urgent- manual driving lessons
 

Hey guys, I'm getting my car in a couple weeks but I still can't drive a manual. I'm really desperate. Can anyone recommend me a place I can learn to drive manual? I'm only interested in legit driving schools. I'm a quick learner and I'm sure I'll be able to pick it up in a few lessons. I'm located in Richmond bc and the most ill travel is about a 15min distance. Thanks guys!

Its not that hard really. It may seem intimidating at first but you will pick it up fast. All you really need to do is find a friend who drives a stick to teach you. With some basic lessons and lots of practice time you will be driving like a champ in no time. Look for Subie or older Honda drivers, or hot rodders. After you get the hang of it you will want to practice heel-toe downshifts (HA). Good luck.

The problem is I don't want my friends to teach. I don't wanna learn bad habits etc. I want to learn from a legit school

Here you go... ICBC approved driving schools.

BROADWAY DRIVING SCHOOL LIMITED
(YOUNG DRIVERS OF CANADA)
206-8171 PARK RD
RICHMOND BC V6Y 1S9
Phone: (604) 872-1266
Approved for Class 7
EXCELLENT DRIVING SCHOOL
2295-8888 ODLIN CR
RICHMOND BC V6X 3Z8
Phone: (604) 233-7729
Approved for Class 7
TRINITY DRIVING SCHOOL (2004) LIMITED
2471 MCLENNAN AVE
RICHMOND BC V6X 2N6
Phone: (604) 278-1739
Approved for Class 7
VISIONS DEFENSIVE DRIVING SCHOOL LTD.
P.O. BOX 39552
RICHMOND BC V7A 5G9
Phone: (604) 272-9990
Approved for Class 7

Don't know how good they are or if they even offer a manual course. Way back when I was learning Young Drivers of Canada seemed like a good company.

Driving schools are pointless

they arent going to teach you anything really its more like they provide you a car to learn on.

Really just find a beater and insure it. you will pick up the basic in a couple hours and then the rest is just getting into the habit.

Hell I wouldn't even pay for a driving school in Richmond ever consider a bunch of them got into shit for offering to sell people lisences

If it were me I would buy a beater off of CL for real real cheap.
Find empty parking lot
Drive until you feel like you can switch over to your FRS
Sell/Burn beater

If I were you, I wouldn't worry too much about picking up bad habits. That's all part of your own specific technique. You need to learn the basics if you have a car coming and you can't drive stick at all. Then you can worry about your technique and avoiding bad habits.

It's been years but the story would still apply. In 1985 I was selling my '82 Toyota Celica. I had failed to state in my ad that it was a manual transmission and this young girl called to come see it. She had also failed to ask what transmission it had. As soon as she saw it she was in love. Time for a road test. She gets in and stops. "I can't drive this car. It's not an automatic". We switched seats. I took her for a test drive and a lesson in use of manual transmissions and within 1/2 hour she was confident enough she bought the car. She had a lot of practice to do but she had all she needed to drive away.

As soon as you have the basic timing down between your left foot and your right foot there are no bad habits to learn. You either do it right or you don't. There is no grey area. The only thing you will have to do after that is continue to polish, polish and polish some more. Striving for perfection is part of the fun (challenge!)

Exactly, you just need some basic tips and to do it yourself for a while

I think I spent $100 on a Chevy Tracker and learned how to drive stick in about an hour but it took months before I could switch between other cars and drive with confidence

If you want I'm willing to give you some lessons and tips but not in my FRS XD

Save yourself the cash, find a friend who has an older model anything and get in 2-3 hours of solid lessons on their car. Take them out for pizza/beer as thanks.

I had 2 hours of solid practice before the FR-S landed in my hands. After a week I was "fairly" comfortable (note: stop n' go, hill traffic will remain nerve-wrecking). In two months everything was 2nd nature, trial by fire.

