i drove a stick shift geo for about 1 hr and a truck for about 30 minutes

i bought my car and the salesman was nice enough to give me a 1 hr lesson

i brought a friend who drove the car home from the dealership for me

that night, i took it out to an empty parking lot around midnight and practiced for 1 hr

been driving it ever since. about 21,000 miles on the car and still have the original clutch

IN OTHER WORDS, do what you feel comfortable with. from my experience, driving stick shift is not too difficult, mastering it may be a different story.

read and understand what driving a stick shift involves. understand the theory and mechanical aspects of driving a stick shift, rev-matching, down-shifting, heel-and-toe, etc.

disclaimer- your results may vary

 

I practiced on a Trueno for 4 days before getting my coupe. I think I killed the clutch on that car..... so now I know exactly what a smoked clutch smell like. My 2yr old G is still on it's original clutch and I have a backup clutch in the garage just in case. So far so good though, cept the chattering.

 

rent a car...
best way is right there.

 

protege's and Protege5's have high engagement point like the G...so that might
be a good way to practice. but the clutch is about 10x heavier on the G.

 

I learned on a dump truck many many years ago. The clutch pickup is very forgiving and first gear is so low it's nearly impossible to stall.

 

I think I might be one of the few in this situation, I learned to drive on the brand new 05 WRX Sti that I purchased and had to drive home from the dealer 25 miles away, I did extremely well because I new exactly how the clutch worked, and I was alone (and had a $35K loan sitting on my head). That was back in october, now I have the G. A couple of months after having the STi, I was already rev-matching on every single down shift, and negotiating exit ramps and most right turns with heel-toe down shifting. 100% percent self taught. I think you should just plunge in, if your even thinking about just plunging, then I think your ready to just tackle it.