How to drive a manual transmission vehicle: The basics and upshifting

Have you ever been car shopping and found a car you loved, only to realize it had a manual transmission? With the enormous popularity of automatic transmission vehicles, many people don’t learn how to drive manual transmission, or stick shift, vehicles anymore. But manual transmission models can be more fuel efficient if you drive them correctly, and they can put more control in your hands on the road. Learn how to drive a stick shift here!

Parts of a manual transmission vehicle

The first step to learning how to drive a stick shift is learning what the different working parts are so that you can learn how to use them.

Clutch pedal: Stick shift models have an extra pedal at your feet, called the clutch. It is located at the far left of the vehicle, and you will use your left foot to depress the clutch while you are shifting gears.
Gear stick: Manual transmission models don’t have gears for “drive, reverse, neutral, and park” like an automatic. Instead, the gear stick has numbers 1 through 5 or 6 and an “R” for reverse.
Parking brake: The parking brake becomes especially important in a manual transmission model, because these models don’t feature a set “park” gear like an automatic transmission. As such, you should always remember to use the parking brake when you park a stick shift model.

Steps to drive a stick shift vehicle: Upshifting

Before you actually start trying to drive stick, you should practice learning the gears and using the clutch with the car off to get the hang of the movement and motions. When you are practicing, get used to the feel of operating the clutch and switching gears at the same time, and make sure you are fully placing the stick into gear each time you switch gears. When you are ready to start the car, follow these steps:

Ensure the car is in neutral (stick is in the middle, not pushed into any gear) and push the clutch down to start your vehicle.
Put your stick into first gear with the clutch pressed down, and slowly let off the clutch as you press on the gas pedal (note: you will still use your right foot for the gas and brake pedals, your left foot should only be used on the clutch pedal).
Around 15 mph or 3,000 rpm, you should be ready to move into second gear. Push the clutch in and let off the gas pedal, move the stick from first to second gear smoothly and fully, slowly let off the clutch while you push on the gas pedal, and then completely let off the clutch and keep your foot on the gas. This process will be repeated with each upshift.