I learned how to drive MT by picking up my M3 almost 3 years ago new from a dealer and driving home through LA traffic. Im sure you can do it. BRZ/FRS are really really easy to drive than the M3. After I drove my BRZ for a month and I drove my M3, my thoughts were how the hell did I drive this car before?

good idea i might actually do that :)
i would love to, if you dont mind meeting up a lil kid :/ im only 16. just saying. if its awkward for u or anything LOL

im only 16 :/ cant drink beer yet. legally anyways. hahaha. i guess i could do that. but i really dont wanna ruin my new car so i think ill do what Mr. Jay recommended. if i can find a cheap car that is :) maybe <200 CAD

I got a 15 minute manual driving lesson and read tips around the internet and pretty much drove the FRS home after doing all that. I recommend keeping daytime driving to a minimum and wait till midnight to practice for a couple hours.

i ordered my frs in manual and have never driven stick before but a lot of my friends who drive stick also say one day of driving it and you will be a champ at it

Everyone has to learn from someone and its not that bad besides I'm not a grandpa. 9 year difference. It won't take too long you really just need some tips and some solid practice. The FRS is a bit tricky cause the clutch is really light from all the other cars I've driven and has a higher engagement point as well. Car following always vary in ages but we at least got 1 thing in common haha

Offer still stands if you are interested

^:word: Many of us, including myself; who has owned multiple or is owning a MT vehicle knows that every car has their own unique clutch engaging "spots".

I never got an instructor or went to MT driving school; proud and honoured to say the original AE86 was my very own first car, also the first to learn MT on as it was very easy and fun.

One cannot teach another how to drive a specific vehicle but the basics are there to guide you. I know it's easier said than done... You just have to "feel" the car... if you catch my drift.

Just my 2 cents...

Go hire an airport rental POS and spend an hour or two in the car park destroying the clutch. :)

You really don't need someone to teach you. Just have a go at it your self and remember to stab the clutch if the engine is starting to stall.

...Pretty much when in doubt :bellyroll:

haha okayyy thanks! maybe once i get my car! i have a question tho if u dont mind. a lot of people say that the hardest thing is "heel-toe" or something shifting. do u know what that means? thanks!

hahaha i see what u did there. drift :P ill definitely keep that in mind! thanks so so much. i really appreciate it! :)

i tired. they dont have manual rentals around here :/

Don't worry about heel-toe for now... That's more advance stuff ;)

Seriously, just watch some YouTube videos and you've pretty much got the basics down.
Then it's all about building on that foundation... the "feel" of the clutch and gas... All easy stuff from there onwards.

Dude don't even read about heal and toe. It's totally irrelevant to you! All you need is some empty space and to learn the dynamics of left foot out right foot in. Start with verrrry slow pedal movement and get an understanding of how the revs drop on an engine once the clutch starts to bite. Then learn how to feather the throttle at that clutch bite moment to bring them back up into the correct rpm. Once you get that down everything else is easy.

learn to drive the car before moving on to more advance things like heel toe

p.s. heel toe is easy in this car the pedal placement is good

ohh okaayy. ive watched so many youtube videos on how to drive a manual car that i think ive almost at least 4-6 hours of total time viewing them. :/ hope im ready for this.

yay. thats good. i also got a friend who knows how to drive manuals to drive it for me from the dealership once it arrives. then he's going to teach me on an empty parking lot :)

roger that sir. crawl before we walk. and we walk before we run. thank you! :))

Sorry i don't live closer....i'm a military driving instructor and would teach you. My last student that needed to learn manual was road worthy and able to fly on her own in about 10 hours.

If I was still in Vancouver I would have let you learn in my Accord. That thing has been through so much abuse.. I swear I've let over a dozen people learn how to drive on it lol.

Play some Gran Turismo.
I lied it doesnt help. But it's a fun game :burnrubber:

Saying it took a student about 10 hours to fly on her own isn't saying much about the student or the instructor. All that comment does is put some unnecessary fear in the op. The average person needs no where near 10 hours to learn the basics of a manual transmission unless perhaps 9 of those hours are in a class room.

