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Tips for driving a car with a manual transmission

Driving a car with a manual transmission is a great deal more difficult than an automatic transmission as you have to learn how and when to change your gear manually. We have a few tips for you when driving in a car with a manual transmission.

• If you normally drive an automatic car then driving one with a manual transmission will be something new to you. To start with you have three pedals instead of two so you have to use two feet to control a manual. You place one foot over you clutch pedal at all times and the other swaps and changes between the brake and the accelerator as you would in an automatic car. This is a very basic tip and is something that you will be taught to do if you ever take manual driving lessons.
• Another great tip to maximise fuel efficiency when driving a car with a manual transmission is to change up at the correct time. Changing up at 2,000 RPM for a diesel car and 2,500 RPM for petrol is how you maximise your miles per gallon. Another way to do this is to match your speed with your gears, for example 0-10 MPH is first gear speed, 11-20 MPH is second gear speed and so on until you reach your last gear.
• Driving a car with a manual transmission has its advantages as they're generally more fuel efficient than automatic cars. But you must make sure you drive it right. The earlier you can change up the better, however there is a fine line with this as you can’t change up too early or you will stall the car.
• If you aren't familiar with driving a manual car you won't know that when you are going uphill you need to be in a lower gear that you normally would for the speed you're travelling. An automatic transmission will automatically adapt to give you the power you need to go uphill, however when using a manual transmission car you must do this yourself.
• It is similar when going downhill in a car with a manual transmission however instead of changing down a gear you change up a gear. However this will mean you will pick up speed, so if you want to maintain your speed stay in the same gear you would be in on a flat road. You may get taught this on your driving lessons Manchester however it is just a handy tip and not something that is assessed on your driving test.

There are many more tips for driving a car with a manual transmission, some of which you will pick your driving lessons in Manchester and others you will discover with driving experience. The list is endless and new tips are always been found no matter how small they may be.

 

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