My first manual car

Al, you're buying an electric next. By the time you're old they may not even let you steer.

There is no stick restriction in Maryland.

As a Kiwi I find discussion like this in the US quite entertaining (and foreign) as we are a predominantly manual car owning country and living in the UK now it's the same here. When I got my lad through his driving license about three years ago I started him in my manual car to get him used to controlling a vehicle on a road before passing him over to an instructor (in a smaller manual) to teach him the UK driving standard. I have owned a couple of autos but they were V8s and were for just for short periods, driving an auto isn't really driving .

Before we moved to Manila my dad suggested that it might be good to learn how to drive a standard, since we assumed manuals would be the most common choice here. I borrowed their manual to learn, but I wasn't able to get the hang of it in the limited time I had.

It's just as well. Manila traffic is so bumper-to-bumper that most people here recommend an automatic to make that stop and go rhythm more bearable.

No transmission distinction here in Michigan on the license. Heck, there was barely a skills test when I got my license, only a paper test.

I really do feel like I’m an active participant in the drive now. Feels really good. I feel much better about the prospect of renting a vehicle the next time my wife and I go to Costa Rica.

The first car I tried to learn to drive with was on old Bronco with a wonky truck transmission. My dad said, "If you can learn to drive this, you can drive anything." I didn't fully get the hang of it, but when my parent's bought an old vehicle for me to drive (not for me), it was a manual and if I wanted to drive, I had to learn.

I generally preferred driving manuals, but driving automatics for the last 4 years has made me soft and not really care anymore.

RobertB wrote: The only piece of flat ground in Morgantown proper is the football field. The first few times I had to proceed from an uphill stop were exercises in terror.

Oh hell yeah.

I never knew how to drive a manual into really recently. Dad tried to teach me but then I moved out of home when I was 17 without getting my license. It was a long time before I got one and pretty much had to learn on an auto if I wanted it, as I needed to rely on others to teach me and I needed to get it done quick before further restrictions came in on how many hours of driving i had to do before I went for the test.

Anyway. Recently a friend offered to teach me, had a session with them and then she said, hey, just take the car and go yourself, it will be easier that way. So I worked it out, but, like you from the sounds, my town ain't nothing but hills and boy, that afternoon on my own was a baptism of freaking out.

For all you noobs to manuals freaking out over hill starts, that's what the hand (emergency, parking) brake is for - don't try it with just the clutch only.

That doesn't really work if the e-brake is the floor-pedal variety.

My car has a ‘hill start’ assist. Tammie saw that and told me that I better learn without using that since she had to. Lol

Today, after going out on the MTB trails, I performed three hill start while an asshat in a truck pulled up nice and tight behind me. I was feeling pretty good.

Disgustipater wrote: That doesn't really work if the e-brake is the floor-pedal variety.

Never even see one of those - you must be in a different car bracket to me or you have interesting models in the US

A lot of American cars have them. Some are push on/push to release like in the video or there's a separate lever to release it.

I've driven a car with the parking brake on a foot pedal before but only automatic. I don't believe you get those on manuals because releasing the parking brake with one foot whilst keeping your other two feet on the clutch and driving brake isn't a normal driving position for anyone not from either another planet or a circus sideshow.

southernman wrote: For all you noobs to manuals freaking out over hill starts, that's what the hand (emergency, parking) brake is for - don't try it with just the clutch only.

Oh yeah, of course. Even then though, cars backed up behind you, an hour or so's driving under your belt and you are all alone, the pressure mounts up a notch or two haha.

My manual Ford Ranger had the e-brake pedal. Though it's honestly never even occurred to me to use the e-brake on a hill, even when the vehicle has a hand brake. I've never seen anyone else do it either when I've been in the car. Maybe that isn't taught around here.

disgustipater wrote: My manual Ford Ranger had the e-brake pedal. Though it's honestly never even occurred to me to use the e-brake on a hill, even when the vehicle has a hand brake. I've never seen anyone else do it either when I've been in the car. Maybe that isn't taught around here.

Me either. Turns out it's a thing. Still, if I ever drive a stick again, I'd probably not use it.

My car (old 2005 Acura TL) has a paddle shift option, where I push it to the left from Drive, and I can pretend I'm racing. At least until the torque steer hits.