How to Drive a Car

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Shift it yourself: How to drive stick in a manual transmission car

How to drive stick

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Driving stick is an art, so to speak. Mastering it might not bolster your reputation as a motor enthusiast, but remaining ignorant to the ways of the manual transmission could knock you down a few pegs in certain circles.

It’s true, you can almost always navigate from point A to point B without utilizing a stick shift and a clutch, but there will undoubtedly come a time when your only option will be something other than an automatic. Perhaps you’ll be forced to drive your friend’s pickup truck home after he or she had a bit too much to drink. Maybe you’ll find yourself looking at the perfect hatchback at your local dealership, only to discover it is, in fact, equipped with a manual. Or you might need to rent a car in Europe — in which case knowing how to drive stick is imperative.

Knowing how to operate this type of gearbox will serve you well — and it certainly can’t hurt, anyway. After all, manuals are easier to maintain and are known to help with fuel efficiency given their direct level of control. Here’s our simple guide on how to drive manual, so you can operate everything from compact economy cars to the best sedans to forklifts using a clutch pedal and a stick (self-driving forklifts are for wimps!). There’s truly no substitute for first-hand experience, but our simple instructions are a great place to start.