Hey, what's up, everybody?
I'm Desola from Edmunds.
And in today's video, we're going
to explain how to drive a stick shift and why you should.
This is Johnathan.
And by the end of the video, Johnathan
is going to teach me everything that I need
to know about driving a manual.
One, how to get going from a stop, and two, knowing when
and how to up and downshift.
Now here at Edmunds, we're known as a car testing pros.
And we've teamed up with the experts at CarMax
to help you find the right car for your needs.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
So after all this time driving in a world full of automatics,
why do I want to learn how to drive a stick shift?
Well, there are a lot of reasons not to, I guess, nowadays.
But the apocalypse could happen at any time, you guys.
Don't forget that.
And I don't want to be left behind.
True.
There's also the sheer satisfaction
of manipulating a complex machine.
And plus, I think it makes you a better driver,
because it requires you to pay attention and plan ahead
on the road.
OK, well, I want to be a better driver, so please, teach me.
Let's get to it.
We here inside of this manual.
What do I do?
I know I need to put my seat belt on.
Oh, that's a good idea.
Yeah, safety first, always, OK.
Seat belt's on.
Yeah.
All right, so first thing, I know
this isn't your first time in a manual,
but for the purposes of this video,
I think we're going to just pretend like you've
never driven one, right?
This one is different too.
Yeah.
This one looks a little different.
And it's been years.
It's been like a few years since I've even driven, so.
So let's get reacquainted.
You got three pedals.
On the far left is the clutch pedal,
the middle one is the brake, and the right one
is the accelerator.
So all cars have gears--
well, most cars have gears.
There are electric cars that don't have gears,
because there's no transmission.
But any car with an automatic or manual has gears.
We start off in the lowest gear.
So first gear is going to be the largest gear.
It's going to help us get going.
Then, as we pick up more speed, we work our way up.
But we're not going to worry about too many gears.
We're going to get started first.
Get started, so I know there's a clutch and all that.
And I know people are like, oh, my God,
there's three pedals, what do I do?
So, how do we get it started?
OK, so the clutches function is to separate the transmission
from the engine.
When you turn the car on, the engine's always spinning,
right?
But you're not always moving.
You need to have that separation.
OK.
So let's-- let's get started.
First, make sure that the gear--
your gear is in neutral.
OK.
This one's a little--
I know every manual is different.
This one's a little hard to figure out neutral.
Right.
Got that.
So neutral is generally in the center,
and a good way of testing that, assuming that the gear pattern
hasn't worn out, is to shake it from side to side
and make sure that--
OK.
Look at that look at that shake.
All right.
OK, so we're in neutral.
You're going to push the collection
because that's what you do to make sure
that you have access to the--
The clutch, and the clutch is on the left.
The clutch is on the left.
Just so you know, the left.
And go ahead and [INAUDIBLE].
Look at that, one point for me.
One point for me, I know how to start the car, all right.
That's good.
So if you let the clutch out and the car doesn't move,
you're a neutral.
OK.
So we're good to go.
Good.
OK.
So, we have an H pattern here, which
is essentially first, second, third, fourth, fifth
in an H pattern.
So any time you want to shift gears,
whether it's from neutral to first, or first to second,
you always need to push in the clutch
before you make any movement with the gear shift.
OK.
OK?
And you always keep your foot on the brake though, right?
Always keep your foot on the brake.
I mean, we're on perfectly flat ground here, so we're good.
But most roads are not flat, so you
don't want to be rolling away.
OK, so--
Take the brake off.
Good.
OK.
So push the clutch in.
OK.
You're going to select first.
I don't which one.
Yeah, so that's first gear.
OK.
And so what we want to do, right now we have a gear selected.
Our transmission is still separated from the engine.
We want to slowly engage that.
And so when you let the clutch out,
that is going to cause the clutch
to engage with the engine and then
you're going to feel us start to move forward.
You kind of feel the point at which
the clutch is starting to engage and the car
starting to move, forward.
But then it shook a little bit, I was like, oh.
If you want to come to a stop, like you're not
sure what's going on, the safest thing
is always go full clutch in and then foot on the brake.
OK, cool.
So if you don't know what's happening,
you just want to stop, clutch in, brake,
and then you can figure out everything.
That's going to be your fail safe there.
OK, cool.
So as we start to engage the clutch,
the engine is going to start having to work hard.
And so, when you start to feel the car move forward,
you want to start just really slowly feeding
in some of the accelerator.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
All right, so now I'm in first gear.
I'm ready to do this.
So what I do?
OK, so your foot's on the clutch, depressed all the way.
OK.
As you come off of it and you feel the car creeping,
start to feed in that gas.
Very nice.
OK?
So now we're leaving-- now we're moving.
So foot completely off the clutch.
OK.
Nice.
Now just get a feel for--
get a feel for how first gear feels.
All right.
You hear that?
