Long story short: I’m (24M) American, and I’m visiting my long-distance Romanian boyfriend for the first time soon. In Romania, most cars are manual - including all the ones owned by my boyfriend’s family (I’ll be staying with them). I’ve never driven a manual before. His dad told me he can give me a quick lesson, and that I’m welcome to use their cars if I want; otherwise, I can rent an automatic. I don’t have access to any manual cars here in the U.S. to practice on, so I’m not sure what to do.
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Manuls aren’t super hard, but there’s definitely a learning curve you can’t avoid. Since you’ll be in a new country you’ll have enough going on and don’t want to add to any stress, I would really recommend renting an automatic.
This. It takes a bit to figure out the rhythm, but it’s not hard once you know how it feels. If you do try it, definitely be prepared to be frustrated at least once and stall the car at least more than once (I know I did)!
Once you figure it out, though, it can be much more fun and engaging (and sometimes more annoying) than an automatic.
EDIT: that said, if you’re really concerned about it, don’t be ashamed to rent the automatic!
Yeah, you’re going to stall the engine in the beginning. A lot. That means turning the engine back on in traffic in unfamiliar surroundings.
Also, if you’re going to be driving on any hills, you’ll need a separate new skill set for a manual car.
Stick to automatic, but take the offer to learn.
Are you sure you will be allowed to drive a manual car in Romania with your American license if you didn’t take the test with a manual car? I live in a different European country and here if you take the test with an automatic car, you are only allowed to drive automatic cars. You should research this.
It’s definitely different from an automatic car and requires more concentration. Once you get used to it, it’s not difficult. I was older than you are now when I learned to drive at all (which I did on a manual car) and managed it anyway.
US licenses don’t differentiate. There’s no way to tell by the license which transmission you used on the test. Shouldn’t be a problem.
For that exact reason some countries (my country included) don’t accept an American license unless you do a test here first.
Though IIRC, that applies for both manuals and automatics, because American drivers education isn’t really trusted here.
That is totally fair because I literally, and I mean literally, drove around the block for my American driver’s test. My entire test:
K start the car and turn right out of the parking lot onto the street
Turn right at the stop
Turn right at the stop
Parallel park right there
Pull back onto the road
Turn right at the stop
Turn right at the stop
Turn right into the DMV parking lot and park anywhere
Congratulations, you passed!
This was in a residential area too, so there was hardly any traffic and I never went above 25mph/40kph
Exactly: I have friends that got a drivers license in th US, and the education/test is honestly a joke compared to what they require here, and it clearly shows in the number of driving-related deaths.
With the Geneva convention on Road Traffic they must recognize it, at least for visitors. However you are probably right if OP tried to move there and get a local license, they’d need to retest.
I have my US (state) driver’s license & my IDP, neither which specify manual/automatic, so there’s nothing stopping me from driving a manual legally. In Romania, from what my bf told me, if you pass your test on an automatic you can de jure only drive automatic as you have a marker on your license, but de facto you can drive whatever as there are no actual legal penalties mentioned in the law for driving a manual with a marked license.
When I was in Romania last year the rental company (enterprise) wouldn’t accept my US driver license…not sure if it is Romanian law or company policy though.
You also need an IDP: “U.S. citizens who wish to drive in Romania must have an International Driving Permit (IDP) in addition to the valid U.S. state drivers’ license (DL).” https://ro.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/additional-resources-for-u-s-citizens/driving-in-romania/
Ah missed you said you have your international drivers permit. You’re good then, and there’s a lot of country roads in Romania to learn on…I say give learning manual a shot :)
You might want to check the details here: I know that in some European countries, you’ll have trouble renting a car at all with an American license unless you pass a driving test in a European country first to get certified. In fact, in several countries I don’t think an American license is valid at all until you pass a test. It’s probably worth checking out the details for Romania.
Generally you are allowed to drive whatever you could at home. Since US licenses allow you to drive a manual you can drive a manual even if you never had. By contrast if you are from a country that makes the distinction you can’t drive a manual even if you have been practicing (how?) and just need to do the final test to drive a manual. (I’m not sure how someone without a manual endorsement would go about getting it in such countries, but whatever that process is)
I don’t really think there’s any “generally” here: It differs quite a bit between countries. I believe in some countries they won’t allow you to drive a manual unless your license specifies it (i.e. an American license isn’t valid for a manual).
