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It didn't take me long, maybe about an hour, in 1974 when I was 17, I watched my dad drive a 1971 Toyota, I think it was a 4-speed on the floor and I learned the proper coordination of the clutch and the shifter.
Like a lot of people, I learned to drive in high school driver's ed. This was back in the early 90s. They had two student cars and both were automatics, so that's what I learned on. My first car was a graduation gift, and it was a 1982 Corolla (approximately 11 years old at that point) with a manual trans. It only took a few hours to learn to shift, but it was a couple of days before I could get it to shift smoothly.
After I sold the Corolla three years later all my cars were automatics until I got a truck with a manual last year. It took about half a day to relearn everything.
I've never been that enthralled with the manual transmission, but maybe that's because both of the manual vehicles I've had have been pretty gutless. The truck is a 4-cyl and takes acceleration as a vague suggestion instead of a command.
And it's so second nature that I have a tough time driving automatics now, after 35 years of driving a stick.
This makes me think of a story back when I was in college several years ago. I had flown home for xmas break and I was the only one with a manual transmission in the family. I needed to go to the store one night and so I borrowed my brother's truck. I remember pulling up to the four way stop and stopping. After I stopped and had my foot firmly on the break I shift the car into park. Shifting was second nature but I caught myself and went WTF? It is awkward for me to drive an automatic. So used to my manual and needing to shift.
Learned when I was 18 in NYC in my grand dads old Chevy, 3 on the column. Basically flat terrain so not much problems driving around for awhile. Encountered my first problem when driving upstate in a hilly area. Steep incline to a stop sign, hoping no one stopped behind me. Rolled back about 10 feet before I got the car moving forward.
Well, my first attempt at driving one didn't go so well - Gave it a shot in a friend's Nissan 240SX in a parking lot, but kept stalling it - I don't think he was too thrilled about it!
Same friend gave me another shot at it at another time not too long after the first time - That's when I started to pick up the feel for it and took it out on a few public roads.
It would be awhile before I drove another manual car, but I ended up buying my first manual car just about 6 years ago now. I quickly picked it up again, and became pretty fluent fairly quickly at it, but I'd still stall occasionally during the first month of owning that car.
I no longer own that car, but I haven't bought another automatic car since - Manual is just much more my cup of tea. And I gotta say, I love the facial expressions I get from some passengers who ride with me when having to stop on a steep hill in traffic!
I learned to drive overseas where everyone learned on a manual at the local driving schools (as only they were authorized to teach people to drive). The schools always stretched out the lessons (of course to make money). So it took me 25 one hour classes to learn to drive (and I had no driving experience prior at all).
My brother taught me on his 69 VW Bug. Damn thing was next to impossible to stall, 4 speed. I don't recall how long it took me, but it doesn't seem like it took much to learn. Hardest part was starting on a hill from a stop, but I always just used the emergency brake to help with that.
I grew up on a farm so I had a huge advantage, I also had dirt bikes on the farm so I learned early how a clutch and gears work.
I would have to show you, I don't know how to teach someone over a message board. I guess just find a parking lot and have someone who knows how to drive a manual go with you and have at it. Once you get it, you won't even think about it. I could drive a 5 speed today in San Fransisco I'm sure and not have a problem.
A few days in a parking lot should be enough so that you don't worry about stalling in traffic.
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