I have a secret. It’s a terrible, dark secret that an automotive diehard would normally never reveal. I … cannot drive a car with a manual transmission. [Ed Note: You’re fired! /s -DT]. No one in my family has had a car with a manual transmission during my time as a viable driver. And the family friends who once upon a time did have cars with a stick shift have either since lost them to accidents or traded them in for a better family hauler.
This has also been a problem while shopping for performance. In 2021, I found a 1994 Mazda Miata in mint condition with 60,000 miles for less than $4,000. But I couldn’t test drive it because I didn’t know stick and the seller, understandably, didn’t want a random stranger to burn out their clutch. Hell, the only experience I’ve ever had with a stick was a college roommate’s Ford Focus. They’d park behind me, blocking me in. And to make things even better, they’d be passed out on the couch and needed to get to class. He wouldn’t wake up for anything less than fireworks. Only once was I successfully able to get the Focus in reverse gear and move it into a different parking space.
So, this has been a shame for a long time and I think it’s about time I rectify this. My hope is to find a shitbox, or something slightly nicer. Cheap is key. I don’t want to feel bad about burning out a gearbox in my quest to learn stick. It would also be nice if it is fun to drive.
2008 Honda Fit – $5,000
I’m always a sucker for a hatch and have been a bit whistful about parting from my beautiful blue Hyundai Elantra GT to get my Ford Maverick. This 2008 Honda Fit has 120,000 miles on the odometer and looks to be in good working condition. There’s no noticeable rust on the exterior and barely a touch underneath. Not bad for a car in Pennsylvania!
It sold for a reasonable $5,000. However, my significant other already owns a red 2012 Fit so getting another one might be redundant. But with its Tardis-like storage capacity and a lift kit, it could be a lot of fun for the Gambler 500.
2000 Toyota Celica – $1,000?
This Celica might be more in the price range I’m looking for. I knew a kid who had one of these back in high school. In good condition, and in black, it felt like an affordable Toyota version of the Lamborghini Murciélago from The Dark Knight.
I’m now waiting for Adian to strike me down for even mentioning these two vehicles in the same breath but the general lines both feel like they’re knives that can cut through the air. Speaking of whistful, now I’m sad neither the GT-Four nor TRD M Sport were sold stateside. At least we only have to wait one more year to import this beauty.
2008 Pontiac G5 – $650
Shifting back to stateside, can I offer you a not-so-nice egg 2008 Pontiac G5 in this trying time? The current owner has already proclaimed it a shit box and their description is endearing.
Shitbox for sale. This car has been super reliable, has never left me stranded anywhere. It’s been over the bridge into the UP and driven down to Detroit multiple times recently. I’m not afraid to jump in this thing and go anywhere. Had new front rotors and pads last fall along with new tires. New alternator, belt, tensioner, and battery last year. On eBay coilovers, so it’s low, but rides like shit. Rockers are pretty well gone. Car has 275k and is a 2.2l with a 5 speed manual. Clutch acts a little soft sometimes, but I usually just baby it, it’s not a race car. It will slip if you beat on it. Have driven it this way for a few years now. Someone come bring me $750 and drive this thing home.
2000 Ford Contour SVT – $1,075
Yours and my favorite Pontiac Vibe enthusiast suggested a 2000 Ford Contour SVT over on The Autopian’s Discord.
At this angle, the damage doesn’t look too bad But upon closer inspection, woof.
Well, a windshield is easy enough to replace. If it runs and drives, who cares how a shitbox looks from the outside? At least the interior looks good.
As an owner of a 90’s Mustang, there is a soft spot in my heart for the SVT vehicles. It would be neat if it came back as a package option. Do you want a Maverick SVT? Of course, you do.
[Ed Note: I learned to drive stick on a 2005 Saturn Vue with a 2.2-liter four-cylinder sending 143-horsepower through a Getrag long-throw five-speed. Learning to manage the clutch on a vehicle that underpowered helped me become a proficient stickshift driver. -DT].Â
The Search Begins
This is where you fine folks come in. What car would you suggest for someone to beat on while they learn stick? Or better yet, is there one nearby that you want to bless or damn me with? If it’s $3,000 or under and within 250 miles of Flint, MI, it just might be the one!
I learned at 16 years old in a 10 speed Volvo daycab. This really screwed me when it came to apply that knowledge to cars.
