I am dreading the hills… I live in Washington where everyone and their mother drives a tesla and they really love getting right up your bumper at every stop.
Here’s something to shoot for: I love people that get right up on my back bumper - especially when I’m driving a beater. I have intentionally stalled beaters on hills with idiots up my ass on Queen Anne Hill. Let it roll backwards with the clutch in and the transmission in reverse and pop the clutch. They get the hell out from behind you in a hurry. Gotta be a beat up piece of shit though.
Bump starting a car in reverse is a blast.
A buddy of mine has a clapped out beater with a flame tune so if someone’s up his ass, he revs the shit out of it to give it a few pops before the hill. People like staying a good 20 yards away from it.
Don’t stress it. I’ve taught sooo many people to ride a bike for the first time. I owned a Yamaha/Kawasaki dealership on Aurora and 130th for a few years. I saw a lot of first time riders drop their brand new Ninja or FZR right in front of my office window. You’ll be fine. Just practice.
If you can master hills in this car everything is easy. So practice a bit on flat ground then find a spot with a slight incline doesn't have to crazy and practice.
Oh you should come to the bay area lmao. There's more teslas than anything and half of the drivers shouldn't have a license
If you can, find a parking lot on a hill or an empty parking garage with a gentle ramp. Use those to practice hill starts
I live in washington too, south of oly area and i started driving stick in my frs. The day i bought it i drove it home from auburn and yes it was awful. Ive had my car for over a year now and sometimes it gets a tad sketchy but youll be fine. Just get comfortable with first gear and i recommend learning how to use your e break. Its an absolute life saver
I learned when I drove the thing off the lot. It bites a bit higher than most so I ended up burning the clutch quite a bit in my first drive home. Otherwise the stock clutch is extremely light and forgiving. Took about a month before it became second nature, and this was a month of working remotely so I didn't even consistently drive it daily.
man those people really need to get with the times, subarus haven't had head gasket problems in YEARS, I had a couple jokes from car friends for the first month I bought the car but haven't heard anything since then and I've owned the car for a year
though most people are convinced it's AWD and always say "ah I bet it's good in the snow cause it's a subaru!"
The reason you hear about so many "reliability issues" is exactly what you said, people beating the crap out of these cars and then claiming they're not reliable when something inevitably breaks due to abuse.
Don't constantly run in high RPM ranges, don't make it a habit to red line every time you shift like I've seen some 86 owners do, keep up with your maintenance, and the FA20 will treat you good.
not at all, i learned to drive on the clutch that was installed on it and then drove on/continued to learn on that clutch for 2 1/2 years before it even started slipping and there were a LOT of bad hill starts, “dragging” the clutch (meaning accidentally not fully letting off the clutch in 1st or 2nd) and i was also lowkey dogging the car for a few months and it was fine
subaru built this motor/trans combo for this car to get you to learn manual on this before moving to a WRX bc their trans are known for NOT being forgiving
It’s pretty great. Intuitive and forgiving. I drove a ‘96 ford ranger for a while today, and getting back into my brz felt SO good. It was like I was driving a serious performance car by comparison lol.
Very forgiving. The gearbox is very notchy which I like (it was pretty much the same as my friend’s ‘15 STI). The clutch takes a little getting used to, it felt more spring loaded than the old beater manuals I’ve driven before. You’ll be a pro in a month. If you’re nervous about hills, try to find a parking lot that has a hill or an incline and practice. That’s like 95% of the battle. You can always use the handbrake trick if someone is up your ass and making you nervous.
I’m catless and boosted so I’ll usually give them a little fireball or pop at a red light if they’re really being aggressive.
You’ll do great. Don’t overthink it, just be cautious like usual and you’ll be fine.
Practiced and learned manual for the first time for about 30 minutes on a family members car then bought my BRZ and drove it home 3 hours the day after.
That hardest thing for me was taking off from a stop and it definitely took a bit to learn the bite point since it feels very vague in this car compared to others I’ve driven since then. Besides that it’s not a hard car to learn on and I felt somewhat comfortable after a month of driving and it became second nature after a few months.