Yep.
And so, let's try to come to a stop now.
So the first thing you're going to do
is press the clutch in to disengage the transmission
from the engine.
OK.
And then--
Press the brake.
--press the brake, yeah, to stop.
Excellent.
Now let's do the neutral shake, pull it out of first.
Shake it around.
Take your foot off the clutch, nice.
In neutral.
Nice, man.
I'm like-- I got--
I get one point.
I don't know how many points we're doing today,
but I get one.
One point, yeah.
Look at me giving myself points.
You're supposed to be giving me points.
You're the instructor, right?
OK, give all the points.
I think we need to self-promote sometimes.
Exactly, I'm just saying, I'm excited.
It's been-- like I said, I feel like I'm going
to be a pro at the end of this.
All right, so I got the first gear down.
What seems to be the biggest issue for people
when you are teaching them?
I think it's first, getting going in first gear,
and then knowing when to shift.
I've noticed that, if you're ever
in a car with people who drive a manual, everyone's different.
So, some people, they let it rev real high and then they switch,
or some people, like they do real early, so it's almost
like, when do you know to do it?
Yeah, yeah, that's right.
But it seems like you got a really good feel
for first gear.
Let's talk about why we upshift and downshift.
So we're driving around in first gear, it feels like--
it's kind of a slow gear.
You see the engine RPMs rise.
At some point, it feels a little uncomfortable
driving around in first year.
And it makes this like aaahhh.
Yeah, it makes a lot of noise.
OK.
Right.
So just like a bike, you're cranking away
in that first gear.
By up-shifting, you actually have to make fewer revolutions
with pedals to go faster.
And that's the same idea in shifting to higher gears.
We start out the same, as we do in first year.
OK.
When you are ready to ship to second-- and remember,
any time you make a movement with the shifter,
you need to clutch in.
OK.
You're not going to break.
The car's going to keep going.
You're going to shift to second gear.
And then just as you did with first gear,
you're going to be backing off of the--
Throttle?
Yeah, letting it out and then feeding the accelerator back
in.
Should I try it?
Let's do it.
Let' try it.
All right.
Nice.
That was nice and smooth.
That was a good one.
OK, so right about-- we'll use 3,000 RPM.
So when it hits three, go ahead.
Beautiful, man.
OK.
It's like riding a bike, right?
You know what, it is.
All right, so let's continue in second gear.
Let's head back down there.
And then again when you feel like you're ready to stop,
first you're going to come off the gas,
push the clutch in, and then find neutral which
in the middle, do the shake.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
Yeah, OK.
OK?
And boom, look at that.
What about reversing?
Because reversing, I feel like, I had--
OK, so before we started, they were like, oh,
can you try to move it?
I was like, oh, I don't know what I'm doing.
And I couldn't get the car into reverse.
Yeah.
This one, I didn't know how to do it.
Yeah, that's a great question.
And every car-- there are a lot of cars that have reverse--
have you access reverse differently.
Yes.
So, in this car, you see that the R
is all the way to the left and up,
whereas in a lot of five speeds, it's all to the right and down.
For this, they have what's called a lockout,
it's this little collar here.
And that's just to ensure that when you go to select first,
you don't accidentally select reverse.
That would be really bad.
That makes sense.
OK, that makes sense.
Because I was like, what is going on?
And I kept-- I was in neutral, and it was like, hmm.
OK, so let's try to reverse it.
All right, so you're going to pull up on the collar,
go all the way to the left, and up.
OK.
Reverse is going to be exactly like first gear,
except we're going to be going this way.
Back.
Yeah, when you do the thing.
Well, this one does not have a reverse camera,
so I got to-- you probably should look anyways, right?
We're doing reverse donuts here.
Oh, all right.
All right.
Oh, you're good at-- you're good at reverse.
So reverse is also going to kind of
have that same feeling of first gear because it's one gear.
And there aren't multiple reverse gears,
because you never want to be driving that fast when you're
going backwards.
But it is very much like first gear,
so it's going to have that same sort of feel
as you're coming off the clutch, and you're starting to move.
So you treat it as like a reverse first gear.
OK.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
We used 3,000 RPM as like a basic guideline
for knowing when to shift.
OK.
As you get more and more experienced with cars,
you're going to be able to tell by the sound of the engine.
You're not going to even have to look at the numbers.
In fact, it's better to keep your eyes on the road.
Exactly.
But I think when you're practicing,
you want to just use all your senses.
Use your ears to hear what the engine RPM that you're
shifting at sounds like, that way
you don't need to look at it.
So you want to give that a shot really quick, while we're--
Oh, like shifting without looking?
Yeah, without looking at the numbers.
Oh, yeah.
OK?
OK, let's do it.
So let's get started.
Again, first.
OK.
I'm actually not going to say anything and just see--
OK, I can-- see this is the real driver's test.
