Want a Porsche, cant drive stick!

[asnigro]

Thanks for the great advice all! I will print this out and refer to it while in the cockpit! If I get the practice in on a rental in time, I will be in Orlando over the New Year (Go Badgers!) so I might as well rent one and get some early Porsche experience before my test drive! Thanks again for the great tips!

[airboxster]

Originally Posted by asnigro

Thanks for the great advice all! I will print this out and refer to it while in the cockpit! If I get the practice in on a rental in time, I will be in Orlando over the New Year (Go Badgers!) so I might as well rent one and get some early Porsche experience before my test drive! Thanks again for the great tips!

I just taught my 17 year old daughter to drive a stick. It took exactly 2.5 hours and suddenly something clicked and she got it. I learned myself on a '66 VW bug. Don't really remember exactly how long it took but I bought the car and learned from scratch. Rather then rent a car take a couple driver training lessons with a stick and a teacher. Shouldn't take anymore than that. Once you learn on to drive a stick your will not want to drive anything else for a long time. I can't keep my daughter out of our Cooper S. I fall asleep driving an automatic. My two cents.

[limoncello]

one other thought (and I read the threads too quickly, sorry if this was already in there)

Go to a driver training school. the same ones that teach high school kids to drive for the forst time. most will have a stick car to teach in for those who want to learn stick. A couple of lessons should have you snapped in.
This may have an advantage over learning in the Porsche. Everyone who learns stick, like me when I leared, is going to go through the routine jerk starts, choking off and re-starting, mild panic when caught starting up a steep hill in traffic - whereas all of these things are do-able in the classroom environment of a driving school, with a trained instructor in the car with you. The costs are nominal - I sent both of my kids to schools.

Lastly, don't toss out the idea of an automatic. Years ago, autos were indeed slower and clunkier. But technology in just the last decade has lept ahead. Michael Schumaker in his Ferrari has an auto that shifts faster and better than humans could ever hope to. The recent Porsches are very good. Audi has some excellent 2 clutch autos that raising the bar (watch for the new VW GTI coming in Feb.!). I'm a stick shift driver since my first VW in 1968, but during my search for the Boxster I considered a Tip, and will consider hi-perf autos on all new purchases because the technology is finally here to equal sticks.

Similar to digital cameras - the first ones were humble, but now all the pros shoot digital. The technology moved on and so did I. The new auto tansmissions have arrived.

[jmaboxster]

i actually drive my boxster out of dealership w/o any physical experience of how to drive a stick...........it was scary but exciting !!!

[98Boxster98]

Originally Posted by jmaboxster

i actually drive my boxster out of dealership w/o any physical experience of how to drive a stick...........it was scary but exciting !!!

I did the same thing with my first car after college a number of years ago. Scary but exciting sums it up. However, mine was an Acura Integra and you're doing it with a Boxster. You a braver person than me! Have fun but be careful. Practice for those stoplights on the hills!

[ranbar2]

I also bought my first boxster without any stick experience. I had a friend drive it home for me (Orlando to Tampa) and then waited until about 2am to take it on on my neighborhood roads. Yes, I stalled alot that night. But it was a no traffic (and thus no pressure) situation. If you go slow you really can't hurt the car. As has been mentioned above, the key is to get the feel of the engagement point. Once you get it rolling, shifting up the rest of the gears is pretty easy. Anyway, after my night on neighborhood streets, a friend who is big into autoX gave me some tips in the empty parking lot of the community college. The third time I drove it was to work in rush hour traffic. As mentioned above, TERRIFYING but definitely exciting. Now, I won't say I was an expert after 3 times, but I could get the car from point A to point B. Just understand that you will stall a few times and when it happens not to panic but just restart the car and move along. Sure it's embarrassing, especially in heavy traffic, but remember, YOU'RE the one driving the porsche!

My two cents on the Tip vs Manual debate: As someone who uses my boxster as a daily driver I can completely understand the advantages of a Tip. However, after having driven an automatic all of my life (including my first, a '68 Firebird with a 2-speed powerglide), I wanted to learn how to drive a stick. What I have found is that it forces you to focus on driving and this enhances the experience for me. Sure it can be a pain in stop and go. But you also get thrills at other times that you just can't get from putting it in drive and hitting the gas. And, it makes you more aware of what is going on around you, which is even more important with an increasing amount of drivers using the luxury of automatic to focus on other things (cell phones, makeup, etc) instead of concentrating on the road.

[asnigro]

Well I wouldn't want to go into a dealership and not know how to drive stick. I want to test drive the car before I buy it and I am sure that wouldnt go over well with the salesman, me stalling and grinding the heck out of the gears.

As for the Tiptronic option, from pictures, it looks like you can have the car in 'M' versus 'D' (is this true?). Is it only when the car is in 'M' do you have to press the buttons on the steering wheel, and when in 'D' it is just a normal automatic?

It also seems that you run into less "overall problems" with the Tip as there is less to break versus a manual transmission(read that in a previous post).

It also takes me around 4 minutes to drive to work here in IL, so traffic really isnt a problem.