You see, when you have anywhere from 950-2050ft.lbs of torque on tap and 11-15 litres of displacement supplying your rotating inertia (hell, the flywheel is 95lbs on average), you don’t use the throttle to take off.
You just literally let the clutch out and off you go. Throttle is applied once the clutch is fully engaged and you’re underway. Even at max payload, if you’re in the bottom gear they simply do. not. stall.
Naturally I was very confused driving stick cars as to why they stalled all the time. Eventually i figured the process out and I daily’d a stick for 8 years.
I was taught on a 62 Austin Healey Sprite, easy to learn as the idle could be raised with a pull of a knob on the dash to make it challenging to stall.
However I cut my teeth driving manual on a BMW e39 M5, purchased it without having driven manual more than 3 or so times in parking lots. It was easy to launch and easy to teach in, however the aggressive compression breaking made rev matching very important, so not the ideal welcome to learn on.
If I had to choose a vehicle to teach someone to drive manual on in my fleet of manual vehicles, it would definitely be the Jeep Comanche. Good positive engagement of easy to find gears and a long clutch with a torquey engine and low first gear. It’s also easy to see out of and not hard to drive due to it being pretty small and thus not intimidating.
Growing up I heard horror stories about Dad teaching my Mom to drive a manual in their new ’65 Chevy II wagon with a 3 on the tree.
On a hilly street.
While pregnant with me.
Despite this, I was born 2 weeks late.
Or perhaps because of it.
Every vehicle purchased afterward was an automatic – with the exception of the Ford Courier, which had a 5 speed.
Which she rarely drove.
Until Dad was reassigned to the Azores and took the new Volvo with him.
Leaving her with the Courier to drive and sell while she waited for my Sister to finish the year at school and pack up the house.
She was not sad to see that truck go away.
Watch for ads that say something like “clutch replaced xxx ago…” A good clutch is essential. I learned how a clutch and gears and torque work riding dirt bikes long before i had cars.
Any car but mine!
I learned on a mid-90s era VW Jetta. Only took one lesson with my friend because I was traumatized by the lesson when I stopped at a stop sign located at a top of a hill. A cherry NSX pulls up behind me and I’m sweating bullets trying to put it into gear without rolling into the car behind me.
I technically learned to drive a manual at age 15 on my first car, a yellow 1995 geo storm. It broke every time I “drove” it so I never really learned. I owned strictly automatics after that. Flash forward to my years as a cash strapped young adult with two kids a wife and a need for a car. I was driving a 2002 Chevy Trailblazer with slipping transmission. Couldn’t afford to have it fixed so found the cheapest car I could from a dealer willing to take my trade sight unseen. I worked up a deal to bring home my 2010 Hyundai Elantra with a 5-speed. I drove the Trailblazer 50 miles through the mountains and told myself I’d make it home. I made it home and only stalled once – that was backing the car up as I was leaving. I couldn’t figure out how to put it in reverse. I had no clue you had to pull up on the shifter to engage reverse instead of a separate gear.
So my advice is pick one and drive the hell out of it.
Shoulda bought that Miata! I was fortunate enough to learn on one, my Dads had 2. Only downside is every other shifter you try after it will feel like trash…
I’ll be honest, I haven’t driven any of the above cars. But if the stick in the Fit is anything like a 2010 Civic Si, that might be the ticket. The Si is downright hard to stall out compared to other manuals I’ve driven. Good luck with learning. If you put up a request on your local subreddit, you might find someone willing to teach you in their car. I know someone did this recently local to me and got many offers.
The answer is still, and always will be – MIATA.
I would not recommend something with a super torquey engine. It might be easy to operate, but you won’t learn much from it because you can get away with just letting out the clutch and it still won’t kill. I learned to drive stick on an underpowered 4 cylinder, and when I learned to drive tractor it didn’t even feel like the same operation. In part because there’s no balancing the clutch and throttle since in tractors you generally set a throttle and then just let the clutch out to get going, but also because there was almost no need to feel the bite point of the clutch with an engine that will torque it’s way through the most ham-handed (ham-footed?) attempt to shift.
A diesel
I could drive away in my mark III golf diesel in 3rd gear
you can drive away in literally any car in 3rd gear
True, but not while you think it’s in first gear when you are actually pulling away in third.
I’ve done exactly that in my f150 with over 1000lb of rock in the bed, it was funny once i realized why i was going like 30mph in 1st
Miata is a good one to learn on. I have taught a few people. I personally learned on a 2000 S10 which wasn’t bad. Whereabouts do you live? If it is near me I’ll teach you.
