GL and stay away from hills!

 

teach her to apply very very little gas first, maybe at 2000 rpm or so?
then tell her to feel the clutch.
that way, when she wants to step on the gas once feeling the clutch,
she won't be scared of the jerking movement coz she applies too much gas.

 

this is what i did to my gf...

in neutral, play with the clutch and feel the engagement point
in neutral, paly with the throttle and learn to hold at a low rpm
once she got a good feel of the above, I let her drive in an empty parking lot, the car rarely jerk like crazy.

she just need to learn how to take off fast and up the hills. I don't know if there is much she can do with the hills because she is even afraid of the steep hills of SF in an automatic.

 

Haha I'm thinkin about teaching my gf...we'll see though :P. I hardly ever stall, but when I do its usually sometime really stupid. Last time I stalled was coming out of my friends garage lol. Reverse!!

 

i have yet to see a manual rental personally.

 

rental cars cost money, test drives are free and the car is brand new so there will be no problems with the clutch and tranny. That is until the test drive is done.

 

I taught my gf how to drive manual, she did really well, better than most of my friends. I took a lot of time explaining how the clutch works and how the engine is connected to the wheels and why it stalls and most of the technical stuff. I think it really helps to just let the car engage with idle power, if it can be done, and have her keep doing that. Because you can get the car moving without any gas, just takes a long time. And tell her enver to let the car pass the friction point until you've had enough wheel rotation/movement. Once the car moves at a certain speed, you can let the clutch out without stalling. Thats how I taught like 5 or 6 of my friends.

 

last night my gf drove my car again, and this time she did well =]

i told her to hold it 2000rpm and stay there, then let out the clutch slowly untill the car start to move, then not just let go the clutch right away. few times after, she did well. thank you guys for the help and advise,

i wouldnt take her out on the hill yet, untill she is really good on the flat ground.

its fun to teach i think =] just not so fun when the car stall

 

Cool deal man, if you have her drive the car daily, she'll pick it up instantly. Once you daily drive the car, you'll be fine. Just tell her not to panic if someone is behind her or even if she stalls with someone behind her, people on the road know that she's learning manual. She'll pick it up easily. Hills = just hand brake for the first few weeks until she's comfortable with the clutch. She'll be driving without the hand brake in no time

Then... learn how to float gears / clutchless shift. Hehehe, it's leet.

 

haha, replacing clutches is cheaper than replacing gears!

 

I learned how to drive a stick a few weeks ago with a friend. Like you guys said, going to a site like howstuffworks.com really helps.

 

some people ive tried to teach to drive stick got it right away...and some will never be able to grrrrr my friend KILLED my rx7 clutch to this day he wont drive another stick. i had to teach another friend how to drive while we were coming home from LA....i had the flu like never before and theres no way i could have driven!

glad your girl is picking it up. i think everyone should at least know how to drive stick...sometimes you dont have a choice....and sometimes people with you need someone else to drive.

 

Does 'leet' mean stupid? If so then I concur.

 

my gf never stalled it... i guess im lucky but her sister is a different storie i only let her stall my car once... i thought my tranny was going to hit the ground

 

My g/f drives better than 99% of my friends. Once time a friend saw us on 9 and decided to 'keep up' but she lost him pretty quick - and waited at 2 turnouts for him. The 3rd he pulled up and was like "haha nice drivin dude I thought I was gonna... (sees her in the driver's seat) ohh ****." Funny stuff. They really teach people to drive in Europe. It's flippin sweet to be with someone who can DRIVE. She's been to the track with me a couple times as well.