took about three days, by the fourth I was probably down to 1-2 stalls a day.

 

YES! haha! But after a week I stop using the ebrake.

 

My story:

My girlfriend assured me that she would drive that night, of course over the hill to santa cruz, (in my sube, oh god.) After I was a couple pitchers down, we head to the car for HER to drive home. After stalling and losing her patience, refusing to drive any further..., I had a fun ride back over the hill.

 

It takes a couple of weeks to get completely comfortable with a clutch, after a month it will be like second nature.

I can't imagine ever owning a car that wasn't a stick shift, which is going to make it tough to buy a performance oriented car in the near future...since they're all going to the dual-clutch-automated-manual type transmissions.

 

thanks, now i know im not the only person.

ps. if you see me (silver bug eye w/ sharks rear license plate holder) give me a little space for the next couple weeks

Lucia

 

DCT shift so quick.

Let your girl know that if she does something wrong to just push in the clutch. A open lot or flat ground is the best spot to learn a stick i think.

 

took me about 20mins..

I advice this to anyone who is learning. Stop, get out of first, and then pull over and do it again. Repeat over and over until you get the trick.

 

on a related note, has anyone experienced Subaru's Hill Holder clutch design which prevents rolling backwards when starting uphill? It appears to be standard on models like the Forester and most recently, the new STI. I'm curious to know how well it works, if it ever gets in the way for whatever reason, etc.

 

I've been driving stick ever since I started driving. My dad taught me in a ford escort. And he told me that was the only true way to drive a car. It's been 18 years now and I still stall sometimes in my suby.

 

haha... yeah, I still stall out about once or twice a year...

 

i've been driving stick for several months, basically got familiarized on my suby by myself minus a couple pointers by my dad.

i still stall every now and then, not very common at all, might happen like once a month or less, but my shifts are nowhere near smooth. :/ i don't know how people get smooth shifts at lower gears (1-2), the only method thats works for me is letting the clutch out super slow, or revving it higher when letting the clutch out and shifting at higher rpms (shifting at ~4k). (both aren't good for the clutch, from what i know).

 

I learned to drive stick in my uncle's jeep wrangler in SF around 3Com Park where all the steep hills are. Thank goodness for torqy wranglers! This was before I got my license and then after a few brief sessions I tried learning on my car.

Lets just say the first (last mistake I'll make again) time in heavy traffic on a steep, steep, steep hill (just missed the greenlight.....) I killed probably 1-2 years of clutch life trying to get off the hill. Man I felt sorry for the cars behind me. Burnt hair clutch smell FTMFL!!!

 

Thank you.

 

The STi clutch is the biggest pain in the ***. It's picky as all hell and I'm convinced a moderate to fast 1-2 shift is near impossible to be 100% smooth.

 

Seriously took me like 30 mins.