My advice:

1. Don't learn to drive a stick on a brand new car. Wear and tear on the clutch (and to a lesser degree the rest of the drivetrain) during breakin can't be good. Even 1-2 hours of practice on a "junker" will eliminate most of this. BTW, anyone who has a friend willing to teach you how to drive a stick on their car, you owe them. My daughter learned to drive (her very first drive) using my '93 Prelude. My wife had to teach her because I didn't the patience and couldn't stand the clutch abuse. Didn't take long for her to become efficient at driving a stick and I traded the Prelude in on a "06 MCS.

2. It would be tough to let someone else put the first 150 miles on my new car but its better than having a damaged MINI. Just get a little practice in before you pick it up.

3. Don't buy a dealer demo with stick. Someone (or many others) could have learned to drive a manual using it.

4. After 20+ years, and about a dozen vehicles (only one was a automatic,) the handbrake tip is great. I still use the handbrake when pulling my boat off a steep ramp.

There's nothing wrong with auto's, in some vehicles. They are convenient because your right hand is free at all times (hopefully that free hand isn't used to talk on a cell phone, arghhh!!) As far your left foot, if it's not pushing in the clutch, what else is it going to do? While auto's are fine for some vehicles, my personal opinion is, sports cars are meant to have manuals.

 

And the clutch was "smoking" how badly??? If it hadn't been for my baby brother, I'd never have learned how to drive stick. He went thru major whiplash issues while teaching me!

 

When I was in college I bought my first car...a FIAT 128 sedan. It also had a stick. I had driven for about four years, but never a stick. Well, I stalled out about a dozen times driving the car home (a total of 6-8 blocks! ).

So I picked up the phone, called a driving school, and asked for a lesson. The instructor arrived at my apartment with his manual transmission. I insisted that we drive my FIAT.

That lesson was worth every penny. In addition to helping me understand how to best use the stick, he also pointed out some of the bad habits I had acquired over my first few years of driving. Had it not been for the stick, I never would have thought that I needed a lesson. But I did.

 

MY FIRST 'CLUTCH' CAR WAS AN 1971 OPEL KADET..(EEEK!!)...I LIVED ON A ROAD WHICH RAN DOWNHILL FROM MY HOUSE..SOOO I KNEW IF
I WANTED TO LEARN HOW TO DRIVE THIS CLUTCH THINGIE I HAD BETTER GET TO PRACTICIN'..SOOO...I'D LEAVE MY DRIVEWAY AND GO
DOWNHILL ENGAGING THE CLUTCH AND SHIFTING REAL EASY..UNTIL...
I HAD TO TURN AROUND AND GO BACK UP 'THAT' HILL TO MY HOUSE..!!!
IT WAS THE BEST LEARNING EXPERIENCE I CAN SAY I HAD AS...MY
DAD TRIED TO TEACH ME...MY MOM JUST GAVE UP..WITH UTTER AND
TOTAL FRUSTRATION...SOOO...I TAUGHT MYSELF HOW TO SHIFT AND
ENGAGE THAT CLUTCH AND SO DECIDING ON WHAT TYPE OF TRANS-
MISSION I WANTED IN MY COOPER WAS A 'NO BRAINER'..IT WOULD
BE A STANDARD TRANSMISSION ALL THE WAY..!!!

 

Qwkslvr, chill with the caps and bold, ok?

 

The red screaming does get old.

 

It certainly is irritating to see all of QWKSLVR's posts in big red letters. Maybe their computer's font is stuck. I sure hope it isn't intentional.

 

Took the plunge and ordered an 06 JCW MCS on August 19th. Ive had a few motoring lessons on a manual this past year and decided to move on from the CVT.

I figure, since I LOVE MINIs so much, I should go for the whole experience and buy myself a stick shift. Can't wait til its arrival!!!!

 

I guess it is a good thing from what I've read on this thread! Our kids had to be able to drive a stick before we'd let them be licensed.

We live in Houston and my daughter was not allowed to get her license until she could drive the stick shift (we had an Isuzu Trooper) on the 610 loop through the Galleria area (one of the busiest areas in town) DURING rush hour. About a month after her sixteenth birthday we finished a basketball game and she said.... "I'm ready to go for it" and managed quite well, even with the accident happening ahead of her and two lanes being blocked, rubber neckers and then people speeding like maniacs once they were past the accident. She got her license the next day. Now she has many friends (guys and girls) who are envious that she can drive a stick.

Myself... I was driving an old '54 Ford around the ranch at age 9.... put it in a few ditches and took out a fence once.... couldn't always see to steer but I could drive a stick, that's for sure.

 

I have to say getting a mini was motivation to learn stick. I am 16 and have only driven stick 2 times in my friend's 95 civic. ...but I have to say I'm not that bad at all. I conquered the hill in 15 minutes. I feel like I can drive any stick.. but everytime I sit in the mini S at the dealership..I always feel intimidated. But I should be working out a deal with a mini S I found at an audi dealer. Let me know what you think. It's a 2004 Dark Silver/black roof with black bonnet stripes. Nav system is the only thing I know is in the car. It has 50,000 miles. The price they gave me was $17,500 ... but I can only get it if its in the 16's.

 

I learned how to drive stick in an hour, on my way home, I got stuck in Baltimore City's rush hour traffic..

Wasn't bad at all. Went home safely

 

I'm almost the opposite. I have only driven automatics very few times in since I got my license. Only my mom's CRV and my girlfriend's Contour, and every time I drive one I feel..out of the element. I always grasp for shift levers and feel for clutches that aren't there. I just don't feel like I'm a part of the car when I don't get to decide what it's doing with its power.

Everyone talking about just learning, I say high congrats. If nothing else, it's a fantastic skill to have in your arsenal.

 

If you can really walk out of the showroom if they don't meet your price, you're sitting pretty. If they don't meet your price, you go home happy knowing you did not overpay or that you won't be stretched. If they offer what you can afford, well, 'nuff said.

BTW, I think DS/B is a classy combo.

 

My first car was a 1981 pontiac sunbird. 4 spd stick shift, and only a learners permit. My mother taught me how to drive on that car. I also drove her automatic, but her attitude was "if you can drive a stick, you can drive anything!" Hats off to my mom, may she RIP.

 

One piece of advice that really helped me (especially useful as you pull into traffic for the first time, and are scared to death of stalling):

Remember that the gas pedal is your friend.