Buying Manual 2nd Gen

Looking for some advice on how I should go about buying a manual without actually being able to drive a stick. Was going to buy a non-Tacoma beater to learn on, but that seems like a complete waste of money. Don't really have any friends/family members that can teach me or help me get one home. The first/second gen Tacoma trucks I am interested in all seem to be a few hours away. What should I do here? Been dreaming of driving a manual Tacoma forever it seems.

 

It’s not complicated it’s all a sour learning the order of actions, my wife learned how to drive manual in about 2 hours, showed her how to uphill and then down hill. I’ll look into some YouTube videos. Btw why manual?

 

https://youtu.be/UsOcXG2v3EE?si=2Tz_dioe--r6e5l1

 

Wouldn't hurt to ask the seller to just move the car to a less congested area to get some practice. If you don't know someone that can drive it home, its either sink or swim or have the car trailered. But, the initial learning to make the car move is quick. The rest is just getting experience on the street. Just really practice finding the friction zone to hold the vehicle with the clutch. When I teach motorcycle riding, that's the first thing I teach, just finding and holding the friction zone. That way uphill starts (the most problematic) aren't as scary. So sit and practice in a flat parking lot just pulling away using the clutch and no gas peddle. That feel will get you a long way into learning. Yes its rough on the clutch, but anyone learning will be rough on the clutch. Where in Ohio are you looking to buy by chance? Maybe one of us is close . . .

 

Do not show up to someone selling a car and expect to drive something you don’t know how to

That is absolutely crazy

They will ask, and if you lie, they will know the minute you try to drive it

 

I don't think anyone was suggesting lying about being able to drive to sneak a test drive to learn on, but if OP is open with the buyer you never know. We all learned somewhere, and for my brother, it was the nice guy selling an old ranger back when got his license.

The other thing OP, call a driving school? They might have a stick to teach you on?

 

On the other hand I wouldnt take issue to driving one off a dealership lot. Heh heh hehhh

 

If you don’t know how to drive a manual, it’s not right to try to drive someone else’s vehicle you don’t know. I would tell the seller this and just have him drive it around with you. You could ask him to do certain procedures for you. Your not going to know anything anyway by feel , or have any knowledge on what is normal simply because you don’t have any experience anyway.

 

I have an '09 2.7/5speed and love it. However, of the manuals I've driven, it has one of the tallest first gears. Especially with bigger tires. Not ideal to learn on. Had a '95 Sprint and that was about the easiest I've ever found for learning. Lent it to my nieces and they all learned to drive on it. My .02

 

Keep looking for someone who knows how to drive it go and drive it for you

 

The best answer, by far, is to get someone you know with a manual to help you out.

That being said, about a million years ago I was 16 years old and went with my parents to a car dealer 30 miles from home to pick out a car for my brother and I to share (he's 18 months older than me) to get us back and forth to school, practices, part time jobs, etc.

They settled (after much begging by me) on buying a slightly used 4 cylinder turbo fox mustang with a 4 speed. While I had been riding motorcycles most of my life (with clutches) and driving tractors (with clutches) I had never driven a manual car before that day.

Dad handed me the keys and said "See you at home". Needless to say, I made it home. I'm sure I killed it a time or two, but I made it home.

For beginning drivers, the biggest thing to do is think ahead to avoid any nightmare situations. The nightmare situation is having to stop, going uphill...and particularly if there is traffic behind you. You do not want to roll your truck back into someone trying to get going. You don't want to kill your truck 20 times trying to get away from a stop sign. It's easier to think ahead and avoid those scenarios than it is to deal with them if you find yourself in that spot. Just go a different way. Hell, roll the stop if you have to and no one is coming. Whatever it takes.

If you do find yourself in this nightmare scenario (happened to my kid when I was teaching him how to drive my 2012 manual tacoma)....CHEAT!

How to cheat:

1 . Imagine you begin with the truck facing uphill, engine running, clutch and brake pedals fully depressed. It's your turn to take off. THere's a car on your rear bumper. If you rollback at all, you're going to do $1000 in damage to that car.
2. Use your right hand to pull out the parking brake and just hold it straight while pulling on it firmly.
3. Slowly let off the brake to verify the parking brake "has it" and you don't roll back.
4. Move that right foot over to the gas pedal. Give the truck some gas (say 1500 RPM) and slowly start releasing the clutch pedal.
5. When the engine begins to drag down (in other words the clutch begins to engage), let out the parking brake...give it more gas and release the clutch fully.

