ID-10-T and stick shift car

[Genki]

How is he working at auto shop and not know how to drive a stick shift?? People who works in any kind of auto shop is expected to know how to drive any kind of cars so maybe he lied on job application?

 

[dash riposki]

Manual transmission, one of the most effective anti-theft devices you can have.

 

[Rajagra]

"Where's the bredal?"

If guy #2 thought the owner was watching, maybe he should have offered to drive instead of putting him under more pressure. He was clearly failing hard.

I did once take a few minutes trying to work out how to put a new company car into reverse (the gearstick had to be lifted IIRC) but I don't think that kind of thing explains what went on here.

 

[flank]

I think I drove a 2000's VW Beatle and the gearstick had to be depressed first.

 

[Gibson99]

i was a mechanic in the used car dept at a toyota dealer for quite a while so i got to drive a lot of different stuff. to get into reverse, there are some where you have to lift a ring, pull up on the entire shifter, push it down into the floor, or in the case of my tacoma and some other toyota 6-speeds (celica GTS/matrix/corolla XRS to name a few), slam it hard left from center-neutral to get past the safety spring (R is to the left of first). i had to teach several customers that it was normal to require that much effort to get into reverse because they don't want you to accidentally do it while driving.

but yeah, this guy just didn't know how to work a clutch.

and actually now that i think about it, they never asked me if i could drive stick before i started working there. i could, but not perfectly, as i'd only ever driven a couple of friends' cars that were stick. i didn't buy my own manual trans car till a year or so later.

 

[Nigel]

i was a mechanic in the used car dept at a toyota dealer for quite a while so i got to drive a lot of different stuff. to get into reverse, there are some where you have to lift a ring, pull up on the entire shifter, push it down into the floor, or in the case of my tacoma and some other toyota 6-speeds (celica GTS/matrix/corolla XRS to name a few), slam it hard left from center-neutral to get past the safety spring (R is to the left of first). i had to teach several customers that it was normal to require that much effort to get into reverse because they don't want you to accidentally do it while driving.

but yeah, this guy just didn't know how to work a clutch.

and actually now that i think about it, they never asked me if i could drive stick before i started working there. i could, but not perfectly, as i'd only ever driven a couple of friends' cars that were stick. i didn't buy my own manual trans car till a year or so later.

Don't understand why they come up with all these different systems to make it difficult to select reverse, none of them actually prevents you doing it when you shouldn't!

On my car there is nothing, nothing to go wrong, nothing to increase the cost, nothing to add extra weight and reduce performance, nothing to make selecting reverse difficult, the stick moves towards reverse in the same way as any other gear so I know that nothing is required!

 

[Gibson99]

my last two cars (1997 mx5 miata, and 1998 toyota camry) were the normal H pattern with no gimmicks to get into reverse. reverse was in the normal place - right and down. but both had some sort of spring system so that if you were in 5th, you couldn't go straight down into reverse. you had to let it pop into center-neutral first, and THEN go right and down to reverse. and in my current truck, you have to make a serious effort to get into reverse, so you won't accidentally hit R instead of 1 when you try to quickly pop into gear and get going, such as after a long red light where you might have started watching pedestrians, envious of how fast they're moving compared to you.

in a commercial isuzu turbodiesel (NQR or NPR, can't remember - little box truck) reverse was where first is in most cars (left and forward), and there was no lockout. first was left and back - so it was easy to quickly switch between first and reverse when backing a trailer for example. of course, first gear was only good to about 5mph - a real granny gear. but then it was a work truck, so...

 

[Nigel]

My reverse is below 5 too. If you do try to select it while moving you just get a loud noise that tells everyone you have got it wrong! There is no way it will actually go into reverse while moving as there is no synchromesh for reverse or 1st. Reverse will go up to nearly 30mph - a bit different to your Isuzu

 

[Rajagra]

There is no way it will actually go into reverse while moving

You haven't been trying hard enough!
I'm sure there are people out there who've been up to the challenge. I've heard about engines being wrecked by selecting reverse while moving. Can't be pretty.

 

[Nigel]

You haven't been trying hard enough!
I'm sure there are people out there who've been up to the challenge. I've heard about engines being wrecked by selecting reverse while moving. Can't be pretty.

More than 4mph forward there is no way, but maybe some have synchromesh on reverse? That would explain the need for the pull/push/whatever mechanism, although of course it doesn't prevent you doing it...

 

[Rajagra]

I have to admit there are times when top gear doesn't seem high enough (even at legal speeds). Luckily my gearbox is a bit tough to get out of 5th (all other gears just 'snick' out easily) so that acts as a warning not to move the stick down in an attempt to get overdrive. I wonder if that resistance is designed in? It might just be that I use the other gears much more often around town so they are bedded in nicely.

Maybe I should patent this idea.

 

[Gibson99]

a friend brought his Porsche Boxster S in for some warranty transmission work. when they had it apart, they noticed that there was an awful lot of wear on the 2nd gear set, so they asked him if he raced it, which would of course void his warranty. he simply didn't answer, and they fixed it. my immediate thought was... "hey, we live in houston. what gear do YOU use in slow-n-go traffic? hint: it's not first."