<p>Ok, so I’m a high schooler who got his permit in June. I still haven’t driven and it’s driving me crazy. It’s because my mom is scared to let me drive her stick. I’ve drove an automatic a few times, but those hours equal up to 3 or less.</p>
<p>She doesn’t know how to teach me. Any advice that I can maybe print off and show her?</p>
<p>Find a very flat route and have her teach you on that first. Do not try to learn to drive a stick on a route where there’s a stop sign at the top of a hill or even at the top of a gentle incline. Trust me on this one. 
Is there a common route your family takes (to school, to the drug store) that is nice and flat? Find this route and show it to her.</p>
<p>I think it goes without saying - the route should be flat and not on the freeway. We used to practice in a cemetery.</p>
<p>We live in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. It’s very difficult to find a flat route.</p>
<p>Just don’t stall on a hill and you’ll be fine ;). </p>
<p>Really though, just find a huge parking lot you can drive around in to practice.</p>
<p>I understand that, but she’s still paranoid about me ruining her clutch. How can I convince her that I will be OK? She’s not even giving me a chance. =/</p>
<p>Tell her to remember when she learned to drive stick. Everyone does a little damage to the clutch when they’re learning, it’s kind of inevitable. I know I did. You just need to remind her that it’s very unlikely you’ll “ruin” it.</p>
<p>Practice in a large flat empty parking lot. </p>
<p>Your mom’s concern about her clutch is somewhat legitimate but probably overblown. You can wear a clutch unduly if you don’t shift properly. However, this isn’t going to be a problem if you just do it a few times which is what’s more likely to happen. It’s even less likely to be a problem if the car is a smaller car due to the weight on the clutch. It’ll be even less likely to happen in reverse due to the gearing. Regardless, you should learn how to drive a stick - especially since your mom has one. You never know when you might need to be able to drive her car if she twists an ankle while the two of you are out or something. Your mom managed to learn probably without destroying a clutch and you can as well.</p>
<p>Start in the parking lot with you in the passenger seat and your mom demonstrating how she starts from a stop - in reverse if she’s real concerned about wearing the clutch. Have her show you this a few times going just 10 feet or so each time. Note how she puts the clutch in, puts it into gear, gives it ‘some’ gas, and lets the clutch out as the car starts to move. Note how when she stops she puts her foot on the brake but as the car is approaching being stopped she puts the clutch back in and takes it out of gear. After she does that a few times try it yourself and repeat it in just first gear from a stop a few times.</p>
<p>After you get through that, while you’re sitting still with the engine off shift through the gears sequentially to get a feel for where they are since you’ll end up doing it without looking at the shifter. Once you’re okay with that then try going from a stop in first then shift to second a short time later while moving. Make sure you have plenty of room in front of you for this. Repeat a few times. You might be able to get to third gear in the parking lot or not depending on how large it is.</p>
<p>After you feel comfortable with that head out onto a road with little traffic and one that is as flat as possible. Practice going through all the gears. Once you’re comfortable with that then practice on some mild hills. For hills you’ll need to know how to use the brake to hold you while you put it in gear and start out. Have your mom demo this to you a few times as well. Practice this in an area where you won’t have a car pull up behind you.</p>
<p>Don’t forget to eventually practice parallel parking with a manual. </p>
<p>It’s not as bad as it sounds and the clutch will likely fare just fine through it all. Good luck!</p>
<p>I ruined the clutch on my boyfriend’s car in college. My summer job was just a mile or so further away from the suburban area where we both lived in than his was. He would drive the car to his office, get out, and then I would drive it to my summer job. There was this one stop sign on a hill that I really had a lot of trouble with, day after day, and he wasn’t there in the car with me to coach me.</p>
<p>I thought he was exaggerating when he said I had ruined the clutch on his car. I realized about 10 years later that I probably really had. I still feel really bad about it! </p>
<p>I feel for your mother. I too would be worried about a teen “ruining my clutch.”</p>
<p>The method I used with both kids was this:</p>
<p>Large EMPTY parking lot. I used a local mega-church’s lot on Saturdays. No one there. A mall at 7 AM on a Sunday is good too.</p>
<p>Find a flat spot with nothing nearby.</p>
<p>Turn on the car and warm it up thoroughly. Put car in neutral and parking brake on.</p>
<p>Allow teenager to get behind the wheel and put his right foot FLAT ON THE FLOOR. Left foot goes on clutch.</p>
<p>Teen pushes clutch in and out several times with car in neutral and brake on. (Right foot on floor.) Teen adjusts seat until the distance from clutch is perfect for left leg. Ignore right leg, steering wheel, etc., at this point.</p>
<p>Teen practices moving the gearshift through the gears with the clutch in and the brake on. </p>
<p>Parent releases brake. Teen puts clutch in, moves gear shift into first. </p>
<p>Without touching the accelerator, right foot flat on floor, teen tries to release clutch so slowly and smoothly that car does not stall but begins to inch forward. If car starts to stall, parent says (VERY CALMLY) “push the clutch in” and teen starts again.</p>
<p>When teen can make car roll slowly forward without using the accelerator, teen is ready to try using the accelerator. By that time, they are quite comfortable with feathering the clutch, and it goes smoothly from that point, in my experience. </p>
<p>If a level surface is too difficult, try to find a VERY SLIGHT downhill incline.</p>
<p>Oh, and I taught my children on my BMW M5, and the clutch lasted 75,000 miles–long enough that the dealer was surprised. (On that model year, most of the drivers replaced it at 45-50K miles.)</p>
<p>DMD is right the no gas method helps you learn the feel- the tougher clutch you can learn on the better in terms of the feel and understanding what is going on. I have a little old car with an unforgiving clutch, that is the car the kids all start on–in the mall or church parking lot- as they really can understand what is going on. The newer cars have more forgving clutches, great in traffic, not as easy for learning.</p>
<p>Follow DMDs instructions and you will have it down.</p>
<p>Do not allow the person in the passenger seat to be a yeller, that does not give confidence!</p>
<p>DMD’s method will work on some cars but not others. Some cars will just buck and stall if you try to engage first gear at idle unless you slip it like crazy which isn’t very clutch friendly. It would likely work in reverse though. Be cautious about this approach so as not to damage the clutch.</p>
<p>Don’t tell your mom this story, because it doesn’t help your case, but maybe might be helpful to someone. My D had a terrible time learning to drive a stick. Bucked it like crazy. We finally paid for a professional to teach her, and she got better, but was a little rough for a few months.