OK.
Beautiful.
OK.
Was that too soon?
No, no, no, that was great.
OK.
So what I want you to do is--
I want you to--
I want you to drive down.
OK.
And then, when you feel like you want to shift,
I want you to take a look at what the RPM looks like.
When I feel like I want to.
Yeah.
OK.
And tell me.
All right, now, look.
Oh, it was right at the three.
OK.
It was like right above the three when I looked.
OK.
What I know about gears is the higher the gear,
the faster you can go, right?
Right, right, right.
So, and then also, sometimes it's like--
I'm in third, but I need to go slower
while I'm going, while I'm driving, right?
Yeah, so actually did you hear that engine that time?
So actually, select third gear again.
Third gear, OK.
OK.
And then try to press the gas.
So you hear the sound of the engine drops.
It becomes like a really low kind of sound to it.
And actually if this road were starting to go uphill,
you would-- there's a point at which the third gear wouldn't
be able to take us up the hill.
Would I start rolling back?
You wouldn't start rolling back.
OK.
But no matter how much you press the gas,
the car is not going to want to go up.
And so in that case, we need to select the lower gear.
We need to go back down to second gear
and help the car out a little bit.
Try that.
That was really good.
OK?
Yeah.
That was smooth.
So now we're in second gear.
The engine sounds fine.
Senator better.
Sounds better, right?
Yeah.
OK.
It's not shaky either.
It's not shaky.
So if we were in first gear, it would be really
hard to be smooth with it.
Second gear, it sounds good.
And it's actually pretty easy to be smooth on the accelerator,
right?
OK.
All right, so you taught me everything
that I need to know, I feel like,
which means that everyone at home can drive--
or at least can attempt, OK?
Everyone at home can attempt.
I want them to not be afraid.
There's nothing to be afraid of, just try it.
So it's easy.
So recap, real quick.
You get in the car.
You put your belt on.
You push the clutch down, make-- well,
you make sure it's in neutral first, right?
Yeah.
OK.
You push the clutch down, start with first gear.
And then you do what you need to do.
Exactly.
All right, let's go.
I feel like I can do it now.
Let's see, I'm going to go a little faster this time.
That wasn't as smooth.
That's great.
Was that all right?
Yeah.
I mean, for somebody that hasn't driven in a very long time--
I feel like, yeah--
I feel like I'm a pro now.
I don't know if I am, but I feel like one.
What rating would you give me now
that you've seen that I can do something?
I can drive a little bit.
Well, until we get you out on actual roads
with other cars, and traffic lights, and stuff,
I'm going to be a little conservative.
So on a scale of 1 to 10, I'm going to give you a 7,
as far as--
A 7, OK.
A 7 is a great score.
Have you ever bump started a car--
No.
--a manual transmission car?
What does that mean?
It's pretty cool.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Essentially, if your battery doesn't have any--
doesn't have enough juice to start the car,
you can actually get the car rolling, so--
Oh, yeah, I know what that means.
Yeah.
Yes.
You and me getting out, we're pushing.
You jumping in, putting it in gear
and then letting the clutch out.
All right, so yeah, you gave me a 7, and that's fine,
but I want to at least go for a 9.
All right?
So there's no hills around here, but can I
try the bumpstart or something?
Let's do it.
Can you teach me.
Yeah.
In order for us to push the car, it needs to be in neutral.
So go ahead and make sure it's in neutral.
I'll have to push it, like get out and push it?
Yeah.
Oh, OK.
Yeah, we're both going to have to push it.
I'm like, oh, I got to do some real work.
Yeah.
OK.
So we're going to get out.
We're going to push it and then you're going to jump in.
While you're pushing?
While I'm pushing.
So I'm going to keep the car going.
OK.
We're going to have the-- we can have the car door open.
You're going to jump in.
And then you're going to select--
you can select either first or second.
I think second is usually a little easier because we're
going to already be moving.
So, once the car is moving, you're
going to jump in, clutch in, select second gear
and then let the clutch out.
So we're both going to push the car.
OK.
I'll say, all right, go.
You're going to run, jump in, select second gear,
and then pop the clutch.
OK, you don't have to do it slowly.
In fact, you just want to let the clutch out quick.
I'm excited.
I'm nervous a little bit.
OK.
But let's go.
All right.
OK.
Let's see how it goes.
I'm a little nervous.
All right, let's go.
We've got to try and get some speed.
OK.
Get the quads in.
Jump in and do it as quickly as you can.
Push, push, push, push.
As quickly as I can.
All right, go.
OK.
Oh--
Whoo.
I did it.
Oh, you guys, I did it.
I'm proud of myself.
So now you know everything that you
need to know about driving a manual, OK.
So don't let the transmission keep you from the car
that you really want.
All right?
Let us know what you thought about this video
down in the comments below.
And of course, let us know which car you'd
like to see us review next.