No it’s pretty general. Check out the following international treaties:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_Convention_on_Road_Traffic
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vienna_Convention_on_Road_Traffic
As a benefit of these treaties, if I so chose (and were rich) I could even ship my car to Europe and just drive it around (up to 6 months) without really doing anything! It doesn’t need to meet most any of the EU car rules either.
Now if I tried to permanently import it, I’d have to make modifications like light colors and such to make it legal.
But really for visitors the rules are pretty lax. You need an international driving permit which is really just a translated license.
You can forget these international treaties. No Romanian policeman is supposed to know or observe them.
Romanian law is what counts.
Soon there will be some EU law regarding driver’s licenses, but not yet.
Foreigners driving around isn’t that uncommon, especially in Europe…
Sure it’s possible that if stopped you may get hassled more than usual, made to wait while the officer asks the station what to do but there’s no real risk of anything more than that.
The US doesn’t have licenses differentiated for automatic or manual, well, none of the 8 states I’ve lived in anyway, so there’s no way for Romania to know.
It is, in fact, very easy for them to tell whether you license specifies that you can drive a manual or not. If it doesn’t say anything, then it doesn’t qualify.
That’s exactly the point: If there’s no way to differentiate, the country is free to say “welp, that’s your problem. Your license doesn’t specify manual, so no manual for you.”
If you’re anything like me, you have an easier time understanding how to do things if you understand how they work.
See the clutch in the diagram? The clutch is the part that actually connects the engine to the transmission. Mechanically, it’s almost like a brake but reversed. To keep things simple, the engine side has a disk and the transmission side has a disk. When you press in the clutch pedal all the way to the floor, those disks will be totally separated and the engine can rev however you like because it’s not connected to the rest of the drivetrain. As you release the clutch slowly and smoothly, you’ll feel the clutch “bite”: that’s when the two disks make contact, but it’s very light contact at first so they’ll be sliding against eachother (think of gently applied brakes). The friction will still spin the transmission a little bit though, and if you’re in gear the car will start to roll. As you smoothly release the clutch pedal more and more, the two disks will press into eachother more and more firmly, sliding less and less, until you’ve fully released the clutch pedal and the disks aren’t sliding at all; the engine is totally connected to the rest of the drivetrain.
With most cars I recommend for a first step starting the car rolling on flat ground using only the clutch, no gas. With some cars you might have to give it a little gas, but in my experience most cars have enough idling torque to start from a stop by releasing the clutch very slowly and smoothly, I’m talking like 5 seconds or more to go from clutch fully to the floor and car stopped to fully released and rolling. Once you’ve done that a few times and you’re starting to get a good feel for how the clutch behaves, you can start adding some gas to start more quickly and release the clutch quicker (but still smoothly).
The second thing to know once you’re rolling is that the engine needs to run within a certain rev range, if you let it get too low (below like below idle rpms), you’ll start to bog and maybe even stall, too high and you’ll hit the rev limiter or possibly damage the engine if it doesn’t have one. Knowing that, I think that timing shifts and knowing when to press the clutch becomes pretty intuitive, really all you need to do is press the clutch before the engine gets out of that rev range, shift up or down in the direction that gets you back into it (or maybe into neutral if you’re stopping), and smoothly release. When in doubt just press the clutch, it won’t hurt anything it just cuts power to the transmission.
TL;DR: The clutch connects the engine to the transmission. Press it in to disconnect the engine from the transmission, release smoothly to gradually reconnect. Start out only using the clutch to to get the car rolling, then once you’ve got the hang of that try adding a little gas to get rolling quicker. Shift in a way that the engine is always within it’s rev range, i.e. press the clutch in and begin changing to a more appropriate gear before you start redlining or bogging.
Like riding a bike. If you’ve never done it it’s going to be hard but give it a few hours of deliberate practice you’ll be fine.
And again like with a bike you should probably practice away from traffic to begin with…
Its not hard to learn but it does take time to become confortable with it. I recommend renting a car. Driving manual car for the first time with the added stress of driving in a different county is a recipe for disaster. By all means try it. Take up the offer of that lesson, but its unwise to have to rely on a manual car for transport when you’ve never driven one before.