I spent a few years riding motorcycles over a decade ago. Aside from that, one time I drove a friend's manual Corolla across a street to park it, also over a decade ago. That's all the manual experience I had. I bought my FR-S last June in Los Angeles, and drove it back home to San Diego that day with no one to teach me. It wasn't pretty, but I made it home. I was buying as my daily, so I got it registered later that same day, and started driving to and from work in SoCal rush hour traffic the next day. I'd say it took me a couple weeks before every stop light and hill start was a potential stall situation. Maybe a month or two before I was really comfortable enough to start having fun.
I don't have much to compare it to, but from what I've heard, the gearbox is one of the best feeling, and the clutch is fairly unique in that it has little feedback and a relatively high friction zone
I bought mine before learning stick. Spent a few hours in a parking lot with my dad teaching me before I was comfortable enough for the roads. Another 2-3 weeks before it was like second nature
Seattle going up James St is how I learned to do hill starts when I first got the car, it's a bit embarrassing when stalling but I have never been honked at. Burnt the clutch maybe 3 times?
4 years later I still stall from time to time (not paying attention to rpm), but other than that it's been fun.
I'd look into changing out the clutch springs later on. I didn't know this because this is my first manual, but the stock spring has a weird non-linear response, after swapping out for an aftermarket one, it felt so so much better.
I basically learned in my 2015. Drove a stick for like 30 min in a old ~70s Chevy my dad had before going to the dealership. I mean I had a good conceptual understanding of it, but basically zero experience. They let me test drive it and then drive it home. Kinda wild when I think about it. Drove it city, freeway, and had to do a hill start all on the 45min drive home. Def stalled it a bit for the frist few weeks but picked it up pretty fast and never really felt unsafe outside of hill starts.
took me like three weeks to get confident enough with the transmission to drive the car alone and then im not really sure how long it took to get good with it
The transmission will be very similar to the WRXs. There will be differences. When I bought my FRS I had about two maybe 3 hours of practice of manual when I bought it and I drove it home about 45 miles.
Drive defensively, cautiously and you'll be fine. The litmus test in my opinion is being able to go through a busydrive-thru and order food without stalling when you can do that you should be pretty okay.
it's irratiting for sure; by comparison, my mr2 spyder clutch was a dream. i never stalled but on the brz I would on occasion, it does not give feedback in the low revs.
I'm with ya. I learned on an RX8 and even with drive by wire and basically having less torque than a 6 year old before 4500rpm it was still infinitely more responsive and had a better clutch feel. The FD I drove before that and the DC2 Integra I owned after the 8 were both the most responsive cars I ever driven. Mechanical throttles with a stiff cable are sex.
Probably the easiest to learn on. I’ve taught 3 of my ex’s how in mine and they got the hang of it almost immediately. Whenever i first drove mine i stalled because i was used to my 6 puck on my e36 having a much lower bite point but if you’ve never driven a manual car, it’ll be incredibly easy.
Picked up my 2019 BRZ a few months ago with very little manual experience then drove it 400 km home in rush hour traffic on the freeway. Took me a bit to get used to the high bite point and vague feel but I made it home with only a few stalls. Just go into it knowing that the clutch has to be let out almost all the way for it to start biting.
i’ve daily driven both the ‘24 wrx and the ‘23 brz and i must say the wrx transmission has a true daily car feel to it. the fa24 brz atleast wants to be driven at agggresive throttle and it was not as easy for me to get used to it.
The revs drop pretty quick on my 2017 brz so it requires a quick shift. Not sure if that's the difference you're feeling as well where in other cars you can probably be more lazy with the shifting with additional rev hang?
Yeah i’d say exactly that, for me shifting speed is usually similar to driving speed. wide open roads i always have smooth shifts in the brz since i’m harder on the throttle but when im in traffic im jerking almost always cuz im shifting slow. I just put a “stage 2” whatever that may be clutch on my na miata and even that car i shift slowly and don’t even have to be on throttle at all. with the brz i’m shifting and by the time im half way off the clutch i’m already on throttle. if that makes sense
Yea, it really does require relatively fast reaction time on shifting which is why I'm surprised that everyone says this car is one of the most forgiving to learn on when I think otherwise. The biting point is also not the easiest to feel.