Honestly… you want to learn on something with good low end torque and a favorable (higher numerically) first gear.
That’s why I’ve always felt that manual trucks were easier to drive vs. econoboxes. But.. you can’t get a stick in a 1/2+ ton truck anymore so I guess you need something used, and it’ll be kind of hard to find something decent.
Beetle is definitively the answer. When a whole country learns in an air cooled VW (Mexico), that’s for a reason. That’s why I am planning to keep mine for my 3 kids to learn how to drive stick and I am planning to buy a manual car for them to keep them off their phone or distracted, I appreciate their life more than anything else.
The one thing that can throw people off about the Beetle is that the pedals are hinged at the bottom as opposed to hanging pedals like most cars nowadays. Going from one to the other takes some adjusting for a newbie.
Yes agree! The beetle is more difficult to learn from the clutch perspective since you feel its kicking your foot back when you are releasing it. But when you get it, every other car is piece of cake (unless its a farm truck lol)
Any underpowered shitbox is good to learn on. The less sound insulation, the better, so you can learn to hear the engine.
I taught all three of my kids to drive on my Saturn SL1 and the clutch held up fine since it is so underpowered that the engine stalls before they could smoke the clutch.
Do NOT buy anything with a clutch that’s already slipping! You’re about to abuse the shit out of that thing for a few hundred miles, and that might be enough to burn it up.
But worse, if the clutch goes, you won’t have any motivation to fix it because you don’t know how to drive it!
Get anything you like. Anything at all. Because if you like it, that’ll motivate you to learn it.
Don’t buy something with the intent of learning on it, then selling it. What’s the point? If you’ve burnt the clutch, you want something you’ll be motivated enough to fix. And if you don’t burn the clutch, what was the point of buying a car to learn on?
It doesn’t take so much to learn manual that you’ll destroy a clutch unless you’re careless about it. If you think carefully about the function of each part before you try, you should be able to get it in an hour or so of real practice.
And DT, 148hp would’ve been a luxury. I learned on an old heavy duty truck that had maybe 90hp left, and a clutch you had to slip through what felt like the entire first gear. The clutch was so heavy you almost had to stand on it, and at the time, I weighed about 105lbs fully clothed. And then a double-clutch was needed to move up to second.
This is the one I most agree with. Get what you like, make sure the clutch is good. All of the other advice is sort of extreme, IMO.
any inline-6 Jeep. You will not be able to stall it unless you mess up 1st/3rd or 2nd/4th. Bonus if it’s a later 6-speed where 1st gear is basically useless on the street.
Oh, and your left leg will get a good workout because that clutch is heavy, so bonus points there.
Any truck with a very low or crawl for first gear. No throttle needed, easy to get a feel for how a clutch works, works on steep grades by keeping right foot on the brake and letting up the clutch until you feel it start to grab, then letting off the brake to move forward. Once you have the basics down, you can then switch to something without torque to learn throttle control while using the clutch.
I can tell you what the worst car for learning to drive stick is. 1980 VW rabbit 1.6L diesel with 90% worn clutch. Under the best circumstances you had to rev the car almost to redline to get it to move. And the clutch being worn made it an on/off style of engagement… That was not fun. Everything else has been easy since.
Cheap and cheerful hatchback with very little power – but those are rare and precious nowadays, so get the Pontiac and throw it away once the clutch goes.
I would like tomorrow’s QOTD to be “what car did you learn to drive a stick on”, so I won’t tell you all that it was a champagne, 1987 Pontiac LeMans. Why did Pontiac keep the German original’s stratospheric Autobahn gearing? First was like second in most cars, and it was unable to maintain speed in fifth gear – at least in the thin air of Denver, CO.
I learned how to drive stick from my dad in a early 60s Corvair Rampside, just a single parking lot session, with the objective being to be good enough to test drive a 88 Ford Festiva the next day. The test drive went fine, but I didn’t buy the car, so my experience with manual transmissions ended there for quite a while.
I bought a 1994 Escort to try to brush up on my abilities, but the shift bushings were super worn out, and everything was so rusty that it wasn’t worth trying to fix, and it didn’t like to idle the greatest. I was still able to do a little practice on it, and just as I was starting to get the hang of it, something in the clutch system decided it didn’t want to work anymore, so I had zero clutch engagement, and had to push the car almost half a mile home (luckily I was in a residential area, and a large group of kids appeared to help me push it for a while?).