But also make sure you actually need a car. The US is built with fully car dependent infrastructure, so americans are taught their whole lives to just assume they always need a car. That isn’t the case everywhere, and might not be where you’re going. Be sure to check.
Take the lesson. While learning, stay off of hills and any upward incline until you got a feel from taking the car from full stop to going in 1at gear.
While learning you will stall the car… Don’t let it bother you.
The trickiest part is learning how to ease the clutch while applying gas to go from full stop to motion forward.
Remember neutral when coming to a stop.
Manuals are great, it’s built in theft protection from like 95 % of people
Yea, getting the lesson from Dad is probably a great thing. He’ll enjoy helping, it’s good bonding time, and he’ll have stories for the future!
*yeah, not yea or nay. It isn’t a vote.
It’s easy
It’s also a great way to be more connected to your vehicle and what’s happening. You have to be more aware of things, anticipate corners, hills etc.
Automatics have made people lazy and disconnected
That’s why I drive a manual with no power steering, power brakes, ABS or traction control.
Manual windows and no power locking and I find power window wipers make this generation soft too.
My mans over here saving the planet
You don’t have an automatic starter do you? Things started going downhill when we stopped manually cranking the engine
Why did you stop? I still manually crank most of my engines. (between lawn mowers and collectables I have a lot of engines without electric start) . I spend a lot of time filing points as we… Even when I have electric start, I find getting moving and popping the clutch works just fine.
My recent automatics have been 8 speeds. Do you drive an 8 speed manual?
4 speed connected to a transfer case with hi/low
Make sure your driving licence is valid for driving manual in Romania. Here in the UK if you pass your test on an automatic, you’re only licenced to drive automatic, and if you drive manual then you are breaking the law and your insurance is invalid.
Maybe there’s no issue but it’s worth checking.
You could rent an automatic, get the lesson, then see if you want to use their cars or keep the rental. I do recommend giving it a shot since it would be a new experience!
There is a small learning curve to manuals, and it is slightly harder in hilly areas.
Driving manual is not particularly complicated, but it will require you to focus a lot of attention on it at first. Since you also have to cope with with differences in driving regulations, this will put you and your passengers more at risk than necessary.
It takes time (~tens of hours) to build the muscle memory so that it becomes natural. For a vacation in the short term, you should go ahead with your plan to rent an automatic.
Driving manual is not difficult, but unlike the opposite scenario, it’s not something you can learn with only short instructions.
It does take time to develop the motor skills in order do it without thinking about it. The practice wlll take maybe an afternoon or two if you do nothing else. I’d advise you to do it over more than one day to allow yourself to sleep on it and come back at it
Once you’ve learned it, you’ll never think about it again though.
The basics are easy - half an hour with someone who knows what they"re doing should be all you need to get out and about. Getting to the point where it’s instinctual and you don’t have to think about shifting is probably beyond the limits of a short trip but depending on how much driving you do you can be fairly smooth within a few days.
The main risk you run with learning manual is that once you get the hang of it it spoils automatics for you - you might end up having to buy yourself a manual car to avoid being annoyed by the missteps autos tend to do.
Modern autos with cvts are kinda at the point where it is basically magic. They feel like driving a golf kart that can reach 200km/h.
Takes a bit of practice to get the feel for it but it’s not too hard. 90% of the learning curve is just getting the car rolling from a dead stop without stalling
And learning how to properly shift. While the car surging and stopping was funny while I learned, you don’t want to do that on a busy thoroughfare. Just make sure to practice someplace quiet and you’ll pick it up pretty quick.
Getting the car to start rolling up a hill instead of down it backwards is also an important thing to get the hang of before someone is right behind you in traffic.
Luckily you can always fall back to a handbrake start if you need to, I’ll usually always do that if I’m driving a car I’m not at all used to and find myself in an uphill start.
Driving a manual is pretty easy, but it depends on how you handle failure. The learning process requires making a few mistakes while you become familiar with a clutch and shifting gears.
Also, I think it’s much easier to learn if you know what the parts are doing. Watch some videos on how it all works and what different RPMs sound like.
Not if you already know how to drive, no. My kid who was motivated to use my car learned easily, and I learned it in a day when the rest of the people I was with were too drunk to drive.
But learning to drive in a new country? And manual at the same time? That seems more difficult. Can you practice here first? Does anyone you know drive stick?