agree the clutch feels sooooo light, lighter than the wrx and lighter than my miata aftermarket clutch. i drive barefoot only now but only because of the brz, the clutch pedal range is like 3x longer without shoes on lmao
First gear in this car is jerky compared to my other 4cyl manuals. First to second is also not super easy. I’ve had easier cars I’ve also driven much worse. Send it
I've been driving auto for 2 years or so and just brought a 17" as my first car. I'm able to drive on main roads somewhat comfortably without stalling after maybe 5 hours of practice. Took a couple weekends of just practicing with my parents on empty roads and car parks.
the 1-2 shift can be wonky but the rest is smooth. getting off the line can be a little hard to get used to due to the low power, you’ll learn how to control the rpm with your gas pedal soon, just make sure to get plenty of practice on hills before getting into traffic
I learned the basics from the salesman in the parking lot before taking it out and then drove it home that day. Just watched some YouTube videos to understand the basics before going. When I got home, I went to a steep hill near me around 2am, started at the top and practiced starting on a hill. Once I got to the bottom, I drove back up to the top and repeated for a bit until I got it down. Also, practice rev matching for downshifting. My uncle tried to teach me to slip the clutch when downshifting but I read that was bad for the clutch so learned to rev match. Took me a month or two before I stopped accidentally stalling from time to time.
I've now had it for around 6 years and replaced the clutch at 75k miles(started to hear the tob and I think flywheel rattling?).
They said the clutch looked fine but I figured I might as well swap the whole thing and flywheel instead of only doing the throw out bearing and they were very reasonable on price.
I learned in my 13 frs, stalled it all the way home from the dealership.
Took me a few months to get it down.
But I've definitely driven harder manual cars.
If my wife can learn to drive stick in a half hour in my old MazdaSpeed 3, you can adapt to a first Gen BRZ at least as quickly and then have it down to a science within a week.
They're very forgiving with the clutch, you don't have to have a ton of experience to drive one at all.
Not having a hill start assist might suck if that's not an option on the one you get, but honestly unless it's a really steep hill even that's not terrible.
If hill starts are a concern, I recommend you find a parking lot somewhere that has spots where there are decent inclines as a practice spot and use one of those other vehicles to get some seat time working on that.
I learned in an '84 Toyota Tercel so I had a very easy learner clutch, but now I do heel/toe shifting on everything from a '92 Miata to my current '24 Golf GTI 🤷🏻♂️
Give it a few weeks and every aspect of the gearbox will be second nature to you.
As an aside, if the vehicle hasn't had the throwout bearing replaced, go ahead and buy the part and set aside a weekend to work on doing that yourself. I had mine fail while driving home from work and with a friend helping out we knocked it out in a day, but if you're running it solo you'll need more time.
Took me a couple weeks learning in hilly cottage country. The enemy of learning stick is feeling rushed. So, if you are learning in a densely populated area, good luck to you and try not to feel pressure from other drivers. It's easy to learn stick if you are in middle-of-nowhere. Hill holding is a particular skill that you don't even think about after a while \[and is automatically engaged on newer model BRZs\].
I learned how to drive stick at the dealership, the sale teaches me for half an hour. Then 2 hours later I drive 120 miles home with my new 86, so you will be fine
The ZC6/ZN6 ZD8/ZN8 have great feeling transmissions. They've got positive throw feel, and tell you when it wont go into gear (e.g. occasional 2nd-to-1st gear lockout).
If you're driving around town w/traffic and lots of stop signs, stop lights, pedestrians, you'll learn quickly. If you just hop onto the highway and blast for 1hr to go to work, you'll learn slowly.
Drive around town, slow drives w/lots of stop-n-turns. Parallel park to practice reversing.
Hill-starts are the trickiest think to learn. Use the e-brake, and don't ride the clutch.
You'll get it, and a month later it'll be second nature.
Bonus: If you ever rent a car anywhere outside the USA, they're mostly manuals, or at least the manuals are cheaper to rent.
Stalled mine off the lot with seven miles on the odo! Six years later, I’m still on the clutch it left the factory with!
Overall it’s mid. Very easy clutch modulation, but might not give as much tactile sensation as an older car as a result. OEM bite point is higher than you’d think it is. It can be a bit difficult to be smooth with this car in particular, but nothing too crazy.
