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Who would like to piss on my parade? :p
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
in General Chat
Today my mum took me out for 1/2 hour driving her automatic car. I've never sat in a car before, but ride motorbikes frequently. Now, after getting used to the idea of no clutch (putting it in 'drive' i.e. gear without having the clutch in was a bit scary) I drove off... and my mum said she was literally amazed at how good I drove, as if I'd been driving for years! Said everything was perfect, except for the fact I didn't feed the steering wheel through.
Now, I mentioned this to two people who are driving and they automatically said 'ohhh its an automatic, thats why'. So anyone else wanna say driving perfectly first time (even if it was a bloody automatic) is not impressive. I feel rather smug. But in all honesty, apart from my friends bruised ego who took a lot of lessons and a lot of time to pass (I saw her driving after she'd had 15 lessons and she was trembling along), how much more difficult is driving a stick than an automatic? I mean, I'm used to the gears on a bike so maybe it wouldn't be that bad?
Sorry, I know I sound incredibly cocky, but I do have a kinda valid question... you see my mum has taken my brothers / others out in her automatic and said their first times they were going slowly, but I was like a natural.
Sorry, it must be the first compliment she's paid me in a while
and its annoying how people say it doesn't count cos its an automatic. Like a 'duck to water' my mum said!!! So grrrrrr!! I need to get another livejournal... anyway, my question - is a manual really 1000 times harder than an automatic, especially when you understand the concepts of gears already (although they are slightly different on a bike).
Now, I mentioned this to two people who are driving and they automatically said 'ohhh its an automatic, thats why'. So anyone else wanna say driving perfectly first time (even if it was a bloody automatic) is not impressive. I feel rather smug. But in all honesty, apart from my friends bruised ego who took a lot of lessons and a lot of time to pass (I saw her driving after she'd had 15 lessons and she was trembling along), how much more difficult is driving a stick than an automatic? I mean, I'm used to the gears on a bike so maybe it wouldn't be that bad?
Sorry, I know I sound incredibly cocky, but I do have a kinda valid question... you see my mum has taken my brothers / others out in her automatic and said their first times they were going slowly, but I was like a natural.
Sorry, it must be the first compliment she's paid me in a while
and its annoying how people say it doesn't count cos its an automatic. Like a 'duck to water' my mum said!!! So grrrrrr!! I need to get another livejournal... anyway, my question - is a manual really 1000 times harder than an automatic, especially when you understand the concepts of gears already (although they are slightly different on a bike). 0
Comments
Driving is easy, you'll pick it up easily. Especially if you already understand clutch and gears from using the bike - just the limbs change somewhat.
Driving an automatic is nothing like driving a manual and its a lot harder having to change up and down gears while completing manouvers than to just concentrate on the manouver in an automatic.
To be honest you would still most likely find driving a manual car easier than most because you've got a lot of experience on the road and thats the majority of learning in driving lessons. Getting to grips with a car is pretty easy after a bit of practice whereas learning how other road users react and what to do in certain situations can take years of practice (which you already have).
Automatics are like driving toy cars really and you dont get that satisfying feeling when putting your foot down and switching up the gears on an open strech of road
I'm think i'm going to book with http://ukdrive.net/ when I'm at uni - first 5 hours for £60 then block book 10 for £150... a lot cheaper than down here in Leicester where £20 a lesson is a good rate these days.
I have problems with starting to drive with clutch on uphill street tho. We have a garden on a 'mountain, and it's all stoney and muddy and you need the hand-break at least on the 4th tooth or you will roll backwards. Now you have to hold the handbreak, give at least 3k tours and clutch in SLOWLY and let the clutch grind a bit, otherwise the transmission which is not turning will decelerate your engine tours and the motor will die.
Since I am crap with multitasking I nearly burnt off my fathers cluth-coating twice.
sorry for the crappy english, I need to look all the technical stuff up. driving on a straight line is not difficult, but it gets a bit harder when you drive towards crossings, everywhere cars, you can't estimate who has precendence, you forget to shift and the motor will die etc etc.
It adds up, yeah, but it's not magic.
yeah, easy as a childs birthday...
I was talking about when I was still learning to drive. I am pretty versatile on driving steep uphills, on stoney and muddy fields, giving "in-between-gas" when you need to shift back from 2nd to 1st gear so it doesn't hop all too much when the road is very steep uphill etc.
but we all started at one time, and because I learned driving with a diesel I had the bad habit of giving NO gas at all when clutching in the 1st gear, but just slooowly do it.
Will just have to wait for my first proper driving lesson in a manual