Driving a manual: is it difficult?

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨distance@sh.itjust.works⁩ to ⁨[deleted]⁩

Long story short: I’m (24M) American, and I’m visiting my long-distance Romanian boyfriend for the first time soon. In Romania, most cars are manual - including all the ones owned by my boyfriend’s family (I’ll be staying with them). I’ve never driven a manual before. His dad told me he can give me a quick lesson, and that I’m welcome to use their cars if I want; otherwise, I can rent an automatic. I don’t have access to any manual cars here in the U.S. to practice on, so I’m not sure what to do.

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Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Eh, he’s alright. Whenever I pick up Emanual in my Uber, he’s decent people…

…what?

Did I misread the situation?

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Grimy@lemmy.world ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
It would be a chore to learn while visiting. Just have your boyfriend drive you around and maybe rent a car for a lobger trip.

I personally find it stressful driving in foreign countries.

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XnxCuX@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Lol I hope you’re a quick learner, though getting thrown on the street with a “good luck” does kick the lessons into overdrive.

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DarkCloud@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Of you had four to six months to learn and practice you might be ready enough, if your trip is sooner I wouldn’t recommend it.

Do you have a friend who can dedicate long two hour session to it? If so you might get it in ten hours or so of practice… But they’d have to be a good teacher (be able to teach you how/when the flywheel is taking up the momentum).

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- Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  You can learn to drive stick in 20 minutes with the right teaching approach.
  
  I learned in about 10 minutes, with my brother teaching me… Not exactly the teacher of choice. And these were cars without tachometers or hydraulic clutches.
  
  The key is learning how the clutch engages, where it’s “catch point” is. Using the “No throttle” method, people pick it up, fast.
  
  Plus with cars today you don’t have to rely on downshifting to slow down - Brakes are just that advanced now (though you still want to brake in short cycles for long downhills to prevent overheating).
  
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OhmsLawn@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
jalopnik.com/heres-how-to-destroy-your-manual-tra…

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- Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Meh, you’re not going to hurt a modern manual with a learner. They’re not even likely to hurt the clutch.
  
  Internals if a transmission are primarily made of 3 materials: brass, aluminum, and *hardened steel".
  
  Aluminum is for shift forks, I can’t even imagine a way to break one.
  
  Brass is for synchros, which can be worn by grinding - which isn’t really easy to make happen anymore, plus but it’s not like you’re gonna sit there and hold it while it’s grinding, you’ll release it quickly. The last car I remember having grinding issues was because they didn’t use a synchro for second gear so you got a short little growl if you didn’t shift “just so”. Last time I drove that car it had 250k on the odometer.
  
  I’ve seen dragsters miss-shift on 1960’s gearboxes that weren’t built for 450hp/500lb torque, and they’ve survived it fine (I’ve also seen them fail the same way). A new driver in today’s cars just can’t do that kind of damage unless it’s intentional - and that would take some time.
  
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scott@lemmy.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
How confident are you driving an automatic? If you’re comfortable, it shouldn’t be too big of a deal. If you already struggle to navigate traffic, adding more controls will make that worse.

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- distance@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  I’m confident. Not to honk my own horn… (car pun intended).
  
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  - scott@lemmy.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    You’ll probably never want to go back lol
    
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dhork@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
It’s definitely something you can learn in just a few lessons, particularly if you are just driving around town here and there. There’s a rhythm and muscle memory to it, and once you get it, it becomes super easy.

I think I traded in my last stick-shift (a Jetta) 13+ years ago, and there are still times when I am driving and my left foot instinctively moves toward an invisible clutch…

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