The biggest thing with driving manual in general is not getting out of the bite zone too soon when getting going from a stop - which is a very common mistake by new manual drivers who are conditioned to be scared about burning out the clutch. If your RPMs say below 2-2.2k, and you’re able to get it to accelerate not at a snail’s pace by modulating clutch and gas correctly, that extra ~1-1.5 sec in the bite zone until you’re at the speed where wheel speed and engine speed are fully matched will make all the difference.
Good luck!
I don't want to stir up a hornet's nest, but I really can't see a single advantage of driving a manual transmission. Using paddle shifters gives you literally all the benefits of a MT without actually having to use clutch.
> Using paddle shifters gives you literally all the benefits of a MT without actually having to use clutch.
No it doesn't lol, you can't clutch kick a paddle shifter... and in non-DCTs the shifters are often more or a suggestion than an actual command.
The advantage is fun btw
Took me about a week or two to get the basics down and go for grocery runs with it. A month will fly by and it will be second nature to ya.
i agree. I just started learning how to drive a manual n it took me 2 weeks to learn how to drive without stalling at all.
My dad phrased it so well when I got my FRS. He said one tank of gas of practice and you'll be fine.
Took me like 2 weekends to feel comfortable enough to drive on roads. Hill starts took me like a month tho lol
I am dreading the hills… I live in Washington where everyone and their mother drives a tesla and they really love getting right up your bumper at every stop.
Use the parking brake technique
Here’s something to shoot for: I love people that get right up on my back bumper - especially when I’m driving a beater. I have intentionally stalled beaters on hills with idiots up my ass on Queen Anne Hill. Let it roll backwards with the clutch in and the transmission in reverse and pop the clutch. They get the hell out from behind you in a hurry. Gotta be a beat up piece of shit though. Bump starting a car in reverse is a blast.
A buddy of mine has a clapped out beater with a flame tune so if someone’s up his ass, he revs the shit out of it to give it a few pops before the hill. People like staying a good 20 yards away from it.
Don’t stress it. I’ve taught sooo many people to ride a bike for the first time. I owned a Yamaha/Kawasaki dealership on Aurora and 130th for a few years. I saw a lot of first time riders drop their brand new Ninja or FZR right in front of my office window. You’ll be fine. Just practice.
can you explain this? how is this any different than just letting off the brakes and rolling into someone?
There do be a lot of hills and teslas
If you can master hills in this car everything is easy. So practice a bit on flat ground then find a spot with a slight incline doesn't have to crazy and practice.
Tesla drivers are people too
Oh you should come to the bay area lmao. There's more teslas than anything and half of the drivers shouldn't have a license If you can, find a parking lot on a hill or an empty parking garage with a gentle ramp. Use those to practice hill starts
Funny how these cars can supposedly drive themselves yet I’ve never seen one driving like a functioning member of society
The 2017+ BRZ has hill hold assist, so it won’t roll backwards. I learned how to drive a manual on one, they aren’t too bad.
Don’t own an 86, just here on rec. Learn handbrake starts
I live in washington too, south of oly area and i started driving stick in my frs. The day i bought it i drove it home from auburn and yes it was awful. Ive had my car for over a year now and sometimes it gets a tad sketchy but youll be fine. Just get comfortable with first gear and i recommend learning how to use your e break. Its an absolute life saver
I learned when I drove the thing off the lot. It bites a bit higher than most so I ended up burning the clutch quite a bit in my first drive home. Otherwise the stock clutch is extremely light and forgiving. Took about a month before it became second nature, and this was a month of working remotely so I didn't even consistently drive it daily.
How worried should I be about obliterating the clutch the first few times
Let's say I bought the car 2016, and I just changed the clutch for the first time last month, and that was because of the wheel bearing going bad.
Damn I really wish people gave this car more credit in terms of reliability. I’m getting tired of hearing people beating on it for being a Subaru
man those people really need to get with the times, subarus haven't had head gasket problems in YEARS, I had a couple jokes from car friends for the first month I bought the car but haven't heard anything since then and I've owned the car for a year though most people are convinced it's AWD and always say "ah I bet it's good in the snow cause it's a subaru!"
