I know most of the benefits of driving a manual car, but haven't had a chance to own one. I've actually PAID to take lesson's (about 3-4 classes spread out in 2 weeks) and took my friend's manual Tercel and MR2 out for a spin twice.

I'm about 50-60% confident (gonna stall going up hills etc) with manual and was wondering if it was a good idea learning manual on an expensive car like an RX-8. Should I buy a cheap beater for a year or something? I've been driving for 5 years now without an accident (besides being rear-ended once) in an auto.

I can only imagine how nervous I would be if I had to drive a brand new manual RX-8 out of a downtown dealership back home during rush hour.

 

Try riding a motorcycle! Just kiddin. Buy a beater and once you feel confident enough (about 3 months maybe less), buy the RX8. You'll get the added benefit of jumping from a crappy manual to a high performance car. You'll never go back to A/T, unless you got kids, a cellphone and a latte.:p

 

Sure, you can't mess it up *that* bad if you got the general idea of it down. You'll grind some gears, stall out and in two weeks of constant driving you'll be just fine.

Not an expert by any means.... but just fine.

Take the plunge. I learned to drive manual in one day, if you can believe that.

 

Learning to drive stick on any US$30k car is probably a bad idea. Not a terrible idea...

That said, the RX-8 has a very good shifter feel. It's direct and gives excellent feed back. You'll become comfortable faster then driving some rubbery shifters in other cars.

And for uphill launches, if you are feeling nervous, try using the hand brake to hold the car as you ease off the clutch.

 

hey, i drove my 3000GT out of the lot and learned stick in the process...i must've driven stick 2-3 times prior and stalled it everytime, once in an Eclipse GS-X right when the light turned green and once in a Chevy Camaro while someone was trying to teach me to drive stick...i decided to pick up my car late at night so as to avoid any and all traffic...luckily i stalled it only once starting in 1st...i learned that you just gotta ride the clutch even if it sounds bad in order to get into first smoothly...the other gears never gave me any problems...

 

Just go for it! Maybe get someone to pick it up from the lot, so you can learn on you own quiet street, and not launch right out into traffic. If you are OK on an auto, you should be acceptable on a stick inside four hours. The '8' is a good car to learn on, in my view, because the shifter is so light & positive, if you learnt on a stick-shift ford truck you would never want to drive manual! Plus you would have to learn the feel of the Mazda box anyway, after that.
Any rotary needs a little more 'clutch&revs' than a typical piston, and you are not going to get that feel on anything else, so GoForIt!
S

 

when im on level ground i just let go of the clutch very slowly and it grabs then i step on the gas. Imstill new at manual i had an auto eclipse but i hate auto u dont feel like your driving.

 

learning manual is a lot easier than some people think it is. i was driving on surface streets the first day, and i've taught two of my friends to do the same in a day. you just need someone next to you giving you good instructions, and you'll be fine. if you have any friends that drive manual, and (this is important) they're good at explaining and teaching things, buy them lunch and have them teach you. trust me you'll be driving normally in no time. one advice from me that i always tell people when i teach them is that if you press down the clutch, you'll at least never stall.

 

If you've had the experience of a class and riding around in the tercel/2, then you should be fine to begin building on the 8. But what I wonder is, are you fine to learn on a brand new car period? What can riding the clutch excessively, prematurely releasing the clutch, stalling out, etc, do while the clutch, engine, and any other drivetrain components that need "breaking in" periods do?

 

I think most people will get the hang of driving a manual pretty quickly. It will probably take you a day to get going and a week or two to become smooth. Transmissions are tougher than you think. Just practice, practice, practice.

I learned the manual on a brand new car. I asked the salesman to drop it off at my house and then I spent the whole day practicing.

 

go get a manual transmission rental car for a week. make sure you pay the extra for the insurance. and just drive it as much as possible by the time the week is up you should be comfortable enough to drive the rx8. since it is a rental your dont have the hassle of doing all the paperwork with a used car and car insurance and junk. jmo

 

So don't pick it up during rush hour!

