I have a 5-speed manual BOM on order that is supposed to arrive in late June. One of my main reasons for wanting the manual is that it is considerably cheaper, better on gas, and I've been told, more fun to drive than an automatic. However, I have only driven a manual once (and it was recently in a friend's 94 Civic for practice), and I had a difficult time getting the transition perfect from clutch to gas. I did, however, manage to figure it out after driving the car around in the parking lot for an hour.

My friend's gas pedal was pretty sensitive. I could barely put my foot on it without burning off the tires when letting off the clutch. For those of you who own a manual Fit, how is it?

Like I said, I've never driven a manual before, except my friend's car, so I'm a little nervous (and possibly too chicken!) about going to the lot to drive my car off it. We have the option to have a friend drive it to my house from the lot so I can learn the feel of it in my quiet subdivision, but that would be embarrassing for me

Any information you manual people could share to ease my worry would be appreciated!

 

I found that my Fit was much easier to drive than my Civic was (both manual). I'd chalk it up to the Fit having more torque. A newer car will always be easier to drive than an older one, all the bushings are perfect and taut. My Fit seems to be harder to drive smoothly when the engine is cold than when it's warm.

Let the clutch out BEFORE you feed it gas, once you feel the car lurch forward, then give it some gas as you let off the remainder of the the clutch pedal's travel.

The 0-1 and 1-2 shifts are the hardest. Get those down and you'll be fine.

Good luck with your new Fit! You'll have a blast for sure 8)

 

You will have an easy time learning to drive a manual using the Fit. The clutch is light and the shifting is precise, so, it pretty much does all the hard work for you.

Practice Practice Practice. Once you get it, spend some time in open parking lots and get comfortable with it. Take someone with you that has experience driving manual transmissions and they can help you out.

The biggest tip I got when I was learning to drive a manual was when starting out on a hill, use the e-brake to your advantage until you are comfortable and fast enough to do so without it.

 

Same here, if the temp light is on, no matter how gentle I am shifting, the car gives a little jerk when shifting. When the light has been off for about 30 seconds all is normal and no problems.

Other than practice, there is nothing we can teach you. When I learned, a friend told me to rev the engine to 1.5k - 2k RPM's and then slowly release the clutch. Still remember that to this day.

Hills will be your enemy and may take a while to master, the only advice I can use for when you are on a hill and someone is behind you is to user your emergency brake. When it is time to take off from the stop, clutch and gas like you normally would and when you feel the car catch and try to move, release the emergency brake and you'll take off with no rolling backwards and into the car behind you.

My two tips and good luck.

Mark

 

Thanks you guys, for the tips I feel a little better now!

 

just burnout everytime you start to move that way when ppl call you a noob you can just tell them you won the race lol

 

Incidentally, one of Edmunds' long-term testers wrote, "The shifter's got the same tightness [as the RSX], the same pinpoint precision, and begs the same question of whether this could be the best manual on the market."

 

I came from driving a Subaru WRX....and there's a very huge difference compared to my Fit's clutch. Hands down the Fit has a much lighter feel and is very much easy to drive. Keeping all 4 wheels going while stuck in traffic made my legs shake in the clutch-heavy WRX.

And yeah, ditto on the precise shifter. Not sloppy like some cars and many old trucks out there. The drive-by-wire throttle helps a little too - haven't manage to stall the engine yet from a slow/awkward start.

All-in-all the Fit is a very good platform to learn manual and you'll probably want your future cars to have the same feeling you get from it. Cheers!

 

I'll give my input. Drove a 94 manual Integra before this. The clutch, as mentioned is very light. My teg's clutch was very heavy compared to this and now I wonder how I drove in traffic so often w/ the teg's clutch than the Fit's. The pedals I feel are kind of close and since you sit up higher, I was more prone to gassing after clutching. if that makes sense. I had a lightened flywheel in my teg so it reved up much faster than the Fit's. I find myself not giving it enough gas at times. It's an easy car to drive after you're used to it and even when I have it in 3rd on accident, I haven't killed it. Every car is different, it's a matter of learning how to get used to it. That is, after you learned how to drive a manual.

 

cheaper ya... better gas milage not sure i tend to ride the whole power band, and you might to. to get the feel of the fit all in all youll get the hang of it real quick in no time