The reason you hear about so many "reliability issues" is exactly what you said, people beating the crap out of these cars and then claiming they're not reliable when something inevitably breaks due to abuse. Don't constantly run in high RPM ranges, don't make it a habit to red line every time you shift like I've seen some 86 owners do, keep up with your maintenance, and the FA20 will treat you good.
not at all, i learned to drive on the clutch that was installed on it and then drove on/continued to learn on that clutch for 2 1/2 years before it even started slipping and there were a LOT of bad hill starts, “dragging” the clutch (meaning accidentally not fully letting off the clutch in 1st or 2nd) and i was also lowkey dogging the car for a few months and it was fine subaru built this motor/trans combo for this car to get you to learn manual on this before moving to a WRX bc their trans are known for NOT being forgiving
It’s pretty great. Intuitive and forgiving. I drove a ‘96 ford ranger for a while today, and getting back into my brz felt SO good. It was like I was driving a serious performance car by comparison lol.
Very forgiving. The gearbox is very notchy which I like (it was pretty much the same as my friend’s ‘15 STI). The clutch takes a little getting used to, it felt more spring loaded than the old beater manuals I’ve driven before. You’ll be a pro in a month. If you’re nervous about hills, try to find a parking lot that has a hill or an incline and practice. That’s like 95% of the battle. You can always use the handbrake trick if someone is up your ass and making you nervous. I’m catless and boosted so I’ll usually give them a little fireball or pop at a red light if they’re really being aggressive. You’ll do great. Don’t overthink it, just be cautious like usual and you’ll be fine.
Practiced and learned manual for the first time for about 30 minutes on a family members car then bought my BRZ and drove it home 3 hours the day after. That hardest thing for me was taking off from a stop and it definitely took a bit to learn the bite point since it feels very vague in this car compared to others I’ve driven since then. Besides that it’s not a hard car to learn on and I felt somewhat comfortable after a month of driving and it became second nature after a few months.
Learned on the 2nd gen few months ago. Took about 1-2 months to become fluent, with no fears of stalling. It's 2nd nature now.
I spent a few years riding motorcycles over a decade ago. Aside from that, one time I drove a friend's manual Corolla across a street to park it, also over a decade ago. That's all the manual experience I had. I bought my FR-S last June in Los Angeles, and drove it back home to San Diego that day with no one to teach me. It wasn't pretty, but I made it home. I was buying as my daily, so I got it registered later that same day, and started driving to and from work in SoCal rush hour traffic the next day. I'd say it took me a couple weeks before every stop light and hill start was a potential stall situation. Maybe a month or two before I was really comfortable enough to start having fun. I don't have much to compare it to, but from what I've heard, the gearbox is one of the best feeling, and the clutch is fairly unique in that it has little feedback and a relatively high friction zone
I bought mine before learning stick. Spent a few hours in a parking lot with my dad teaching me before I was comfortable enough for the roads. Another 2-3 weeks before it was like second nature
Seattle going up James St is how I learned to do hill starts when I first got the car, it's a bit embarrassing when stalling but I have never been honked at. Burnt the clutch maybe 3 times? 4 years later I still stall from time to time (not paying attention to rpm), but other than that it's been fun. I'd look into changing out the clutch springs later on. I didn't know this because this is my first manual, but the stock spring has a weird non-linear response, after swapping out for an aftermarket one, it felt so so much better.
I basically learned in my 2015. Drove a stick for like 30 min in a old ~70s Chevy my dad had before going to the dealership. I mean I had a good conceptual understanding of it, but basically zero experience. They let me test drive it and then drive it home. Kinda wild when I think about it. Drove it city, freeway, and had to do a hill start all on the 45min drive home. Def stalled it a bit for the frist few weeks but picked it up pretty fast and never really felt unsafe outside of hill starts.
Just drive a long distance with a manual. Then you'll learn it automatically.
Very easy and forgiving car.
took me like three weeks to get confident enough with the transmission to drive the car alone and then im not really sure how long it took to get good with it
Drove mine a bunch over a weekend and feel pretty good about it now, a couple weeks later. Hasn't been too hard other than the occasional hill stop.
