Best/worst cars for learning stick on?
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Cummins powered Ram/Dodge pickup, hands down. My old ‘02 with the NV5600 six speed would buck up and down in granny/first, I don't think stalling it without pulling a trailer was possible!
Worst: an automatic
Best: anything that works
Best: anything that works
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I would argue the best car to learn stick on is a 40-year-old 911. If you can drive that smoothly you won't have trouble with any other stick other than a weirdo dashboard mounted stick.
Best I found to learn on a stick was my 91 Jetta diesel. The torque of the engine made it easy to drive since you didn't have to give it much fuel and it didn't stall very easy.
Originally Posted by BMWTurboDzl
Worst: Porsche
Best: Any 4 cylinder econobox (Truck or Sedan)
My Porsche clutch is very easy to modulate and the pedal isn't too stiff.
Worst: Porsche
Best: Any 4 cylinder econobox (Truck or Sedan)
My Porsche clutch is very easy to modulate and the pedal isn't too stiff.
Best: A rental car. Learned while on a trip to Europe in the late 70's.
Worst: Any car you care about.
Worst: Any car you care about.
My wife was an Air Force brat. She had barely sat in a car before. She learned to drive with me screaming every time she screwed up on my poor 200$ '62 Bug. Why she ever kept me...
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The easiest standard transmission car to drive is anything front wheel drive.
1968 427 Corvette Roadster.
Worst = Mazda RX8 (no torque)
Best= C5 Corvette (rolls without giving extra gas)
I owned the RX8 and directly after the C5. RX8 is a difficult manual to get moving.
Best= C5 Corvette (rolls without giving extra gas)
I owned the RX8 and directly after the C5. RX8 is a difficult manual to get moving.
Originally Posted by aquariuscsm
The easiest standard transmission car to drive is anything front wheel drive.
Honda Civic or Accord. nice tight shift pattern.
Beetle is just too hard to find these days.
I'm talking about OLD cars too, does the Accord even come with a five or six speed manual these days?
The easiest standard transmission car to drive is anything front wheel drive.
Honda Civic or Accord. nice tight shift pattern.
Beetle is just too hard to find these days.
I'm talking about OLD cars too, does the Accord even come with a five or six speed manual these days?
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I learned to drive stick on a 77 Toyota Corolla when I was about 9 years old. It would have been hard to learn on because of the lack of power but it idled at like 1500rpm so that made it easier.
I haven't owned a manual transmission vehicle because they didn't make them in the cars I've had but the easiest vehicles to drive I can recall were a 1988 Jeep commanche pickup, Saturn sky (Pontiac solstice), 1992 Ford 7.3 litre tow truck, those are off the top of my head.
Worst is anything newer with electronic throttle with poor calibration, specifically a vw beetle I drove into the shop once.
I haven't owned a manual transmission vehicle because they didn't make them in the cars I've had but the easiest vehicles to drive I can recall were a 1988 Jeep commanche pickup, Saturn sky (Pontiac solstice), 1992 Ford 7.3 litre tow truck, those are off the top of my head.
Worst is anything newer with electronic throttle with poor calibration, specifically a vw beetle I drove into the shop once.
Originally Posted by aquariuscsm
The easiest standard transmission car to drive is anything front wheel drive.
I don't get it, why?
The easiest standard transmission car to drive is anything front wheel drive.
I don't get it, why?
In things I've actually owned and driven much, an MGB is pretty easy with very progressive clutch pedal feel and a shifter as precise and easy as the bolt of a good rifle, but a mid-sixties GMC 3/4 ton V-6 4X4 with a four speed floor shift is even easier. First was a granny gear but even second gear starts were easy and you could shift up or down sans clutch with no effort at all. A great machine even with its well below 10 mpg fuel economy.
An early Civic is hard while one from ten years later is pretty easy and could also be shifted pretty easily without clutch if you paid attention.
With any manual, it's really just a matter of getting used to it. After that, they're all easy to drive, even the old Ford cabover based fire trucks I used to drive and came to really enjoy driving.
An early Civic is hard while one from ten years later is pretty easy and could also be shifted pretty easily without clutch if you paid attention.
With any manual, it's really just a matter of getting used to it. After that, they're all easy to drive, even the old Ford cabover based fire trucks I used to drive and came to really enjoy driving.
Originally Posted by brages
What do you think makes a car a good choice for learning to drive stick shift on? Plenty of low-end torque? Not too much torque? A flexible engine? Light clutch? Short shifter throws? Just plain cheap? Is a tach a plus, or a distraction?
Right now, I'm teaching my son on a 4-cyl Ranger. It has no tach, and not a lot of power.
On my car (Volvo s40), I have enough power and torque that gearing choice isn't that important. I skip gears all the time and the car has no issue with it. On the Ranger, you need every gear, just about every time.
The Ranger is RWD and a clutch job looks like it would be easy and cheap (no DMF) if he burns it up.
What do you think?
Possibly the worst clutch I've felt was a friend's 2019 WRX STi. His 2018 WRX was fine. It's the STi trim. Second would be a gutless Ford Ranger. Easiest would be an F250.
What do you think makes a car a good choice for learning to drive stick shift on? Plenty of low-end torque? Not too much torque? A flexible engine? Light clutch? Short shifter throws? Just plain cheap? Is a tach a plus, or a distraction?
Right now, I'm teaching my son on a 4-cyl Ranger. It has no tach, and not a lot of power.
On my car (Volvo s40), I have enough power and torque that gearing choice isn't that important. I skip gears all the time and the car has no issue with it. On the Ranger, you need every gear, just about every time.
The Ranger is RWD and a clutch job looks like it would be easy and cheap (no DMF) if he burns it up.
What do you think?
Possibly the worst clutch I've felt was a friend's 2019 WRX STi. His 2018 WRX was fine. It's the STi trim. Second would be a gutless Ford Ranger. Easiest would be an F250.
VW anything! When my stick driving friends drove my 00 Golf 2.0 5 spd they commented on how easy it was to drive. You could put zero effort into shifting and you would still be ok.
I had an '83 S10 with the 2.8 and 4MT. I let my brother drive it. It was geared low enough that it would not stall. Which I wish it would have ... He'd pop the clutch, so the truck would surge forward, which would cause his foot to lift. The truck would then slow, and his foot would come down. I all but got whiplash off that one.
My VW TDi was harder to drive than my Saturn. Everyone raves about low end torque but I think the ECU just gave up if the engine rpm came down too far. By no means hard to drive but it went against conventional wisdom about diesels.
Wife had a Civic and man was that gutless off idle. First and only vehicle I've driven where it had to have throttle to get going. There was no way to let out the clutch without throttle. Once I "gave permission" for her to goose the pedal while taking off she instantly loved the car. I suppose many trucks with truck transmissions and mechanical linkage clutches are worse but that car just seemed like the worst one I've driven.
My VW TDi was harder to drive than my Saturn. Everyone raves about low end torque but I think the ECU just gave up if the engine rpm came down too far. By no means hard to drive but it went against conventional wisdom about diesels.
Wife had a Civic and man was that gutless off idle. First and only vehicle I've driven where it had to have throttle to get going. There was no way to let out the clutch without throttle. Once I "gave permission" for her to goose the pedal while taking off she instantly loved the car. I suppose many trucks with truck transmissions and mechanical linkage clutches are worse but that car just seemed like the worst one I've driven.
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