Long story short: I’m (24M) American, and I’m visiting my long-distance Romanian boyfriend for the first time soon. In Romania, most cars are manual - including all the ones owned by my boyfriend’s family (I’ll be staying with them). I’ve never driven a manual before. His dad told me he can give me a quick lesson, and that I’m welcome to use their cars if I want; otherwise, I can rent an automatic. I don’t have access to any manual cars here in the U.S. to practice on, so I’m not sure what to do.
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I’ve found the hardest part is suddenly having any health issue with major extremities. Broke your finger? Crucial. Broke your leg or foot? Crucial. Having 2 functioning legs and 2 functioning hands is ideal.
No more difficult than using a phone while walking, except looking around while doing it is even more important. I’ve taught several people how to drive a manual transmission in an afternoon. Different afternoons of course.
Like riding a bike. If you’ve never done it it’s going to be hard but give it a few hours of deliberate practice you’ll be fine.
And again like with a bike you should probably practice away from traffic to begin with…
It’s quite hard for someone who haven’t done it before. It’ll take months if not years of daily driving for you to get good enough that you don’t need to constantly think about it. There’s differences between vehicles too, especially with how the clutch feels. I’ve been driving manual for over 15 years and if I jump into a unfamiliar car it’ll take me a while to get the handle of it as well.
I took my driving lessons with a manual, but have been driving automatic for over a decade now.
Whenever I do need to drive a manual, I usually need a while to get used to it again. At those moments I make use of the guidelines that were taught to me by my driving instructor:- Is for getting the car going and getting in or out of a parking spot.
- Is for speeds up to 25 km/h
- Is for speeds up to 45 km/h
- Is for speeds up to 75 km/h
- Is for anything beyond
It’s a simple helper that matches most of the common speed zones in the Netherlands (30, 50, 80). From what I can quickly read, the 80 zone is 90 in Romania, so it should still work?
Anyway, don’t worry too much. It is also nice not having to drive at all if it comes down to that, your boyfriend’s family sounds nice :)
Enjoy your trip!Not quite that simple. Speed is only a rough guideline. When you shift depends largely on how hard you’re accelerating. In a typical car if you’re trying to get up speed to get on the freeway, 25 is way too soon to shift into 3rd. I wouldn’t until at least 30. Same if you’re going up a hill, at 25 the car won’t have enough torque for 3rd gear.
Take the lesson. While learning, stay off of hills and any upward incline until you got a feel from taking the car from full stop to going in 1at gear.
While learning you will stall the car… Don’t let it bother you.
The trickiest part is learning how to ease the clutch while applying gas to go from full stop to motion forward.
Remember neutral when coming to a stop.
Manuals are great, it’s built in theft protection from like 95 % of people
Yea, getting the lesson from Dad is probably a great thing. He’ll enjoy helping, it’s good bonding time, and he’ll have stories for the future!
*yeah, not yea or nay. It isn’t a vote.
Visit a AAA location and get an “international drivers permit”. It’s super easy and a good insurance policy for yourself. I highly doubt the police speak much English and aren’t corrupt, so it may save headaches. Also, watch out on neighborhood streets for potholes.
otherwise, I can rent an automatic.
You want to double check whether you actually can do that.
Automatics are actually rare there. The kind of rare that turns heads and raises eyebrows.
The basics are easy - half an hour with someone who knows what they"re doing should be all you need to get out and about. Getting to the point where it’s instinctual and you don’t have to think about shifting is probably beyond the limits of a short trip but depending on how much driving you do you can be fairly smooth within a few days.
The main risk you run with learning manual is that once you get the hang of it it spoils automatics for you - you might end up having to buy yourself a manual car to avoid being annoyed by the missteps autos tend to do.
The clutch biting point is the main trick - particularly on a hill start. In an automatic you can hear the gear shifts so that’s your timing.
I had almost no driving experience. And I learnt driving a manual in 10 lessons (30 min each). So depending on how much time you have, you can think about learning. Do mind that it will be frustrating initially.
Driving a manual is pretty easy, but it depends on how you handle failure. The learning process requires making a few mistakes while you become familiar with a clutch and shifting gears.
Also, I think it’s much easier to learn if you know what the parts are doing. Watch some videos on how it all works and what different RPMs sound like.
It’s like riding a bike. My wife was resistant to stick shift… Then her dad got her a used car that was manual. Almost 20 years later it’s all we’ve owned.
It seems difficult at first, until it’s second nature. And I still make little mistakes here or there like staying in a gear for to long. But once you learn it, it’s super easy.
Like others said, it’s all a dance between pulling out the clutch portal and feeding fuel. I suggest learning exactly where the clutch begins to grip. Once you know where they spot is, it’s much easier to feel how to drive.
Best of luck!
“clutch portal”… I’m not really sure where that portal goes… Lol
No, but I’ve never driven an automatic
It’s not toooooo hard. But you will need a good little bit to get the feel for it.
And I don’t know how hilly Romania is but the first time your stall out on an incline you will feel embarrassed and likely honked at. And it will be all the harder to recover cause now you’re stressed about it.