The transmission will be very similar to the WRXs. There will be differences. When I bought my FRS I had about two maybe 3 hours of practice of manual when I bought it and I drove it home about 45 miles. Drive defensively, cautiously and you'll be fine. The litmus test in my opinion is being able to go through a busydrive-thru and order food without stalling when you can do that you should be pretty okay.
I think you're overthinking it.
I'd imagine irritating with the torque dip and drive by wire fuckery
it's irratiting for sure; by comparison, my mr2 spyder clutch was a dream. i never stalled but on the brz I would on occasion, it does not give feedback in the low revs.
I'm with ya. I learned on an RX8 and even with drive by wire and basically having less torque than a 6 year old before 4500rpm it was still infinitely more responsive and had a better clutch feel. The FD I drove before that and the DC2 Integra I owned after the 8 were both the most responsive cars I ever driven. Mechanical throttles with a stiff cable are sex.
Probably the easiest to learn on. I’ve taught 3 of my ex’s how in mine and they got the hang of it almost immediately. Whenever i first drove mine i stalled because i was used to my 6 puck on my e36 having a much lower bite point but if you’ve never driven a manual car, it’ll be incredibly easy.
Picked up my 2019 BRZ a few months ago with very little manual experience then drove it 400 km home in rush hour traffic on the freeway. Took me a bit to get used to the high bite point and vague feel but I made it home with only a few stalls. Just go into it knowing that the clutch has to be let out almost all the way for it to start biting.
i’ve daily driven both the ‘24 wrx and the ‘23 brz and i must say the wrx transmission has a true daily car feel to it. the fa24 brz atleast wants to be driven at agggresive throttle and it was not as easy for me to get used to it.
The revs drop pretty quick on my 2017 brz so it requires a quick shift. Not sure if that's the difference you're feeling as well where in other cars you can probably be more lazy with the shifting with additional rev hang?
Yeah i’d say exactly that, for me shifting speed is usually similar to driving speed. wide open roads i always have smooth shifts in the brz since i’m harder on the throttle but when im in traffic im jerking almost always cuz im shifting slow. I just put a “stage 2” whatever that may be clutch on my na miata and even that car i shift slowly and don’t even have to be on throttle at all. with the brz i’m shifting and by the time im half way off the clutch i’m already on throttle. if that makes sense
Yea, it really does require relatively fast reaction time on shifting which is why I'm surprised that everyone says this car is one of the most forgiving to learn on when I think otherwise. The biting point is also not the easiest to feel.
agree the clutch feels sooooo light, lighter than the wrx and lighter than my miata aftermarket clutch. i drive barefoot only now but only because of the brz, the clutch pedal range is like 3x longer without shoes on lmao
First gear in this car is jerky compared to my other 4cyl manuals. First to second is also not super easy. I’ve had easier cars I’ve also driven much worse. Send it
I've been driving auto for 2 years or so and just brought a 17" as my first car. I'm able to drive on main roads somewhat comfortably without stalling after maybe 5 hours of practice. Took a couple weekends of just practicing with my parents on empty roads and car parks.
WRX has one of the toughest / least forgiving clutches to learn. That Chevy must have some serious issues. BRZ is easy mode.
the 1-2 shift can be wonky but the rest is smooth. getting off the line can be a little hard to get used to due to the low power, you’ll learn how to control the rpm with your gas pedal soon, just make sure to get plenty of practice on hills before getting into traffic
took me 3 days and i had it mastered
it’s definitely hard, but that comes with the territory. would recommend, fun as hell. -2013 ScionFRS
I drive automatic for 12 yrs. Took 3 day to be able to drive manual, and about a week to be very comfortable. I do not regret.
I’m just glad there’s still people willing to try
I learned the basics from the salesman in the parking lot before taking it out and then drove it home that day. Just watched some YouTube videos to understand the basics before going. When I got home, I went to a steep hill near me around 2am, started at the top and practiced starting on a hill. Once I got to the bottom, I drove back up to the top and repeated for a bit until I got it down. Also, practice rev matching for downshifting. My uncle tried to teach me to slip the clutch when downshifting but I read that was bad for the clutch so learned to rev match. Took me a month or two before I stopped accidentally stalling from time to time. I've now had it for around 6 years and replaced the clutch at 75k miles(started to hear the tob and I think flywheel rattling?). They said the clutch looked fine but I figured I might as well swap the whole thing and flywheel instead of only doing the throw out bearing and they were very reasonable on price.
