Many Vermonters avoid the dreaded manual transmission altogether. "Who has time to learn?" we hear people say. More importantly, who will sacrifice their car to teach you?
There are hazards to teaching someone to drive any car, like the chance they will confuse reverse for drive and back into your garage door before lesson one. When newbies forget to press the clutch before shifting in a manual, however, that really grinds our gears.
A few innocent mistakes, like forgetting to shift, or forgetting the clutch, and you'll be looking for auto repairs near Burlington, or a new car altogether. Probably an automatic this time.
Even experienced drivers, however, are often guilty of these five habits that drive manual transmissions to an early grave:
Now the next time you see somebody using the gear stick as an armrest, idling in first gear at a stoplight, feathering the clutch and throttle to hold on a hill, lugging the engine, or resting their foot on the clutch, you can tell them why they're wrong.
Visit Earthycars to explore and test drive a used vehicle from our Williston location. Use the CarFinder app to specify what you are looking for in a vehicle, including transmission.