Ok, please dont flame me or anything, but I am buying a Protege 5 soon with a manual transmission. The thing is, I have never owned a manual trans. before. I have driven 2 of my friends cars (manual) before, but only for a short period of time. My question is, how long does it typically take to learn how to drive stick?


Is driving stick on a Protege easier than other cars? The two cars that I have driven stick are a 98 Mustang and a 94 Eclispe. The Eclispe was very hard to drive, since I am pretty tall and there wasnt that much room. I did test drive a automatic Protege 5 and my friend test drove the manual Protege 5 for me . I have to say, I love them both. But, I always wanted to get a manual, since its fun and sporty. So, if anyone can give me any suggestions on driving my future manual Protege 5, I would GREATLY appreciate it !!

P.S. The dealer looked at me like I was stupid when I said I have never owned a stick before. Hey! You have to learn sometime!

 

Somewhere else on the board someone else did something similar... but they rented a car with a standard tranny for a day and tought themselves the basics on that and then moved to the new car. Might be a good idea.

With someone competent along with you and in a nice big parking lot I would say that you'll have the real basics in an hour, and be OK after a full day. What is going to get ya is the roll back on hills and the like, that takes a little longer to master. Seeing as you are not learing to drive at the same time (like I did a long while back) you at least have an idea of what needs to be done

Have fun!

 

tnks for the replys, if anyone else has any ideas, please tell them.

JJB, do you know any car rental companys that rent out standards? I think I called all of them here, and they say they dont have any .

Also,
I shouldnt have to worry about that much, I live near New Orleans, La, and we dont have to many hills around here . The biggest hill that we have is called Monkey Hill in the Audubon Zoo, and that is man-made... LOL

Thanks for the offer, but I live near New Orleans, LA.

 

And this is why we don't buy "Program" cars. hehe

 

Sorry, I have never seen one either... maybe ther person that made the original post might be able to help out. I think that he said that he was out of the MD or WV area.

 

If you can drive a mustang 5 speed then you shouldnt have any problem whatsoever on a Pro, the clutch on the 5 speed is so easy to use as opposed to the clutch on a mustang.

 

QUOTE]If you can drive a mustang 5 speed then you shouldnt have any problem whatsoever on a Pro, the clutch on the 5 speed is so easy to use as opposed to the clutch on a mustang.[/QUOTE]

Yes 01mp3clone is right. I had a '92 Mustang GT (5.0's rule) back in '92 and test drove a '01 Mustang GT before I got my Protege5 and those clutches are a lot stiffer than Proteges. Civics clutches on the other hand are so light that you probably think something is wrong w/ the car.

You'll be a pro the same week you get your car. Hence the word PROtege.