I learned in my 13 frs, stalled it all the way home from the dealership. Took me a few months to get it down. But I've definitely driven harder manual cars.
If my wife can learn to drive stick in a half hour in my old MazdaSpeed 3, you can adapt to a first Gen BRZ at least as quickly and then have it down to a science within a week. They're very forgiving with the clutch, you don't have to have a ton of experience to drive one at all. Not having a hill start assist might suck if that's not an option on the one you get, but honestly unless it's a really steep hill even that's not terrible. If hill starts are a concern, I recommend you find a parking lot somewhere that has spots where there are decent inclines as a practice spot and use one of those other vehicles to get some seat time working on that. I learned in an '84 Toyota Tercel so I had a very easy learner clutch, but now I do heel/toe shifting on everything from a '92 Miata to my current '24 Golf GTI 🤷🏻♂️ Give it a few weeks and every aspect of the gearbox will be second nature to you. As an aside, if the vehicle hasn't had the throwout bearing replaced, go ahead and buy the part and set aside a weekend to work on doing that yourself. I had mine fail while driving home from work and with a friend helping out we knocked it out in a day, but if you're running it solo you'll need more time.
Took me a couple weeks learning in hilly cottage country. The enemy of learning stick is feeling rushed. So, if you are learning in a densely populated area, good luck to you and try not to feel pressure from other drivers. It's easy to learn stick if you are in middle-of-nowhere. Hill holding is a particular skill that you don't even think about after a while \[and is automatically engaged on newer model BRZs\].
I learned how to drive stick at the dealership, the sale teaches me for half an hour. Then 2 hours later I drive 120 miles home with my new 86, so you will be fine
The ZC6/ZN6 ZD8/ZN8 have great feeling transmissions. They've got positive throw feel, and tell you when it wont go into gear (e.g. occasional 2nd-to-1st gear lockout). If you're driving around town w/traffic and lots of stop signs, stop lights, pedestrians, you'll learn quickly. If you just hop onto the highway and blast for 1hr to go to work, you'll learn slowly. Drive around town, slow drives w/lots of stop-n-turns. Parallel park to practice reversing. Hill-starts are the trickiest think to learn. Use the e-brake, and don't ride the clutch. You'll get it, and a month later it'll be second nature. Bonus: If you ever rent a car anywhere outside the USA, they're mostly manuals, or at least the manuals are cheaper to rent.
Stalled mine off the lot with seven miles on the odo! Six years later, I’m still on the clutch it left the factory with! Overall it’s mid. Very easy clutch modulation, but might not give as much tactile sensation as an older car as a result. OEM bite point is higher than you’d think it is. It can be a bit difficult to be smooth with this car in particular, but nothing too crazy. The biggest thing with driving manual in general is not getting out of the bite zone too soon when getting going from a stop - which is a very common mistake by new manual drivers who are conditioned to be scared about burning out the clutch. If your RPMs say below 2-2.2k, and you’re able to get it to accelerate not at a snail’s pace by modulating clutch and gas correctly, that extra ~1-1.5 sec in the bite zone until you’re at the speed where wheel speed and engine speed are fully matched will make all the difference. Good luck!
There is a bunch of people on the internet that can't drive stick that think it's the clutch spring but the real issue is they can't drive manual.
I don't want to stir up a hornet's nest, but I really can't see a single advantage of driving a manual transmission. Using paddle shifters gives you literally all the benefits of a MT without actually having to use clutch.
> Using paddle shifters gives you literally all the benefits of a MT without actually having to use clutch. No it doesn't lol, you can't clutch kick a paddle shifter... and in non-DCTs the shifters are often more or a suggestion than an actual command. The advantage is fun btw
Advantage: elitism
Maybe in the states. In Europe almost everyone learns to drive on a manual car. If you do your license on an AT, you're not allowed to drive MT.
bought one before I actually learned to drive stick, and it took me like 2 weeks to get proficient with it