So the Audi is the first standard car I have ever owned, up until a few days ago I had only driven stick twice in my life, so don’t laugh too hard. The night before I got the Audi on the road I had my friend take me out in his 1997 Probe, I drove this thing for probably a 45 mins in a parking lot, practicing on a hill too, and I didn’t stall it or even start jerky once. I was confident and took it on the road too, I was able to get it going without even thinking about it and my friend was impressed that I seemed to pick it up so quickly. So yesderday I got the Audi on the road finally and was eager as hell to drive it, took it for spin and I was much worse, I stalled it a few times and my starts are really slow and sometimes jerky. It seems that it is much harder to feel the engine through the clutch than the probe. I am also nervous as hell driving it which may be why I am doing worse too, it’s such a nice/expensive car and I don’t want to mess it up, esp. by doing something like rolling back into someone on a hill. I think I will take it out late night when there are few cars on the road and drive for a few hours and also find a nice hill to practice on. But what gives, I figured if I could drive one standard car I could drive them all, but its so discouraging how I did perfect with the Probe, but cant drive the Audi nearly as well. Is there something to do with the clutch that just makes it harder for a first timer to learn on? Or maybe it's just because I didnt take the time to really get a feel for the clutch in a parking lot and on hills first like the probe, I just took it right to the streets.

 

I don't think so I learned on my audi and it wasn't that hard at all. How new was the clutch in the probe. I've heard that sticks get easier to drive as they get older because they lose some frictional properties that they have. Whatever the case I'm sure in a day or two you will be back to normal and loving the Audi.


Welcome to the family and the forums, it's a fun place to be.

 

hehe, first of all congrats on making the jump to a stick shift. People that don't know how to drive it are sometimes too scared to actually buy a stick car.

The Audi has a very high clutch catch point. People ask about it all the time. When I bought my car, I had been driving a stick every day in my DD for about 3 years. I stalled the Audi on the test drive.

The difference is the clutch catch point. On many cars, like the Probe, the clutch catches right down by the floor. In the Audi its like half way up the pedal stroke. When the grab point is low, the clutch starts to catch while your foot is still touching the floor and you have more control. On the Audi, since the grab point is so high, your foot is off the floor and you are holding your whole leg in the air. You just don't have as much fine control.

Though we all get used to it after driving the carafter awhile, even now I still find the car more difficult to drive smoothly than other cars with a mechanical clutch (Audi's clutch is hydraulic). Each car will be a bit different and you will need to adjust to the clutch in any car you get into. Try driving a big truck with a clutch. Yuck, talk about no pedal feel.

So don't worry about it, you will need time to adjust to the car, especially since you are just learning. Take the car out in off peak hours and get used to driving it. Go by yourself too so you aren't worried about trying to be too smooth (I always try to be smoother in first gear when others are in the car with me). You will pick it up and after a little while, you will wonder why it took you so long to get into a car with a third pedal. For most guys, the only reason they give it up later is if they move somewhere with horrible traffic. They are just way more fun to drive. Have fun man.

 

I really think that it is a lot harder to learn in an Audi... at least a Quattro equipped one, anyways.
I've tried to teach a few people to drive standard in other cars, and it went fairly well... the Audi however, makes for frustrating times. Very easy to stall the bugger.

 

yea the audi does catch wicked high, but if you want a miserable clutch, try driving a new volvo s60 t5, my friend has one with about 20k miles on it... man o man, its like an on / off switch with no real feel of the friction of it engaging. i took it out for a spin, and lemme tell ya, it was pretty jerky when trying to stomp on it, then later on i got stuck in bumper to bumper and stalled like twice[:@]

 

i learned in a big *** 10 speed dump truck
i never drove it on the street, and when i bought the audi after the tags were transferred, i hopped in a drove it home with no problem

 

I find VW products (including Audi) are really very good for teaching stick. The clutches generally engage smoothly, and the engines have a lot of torque. That said, every clutch engages a little differently, and it can be very hard for new manual transmission drivers to switch between cars. The fact that you got good in the Probe may have actually made it harder for you to drive the Audi. I would recommend exactly what you were considering: practice with the Audi to learn the clutch release point for it. With any unfamiliar Manual, and when learning I generally recommend giving it a bit more gas, and letting the clutch out slower than you normally would. Once you learn the clutch release point you probably wont have to give it much gas if any before the clutch starts grabbing, but if you try that from the start it's a recipe for a lot of stalls.

 

its hard in awd becuase if you give it too much gas you will just burn the clutch but in a fwd or rwd you will just burn out

 

I find vw/audi manual trans easier to drive because the clutch engages a bit high and the gearbox is relatively smooth and effortless. Its easier to just get in and learn where the clutch engages on these cars.

 

It might be best to learn exactly what is going on mechanicaly in order to fully understand how to drive stick well, or decently. Not saying you are a mechanical invalid, but ya neverknow... Has anyone ever given you the dinner plate anology for driving stick?

Print this out for some good bathroom reading material:
(Make sure its after a night of heavy drinking and a taco bell/white castle combo.... Its long)
http://www.10w40.com/individual/100186.asp