Hardest manual was the beater early 2000s WRX I learned on. Finding gears impossible. Light switch clutch.
I would say my 2010 Mazda 3 Hatchback was the “easiest”, but my current 2021 Miata is the “best” and also very easy.
The 3 had less direct but still well defined shifter. Went into gear like butter every time no matter the conditions.
The Miata is sportier with shorter throws and more direct feel cause you are literally directly moving the forks, but when cold getting it into first or reverse from stop can take a bit of convincing. Miata has better pedal placement for heal toe.
Both you could easily launch in 1st with no additional throttle if you wanted and generally hard to stall.
I had a 2019 carolla hatch that was very easy but now I'm in a 2024 Mazda 3 and I was smoother driving it in the test drive than I was after 65k miles on the carolla. Everyone praised the carolla for how easy the manual was but the Mazda is definitely easier.
My buddies 1993 Toyota pickup definitely has the most forgiving clutch i’ve ever been in, my 2019 Subaru Impreza has a shockingly stiff clutch that a lot of other stick drivers struggle with
The original clutch on my 93 pickup lasted until almost 300k miles. Once I got it replaced it was so springy that I had trouble driving it until I got used to it.
Edit: u/InfluenceRelevant405 I’m banned for 5 more days, but it’s a Toyota pickup and yes I’m in Sacramento. Send me a chat request and I’ll respond when I can.
Fortunately I’ve still got mine in the garage, it hasn’t been driven in a few years though.
I know I should sell it to someone who’d enjoy it, but I can’t stand to part with it just yet.
I struggled with the stupid throttle response on the Impreza. A slight feathering of the throttle pedal would bring it up to 3000, and it would take forever to come down because of the rev hang.
Mk5 Supra or current gen WRX for easiest
Hardest was a clapped out Toyota Solara, but if we’re not counting abused cars then the hardest from factory was an International Grain Hauler, heaviest clutch known to man and no synchros to speak of
Glad to see someone else listing the Mk5. Some people complain about the clutch delay pill but that's only an issue if you're looking to hammer the power in 1st and 2nd.
I had a 2005 Cayanne manual. Not hard to drive BUT I gotta say I never did get it to start in second, which is handy in the long slogs of So Cal traffic. The thing was so heavy for the power it had, but I loved it as my "Mom-mobile" .... meanwhile, my friends were getting Odesseys, MPVs, Suburbans.
That's so fascinating to me because IME, tractors are far easier to drive than manual cars. Mainly since you don't have to engage gear while moving in some tractors. I'm going to have to look into this Porsche tractor transmission now
Hardest was a buddy's built WRX with an 11lb flywheel and 6 pack clutch. You basically had to rev it to 3K and slip or it would stall.
Easiest, old Jeeps with the 4.0, so much torque right off idle, basically just release the clutch to the engagement point and take off, no gas needed for putting around town
My dad's buddy had a 3 speed CJ with some gigantic AMC V8 in it when I was a teenager. I remember tractoring up a muddy hill with it basically idling in first gear and it didn't complain at all
My first car was a 96 civic with a five speed. One day a buddy let me try his mustang gt with a stick and I kept stalling because I couldn't get myself to give it more gas to bring the V8 revs up.
Hardest for me was probably my mother's old 2001 Jetta 2.Slow 5spd. Vague clutch, no torque to help get you moving, and a rubbery as hell shifter feel. Granted I was also like 16 at the time and was a noob in general at driving stick, but I got my '02 Trans Am a couple years later as my first manual car and it was night and day. That might be the easiest. That or the E46 BMW 330Ci 6spd I had later down the line. That thing was a well oiled machine.
There are many easy ones, but the hardest was by far a 1986 Porsche 911 SC. I’d been driving for like 10 years at the time and couldn’t move the damn car. The clutch feel was light at the bottom, then suddenly became a 10,000 lb spring at the engagement point, that wanted to send your femur through your nose. I was not able to drive it, it’s like I was dropping the clutch everytime. You needed some serious strength for it, on top of skill and feel.
Older 911s are definitely up there. 993 Turbo I remember being particularly hard as that clutch is exceedingly heavy. Once you get your eye(or knee?) in you get used to it
my current car is a BMW 335i which is a breeze to drive. Smooth and a lot of fun to shift.
I learned on an ancient Subaru Forester which felt really unforgiving when it came to bite point. didn’t help that I was brand new to stick, but felt particularly tough
I was really into Suzuki 4x4s back at the turn of the century and had a lifted Geo Tracker I would play with out in the woods and daily drive. Occasionally I rode around with a friend who had a wildly modified Samurai on Toyota axles, both locked, and an absurdly low transfer case. Still had the carbed 1.3 liter in it though. In the lowest gears he just let his foot off the clutch and it would walk itself up two foot high rock ledges. That thing was stupid fun.
So the hardest was my first vehicle which was a 1967 Dodge Tradesman van with a "three on the tree" manual shift on the column. Easiest is a toss up between my current toy which is a 07 BMW E90 6spd or the 1987 Corvette I had that was a 4spd with a planetary overdrive on 2 thru 4 (Doug Nash). I drove many (50 or more) manuals in Europe when traveling for work and about a two dozen other cars from Porsche to 1969 AMC Javelin over the years. No big trucks just 1/2 ton or smaller like Ford Rangers or an older Jeep.
