Less than a year from now I'm planning on buying an 03-05 cavy and passing my 02 on to my future wife. I'm looking at finally learning to drive a manual. I'll learn to drive off a different car first hand, but I'm wondering for a first manual car if a cavy is a good car to go with for reliability with a getrag? I know switching from one car to the cavy will be different most likely but I wanna finally learn to drive a manual and have another cavy in the family with another ecotec.
Thanks for all your comments good or bad.
Later
Redrider02
"big boom big boom"-Adam Savage. "quack damn you"-Jamie Hyneman "mythbusters"
I learned to drive a stick on my '03. No engine or tranny problems as of 61,000 miles.
learning on a cav is jsut like learning on any other car....but with Rodimus Primes SC its really hard to resist dumping the clutch at 3k...lol
when he smelled burning clutch he made me get out....still dont fully know how...lol
I may run 18s, but I can do your taxes in 10 seconds flat.
i learned on my cav and i never had a problem. i replaced the tranny once though but thats cuz the vss went out. its really easy to learn stick.
Karo taught me how to drive stick in his red 02 Cav and its not that it was hard, I just had to have patience...patience is not my forte so it was a long night.
Go to the dealership and 'test drive' some cars if you're really that worried about it. Maybe take someone with you to drive it off the lot so you dont have to embarass yourself with stalling it a lot. That's how I did it.
I learned in a '98 Firebird and my advice is to go with someone who has alot of patience. It's not too hard to learn but don't expect to be a pro straight-off or try to impress someone.
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* Student of the University of Oklahoma. Go Sooners!
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Yeah, I learned on a dealerships Hyundai Elantra. My cav took a beating while I was learning, but after 5 months now.....the car is fine and I can drive a stick better than anyone I know (except one person).
"The Blue Bullet"
I learned on an former moving van converted to a water hauler (farm equipment)
Id say the best bet is to go out on your own, have someon drive you to a abandoned road, get out and say have at it. you will learn by trial and error. thats how i learned.
honestly, the best cars to leearn to drive stick on (from what i found) are diesel volkswagons and hondas.
hondas have a really nice, easy, and forgiving clutch. tdi volks... gobs of torque make stalling the car hard.
Injection is nice but id rather be BLOWN!
The first stick I ever drove, was a month ago. Learned to drive a manual in my v8 mustang, in the rain, by myself, and I'm doing well, the best advice is just get in it, and go for it. Good luck!
Still not lowered...
Best way to practice/learn is to find an abandoned parking lot and practice starting/stopping. That way if you stall it there's nobody behind you to honk/flipp you off. I learned on a '69 Nova 350/4sp back in '73 when i got my license, pretty easy. My '03 is a 5sp, very easy to learn on a Cav.
Don
I recommend learning the mechanics of the clutch/manual transmission (howstuffworks.com) so that way you kind have an idea what the car expects of you. I drove stick once in 2000 when I was only 14 on a field shifted from 1-2, then no more until last month I jumped in a stick shift car and drove all over town and on the highway except for the occaisonal stall and peel out from 1st gear (paniced so wouldn't stall) I was fine. That was because I took an auto class in high school and I kind of new how it all operates. I'm gonna get myself a Z24 convertible 5 spd now!!!!!!!!
My mom taught me when i was 15 in her New Beetle.
Its easy peazy
i taught myself in a friends s10 field truck... its easy... just dont worry about anyhting and drive... you'll get it...
member nejbody
tought myself also when I stole my moms 96' z24 5 speed. didnt even stall the first time! little jumpy but ridin'!!! after that I did stall a few times but never grided any gears or anything. Within a week or less I was a pro! Cherpin 2nd! Burnouts! Now I bought my mom an automatic cavalier z24 and she gave me her 5 speed since she cant drive it anymore due to her rumatory arthritis. Cavaliers are great cars! take care of it and it will do the same to you :0
Dumped the clutch on accident my first time driving a stick, dumped the clutch last time I drove my car. Learning is very easy, and out cars (well my 98z24) works very well, and the tranny/clutch have gave me no problems as of 129k
I bought my 99z24 about two weeks ago and drove it off the lot. Never drove a manual prior to buying the car but i did ask my friends and they gave me some pointers. Watch the rpms, try not to redline, and when all else fails, push the clutch all the way in, put it in nuetral and slowly push the brake.
