I’m doing the driving lessons and I dread them every time. I don’t feel like I’m improving much and it’s just stressful. I feel like giving up. I’m only going because I passed the theory exam with that school, and i would had to spend more money (that I don’t have) if I start again with other school, basically I’m too deep into it to stop.
Btw I now understand the hate towards manual cars. Automatic should be the only option, one less BIG distraction on the road, especially when you’re new on these things, being too soft or too rough on the clutch is a matter of millimeters is ridiculous, watching the road, the signs, the traffic lights, the cars around you, the stupid people with their bikes, while fumbling in the car with the pedals is the worst… (unfortunately you must learn manual where I’m living).
It’s doable in most (maybe all?) manual vehicles. If you get the RPMs to a certain point, you’re able to shift smoothly to the next gear without pushing the clutch in.
It’s no fun though. I had an old tracker that the clutch cable broke on. It was my only vehicle and it took a couple weeks for the replacement to come in. Switching between gears was okay once I got the hang of matching RPM. Starting, however, required me to turn the engine off at every stop, putting it in first, then letting the starter pull the car along a few feet until the engine was turning fast enough to run. It was a miracle I didn’t burn the starter up. Thank god I lived in a pretty rural area and only had a few stops between home and work.
Overall, I’d rate driving manual without a clutch 1/10.