Hey guys! I finally nagged my wife enough and she gave in. I managed to find a brand new 04 6 speed w/ appearance and rotary package. I traded in my 04 bone stock AT. With all the rebates going on I got a super sweet deal. Sticker was $29500, got it down to $21000!! My monthly payments actually went down (it's finaced) and I effectively lost no money on the trade (over the life of the loan)!! The most important thing though is I now have an MT!! It awesome! This thing is a beast compared to the AT. I coudn't be happier with my decision. Now, I need to master driving stick. That's where practice and advice from you guys comes in handy. This is my first manual car but I've driven a friends in the past. I definitly have the basics down but I need to iron out the jolts here and there. A few question:

1) Do you guys depress the cluth fully and hold the brakes at a red or just keep it in neutral and hold the brake (if on an incline)?
2) When I'm downshifting or stopping, as the clutch is fully pressed and I'm moving the gears down, should there be any difference in sound (in the gears) going from neutral to a lower gear (still with the clutch fully depressed)?
3) Any advice when accelarating and moving through the gears smoothly and not jolting the car?

Thanks ahead of time...

 

congrats...no offense to AT owners

I learned stick on a beater car I rented from Rent a Wreck...it was an old ford with the hardest clutch I've ever...well lets just say I had a popeye left calf by the end of it...but then shifting the 8 was smooth as silk

1)either depending on situation...can't hurt to keep it in gear incase you need to take off...if your leg is tired go to neutral

2)there will be a sound difference when you have the clutch in...minor but it will be there

3) to have smoother shifts just practice the timing and everything will fall in place (find the clutch friction point exactly) do this by going to a parking lot and letting the clutch out before it kills...do this again and again and again till you know it perfectly

 

AHEM!
I shall answer these questions
1) I hold just the brakes, but after awhile I just let off the clutch slowly to prevent the roll back while on the brakes, and gas at green.
2) No, I don't think so.
3) You can press on the gas lightly before fully letting off the clutch pedal. I don't know for sure that everyone else do this, but it works. When I do this, it was smoother then the automatic.

Welcome to the trade in for a manual club. :D
oh yea, be aware that I only did this for 300 miles now :p

 

OH! I wanted to answer the question. But all my answer were damn wrong :D , I'd be start driving more often

 

Welcome to the MT club!

 

Congrats, and welcome to the 9K club :D

 

sneaky :D

 

You can also "preload" the shifter by gently pushing against the next gear before you push the clutch in. That'll cut down your shifting time and make it a little smoother

 

Hey, congrats on the new car! Hope you enjoy the 6 speed as much as I do! :D

Anyway, since all your questions have been answered, I thought I'd just add an extra tip for shifting smoothly that I tell all my stick-shift noobie friends. When you're trying to upshift smoothly, try and find a natural, relaxed and smooth motion that doesn't force anything around. Once you get this timing down, (you'll likely be just a bit too slow at first) you'll be shifting perfectly every time. If you ever feel like you're forcing anything, you're doing something wrong, which will probably be reflected in your smoothness.

Well, that's all I've got - good luck and enjoy it!

 

Welcome to the MT club. Only comment I have to make is regarding your 1st question.

At a full stop, I would put the car in neutral and step on the brakes. By holding the clutch (riding it), you'll shorten the life of the throw-out bearing. On a steep incline, I'm chicken so I use the e-brake technique, otherwise clutch in as normal and release the e-brake when the clutch engages.

If I'm coming to a stop where I know that I'll be going in a second (ie making a right on a yield sign or 4way stop), I would hold the clutch in then re-engage as soon as I need to accelerate.

 

This is funny b/c Iactually went to a dealership last week to see ifIcould do something similar but nomatter what I tried therewas no way to swap w/o losing a bunch of money. I really dont understand how you managed to not lose a cent on this deal - after trading in a used base automatic on a new manual. I guess you got a shitty loan thefirst time around or something? Then again - your automatic was only 6 months oldso you probably didnt have 30k miles on it likemine does now. Youre a lucky man. As for me - Im either going to endup having to take theturbo route w/the automatic or trading it in for a different car in a year or two. Good job

 

How about I buy a 2nd generation mt rx8 lol. There is no way I'll start removing what I have now on my car i'll cost me thousands to have them remove. But congrats on the trade.

