Want a Porsche, cant drive stick!

[deliriousga]

Originally Posted by eslai

Do any rental companies still rent stick-shift econocars? I can't recall, but some of the less famous ones might do that for you.

I doubt you'll get the Porsche dealer to teach you how to drive stick.

You can rent a stick at most car rental places, but it's usually not an econo-car. The ones available in stick are mostly sports cars, especially convertible ones. Not too pricey. We rented an Eclipse with a stick a few years ago for about $50/day in Miami.

Learning stick isn't difficult if you don't "think" about it. Just get the basic mechanics and then "feel" it and you'll get the hang of it faster. Too much thinking messes you up.

[Brucelee]

Reminds me of when I was teaching my son to drive stick. He was having a terrible time and I was too!

Then, I said, OK.

Close your eyes and just feel what I am about to tell you.

I then closed my eyes and just chatted about what I was feeling as I imagined the process of using the clutch and stick.

From then on, took about 5 minutes.

Of course, you need a very ver large parking lot that is very deserted

Take heart, it is really easy once you get over the first bump or two!

[P986B]

http://www.10w40.com/individual/100186.asp

[eslai]

I drove an automatic for ten years. Learning to drive stick was pretty difficult for me because my left foot was pretty much vestigial.

The way I teach people who have also come from an automatic background is as follows:

Go to a parking lot. Find level ground, where you can sit without your foot on the brake and still not roll away. Put the clutch in, put the car in first.

Now VERY SLOWLY start lifting off the clutch. Eventually you'll feel the engine start to tug at the car. This is the "engagement point" that manual drivers always talk about. It's different in every car and you have to feel it.

On most cars you can ride this engagement point and the car will slowly start to move forward. You can then slowly start lifting your foot off the clutch entirely and bam, you're in first gear.

(mind you, riding engagement point like this is also known as "slipping the clutch" and isn't very good for a car, but at idle engine power, it's not going to kill anything and is certainly going to do less damage than the other kinds of slippage that learners do--mainly burning up the clutch by giving it too much gas while at the engagement point)

At any point doing this process, feel free to push the clutch back in and hit the brakes to stop the car, put it in neutral, catch your breath, etc.

You keep practicing that in the parking lot until it doesn't scare you anymore, then you start practicing giving it gas while letting the clutch out.

Learning like this seems to be a lot less scary than trying to teach people how to "give it enough gas" or what not right off the bat. So far I'm at a 4-for-4 success rate on this technique. Once people get a bit of a feel for the engagement point and then get first gear down they're usually fine for the rest.

Of course, there's a lot more to learn before you can drive sportingly, but that's the start of it all.

[ukchris]

This topic is interesting to me as I grew up in the UK and didn't really know about these *automatics* until I'd been driving for several years. There were actually different driving tests, if you passed in an auto you weren't allowed to drive a manual (stick).

Still, I digress. When I moved to the US 6 years ago we of course got an automatic, I've grown quite accustomed to it and apart from a Jeep for a few years all of our cars have been automatics, including my Boxster.

Let's put that in perspective though, I think in the US a manual is seen as much more "special" than it is elsewhere because of the prevalance of automatics. I wanted a Tiptronic Boxster becuase a lot of my driving would be commuting and yes, I'm a bit lazy. Having said that though it's like no other "automatic" I have ever driven. It can drivle along ant low revs, as mellow as a minivan but in a moment you can give it a poke and all that Porsche excitement is right there waiting for you. Switch to manual mode and it's even more fun!

So, before you decide you need to learn to drive a stick it may be worth taking a spin in a tiptronic, you never know, it may be just the car for you. There are those that'll frown upon the idea but, at the end of the day, we all buy what is right for us and our circumstances.

Just another angle to consider, good luck!

Chris.

[Rail26]

Honestly, if I had to do it all over again, I would have bought a tiptronic. For all the reasons below.

[mjw930]

My wife wanted a Boxster from the moment she saw one years ago. The only problem, she never learned how to drive a manual. That presented a problem because in this household Porsche's only come with manual transmissions, I will not own an automatic Porsche. (sorry to all you tip owners but that's my rule). While it may seem narrow minded I firmly believe that Porsche's are drivers cars and to extract all of the pleasure from the car I need to be connected to it and that can only happen if I'm selecting the gears.

Now, I already had a 930 ('89 with the 5 speed G50) that she couldn't drive which presented problems if we decided to take the 930 on an outing and for some reason I was unable to drive. Taking all of this into account she decided to buy a GTI 5 speed to learn how to drive a stick. I still had my automatic F-150 Lightning so she still had something to drive while she learned but it took her less than 2 weeks to become capable of driving the stick and after 2 years she was ready for venture into a high performance ride. She finally got her Boxster 3 months ago and she's loving every minute of it and is now as understands my (and my friends) belief that real Porsche's don't have automatics.

This post isn't intended to denegrate anyone who owns a Tip Porsche. Just as everyone has reasons for owning a particular car these are mine. Of course I may have to eat my words it I decide to get a Pepper since they only come with the Tip .

[RandallNeighbour]

I beg to differ with all these fine posting members!

I think if you were to call a Porsche dealer and ask for the newest salesman on the floor, and tell him you'd like to buy a 5 or 6 speed boxster but need to learn how to drive it, he'd be more than happy to find a used car on the lot and take you out in it for a half hour to an hour and show you how to drive it.

If I was selling cars and hungry as a new salesman (which I was years ago) and that was the only thing keeping you from doing business with me, I'd invest the time, that's for sure.

It's worth a try!

[Thumper]

The first few Boxsters I test drove before buying mine were stick shifts. So when I finally came across a pristine one for well below market, I was a bit disheartened when I looked inside and saw it was an automatic. I drove it and played with the steering wheel shift buttons and decided that it was different enough to give it a try. I still agree that a stick is move fun to drive, but I'm not disappointed with the tip at all. It takes some getting used to, but you can come awfully close to the feel of a stick once you get the hang of the steering wheel shift buttons. And in heavy traffic it's a dream not to have to work the clutch and shifter constantly.

My next one will be a 6 speed. Let's see what the 550 special editions are selling for in a couple of years.