ludi wrote:If you can afford to spend $900 on a Craigslist beater with MT (late-90s/early-00s Civics and Corollas are both plentiful and reasonably forgiving), you might find it worthwhile to buy it and drive it for a while just to get comfy with the method and with hill starts, and thus, avoid putting that same $900 of wear and tear into your new toy.
Definitely, I like the idea (shoot, even for letting a teen learn to drive at all, I think an old beater is a good idea). Although I've never been happy with Toyota's late 90's/early 00's clutches - always seemed a little difficult to me, compared to my 05 Civic (which has an easy going, non-aggressive clutch). Maybe I should try one again, now that I know how to drive a manual half-decently.
You know, I wouldn't mind buying some old piece of junk for under a grand just so I can take it apart, do whatever I want with it, beat it up, etc. If I get a year out of it, I've done fine. I don't have the space or time for that as a student though.
I mostly learned on my own - youtube tutorials, reading, and trying it. I did drive my friend's car a few times (99 Rav4), but didn't actually let him teach me. Mind you, there's a 35mph winding downhill road from my town to the next city over, and he throws the car
in neutral while doing that (exactly what I've been repeatedly told NOT to do; it's not as safe; it wears the brakes; the fuel injection can't cut out). I stay in gear or downshift one, then let the brakes have a rest. He tends to hit the clutch as soon as he starts slowing down at all (i.e. I leave it in gear until I'm nearing 1000RPM, then go to neutral or downshift).
And yeah, a lot of people can't drive them, but when you're a college student with roommates (or will have them next year) then that's a boon. Most people
can't borrow your car.
Only problem is my mom can't drive it, but meh, that's an old problem (dad had manuals for years, she couldn't drive those either).