Seriously, don't sweat it. You pick it up really fast. I learned to drive (20 years ago!) on a manual transmission. At first I really freaked out every time I stalled or had trouble starting on a hill, but you learn quickly that it's gonna happen, and it no longer makes you so nervous.

Then again, I learned on a 1978 Honda Civic wagon, not a $30,000 sports car!

 

my sister learned to drive a stick when she bought her first car. she really wanted this particular car but it was stick and she didn't know how. a guy we new that worked in the service deptartment told the sales guy " she wants to buy the car right? and you want to sell it to her right? so teach her how to drive the thing!" the salesmen took her out over the next few days until she was comfortable with it and i don't think she has had an automatic since and that was 15 years and five cars ago.

 

Good idea. You might have to rent a compact. They look at me weird every time I ask whether they have a manual.

 

Bingo! I learned on an AMC Gremlin many moons ago but I remember that I grinded the doo-doo outta those gears. I'd get that car stallin' and jerkin' so hard, but after a while, you get the rhythm (sp?) down and some confidence helps too. I'd try to find another car to learn on, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

Great idea about the rental!!!!

 

I looked all over for a place that rented manual transmission cars. They are rather hard to come by. Try bumbing off your friends (buy them lunch if they'll drive you around for 2 hours first). It seriously takes only 2-4 hours of just starting and stopping to get the hang of it. Once the car is moving its pie.

I only have a couple days of good manual driving under my belt, but I am pretty confident in what I have learned. I also heard its like riding a bike. My dad hasn't driven a manual in maybe 30+ years and when we went test driving he was right back into it.

I imagine I will stall a couple times getting used to the engagement on the 8. Just drive it around the block a few times before you get on any major roads, and you should be fine.

 

You'll be fine. I learned manual on the Dodge Neon I had in college. When I sold the car 50,000 miles later, the tranny was still in great shape, and there was still plenty of life left in the clutch. The tranny in the 8 should be pretty stout, it's not gonna break because you learned how to drive stick on it.

 

as long as you don't grind the gears, the car will be fine. stalling...it is a little embarrassing at first, but who cares?

if the clutch of the 8 is a little heavy, such as the FD, then it might be a little harder to get a feel right away. but if it is light like the miata's....no problem.


santino

 

this will be my first car with manual too.

 

Since the trannys have the same manufacturer, they may be very similar.

 

take off your shoes, it'll accelerate how quickly you learn where the "grab" point is.

WARNING: method is probably illegal in many jurisdictions

 

Manuals suck imo. Stalling, cluth problems and worn out clutches, etc. Argh. If you get auto, you never have any of these problems ever. Of course it will have problems but not as many as manuals.

 

Then you've obviously never owned a real performance car. I blew the guts out of 2 Supra TT autos in the space of 6 months. Torque converters? I destroyed one so badly it put a hole the size of a 50c piece in the side. The same motor with a manual behind it coped nicely.

There's no way you can justify an auto from an economy point of view. Autos:
1. Use more fuel
2. Generate more heat
3. Cost more to rebuild
4. More complicated = more to go wrong
5. Have more driveline losses

And thats aside from performance/safety issues.

As for stalling? :p You've got to be kidding. I've stalled once in about the last 5 years and that was because I hadnt done the idle fuel maps yet.

-pete

 

Ditto! The only catastrophic tranny failure i've had was a blown torque converter. At that point your car is now a 4000lb paperweight.

As a clutch fails, you get a pretty long period of slipping before it finally dies totally, and if you lose the ability to use the clutch (cable break, whatever) you can still shift gears (easy to do some damage here, but possible)

Environmentally and efficiency wise (amazing how those often go together) it just makes no sense to have an AT. It's very wasteful if you're just doing it for convenience. Now if you've got a physical issue . . . the AT can be very empowering.

 

Automatics are gay, I have one and everytime I drive I feel regret. Its so boring, push accelerator, push brake.... wow... might as well ride a taxi. This is my first manual transmission car also, but I am not afraid of learning on the car, warranties are great, plus I know mechanics, and might even replace the clutch in the near future with a much better one.