The truck should take off uphill with no backwards motion whatsoever.

Another thought. Practice in the driveway some with the truck off.

1. Push in the clutch and practice the gear pattern so you can get between gears reliably without looking.
2. Practice how you are going to restart the engine after you kill it. You will kill it.
A. Press in the brake
B. Press in the clutch
C. Verifiy the truck is in 1st gear if taking off forward or reverse if taking off backwards.
D. Crank the starter.

All of that stuff in 2 is super easy, but you'd be amazed how much beginning manual driver's panic the first few times they kill the vehicle in traffic and have to restart it while feeling like everyone is staring at them. They invariably hit the starter without having the clutch pedal depressed and then their panic doubles when nothing happens. You have to depress the clutch in a manual to start the engine. There's a sensor on the clutch that won't let the starter engage until you push it in (at least on anything built from about the early 80's until now)

I've taught a lot of people to drive manuals over the years. I hope the above is helpful to you.

 

1. Don’t rest your hand on the shifter.
   
2. always push the clutch pedal to shift the gears.
3. Lift the clutch slowly and let it pull you forward without touching the throttle until you have released the clutch.
   
   
4. Now you are rolling at about 3 mph.
   
5. Repeat.
6. never attempt to engage 1st gear or reverse gear until you are stopped.
   You can do this. Good luck!

 

The seller of my first manual car taught me how to drive it after we made a deal, if you’re not buying one close by I’d recommend taking someone with you who knows how so you’re not trying to learn in unfamiliar conditions

 

Don't be in a hurry to dump the clutch, let the pedal out slowly until you learn the engagement point, especially starting out from a stop in 1st

Once you're rolling all the shifts get way easier..

 

fake it till you make it
go tire kick test drive a bunch of cars you have no interest in buying, all in effort to get some experience under your belt

then after stalling out on those said cars, go find the one you want and buy it

 

It's not hard to learn, just takes a little more concentration and being able to use both feet and hands all at the same time. Although the Tacoma pedal pressure and tall 1st gear do not make it ideal for learning on if I was able to teach my oldest daughter to drive with a race clutch you 'll be able to learn on the Tacoma one.

 

That was my situation. I had a little bit experience years prior, but not much.
I had the seller drive the car around, go on the highway, etc. Then he was kind enough to suggest going to a parking lot and having me putz around for a minute. I accidentally put it in third instead of first and he had to point it out. After a trip to a mechanic for a pre-purchase inspection and writing a check, he gave me the keys and I had to get back home.
Ended up stalling at a light going across a highway, a couple of times, with cars behind me. It was stressful. But it got done.

Concepts that were important for me:
• You don't have to keep letting the clutch pedal out, you can literally just keep it held where it starts to engage. You'll hear it and feel it grinding at this point. This was helpful for me because I kept letting it out too quick and stalling. Once I realized what was going on, I would just keep the clutch pedal held at the point of engagement for a couple seconds to get a better feel for where it was and slow the clutch engagement down. Also, this was really just for first gear. Getting into the higher gears is much easier.
• Try finding a slight hill somewhere and play with the clutch and throttle to stay in one spot (facing uphill). This gave me a great feel for not only when the clutch engaged, but also feel the engine slow as it engaged, get a feel for how much throttle to give the engine to not stall, and also helped numb the panic of feeling the car roll backwards.

 

The local driving school has a manual car and a class on how to drive it.

 

Get a beater to learn.

or bring someone with you who can drive stick. Or ask them to drive it with you in the passenger seat.

if you burn the clutch later on doesn’t matter. You’ll have to pull the trans regardless to deal with the throwout bearing crap by now. And to determine what to do with the small weak clutch that may not hold up to hard use well such as off roading and towing if you plan to use the truck for its designed capability.

Last time I let someone who claimed they knew how to drive stick drive my truck they fucked it up. Multiple times different people same shit.
Not going to happen again.

buying a car doesn’t involve damaging someone else’s property.

when I bought my truck (stick) they tossed me the keys to go drive it. All I’ve ever driven my whole life is stick.

 

I’ve been driving a manual Honda or Toyota vehicle for close to 30 years now, never owned an automatic anything.
That said the Tacoma manual is not very forgiving, at least not the 2nd gen.
It’s not a vehicle I would want to learn on, it can be very clunky like a dump truck if you aren’t extremely smooth with your shifts.

Take a driving school course with a manual vehicle as mentioned. Or buy a $500 beater manual Honda on its last leg. Drive it for a month and then sell it lol.