out of it and dump the clutch. that was fun.
I was 13 when I first learned how to drive a manual...or attempted to learn at least. My dad figured that having me drive his 1969 Plymouth Road Runner with a 440 and 4-speed up a hill to my grandparents' place was a good time to drive a stick for the first time. Oh sure, a clutch I had to put all my weight down on, a vague, long shifter, and an extremely torquey (spelling?) engine made for a very easy learning experience indeed. The next attempt was with a 94 Dodge Dakota...That one was much easier. :biggrin:
