There are some technological advances that put old methods far behind, but oddly enough, that hasn’t been the case with transmissions. Just because automatic ones came along doesn’t mean the manual, a.k.a. stick shift, has completely left the scene. Chances are, however, when you learned to drive, you weren’t taught how to drive a stick shift.
You may want to find out what you’ve been missing, but you are afraid of buying a car with a manual transmission and having it end up in an auto body shop the first week. Or, you may be considering traveling to a country where stick shifts are more common, and you want to be able to rent a car with confidence. Either way, read on for how to learn the safe way to drive stick and avoid an auto body shop bill.
First of all, consider that when you first learned to drive, you probably had someone instructing you. Perhaps it was drivers’ education in high school, a parent or a trusted family friend. The same can hold true for learning to drive a stick shift. You can’t go back to high school, and probably wouldn’t want to, but there are places where you can get professional stick shift instruction.
The second thing to realize is that it isn’t as hard as you might think. Other than getting used to using both of your feet and getting familiar with the feel of the car and knowing when to shift gears, it will become second nature in no time. You already know the fundamentals of driving a car, so it isn’t like you have to start from scratch.
