Learn to Drive a Manual

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Learn to Drive a Manual

Dual controlled Manual learner car

Dual controlled Manual learner car

Manual gear

Manual Gear selector

Manual over view

Briefly, driving a manual car means you have to manually engage and disengage the engine/gearbox whilst changing gears and/or stopping.  The manual  gear selector has several positions, usually 5 forward gears (can be more or less) and 1 reverse gear.  To truly drive and master driving a manual gearbox vehicle, you will master the art of selecting the right gear at the right time, this allows the driver and vehicle to work together in harmony.  Driving a manual gearbox car can be a real driving pleasure as generally they output approximately 15% more BHP than there automatic counterparts

Benefits a Manual

  • You generally get better miles per gallon by driving a manual.  The transmission weighs less (weight savings = fuel savings), you go into neutral between gear shifts (little fuel used).
  • Convenience comes at a price, therefore people will generally pay more for an automatic, sometimes thousands more if you’re buying a new vehicle.  Even in the secondhand market, there’s still a difference in price.
  • With an automatic, there’s a huge loss in power when converting the energy to an auto transmission.  So while the engine is the same between a manual and auto, a manual will give you more power.  A manual will generally deliver upto 15% more horsepower than an auto.
  • If you need to stop quickly, or maintain a steady downhill speed, changing down the gears will create engine braking.  This will slow you down much faster than just hitting the brakes like in an auto.

Fuel Economy

Manual transmissions have a better fuel economy than an automatic car, the reason for this is because, manual transmissions weigh less than automatic transmissions (weight savings = fuel savings) .  The gear shifting program of an automatic doesn’t have any knowledge of a drivers intent; the driver of a manual transmission vehicle can change up the gears sooner at the top of a hill or at the end of an acceleration spell, and change down the gears sooner on an uphill or overtaking move.