The manual transmission is becoming less and less popular every year. If you are under 20, there is a good chance that you don’t know anyone who drives a manual transmission. Which is a big problem because having someone point out your mistakes is really helpful. But that doesn’t mean it’s hard to learn to drive a manual transmission. In fact I think you could learn the basics in 2 hours, and probably after 20 hours you’ll be very good.

For me the biggest reason I like driving manual transmissions is because they are much more reliable than automatic transmissions. The manual transmission is simple whereas the automatic is much more complicated. More complicated means more chance for it to fail.

A transmission or gearbox is basically just gears. The reason they are needed is because for efficiency reasons, also you need to disconnect from the engine ( going to neutral). Think of riding a bicycle with fixed gear. To get going you have to pedal hard, and also once you speed up, you have to pedal extremely fast.

The purpose of the clutch is to connect and disconnect the engine from the transmission. When you press the clutch all the way down, the engine and transmission are not connected. When you let go of the clutch, the engine and transmission are connected.

1. The first thing you should do before starting the car is put it in neutral ( you don’t have to do this when you get better).
2. Start the car by first pressing the clutch all the way down (if you don’t press the clutch the car won’t start), then turn the start to start the car.
3. keeping the clutch all the way down, put the car into first gear.
4. slowly ease off the clutch, listen very carefully to the car. If the car is about to die, then press the clutch. As you slowly ease off the clutch there will be a point when the car with start moving, you will also see and hear the rpm drop. This is spot where you want to hold the clutch. once the car gets moving you can let go of the clutch.
5. you will repeat step 3 and 4, when chaning to 2nd gear, 3rd gear etc.

It’s fine to stall the car as a beginner. Just make sure you are in an empty area like a parking lot of quiet street. The hardest part is going from full stop to 1st gear, so practice that the most. 1st to 2nd is not as bad since it’s much harder to stall, although if you aren’t good the car will jerk.

You will almost certainly stall the car. It can be very discouraging but don’t give up. Try to just practice for 1 hour. Don’t overwhelm yourself. First get good at getting from stopped to first gear. Once you get better then try driving in streets where there isn’t much traffic. Streets are perfect because you have to stop at stop signs. once you’re comfortable then go on main roads. Also be realistic, if you drive 30 mins a day then don’t expect to be excellent in a couple days. That’s only a few hours of driving. Realistically it will take 40 hour of driving, so aim for like 2 months. If in 2 months of driving you’re not getting better then you’ll need to find another approach to improving.