Just now it turned out that the transmission got shredded to pieces. Literally. Hugely expensive repair.</p>
<p>How well do you dance?</p>
<p>I am serious. I think this question should be posed to potential surgeons, because having natural rhythm indicates great manual dexterity, as it turns out.</p>
<p>If you are a fantastic dancer, make that point strongly to your mom. You should pick up driving a stick shift rapidly and easily.</p>
<p>My son is like a monkey, he is so agile (like his dad). He learned to ride a bike the first time he ever sat on a bike. That was it, he just took off and he rode beautifully. His older sister picked up ballroom dancing in one evening, by the end of the evening she had so many partners because she has natural grace.</p>
<p>I myself am clumsy. Northern European ancestry, you see. (there may be some Viking descendants who are not clumsy, wonderful for you, but not in my family’s case.) I’m just grateful I married a coordinated man whose genes dominated mine in this regard.</p>
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<p>Gosh, dmd, I wish my dad could have asked you for some tips. His method involved lots of loud cussing! Somehow I survived that summer when I was introduced to the stickshift, “spotting” in the wheat harvest. It was really pretty freaky: a 12-year-old girl, a 2-ton truck, 95 degree July days, powdery dirt hills, and I was supposed to pace the truck and line the bed up with the augur so my brother driving the combine could continue cutting while dumping grain into the truck…and dad screaming!</p>
<p>My husband taught both of our girls with relatively little trauma, and he started in a big lot before heading out to the field with them.</p>
<p>Good luck, CIA!</p>
<p>Ruined the clutch learning to drive? Hmmm I kinda doubt it, but I’m just a parent – what do I know. I like the “no gas” method also, BUT the parking lot needs to be flat or a little downhill. (Try pushing a car uphill and you’ll understand why!) Good luck. You can do this!</p>
<p>There’s a ton of videos and lessons on driving a stick all over the internet. There are a couple of instructional videos on YouTube also. Just Google it.</p>
<p>I learned in the high school parking lot. Relatively flat with a few inclines in the back. My Mom was a yeller too so my bf at the time taught me. He had the patience of a saint and even adjusted the engine/clutch so when I took my test in his stick I wouldn’t stall it.</p>
<p>I second the big, deserted parking lot method. Mine all learned on a manual transmission - younger D considers it a badge of honor since so few kids know how to do it now. I don’t think you can ruin a clutch by learning at slow speeds on a level course, even if you are stalling the car 28 times in 30 minutes… maybe it’s just that most cars used by learners are near the limits.
My H had to teach me when we got our fist car. Dad had tried, in Seattle in a big chevy pick-up on regular (steep) roads. I remember him shouting “clutch, clutch, clutch” at me. Heck, I was clutching the steering wheel so tightly my knuckles were white, so what else did he want?</p>
<p>My first three cars were manual transmission – and my son’s second car, after the ancient Taurus gave up the ghost – was a Jeep Wrangler stick. My son is a very coordinated athlete. I explained the whole thing, then demo’ed the technique on the way to the parking lot. He stalled it ONE time, then drove away and has never stalled it once. Now he tells <em>me</em> how to drive stick! Kids! He is <em>so</em> critical.</p>
<p>DMD77 nails it.</p>
<p>Also check out
[Car</a> Talk](<a href=“http://www.cartalk.com/ct/review/show.jsp?showid=200830]Car”>http://www.cartalk.com/ct/review/show.jsp?showid=200830)</p>
<p>I did not listen to this again just now, but I recall hearing the explanation on NPR’s Click and Clack, and if I googled it correctly, this should be the show.</p>
<p>It takes DMD’s approach one step further. And in case your mom is concerned, tell her that these two guys are both MIT grads who have made their fortunes as car mechanics and car-show radio guys.</p>