Except one short mention about riding the clutch, I haven't seen this yet... Get into the habit of completely removing your foot from the clutch pedal whenever possible. Even just lightly resting your foot against the pedal can wear your clutch out prematurely. Cruising on the highway: remove your foot from the clutch pedal and rest it on the floor. Sitting at the lights: put the car in neutral and release the clutch. Put your foot on the floor until you're ready to go. Also, it's ok to coast to a stop with the clutch pedal depressed, but you have much more control if you downshift to a stop and you will extend the life of your brakes, too.
this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2025
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There's already plenty of good advice here. The one that I think is missing is that the clutch pedal probably has like 10 inches of travel, but it only cares about 1 inch of it. All the rest is just slop. You need to figure out where that zone is, and get good at hitting the start of that spot quickly.
Once you can get to the start of that zone reliably, then you can start working on how fast you release the clutch through that zone. The more power you're applying with the throttle pedal, the faster you can release the clutch through this zone.
If you stall and everypne starts getting angry, ignore them and do your thing slowly and safely.
People will be annoyed with you and honk at you when you stall at a traffic light or something. Know and accept that fact. Do not mind them. Take your time to do things right. With time you'll gain muscle memory and you won't have to think about it at all. Until then, don't mind the impatient drivers.
I watched my ex drive a manual for over a year. I intently focused on when he was shifting and what not. When I got the car finally for myself, I just got in and went. I had a friend show me how to reverse in the parking lot. I called my supervisor and told her, "I'm driving the kia in today myself, I might be late" and I took my first ride. Made it to work on time, but stalled everywhere I went for two weeks until I got the hang of it. Took a bit longer to get the hang of downshifting.
Dont panic when you stall! You're just rebooting, keep going!
One I haven't seen here yet. If your battery dies, you can usually get the car rolling (neutral with people pushing, or turn down a small hill) and once moving a bit you can throw it straight into second gear and hit the gas and it should cause the car to start and you can drive it to a destination to replace the battery (or just let it charge the battery if you left the headlights or interior lights or such on and let it die on accident). No second car/jumper cables required.
The first time I pop started a manual car I felt like a god lmao, it's an awesome feature
Lots of people talking about clutch work so I'll mention something else - how to use the gearstick. Sounds a bit of a silly thing to talk about but how you do it can actually help.
I've seen various inexperienced drivers shift by grabbing the gearstick tightly and pulling it around in that same tight grip until it's where they think the next gear should be. This usually works for getting around but it makes it hard to know what gear you're actually shifting into and when it's properly engaged - particularly on boxes that don't give much feeling through the gearstick. One person in particular was repeatedly struggling with hitting the wrong gears (particularly when other things were happening) until I suggested they change this behaviour.
I recommend instead keeping a relatively loose grip on the shifter and considering changing gear a quick three part motion instead of a single one. Say for example that you're shifting from second to third in a typical 5 speed H pattern - the three parts are you pushing up to move out of second (which you don't need a tight grip for as it's just pushing the shifter with your palm), centring the gearstick to below third (where you only need a loose side grip - there's minimal force involved and keeping loose lets you feel the springs pull it where you want to be), and pushing upwards into third. Your grip should be changing a bit depending on what part of the shift you're in and what gears you're moving in/out of, I find this does help with improving feel and accuracy.
...also, jiggle it to check if you're in neutral, then jiggle it again just to be sure: ooh, now you're stopped at a light, better jiggle it...
(okay, that's an easy tease, but as a compulsive habit it really does help cultivate kinesthetic proficiency through tactile feeback)
This isn't bad advice and is similar to advice given to me when I first started. It's bad form to leave your hand always on the shifter. I was told it can wear out the linkage faster as your always putting pressure on it.
Keep at it.
Nothing really to it, you just need time and lots of practice to build up the "muscle memory" for it, until it becomes little more than a reflex.
Most modern cars have hill assist, but it might still be a help to use the handbrake when starting on a hill, or at least know how to do it.
Keep the radio/music off. It's much easier to hear the engine and how the clutch engaged while you are getting used to your new clutch
I find it interesting how those of us having learned with manuals just know when to shift after a while, even if the music is blaring.
You sort of just feel it.
You'll get there soon, OP, just keep practicing!
You literally feel it in the seat of your pants, after a while.
I have 2 cvt scooters (no real defensible reason), and it makes me uncomfortable having RPMs go up or down without direct relationship to speed
Hehe yeah I feel you mate.
I ride motorcycles and struggle getting used to scooters. The almost digital feeling throttle control (on/off, speed will come eventually) is not for me.
Enjoy your scooters this summer!
