How To Drive A Manual

How to Drive a Manual: 5 speed stick shift

Starting the car

Once you are sitting down on the drivers side seat, wiggle the shifter left to right and just make sure you are in neutral.
Now that you are in neutral with your left foot press on the clutch and turn key and start the car, you can let go of the clutch only because you are still in neutral.

Shifting the car

Now that the car is on we are reay to roll.
Assuming you are going straight, lets start by shifting to first gear. Holding on the clutch lets you shift the shifter into any gear.
Now with your left foot lets press on the clutch pedal again while shifting the stick into first gear wich is all the way to your left and up.
Now you are in first gear with your foot still in clutch.
What you want to do now to move forward is unreales the clutch slowly as simultaniasly you push down on the gas pedal slowly. (If not done precise car will shut off and stall to a quick stop. this is the hardest part for any beginner)
You will eventually let go of the clutch and you are now just with foot in the gas ready to go into the second gear.
A car normally will need to be shifted when you are accelearting and your rpms are about 3000 to 4000, and thats when you want to shift until you cruising speed is just at about 1800 to 2000 rpms, wich is about how every car normally operates while driving.
You will repeat the process, hold clutch and shift into second gear (located all the way left bottom, right under 1st gear) and press once again in the gas slowly as you remove your foot of the clutch.
These process will repeat for all the other gears as you need to depending how fast you are driving. For all gera postions please ckeck out: How to drive manual: pedals on a manual.

Backing Up the car

When backing up make sure you are clear.
You will hold on clutch and put the stick shift into reverse wich is all the way right bottom.
Now you are in Reverse and you will do the same process as othe gears, hold clutch pedal, shift, press gas while removing the clutch, now you have started to back up.

Braking in the car

When coming to a stop, what you want to do is hold on the clutch and shif into neutral, wich is the center of the shifter.
Now in Neutral you dont need to hold on clutch and you can just brake normally.
Now if you are not trying to stop you can slow down and shift into a lesser gear by going through the steps of switching into a gear.

Parking the car

When parking in your paring spot just follow the steps, brake and turn your shifter in neutral position, from there you can turn off the vehicle and apply the parking brake.
In a hill or curb you can leave the vehicle in 1st gear and turn off the car, and apply parking break so vehicle will not slip and roll.

Tips for Sucess

Check out other articles if dealing with different transmission types, or need more information about manual transmissions.