Driving a manual car for first time

Badieh wroteNot all driving learning centers are bad, mine was actually good. He taught me 1st gear on the first day (only used that gear), 2nd gear on the second day (only used up to that gear), and 3rd gear on the third day. After which he started taking me to open roads, some of which were either crowded or narrow in Aramoun. On the last few days he taught me how to park, and drive backwards.

EDIT:

Adding few tips:
1- Don't worry about the gear change, the hardest part is the steering wheel.
2- Never head into a lane speeding without having visual. In other words, if you can't see a road, and you need to head into it, move slowly and carefully. Never take a decision based on assumptions.
3- Don't hesitate. If you feel you can't do it, don't do it.

Beej wrotefirst you have to be excited to drive, excitement and fear are close but the moral boost is much different.
Yea its wrong to be put on the street for the first time, as my instructor did it the 3rd time i drove. Noone tought me how to drive, so it was fresh to me, but i knew the basics but never had the chance to apply.

What i would do is this, go to a quit long streched road, or somewhere else, like parking space of a mall late 11-12. Remember the clutch thing? If you are on ur 1st gear and the car is parked, raise ur foot slowly and the car WILL move WITHOUT the need of the acceleration pedal. Hold that position and drive around, usually ur speed will be about like 10 so ur really slow. That way you will learn how to drive and know the degree of left and right. When your about to sop, dont forget to step on the clutch all the way back so the car wont jump and shut off.
Keep doing this, then start using the acceleration pedal, but stay on gear 1. Afetr some practice, go from gear 1 to 2 back and forth. ANd then all the way to gears 3-4-5 (if exists). You dont have to be speeding, you can be at gear 4 and doing 60.
Most important thing relax, relax relax. The people on the street will kill u with horns and whats not. Even if the car shuts of in the middle of the street, do not listen to other people. Brake and focus on starting the car, and doing all the clutch thing, its called "mizaneyye".

xterm wrote1) Change instructors. You shouldn't be driving in public just yet.
2) If you're not nervous then something's wrong. It's completely normal being nervous behind the steering wheel for the first time.
3) The clutch is the hardest thing you will need to learn, but it's as hard as YOU make it to be.
4) The most important thing for you to do, is relax. You're not in a hurry to learn driving you have your entire life ahead of you so let go of that rush sentiment. (I know people in their 30s that simply cannot drive and do not want to drive). No one will laugh at you for not knowing how to or for taking too long to.

If you need any tips outside your learning lessons, just post your questions here and we'll help you.

WizaRd wroteIf this helps, I burned my dad's car clutch when he was teaching me how to drive.

I will never forget that moment, it was my first or second day of lessons and I was either getting off the first gear too fast or too slow and after some time it just gave in and white smoke came out of the gearbox with that lovely clutch smell. It was really embarrassing as there was my high school friend being taught by her father in the car next to us and she was managing to do it all seamlessly!

However that didn't stop me from learning and it was actually more rewarding when I finally got the hang of it and felt a sense of achievement.

So in your case it's not THAT bad if you already managed to drive on public road the first day but the right mindset would be 'it can only get better'! So relax, cheer up and go kick some ass on your next lesson!

Beej wrote@The-MMMs, its very well known that automatic drivers cant drive manual cars, while manual drivers can drive both. I gave my car to a few friends, whom are actually "racers" when they drive automatic cars. They just cant drive it correctly, it keeps shutting off with them and bouncing forward. In the end they all rage-quit and say manual is bad.

Even new cars, which include manual driving (tiptronic which is in my eye is really lame) they are afraid to try it saying: "i might burn the engine!". The feature is there!!! And your car is very well capable of handling a few high rpms, but nooooo...

In anycase, tiptronic is truley like a playstation game +-, in my eyes no clutch, not manual.

Beej wroteOnline, well there is something called, 100% success, if you pay ur instructor. Usually they take 100,000LL or 100$s and no matter how you EF'up you will succeed. So yea they took that highway, though the test is easy, there is always an instructor there that will tell you what to do and u do it.

Anyway, yes the "hardest" lesson is the uphil one, cause if ur stuck in traffic on an uphile, most of the times the car behind u is just inchs away. You cant risk to back up alot you might hit the person behind you.

There are 3 ways to do it: 1)the easy way is to use the handbrake instead of brake pedal, keep lifting ur foot off the clutch when you sence the car wanting to move give it alittle acceleration and pull the handbrake down, this method minimizes the fall back distance. Perfect it and you have nothing to fear.
2) same as before but use brake pedal instead of handbreak, lift ur foot of the clutch untill u sense the movement of the car and directly remove ur leg from the break pedal, onto the accelerate, while lifting the clutch to enter 1st gear. Your car will go back alittle, but if you perfect it and know ur car you have no worries.
3) Its the hardest, but donot try it since its risky, alot of taxi uses it. Using brake pedal first, you lift your leg from the break to the accelerate, while the other leg is being lifted from the clutch, thus entering 1st gear. This move needs to be quick or you will have alot of trouble.

Practice all three, or atleast 1st 2 methods, you never know when you might use them.

dp0001 wrotewhat happened to you was a bit like the crazy people that throw a baby in the swimming pool for the first time.
there are two possible outcomes, either he "gets" it or he'll need some help...or drowns lol. what your instructor did might have some sense to it, but i don't think he was doing it for that purpose (baby in a pool). and even if he did, it should be for a very short time.

here's my humble advice on driving:
most of the anxieties come from proximity and the unknown effects/experience of cars colliding.
and most people comfortable with driving in Lebanon are ok with proximity (because most of them have collided in the past)

my advice (of course in a reasonable way, and of course if you have a car that allows you to do so), drive slowly into a garbage bin (those round ones that looke like oil or toxic containers), or better yet if possible, the red water/sand containers (so you won't risk damaging your car)

see what happens, the noise it makes, the bang, the sensation of something touching your car, how big of a deal it seems etc...

then try to pass by it slowly many times as close as you can to it

this will help you feeling comfortable with the edges of the car and getting used to having objects close to you

my advice might stir some controversy, but try to get the idea behind it. don't' do something crazy and wreck you car, all this should be done below 20km/h.

TheIlluminative wroteI just hope you keep posting here. It doesn't matter what, but just post so I know you are OK :P

I don't really think you can advices here just by reading. You need to watch and learn, try youtube? something like that.

Good luck, and be safe :)