How hard is it to drive a manual?

I have been driving for years but not manual. On auto. Anyone can explain if it is hard to change gears everytime in the road or something... :S



and i focus too much in the road.How hard is it to drive a manual?
It's not hard at all. You just have to practice. Take one day to your self and a friend to drive around the neighborhood, or a parkinglot with a stick. first thing you gotta remember is when you are coming from a stop, you need to give it a little bit of gas and let the clutch down very slowly. if your jerk the clutch into place without that much gas, it will stall. Once you get comfortable with your car, you will never stall it. it is important to master this step first before driving out on the real roads. if you stall in front of a lot of cars, it can be dangerous and embarassing.



When you are highway driving you dont even think about shifting. just gotta clutch down, shift into a higher gear, clutch in. its very easy.



you'll become a master in 1 week.How hard is it to drive a manual?
Charles is exactly right, just takes some time to get the feel of it first. But I want to add that driving a manual is fun. Sometimes driving can be bland and boring but shifting and using the clutch makes it more stimulating. Shifting gears is easy, the hardest part is letting out the clutch when moving from a stop (especially on a hill). There is one piece of advice I'd like to share with you regarding letting out the clutch. When I was first learning, I was told to let out the clutch and gas evenly at the same time. This is not the best way to do it. You want to give the car an even amount of gas, THEN slowly let out the clutch (too fast will result in a jerky movement or stalling the car). You also don't need to push the clutch in all the way when shifting gears.



One misconception with driving a manual is that you need to downshift all the time. Actually you don't really have to much at all, unless you're pulling into a side street. If you're slowing down to stop at a light you can just put the car in neutral and let it drift to a stop (also applying brakes).



My first car was a 1990 Mustang GT with a manual. It had a touchy performance clutch, and everyone else that drove it stalled all the time and did jerky shifts. But it was my daily driver and soon I could drive it seamlessly.
to add onto what charles was saying (because he is very right and i agree in every way)...

when he says ';just go into high gear'; he doesn't mean go straight from third to fifth or sixth (sixth gear is for higher performance cars.) you have to shift thru them all. you'll understand once you drive one.



something that NO ONE explained to me very well at all was the most important thing, the take off. first gear is a trickly little punk and will try to shut you down when ever it gets the chance. everyone will tell you ';just take the clutch out SLOWLY'; but thats only half right. take the clutch out slowly yes, but once you feel it catch (car starts to move) hold your foot on that spot and give it a little gas, as you start picking up speed then begin to remove the clutch more and more until your out of it entirely. the rest of the gears are easy as pie since your already moving. heck you could engage thrid from second and remove your foot frmo the clutch entirely without having to worry about anything before you give it any gas. this wears the transmission down faster though so just because its nifty, please abstain from such activities :) driving manual is GREAT. you can downshift (there is more than one type of down shift which IS different than when your coming to a stop and you shift all the gears back down to first. try wiki or google downshift) you can push start a manual so if your battery dies, just give it a push :) SOOO much fun stuff. i hope you know somebody who drives or has driven manual as these are things that are better understood when shown and not explained.

oh and one more thing, just because you dont have to push the clutch in all the way once you get going it is a VERY GOOD IDEA to push it all the way down. it prolongs the life of the transmission. it is just a slight bit but wouldn't you rather replace your tranny at 83k miles and not 75k? (it usually needs replacing after 75k, especially if it is stock)