One day last week was my first attempt at driving Ben's Ranger...its a stick. I didn't know the first thing about which pedals to push and where to move the stick. So while we were in Willamsburg, Va on the Colonial Parkway, Ben was like, ok I'm gonna pull over and you drive. I started to panic because the parking lot we were in was not big at all. There was no room for me to do a practice run. So he said, lets pull into traffic, and I was like what?!? I felt like the character Cher in Clueless...pulling into traffic...oh no not the freeway! hehe Anyway I did fine. At first I had the usual trouble having the damn thing stall on me, but then I got the handle of getting it to roll. Next was hitting the clutch and switching gears. I got the clutch down pretty good, Ben helped me with the gear shifter...need to do some more practice, but I think I'm getting the hand of it. I think driving a stick is way hot. I like the pulling and grabbing of the shifter.

 

At least your first lesson on a manual trans wasn't a 1950 Dodge Power Wagon urban assault tank / brush fire truck. The thing has no syncros, no power steering, no power assist brakes, and requires manual control of the choke. The thing ended up everywhere but where I wanted it to be.

Once you get the hang of it, it's fun. I do miss the stick from my old '91. It's great unless your stuck in traffic.

 

Coolness, I love having the manual transmission on my truck. You should try driving his truck on the trails, its a bit harder to get used to, but maybe you'll stall out less than Ben does hehehe

 

Hey I only stall when I get stuck and can't get moving again, guess I wont have that problem any more.

 

I remember my first time I drove one with my dad. I stalled 3 times at the same light! But 30 minutes later I definitely had the hang of it and it's been all good from there.

 

Hey now, you two play nice!!! Or there will be no more sleepovers and off-roading trips. Don't make me separate you two!

 

Hey thats cool you got it! Sticks are way fun. Williamsburg is pretty cool isnt it? I live like 30 minutes from there

 

YAY for you girlie. My 94 Splash was a standard. When I got this one I didn't wanna wait for manual and got tired of shiftin. But my b/f now has a 3/4 ton(Dodge-BLAH). He first picked on me by sayin I couldn't drive it-WRONG. I drove off with it. The look on his face-PRICELESS!!

 

I love driving a stick that is another reason I bought my Honda!

 

manual suck ***...

I hate mine...

 

I hate you! J/J

 

I LOVE to drive manuals.

Just every now and then, not every day.

Its to hard to talk on the phone, drive, shift and change the radio station at the same time.

 

yeah it is very nice. I really enjoyed the Colonial Parkway. The weather was really warm when we were there. We also did WaterCountry USA, that was alotta fun.

 

I love stick too. I had 2 prtevious rangers and a mitsubishi truck all were stick but I got such a deal on this truck that I was willing to drive a auto. Itz kinda nice, especially with a buch of ppl in the cab.

 

Especially is you're trying to eat, shave, read the newspaper, and operate a navigation system at the same time!

 

I love manuals too, none of my friends know how to drive one, so if we're all hanging out somewhere and someone grabs my keys and threatens to drive it off, i dont have to worry, because they have no idea what that 3rd pedal does. It's only a b**** in stop and go traffic.

 

Ya i have season passes to there and busch gardens and i havent even been to water country once yet! Which sucks. But ya its cool up there.

 

I bought a stick because i had a pretty good idea what I was doing but never had one, I thought while I was buying something I better get a stick so I know just incase I am ever allowed to get a cobra mustang.

 

You shouldnt be on the phone anyways :P

 

You think thats tallent, there would be times I was riding with a friend in his jetta where he would be on the phone, lighting a cigarett, steering, and shifting at the same time.. now that was interesting.. lol..

IMO.. everybody should know how to drive a manual. It just makes life so much more fun.. at least for me anyway. Plus its good to know that you can drive any vehicle anywhere anytime.... I got an auto pretty much because I'm a lazy *** and didn't want to deal with shifting in traffic..

 

i learned to drive manual like 2 years ago and it was fairly easy but i really dont like driving manual in a truck, only in sports cars or fast cars when you can actually go fast and shift times become important...

 

You manual guys have it easy. Back in my day we had "flintstone trucks". No floorboard, and your transmission/engine was how fast you could run.

Oh wait, nvm, "back in my day" refers to 4 years ago when I got my license...

Aaron

 

i love drivin manual trannys, but just like somebody else said... i dont like everyday. i really have to be the mood to make it fun. but i wish i still had my old 88 that was a stick. that could been a fun truck if id decided to keep it.

 

Right..

 

I got exactly one 15 minute lesson on driving a manual from my dad in his dealerships ~87 Ranger parts truck. It was a tank. A few months later, he sold my demo, an automatic 4.0ohv Ranger out from under me, and the only 4x4s left on the lot were reg. cab manual tranny rangers. (The one i ended up with was a white and grey 4x4 w/ the 7' bed. Nice truck!) Now as anyone who has been to Centralia can attest to, I live(d) in hilly terrain, so the first few days were harrowing, (lots of stopping on inclines in traffic,) but after about 2 weeks I was rocking it. I've never wanted an automatic since, although I did settle for one on my college car.