 

Might as well give you my two cents as well:

1. If you're gonna be at a light for nearly a full cycle, put it in neutral, hold the brake and be ready to depress the clutch and shift into first gear as soon as the light changes. No sense putting stress on the throwout bearing by holding the clutch in when you don't need to.

2. When downshifting, try to match the revs with the speed-gear you are shifting into. So it's clutch in, shift to neutral momentarily, rev the engine a bit then down shift. That will take a little practice, but by doing this, you lessen the stress on the clutch and the gears. Remember though, first gear is for starting off from a dead stop, so it's not a good idea to downshift into first while the car is moving. Sure, you can do it, but IMO that puts unnecessary stress on the tranny-clutch. Also, it may help you to downshift in sequence as you are stopping. That is, from say 4th to 3rd to 2nd and so on, rev matching as you go.

3. Practice, practice, practice and you will get the feel of the MT. When starting off from a stop, don't be afraid to slip the clutch a LITTLE until the car is moving. Then let the clutch out fully. There is a balance between the amount of throttle and the speed with which you release the clutch that you will only get with practice. Shifting to the higher gears once you are moving is pretty straightforward--clutch in-shift up. Just don't jam it into the next gear, let it FIND the next gear. You'll see what I mean after awhile.

 

Actually, I had a great loan previously and I purchased using the S-plan. I only had 6000 miles on it when I traded it in yesterday. Basically, I bargained them down hard and when all is said and done, the total difference between paying off the last loan (on the AT) and the total payoff on the new one (MT) is a diff. of $3000, which actually is the same as the increased value of the new MT over the AT, so I haven't lost anything in the deal! Hope I made sense...(oh yeah, and my monthly payments went down!)

 

You know with all this talk about not downshifting in to first...
what's the maximum speed you can be at to shift into first without causing any kind of undue stress to the car?

I noticed it's really hard to shift into 1st going over 8 miles per hour and it doesn't like shifting into 1st at like over 6 mph. But 2nd is a choppy at when you're going 6-8 mph. So if you're going 6-8 do you shift to 1st or 2nd?

 

I don't downshift in first...I don't want to put wear on 1st and I can't recall a time where I would neeed to downshift into first....always going too fast......now downshift into 3rd, that's something I do alot.

 

I downshift to 3rd and 2nd most of the time when I come to a stop... the only time I downshift to 1st is for a "rolling" stop, like when a light has turned green, but traffic ahead of you hasn't gotten up to speed yet.

 

I'm surprised no one has said this yet, but that noise you hear when you downshift as you shift gears is the syncros working. So it's normal, if you aren't rev matching your downshift, to hear some change in noise in your tranny when you are downshifting with the clutch in. I'm not an expert by any means but that was what Mazda told me about the situation. As for your first question, there's about 10,000 topics that discuss gearing down versus just breaking, so go with what you feel comfortable. IMHO though, breaks are cheaper to wear out than a tranny.

 

Best part about owning a manual is that my wife can't drive it, so I never have to re-adjust the seat and mirrors!!

 

Same here! Woot!

 

After two days of driving the new MT, I'm starting to feel much more comfortable shifting. I have two questions though:

1) How do you turn the engine off? Do you put in in neutral and turn the key to off or leave it in first and raise the clutch and essentially stall it?

2) Just so that I underdstand what clutch slipping is or how to avoid it, basically, you don't want to increase the throttle before the clutch reaches it's "catch point". So you should increase the throttle only once the catch point has been reached with the clutch and not before (unless you're launching the car). Am I understanding this right or am I totally off?

 

Don't stall the car. Just turn it off with the key while 1) you have the clutch pedal pushed down to the floor or 2) you have the shift lever in neutral. I normally move the shift lever to neutral, engage the parking brake and then turn the key to stop the engine. Many drivers though like to keep the car in gear when parked. In that case, push the clutch pedal to the floor, select the gear you want to keep the car in with the shift lever and turn the key off. Once the motor has stopped, release the clutch pedal from the floor.
I'm sorry, but I didn't really understand the "clutch slipping" question. Your explanation of the technique you use while shifting seems right on the money. The secret is practice, practice, and more practice. Even after four months, I still have both good and bad shifting days. I wonder what today will be? Think I'll go find out!

 

In order to avoid wearing your clutch, you want to get your engine spinning at the same speed as the transmission before you engage the clutch.

Hope that's clear to you...makes sense to me but I know what I mean.