Old VWs just had a mark on the speedo telling you what gear to be in. So you kinda shift around the marker. So easy.
you can't spend too much time practicing in a big empty parking lot.
Or if you know a farmer, a paddock is also a good option
If you release the clutch slow enough, in most cars you can get moving just with idle engine.
Practice in a parking lot if you can, and just do that over and over until you understand the friction point.
Getting moving from a dead stop in first or reverse is really the only hard part of driving a manual, shifting up through the gears from there is trivial.
Learn to shift based off the sound of the engine, dont stare at the tachometer.
If you already know how to drive, learning manual isnt so hard. You are going to stall it out, you arent hurting anything but your pride when you do.
Learn to shift based off the sound of the engine, dont stare at the tachometer.
Do not do this.
Every engine has a different redline. The redline is based mostly on piston mass, which doesn't necessarily correlate directly to engine displacement, given that it's common to have 4, 6, or 8 cylinders in a car. If you're shifting primarily based on engine sound, you can be shifting too low in one car, and then too high in another. The tachometer is a much more reliable way of learning where you should shift in any given vehicle.
Also, constantly running your car in the maximum power band--which tends to be close to the redline--probably isn't great for it.
I don't think they were saying you shouldn't ever look at the tacho, but that you should learn to be able to pick your shift points without having to look at the tacho.
As you say you do want to figure out what revs works best for a particular vehicle (having driven/ridden vehicles with redlines between 2500 and 19000rpm there I can say there is a little bit of variability to be found out there) but it shouldn't take long to figure out what this sounds and feels like for regular use.
I learned on a 2000 Kia Sephia. Five speed, little four cylinder engine, that shit did not have a tachometer. I had to learn by the sound.
Even when I got into my Vr6 Jetta, or the Nissan spec-v (which had 6 gears) I was able to adjust my driving to the car easily because I first learned with sound. You learn the engine.
Probably try learning using both tbh
In my experience, releasing the clutch without adding throttle will only get you moving in a diesel car.
Gasoline engines will stall much faster, which is part of the reason learning vehicles are all diesel.
Works I'm my 1L petrol car. You just need to be gentle.
I'm guess that you don't live in the US? Almost all cars in the US--whether training vehicles or not--are gasoline, and it's mostly larger pickup trucks that are diesel. VW is one of the few companies that sells consumer cars that are diesel, and I'm not sure that they do anymore, not after there was that huge scandal about intentionally cheating EPA emissions standards with their diesel cars a decade back.
A point on stalling: don't panic! You're gonna stall first in line at the stop light and you're gonna look in the mirror at that long line of cars behind you, but don't panic! Take a breath, clutch in and start the engine back up.
Learn to shift based off the sound of the engine, don't stare at the tachometer.
Unless you're like my grandpa who had his engine replaced at 20k miles because he revved the engine until he could hear it running before putting it into gear. Between quieter modern engines, and his hearing not being as good as it once was, that meant he redlined it in the driveway every time he started the engine.
He only got a couple more years out of the new engine, but that was because he couldn't turn his head very well either so he didn't bother looking before changing lanes.
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When you start the car on uphill roads, press release the clutch slowly and press the accelerator at the same time. Balance it.
Pffft thats not the fun way, the fun way is to redline the engine then slam off the handbrake.
Honestly, my advice, unpopular as it might be, is that unless you plan on riding a motorcycle you should probably get an automatic transmission car instead of learning on a manual transmission. Manual transmissions--in the US, anyways--are largely relegated to performance vehicles where people want them. But the hard truth is that automatic transmissions do a better job at driving efficiently and keeping the engine at a safe and ideal load than any driver with a manual. And it's a lot less hassle for most of the driving that people tend to actually do. For instance, it's uncommon to have a cruise control on a manual transmission car, which makes long drives more tiring, and stop-and-go traffic puts less wear on an automatic transmission.
If you plan on riding a motorcycle though, you must learn to use a clutch, because all non-electric motorcycles use a clutch (usually a wet clutch, but Ducati uses a dry clutch); manual transmissions are lighter and more compact, and weight matters a lot on a motorcycle.
I say this as someone that learned to drive on manual transmissions, and exclusively had cars with manual transmissions up through about 2022.
It's fun. Thats good enough reason to learn a manual car.
I also prefer them in snow. Being able to slow your car down without hitting the breaks is awesome when you have to drive in snow.
I'm going to have to kindly disagree on some points about manuals.
- Manuals are still popular in Europe and many parts of the world, on all levels of cars.
- I have a friend with a cheap(ish) Suzuki Swift that comes with manual transmission and adaptive cruise. Yeah it won't change your gears, but still makes interstate trips much more comfortable.
