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So I bought a manual car because... well I just wanted to learn and thought it would be fun. I had driven manual before a few times... but never owned one, just messed around with some friends manual beaters back in high school, most notably an early 90s Ford Ranger my high school girlfriend's mom would let me drive now and then. Apparently I didn't remember much.
I bought a particular car that was probably not the best to learn on.... a 2015 Hyundai Genesis Coupe R-spec. I had a 2010 one and liked it, so I figured, hey, upgrade the same model and switch to manual! Maybe a mistake. It has finicky shift points, especially in 1st and 2nd, a very sensitive throttle and a ton of freaking torque and hp (much more than the 2.0t 4 cyl auto that I had before).
So no one taught me. I watched a ton of youtubes and read a ton of articles.
I'm now on day 8 of driving the vehicle. It took me until day 7 to not stall the vehicle at least once trying to go from a stop sign or red light. Day 1-3 I would stall it out 3-5 times in town. Day 4-6, 1-2 times per trip. Day 7, no stalls. I can now get around town without stalling. I live in a hilly area... I can do hill starts without rolling back without the e-brake, but I usually end up launching the car or chirping the rear tires... but at least I don't roll back. The e-brake method just seemed too complicated to me trying to coordinate 3 things. I believe it also has hill start assist.
I still really struggle to shift it smoothly from stop to 1st or 1st to 2nd. It's really jerky. Or I can launch it "relatively" smoothly... if you can call a launch smooth. Also slow maneuvers like a 3 point turn seem crazy-hard and nerve-racking.
I'm just wondering if this is a normal timeframe to learn how to do it well? I can start and upshift PERFECTLY in empty parking lots, secluded inclines, or open roads. That's not a problem. There is a stadium parking lot a couple miles from me... let's just say I'm a pro over there and am a pro out in the farm & ranch country a few miles out of town.
It's when other cars are around me... or yesterday was the first day my wife rode with me... It's as if nerves negate half of my practice time.
When I first learned how to drive a manual, I spent hours in a mall parking lot on a Sunday evening when the mall was closed. This way you can focus on the stop/start as much as you want without having to worry about traffic and such. I think it took me roughly a few weeks to be semi-comfortable with daily driving a manual.
I would think that's a little longer than some, less than others, not bad though. Unless I'm with someone I don't even care about being completely smooth. Sounds like you've got 90% down, the other 10% will come with time. Just like most things that are repetitious; don't be fast, be smooth, and speed will come.
some people take longer than others. it took me something like 20 minutes to get the hang of driving manual trans. i have seen others though take several hours, and i have seen some never get the hang of driving a manual.
it sounds like you are taking a reasonable period of time learning, since you are teaching yourself essentially. just be patient, and take your time. and relax, you are still learning. in a couple of months you should be an old hand at it, and wonder what all the fuss was about.
Just keep practicing what you are not good at in an area like parking lot or isolated area where you have no audience to make you nervous or anxious, take your time and you will be fine.
I remember it did take me a while to get completely comfortable with driving stick back in high school once I initially learned the basics. You will get better with time as you practice (as with anything) and it'll probably get smoother (the process as a whole) as time goes on. I don't know much about the hyundai genesis though. I would start with an older honda civic (2000-2011). Honda's have been notorious for their great manual gearboxes. I owned a 1999 and a 2011 civic both which had very easy manual trannies to drive... the '99 especially.
Yes, you should be getting it by now. Sounds like the car is probably under-powered and you are being a bit too nervous about the whole thing as well.
High powered torquey cars are much easier to learn on because they are hard to stall.
I have taught a lot of people and with most people they are driving reasonably competently in one to two days. They may still stall, grind, or chirp once in a while, but they are able to drive competently. I do that too on occasion when I am not focused and I have been driving MT for over 30 years. However some people never learn. In fact, many people never learn to drive with an automatic.
Try a different car, then if that works out OK, move back to your car. If you find one easier to drive, rent it for a week to get some practice.
If that fails, get an experienced driver to drive your car and ride along and watch them, then you drive and ask them what you are doing wrong. Probably you just need to relax. The biggest problem I see people having is they are too uptight. If they stall or bounce it panics them. It is OK, you are not gong to have perfect starts. If you are grinding gears, then you are just not pushing the clutch far enough. If you are bouncing in upper gears, you are leaving the clutch out too long. You should eventually be able to complete the shift in less than one second, but do not worry about that for now. Two or Three seconds is fine.
The easiest car I ever taught anyone on was a 1995 Camaro Z28. Very powerful and with 6 gears it was very forgiving. You could start in 1st or 2nd. You could skip a gear and it was no problem. People learned very quickly on that. It has a skip shift (1st to 3rd unless you were at 33% throttle) that was annoying, but if you drove it the way it was meant to be driven, that was not an issue.
Hardest one I ever drove was an 80s dodge colt rental when I was just learning. I rented in San Francisco. It was hell to drive. Any low HP car can be difficult. Find a V8 to practice. 250 - 350 HP should be fine.
So I bought a manual car because... well I just wanted to learn and thought it would be fun. I had driven manual before a few times... but never owned one, just messed around with some friends manual beaters back in high school, most notably an early 90s Ford Ranger my high school girlfriend's mom would let me drive now and then. Apparently I didn't remember much.
I bought a particular car that was probably not the best to learn on.... a 2015 Hyundai Genesis Coupe R-spec. I had a 2010 one and liked it, so I figured, hey, upgrade the same model and switch to manual! Maybe a mistake. It has finicky shift points, especially in 1st and 2nd, a very sensitive throttle and a ton of freaking torque and hp (much more than the 2.0t 4 cyl auto that I had before).
So no one taught me. I watched a ton of youtubes and read a ton of articles.
I'm now on day 8 of driving the vehicle. It took me until day 7 to not stall the vehicle at least once trying to go from a stop sign or red light. Day 1-3 I would stall it out 3-5 times in town. Day 4-6, 1-2 times per trip. Day 7, no stalls. I can now get around town without stalling. I live in a hilly area... I can do hill starts without rolling back without the e-brake, but I usually end up launching the car or chirping the rear tires... but at least I don't roll back. The e-brake method just seemed too complicated to me trying to coordinate 3 things. I believe it also has hill start assist.
I still really struggle to shift it smoothly from stop to 1st or 1st to 2nd. It's really jerky. Or I can launch it "relatively" smoothly... if you can call a launch smooth. Also slow maneuvers like a 3 point turn seem crazy-hard and nerve-racking.
I'm just wondering if this is a normal timeframe to learn how to do it well? I can start and upshift PERFECTLY in empty parking lots, secluded inclines, or open roads. That's not a problem. There is a stadium parking lot a couple miles from me... let's just say I'm a pro over there and am a pro out in the farm & ranch country a few miles out of town.
It's when other cars are around me... or yesterday was the first day my wife rode with me... It's as if nerves negate half of my practice time.
I think you are over-thinking it. Relax and don't try so hard. When you get the hang of shifting in a few weeks, the mental activity will actually be in a different part of your brain than it is now - like the brain "writes a macro" to handle clutch and shift lever.
Using the handbrake to hold on hills is not difficult, you put the car in first, clutch down, and hold up on the handbrake, holding the release button in. When you are ready to go, you bring the clutch out just to the beginning of the friction point, feed in a little gas and come up on the clutch as you let down on the handbrake. You can practice this on a mild hill or even level ground if you want.
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