Get out there by yourself and you'll love it.
Now, i need to learn uphill take-off and when i get the chance to take it to the track, Launch!!
5 seconds to find another street...
http://www.myspace.com/fpsunfire
Personally, I think the Cavalier has a really dead clutch pedal, and think it is a horrible car to try to learn on, simply because it has no feel. However, if you watch your tach and listen to the engine, you can just memorize where the clutch engages, and it shouldn't be a big deal.
Here is a tip or two on driving a manual:
First off, I agree with the suggestion of practising in an empty parking lot. Less pressure makes it a whole lot easier. Relax and concentrate on the task at hand, and not what other traffic thinks.
Pull the clutch out slowly until you feel it start to engage, either by the car moving, or by the tachometer dipping a couple hundred rpm. For you guys who want to learn how to pull uphill from a stop smoothly, this is also a good lesson. I suggest keeping the car stopped and just playing with that engagement point, until you know where it is and can predict it every time. I can do this on a hill, with one foot on the brake and one on the clutch, and then move from the brake to the throttle without rolling backwards and without stalling. Learn your engagement point, and it is pretty easy from there.
When you are ready to proceed, pull the clutch out to the engagement point, and then apply the throttle as you pull out the pedal. Once you have reached the engagement point and the car starts to move, you can apply throttle and let the clutch out the rest of the way pretty quickly, as it is no longer needed.
There is no need to rev the car up to 3,000rpm in order to get it rolling, and feather it the rest of the way out. Even with a wee four-banger, it is feasible to get off the line at 1,500rpm without stalling.
A clutch is not a difficult device, it is only intimidating because there are three pedals and you only have two feet.
My mother dropped me and the car off in a partking lot 3 miles from home, and said I will see you at home. She walked home and I had to drive home.
She did not have the paitence to teach and I wanted to learn. This car as a 90 cav base model.
Car lasted lasted long time after that, until i hit something on the highway and blew a hole in the raditor about 3 years ago.
Cavy's do have a dead clutch not like a honda, but they are pretty forgiving, a cavy will start to chug before it just stalls, plus its a fairly long clutch i guess you could say, a honda is right at the edge so you are in and out of the clutch before you even get a feel for it which makes it easy to stall, the one advantage to honda's is they are low torque which means they harder to stall,
Tips:
If you like Cavy's buy it have someone else drive it home for you, then take it to a quite area and just get a feel for the clutch.
to get a feel for the clutch, don't use the gas pedal at all just keep your foot buried on the clutch and as slow as you can let up the clutch until you here the motor drop a few rpms, then put your foot back all the way down and keep doing that until you can tell exactly at what point your clutch engages at, then the rest should be pretty easy to figure out as long as you know the basics of manual tranny's.
Number one rule don't be super worried about burning the clutch, so give a little bit of gas early and as you get more comfortable you'll know when you should actually give it gas.
I have a 00 sunfire that I bought in 02 and it was my first manual, I didn't have any problem learning to use it and didn't have any problems with the getrag yet.
sunfiretuner
I had to learn how to drive a stick for my prom in 2004. My neighbors '67 Corvette. It was a 4 speed manual. It was difficult at first, since you couldnt really ease off the clutch from stand still. I was afraid of messing up the car, but my neighbor told me just to rip into it and get a feel of it. Stalled it many times first trying to figure it out. Once I got the hang of where I needed the rpms and listening to the engine it became a lot easier. Took it out on some county country roads, then took it into town, stalled it at a traffic light. lol. kinda embarassing but hey it happens. Practiced at low speeds in an empty parking lot. After a week of practice before the prom I got it done to science and came naturally. Just takes practice and a lot of patience.
