OneWickedTypeS

Hi everyone first time poster, Wife just bought 05 Acura TL ASPEC 6speed.
Heres the kicker she doesnt know how to drive a stick. Its so very painful for me to see her punish this awsome car while she figures out what she needs to do. I am trying to teach her. Just my rant, any questions or comments please feel free.

Sincerely Steve S

m8t3x

When I saw title of this thread, i said to my self.. i gotta see this. No offense, but its really funny. It sounds like your hurting more than the car itself. What makes me wonder is who test drove the car if she doesnt know how to drive a stick.

OneWickedTypeS

UM THAT WOULD BE ME
She said u can teach me sure i said, Good husband should do...

AutoGirl

aahhH!

see I'm learning to drive to stick on an older Bimmer... I figured if I can master that clutch, then I can handle just about anything :-P

I have an AT TL now, but figured the next car will be MT...and so don't want to break it!

OneWickedTypeS

Well we just got the car from carmax and u have the 30 day warrentey for anything gos wrong, si im aiming to get her driving it before then so if anything breaks they can fix it.
Any ideas what might could break?

geronimomoe

Jeez, I wish my wife was like your's, willing to try and learn!

Anyway, best thing to do is to show her the motions, ie. clutch engagement, gas pedal usage, gear shifting, etc. Once she understands the sequence which all this has to go in, go to a parking lot with a slight slope. Then,

1) Go to the highest point in the parking lot, get her into the driver's seat

2) Set her up for initial engagement of 1st gear, release the hand brake, then let her slowly release the clutch (and brakes too!), to feel the engagement point (without adding any gas), while rolling down hill. With the rolling, she should not stall the car..

3) After she gets comfortable/knows the engagement point, get her back to the top of the parking lot, then have her repeat what she was doing in step 2 (above) but now give the car gas.. Hopefully within 30 minutes she should get the hang of it.. Keep repeating till she feels comfortable.

4) After she's comfortable, get her to go through at least 2nd or 3rd gear in the parking lot.

As I imagine you know, the most frustrating part about learning to drive MT is stalling the car, not knowing the combination of clutch engagement/gas needed... With the slight slope, it should help keep her from stalling, and build confidence quickly.

Good luck!

6spMike

There's a bunch of posts about learning to drive stick.
Search for Southernboy.

6MTUA5

iTrader: (2)

she might be burning up the clutch, but nothing would really go wrong for a while