I myself now prefer to drive auto, after moving to a city known for its traffic jam, and I am inherently lazy. So that's one good argument from me.
Another is that if you injure one of your foot, there's a 50% you can still drive your auto. Which was really handy that one time I dislocated my left ankle. In a manual, that chance is 0%.
Every manual transmission car I’ve owned made in the last 25 years has had cruise control. Is stop and go traffic a pain? Sure, but not enough of a pain for me to give up my manual.
The only feature that I kinda wish I had was radar assist- manuals definitely don’t have that from what I’ve seen.
Do you mean the adaptive cruise that's matches cars speed in front of you? Toyota did a damn good job with it in their tacoma. It'll brake as you're coming up on a slow car and you can shift just fine without turning off cruise. It kills the throttle when you push in the clutch and letting the clutch back out after your shift feels very natural and cruise takes back over the throttle.
Don’t step on the clutch with just your toes or the ball of your foot. Push down with the entire length of your foot. It’s easier to control it that way because you’ll be lifting/depressing the pedal with your knee movement instead of ankle.
Also, don’t ride the clutch, even if you think you’re just resting your foot over it lightly. That still puts pressure on the pedal. Rest your foot on the dead pedal when not shifting.
Don’t rest your hand on the shifter (applies to automatics too).
Use engine braking to your advantage.
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Accidentally stopping the engine is no shame. Whatever anybody thinks. Focus on not making collisions. You can always just start the engine again. Nothing bad happened. Collisions are the real headache and what is important.
Try not to cruise in neutral. Better to be in gear whenever possible to reduce brake wear/make it easier to brake and ensure you have power to the wheels when you need it (e.g. an emergency situation).
Also, as fun as popping the clutch is, it’ll eventually kill your car.
Some advanced stuff since everybody else probably already covered the beginner stuff:
When you get the hang of driving stick, which you will pretty quickly, you can try matching revs on downshifts to smooth things out and then you can try heel toe with matching revs.
When you get really good you can shift gears without engaging the clutch just by rev matching, but don’t try that til wayyyy later. Can mess up the gears.
When you get the hang of driving stick, which you will pretty quickly, you can try matching revs on downshifts to smooth things out and then you can try heel toe with matching revs.
This I definitely do recommend once someone is comfortable with the basics, particularly the rev matching on downshifts. It both makes driving smoother and makes clutch wear once moving negligible so in the long run you save money too. I consider rev matching an early intermediate level skill - not something I'd trouble a raw beginner with due to information overload but something that should be learnt before they start thinking it's too hard (because while it is not hard an unfortunate number of people will tell others it is).
Heel toe shifting can wait until people are comfortable with driving in general but I think is something one should learn if one enjoys driving - if only because it's just plain satisfying to do. Again this is a technique made out to be difficult but it's really not that hard (though how much foot manoeuvring is required does vary between vehicles).
When you get really good you can shift gears without engaging the clutch just by rev matching, but don’t try that til wayyyy later. Can mess up the gears.
This one however I recommend people keep in mind is possible (in case one ever loses clutch movement) but keep to a bare minimum on synchro boxes. Try it a couple of times to show yourself it works but you do have to be very familiar with the car to do this without putting wear on the synchros (keep in mind that if it didn't slip in like butter you didn't get it quite right and the synchros had to pick up the slack for you). It's more easily done with a non-synchro box as these both give obvious auditory/tactile feedback when you're doing it wrong and tend to have wider engagement points for the gear dogs to slip into. Motorbikes for example run non-synchronised gearboxes and are typically very easy to clutchless shift as long as you're upshifting while accelerating and downshifting while decelerating.
You've gotten a lot of solid practical advice, so I'll take it to theory.
Learn how it works and what happens when you push that clutch in and let it out.
Here's a video with a lot of detail and animation.
+1. When you know what is going on inside you can get a much better feel for what the car is doing.
When you are cruising along, if you back off the accellerator a bit you can feel the whole drivetrain go 'loose' (If you back off a bit more you will start engine braking). This the backlash in the gearbox & you will find you can pop it out of gear without the clutch quite easily. Putting it back in without the clutch is best practiced on an enemies car.
When my truck’s clutch cylinder blew, I managed to limp it to the shop just by rev-matching and slipping it into each gear. I couldn’t stop without stalling, so I definitely blew a couple stop signs, but I made it.
practice letting off the clutch by going to an empty parking lot and try to release the clutch in 1st gear without stalling and without gas
then remember that your clutch foot and the gas foot are a 50 / 50 team
so for all the force you put on one, you need to take from the other
dont be afraid to use the parking brake on hills to help you get into 1st when your at a stop
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