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Renting a manual transmissions car for a day will not make you master the art of shifting with a stick. You need at least a week of driving it on any conditions and on any type of roads to truly know how to drive effectively and smoothly with a stick shift.
Once you learn it, it will became like second nature and you will not drive an automatic anytime soon, lol.
Why not fly to the UK and hire a car? Manuals are in the majority here.
You could learn to use stick shift, changing gear with your left hand and drive on the left hand side of the road all in one go!
Sounds like fun!
next month we are going to be unloaded onto the streets and roads of Scotland learning to drive a car shifting with our left hand and driving on the wrong side of the road. I just hope the road signs do not haved strong accents
Almost 50 years ago my girlfriend needed to borrow my car and I had to show her how to drive an automatic. Since that vehicle 90% of our cars have been manuals. I learnt on my uncles Pontaic 3 on the tree, he left town and I had to move the car accross the town for him and so a Sunday morning I taught myself how to drive one.
I pulled up the handbrake and jumped into the backseat, telling my girlfriend to drive my 4 speed escort. She'd never driven a stick before, but to her credit she didn't even stall my car, and drove it like she plenty of experience.
So your saying that girl had more "stick' experience than you were aware of!
Ha, LOL if I still owned a Porsche (I had a 1987 911S) there is no way I would let someone else drive it if they didn't know how. No offense.
you either had a 1977 911S or a 1987 911 Carrera......and you are correct, that isn't the car to learn on! Heavy clutch, no power steering/power brakes makes for a workout at low speeds!
Had a free rental so picked up a Honda S2000 for this sole purpose: to finally conquer the stick. Thought I was doing pretty well until running into a road closure and had to make a U-turn. Couldnt figure out how to put it in reverse w/o killing the engine. Had to ask a guy walking his dog who mustve thought I was a car thief cause he was very hesitant to help. But he reluctantly did and I was back on the road. Headed straight back to the rental agency and got me an automatic.
It took me about a month of driving stick to feel confident on hills and traffic...But Ive also always been around things with engines and wheels so it was second nature for me.
Ive taught some of my friends how to drive stick with my car. Its a risk, but my car is easy to drive. Once they got out of 1st gear I would make them get right on the street instead of moping around in the parking lot. VERY effective method lol.
One thing that always bothered me was when they would coast to a light, they would put it in neutral and ride the brakes...Even being in their stick cars it annoys me very much.
So, just buy a car and throw yourself right into it.
Why not go to several used cheapo car lots and "learn" about how to use the clutch during the "test-drive" By the time you get to the third dealer you should know what you are doing..
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