Back in India recently with wife and kid, the need inevitably arose to have a car. And since I was paranoid about driving on the roads here, I opted for at least a familiar vehicle style i.e. auto-gear car. But then this was mostly for my wife's commute, and the need invariably arose for me to use a car to office. That's when my father passed over his car in Mumbai which was lying unused..but this was a manual gear...
And while both I and my wife had started lessons months ago, we'd resigned to being unable to actually drive in a manual gear car, especially after getting comfortable with the auto-gear. We'd even left the lessons incomplete. And so when Daddy's Maruti Swift arrived, the first thing I did was to systematically resume my lessons. While in parallel to start driving the Swift to nearby open spaces to practice. But the shift from gear to gear at different speeds, in my opinion, was needless. Necessary though in developing countries dependant on oil imports, owing to the fuel-mileage savings (apparently aroun 5km difference per litre!).
And so I kept struggling. Especially after one experience where I got stuck on the road and a parking lot slope the same day. One of the security staff had to then drive the vehicle up..really shuddered my confidence a bit. But continuing the lessons in parallel really helped. And Prakash, my driving instructor, is one patient and wonderful teacher. I could ask him areas I was getting stuck and he kept helping me out with tips and practice.
And the biggest of them were these two:
1) If I keep half-clutch on second-gear, no matter how slow the vehicle gets, it won't stop. You can't imagine what a boon this tip is on huge speed-breakers or heavy but not-stopping traffic situations. Obviously, if it's stop-and-go, or whenever vehicle stops, one does have to go to first-gear.
2) If you are stuck on a steep slope, lift the hand brake up, without fixing it. Your car will at-least stop moving back when you lift your leg off the brake now. And then press the accelerator and slowly lower the hand-brake. The car just moves forward! If anything, slight pressure-release on the first gear is only needed. I've had to use this a couple of times now, even today, and has been very helpful (thankfully not in a steep slope traffic block situation yet).
The two tips above have been big contributors for me gaining confidence back in my driving!
The third confirmation / tip was from my sister that we can confidently keep ourselves in first gear and push the car up slopes. I'm still not sure why this works, even when we are going at higher speed up the slope. This doubt came to mind especially after the time I got stuck in the slope.
Well, that's lessons revision for now..hope most major ones are done now.
And while both I and my wife had started lessons months ago, we'd resigned to being unable to actually drive in a manual gear car, especially after getting comfortable with the auto-gear. We'd even left the lessons incomplete. And so when Daddy's Maruti Swift arrived, the first thing I did was to systematically resume my lessons. While in parallel to start driving the Swift to nearby open spaces to practice. But the shift from gear to gear at different speeds, in my opinion, was needless. Necessary though in developing countries dependant on oil imports, owing to the fuel-mileage savings (apparently aroun 5km difference per litre!).
And so I kept struggling. Especially after one experience where I got stuck on the road and a parking lot slope the same day. One of the security staff had to then drive the vehicle up..really shuddered my confidence a bit. But continuing the lessons in parallel really helped. And Prakash, my driving instructor, is one patient and wonderful teacher. I could ask him areas I was getting stuck and he kept helping me out with tips and practice.
And the biggest of them were these two:
1) If I keep half-clutch on second-gear, no matter how slow the vehicle gets, it won't stop. You can't imagine what a boon this tip is on huge speed-breakers or heavy but not-stopping traffic situations. Obviously, if it's stop-and-go, or whenever vehicle stops, one does have to go to first-gear.
2) If you are stuck on a steep slope, lift the hand brake up, without fixing it. Your car will at-least stop moving back when you lift your leg off the brake now. And then press the accelerator and slowly lower the hand-brake. The car just moves forward! If anything, slight pressure-release on the first gear is only needed. I've had to use this a couple of times now, even today, and has been very helpful (thankfully not in a steep slope traffic block situation yet).
The two tips above have been big contributors for me gaining confidence back in my driving!
The third confirmation / tip was from my sister that we can confidently keep ourselves in first gear and push the car up slopes. I'm still not sure why this works, even when we are going at higher speed up the slope. This doubt came to mind especially after the time I got stuck in the slope.
Well, that's lessons revision for now..hope most major ones are done now.
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