I made another attempt some years later with a 1995 Subaru Legacy wagon, and while it had essentially no issues, I bought it right before getting sent to work offsite in another state for several months, so it just sat, and when I got back, I was in the process of house selling/buying/moving, so I ended up putting it up for sale.
Six years later, I still haven’t bought another manual car. There have been times where I’ve looked for one, but there just happened to not be anything out there that fit what I was looking for at the time. Maybe some day I’ll try again, when I get my fleet down to a more reasonable number.
Best of luck on your journey to learning to drive stick, hope you can find something good.
This old Car Talk tutorial was helpful for my kids when they were first learning to drive (especially since all our cars were manual and I did not acquire my sole automatic until after my kids were out of the house even as the rest of my fleet remains staunchly manual): https://www.cartalk.com/content/learn-drive-stick-3
The car they learned on, a 2002 VW Golf TDI, was well-suited in that it was already in its teens, like my kids, and had a moderately robust clutch and a fairly tractable manual transmission with a diesel engine that provided good aural feedback in addition to the tachometer. So a Mk4 VW TDI might be as good a choice as any for you? Maybe prevail upon Mercedes for the use of one of her manual diesel VWs? (However, what she has are Passats which are a bit different in the aforementioned parameters from the Golf/Jetta of the same era.)
As for me, I actually pretty much taught myself how to drive a stick. When I was first learning to drive as a young teenager, my family had a mix of manuals and automatics, but since I am deaf nobody thought I could drive a stick, not even my high school classmates who had manuals, though once I did try learning on a high school classmate’s neighbor’s new Datsun 280ZX (!!) but the classmate and the owner were unfortunately not particularly good teachers and I did not want to risk damaging such a nice new car. During my first summer back home from college I was bound and determined to learn stick, though, and my family had a ’73 VW Super Beetle languishing in the driveway. So early one Saturday afternoon my dad had me get in and practice starting it up, backing it up and driving it forward in the driveway a few times while he stood nearby with a can of Budweiser in his hand. Then he told me to just go ahead and drive around the neighborhood. I didn’t come back until dinnertime because I was actually having too much fun rowing through the gears in the Beetle even as I struggled with uphill starts. It was not until a couple of days later that I was able to master uphill starts. A friend from high school was riding with me at my request in an effort to help me with uphill starts (this was in the hills of East Tennessee so it was indeed imperative to improve in that area) but I was still struggling until we stopped at a stop sign on a hill next to an old high school classmate who was out walking his dog. After being greatly amused by my efforts he said “just floor it!” whereupon I did so (I took him seriously because I knew his family had not one but *two* old Honda Z600s and I figured anyone that could drive such vehicles knew what they were talking about) and it just clicked for me and I was able to drive off and continue polishing my skills. So that’s how I basically taught myself to drive a stick, with some helpful advice from a random dog-walker, and ever since then, over the next forty (!!) years, I have been driving manuals almost exclusively (and actually managing not to burn out any clutches; in fact I’ve only ever had to replace one clutch, on a newly acquired and previously thrashed Mk2 VW Jetta.) Yeah, the moral is that if *I* could learn to drive a stick then pretty much anyone can 🙂 So good luck and hopefully all goes well with your quest to learn driving a stick!!
My MT instruction technique includes having the student remove their left shoe. The vibration of the engine through the engaging clutch can be felt through the sole of the foot. Because of this I find driving with thick soled shoes or boots to be more difficult as they filter this out. This would be especially helpful for a deaf person.
Honda Fit. I just sold my 2008 fit a week ago. I really thing one of the reasons it made it to 230K miles with no transmission issues, is that it makes so little power at low revs it is much harder to damage anything. It still makes enough power to be fun above 4K rpm (VTEC YO).
Youd be way better off with an old Fit/Civic at 1-2000 bucks than many of those other options you listed at that price.
or find a mk4 diesel golf or jetta.
I learned in an ’04 CR-V, very similar situation I think. Even after being beaten on by two teenagers learning to drive stick, the original clutch was still strong at almost 150k miles when I totalled it in a head-on collision with a juvenile bovine.
I taught several people in my 1993 Impreza. Not an exciting car in the least, but because it was a) underpowered and b) AWD you really couldn’t chirp the tires. “Too much gas” was not really a thing. Added plus: hill holder clutch.