How to Drive a Stick Shift

For many people, knowing how to drive a stick shift has many advantages. For one, cars with a manual transmission are both cheaper and have a better fuel economy than their automatic counterparts. They also offer more control for the driver by allowing him/her to choose how much power to apply to the road. Stick shift vehicles also require less transmission maintenance than automatics, but if something does happen to break, repairs are usually cheaper for manual vehicles than they are for automatics. Here are the basic steps that will set you in the right path towards properly driving a stick:
1) Start off in a flat empty area free of any obstructions such as an empty parking lot.
2) Start the vehicle by depressing the clutch (the pedal furthest to the left) and turning the key at the same time. Before you take your foot off of the clutch make sure that the car isn’t in gear (gear shifter is in the centered neutral position).
3) Familiarize yourself with the gear shifters pattern which is usually imprinted on top or near the shifter.
4) Once you are ready to start moving, depress the clutch and then put the shifter into first gear (this is usually done by moving the shifter to the left and then forward)
5) Slowly release the clutch while applying gas at the same time.
6) Once the vehicle starts moving steadily, release your foot off of the clutch.
7) When the engine’s rpm reaches around 2500-3000 change gears by releasing the gas and then by depressing the clutch and then shifting into the next gear. Once you have shifted, release the clutch and then reapply the gas.
8) To stop, press the brakes and then put the vehicle back into neutral before it stalls
9) Once you get familiar with these steps, you can begin by practicing near more people and on more hilly regions.
For future references, if the vehicle stalls (which will probably happen when you are just learning) don’t worry and just start the vehicle back up again.