Cheapest/easiest way as others have said, find a $100-$200 beater on CL. And just drive the snot out of it.

Also, if you're only 16, you still have time, you can't drive the FRS on your own yet anyways, so you still have time to practice/learn.

I have to second all the comments above. I taught my wife (gf at the time) to drive stick in an Echo. It took her about 20 minutes to get it and she stalled only when she forgot the clutch coming to a stop.

Part of what helped I think was understanding what the clutch is used for. I just described the clutch to her as a connection between the engine and the transmission. As long as the clutch is engaged, you can't move the stick. Disengage the clutch, then you can move the stick.

After she understood that, I made her put the car in gear and SLOWLY let the clutch out until it started to shudder a little (grab point). When it started to shudder a bit, I made her pres the clutch again. We did this for about a minute until she understood where the grab point was.

Once she got that, I told her to add gas just before the grab point was and that was it. Got it and done.

It also helped that I told her not to worry about breaking anything.... and that revving doesn't hurt the engine.

Thanks for the advice guys. Really appreciate it.
^ and as for the previous post, yeah I know. But I need someone to help me Drive it back from the dealership then :/

Any salesman will spend 20-30 minutes working with you to teach you the basics. After all, it means he'll get a commission for the sale of the car to you. Yes, you will be rusty and perhaps stall the engine a few times but so what?
:burnrubber:

Thanks for your opinion....but if more people had proper training with a qualified instructor don't you think the end result is a much safer and confident driver on "public" roads?

As for "unnecessary fear". It takes as long as it takes for the student to grasp the concepts. As he stated, the OP is a "16" y/o.

In the OP's home province of British Columbia (and the rest of Canada for that matter) the gold standard for driver training is "Young Drivers of Canada", and that program runs 20 hrs of classroom and 12 hours of in car training.

Ask yourself...when was the last time you actually picked up a CURRENT "drivers handbook" or took some driver training of any kind?

Your post only negatively reinforces that adage of "i've been driving for X number of years and i know exactly what i'm doing".

Traffic laws change from province to province (and state to state) and they are continually modifed in any given year.

Thanks again, but your comment is less than credible.

I did Young Drivers some 10 years ago. Both classroom and in car sessions is about road rules and good etiquette. If you opted for the MT lessons back then, you would have probably gotten a single extra hour long lesson.

The assumption is that the OP already knows how to drive, just not MT.

As most have said, it doesn't take long to figure it out after the mechanics are described/explained. A few minutes tops to get a theoretical understanding, and 10-15 minutes of practicing the grab point in some empty parking lot.

It takes anywhere from a few weeks to a few months before it all becomes entirely second nature (at which point driving auto will then - for the most part - suck).

You must have come to the party late as we're talking about two different things. You're talking about drivers education/training and I'm talking about learning the basics of a manual transmission, which was the question posed by the op. They're two different animals.

I haven't taken training in a long time but being a former MSF instructor I gave lots of training so I know of what you speak and I also know of what I speak.

Sorry for the confusion.

Hi everyone. you all provided very useful information that will surely help me in my quest to learn how to drive manual. Thanks everyone so much. I really appreciate it! :)

:thumbsup: You're most welcome, and remember to keep all the traction control modules on!

Drive safe when you get it!

Cheers! :happy0180:

I will volunteer to drive it back to your house from the dealership for you :bellyroll:

you need to go 'car shopping'

Here's a forum dedicated to helping noobs learn to drive manual transmissions:

www.standardshift.com

Hell, my guess is that most salesmen these days (especially the younger ones) have no clue how to drive a stick. When I bought my car, I noticed the salesman (he was probably late 20s maybe early 30s) grinning during the test drive. It wasn't long before he admitted that he couldn't drive a manual transmission at all. I told him that I thought it would be a requirement for his job and he just laughed and said that most of the sales people can't drive stick. Pathetic, huh?

Hahah thanks. I really appreciate it but I already found someone. Thanks anyways. :)