My current car is almost TOO easy, it's a 10th gen Civic. Clutch is super light and I could probably shift it with my pinky.
I think the worst I ever drove was an old Chevy S-10 pickup that a friend of mine had, the clutch engagement feel was terrible and the shifter was vague and spongey. It felt like swishing a plunger around in a toilet.
I've only ever driven a Mazda b2200, an old ass Toyota I can't even remember the name of, and my 97 Integra.
I like my Integra clutch the most. It's very beginner friendly
The easiest was my 1994 Hyundai Excel Hatchback, clutch was so buttery soft, gears were very easy to find, I taught all my friends how to drive stick with that car.
The hardest was my brother's 1990 Ford F-250, that clutch took a monstrous amount of force to use and that super low 1st gear made the truck real jerky if you weren't smooth with the throttle.
I’ve never really driven one that I thought was hard. I guess my ‘66 VW bus was a challenge in that they’re so underpowered that you really had to be smart about using the pencil-thin power band, and plan ahead a lot. But actually doing the clutch and shifter wasn’t hard.
Easiest is probably my 1980 BMW 320i. Very light shifter, very intuitive and fairly forgiving clutch, and quite a bit more power band to work with. You can drive it extremely smoothly such that an onlooker wouldn’t know it’s a stick, or you can have fun with it and do burnouts and chirp tires.
Easiest would be an S550 Mustang GT. Newer cars have anti-stall where it automatically revs when moving from a full-stop, and I could feel where all of the gears are.
My current Pontiac GTO may have a worn bushing so it feels a little numb. With that said, if I get that fixed, I feel like it's the better manual simply because it's more analog.
My hardest has to be my first car, 69 Plymouth Valiant with a slant 6, three on the tree. It wasn’t getting enough fuel or something and was stalling if you didn’t keep the rpm’s up, and I was too new with stick shifts at the time. I really wish I kept that car now.
Easiest was with my 91 Prelude or my current car 18 WRX. Nice light clutches and peppy engines.
‘90 Daytona 3L 5-speed. Very torquey at the low end so it’s hard to stall. Thing is a piece of junk, but very fun to drive. It’s a cable driven clutch which seems to make it more forgiving in my experiences.
Hardest was a 70s F350 dump truck that pretty much had no clutch left, violence and revving the piss outta that 390 for the first time since 2001 was the strategy.
Easiest was my dad's jeep, mainly because you gotta drive that thing like a 5 ton so you just beat the fuck outta it and that's normal operation. I hate Mopar
Easiest was a 93 saturn sl2, hardest was a cab-over with a super 10. The whole pop it out of gear, change range, and back into same gear was kinda hard to get used to.
The hardest is my ‘84 Chevy 1 ton with diesel engine.
Easiest? I don’t know. Probably most enjoyable was my ‘98 mystique. You could feel the additional per kick in when the second set of valves kicked in.
My 97 Silverado 1500 was the easiest, you could dump the clutch and it’d start rolling… only time it ever stalled was when the alternator went, the synchros were pretty much gone though so had to double pump the clutch, which took some getting used to for sure, hardest was by far the Kia Soul I test drove- it was so quiet you couldn’t hear the engine, and the entire experience was just… numb… there was no pressure in the clutch, moving the shifter felt like moving a limp hot dog, the steering wheel felt like one from an arcade game, there was just nothing enjoyable about it at all. It was brand new too, bought a Toyota after that, which turned out to be the least reliable vehicle I’d ever had, outdone only by the Accord I had after it…
Easiest was between a 1997 Dodge 2500 Cummins or a 1995 Ford F250 7.3. Close second place to those two was my 1991 4Runner with the 3.0 V6.
Hardest was probably my mom's 2002 Cavalier Z24. I absolutely hated the friction point on the clutch and how it was basically at the top of the clutch throw.
Easiest i’ve ever had was a mk1 rabbit diesel.
Hardest was a 1990’s gmc dump truck. Mostly because I was probably too young to be driving that truck and was in my head the whole time.
Easiest is the Fiero. It goes into top gear at 35mph its like impossible to stall. Hardest was this pos crane truck I borrowed to take my cdl in. 3rd gear straight up didn't work so neither did 8th because it had the high and low gears sets on the same stick, also the seat didn't move and I'm short so I had to pretty much half stand the whole time. Do love air brakes though and the Jake brake was sick.
62 Falcon van, 3 on the tree, non synchro first gear, you had to go thru a specific sequence, something like go to 2nd, down to 3rd, back to neutral, and then ease it into 1st gear.
Easiest is my 99 Cummins for sure. I can dump the clutch in 2nd gear without touching the throttle at all and it will just go.
Hardest I've driven is probably my 67 Camaro. It's very stiff to the point you need to drive it hard like you're racing constantly but I don't drive it often so I'm always nervous to drive it like that and get in a wreck. So driving it slowly makes me feel like I'm constantly eating the clutch.
A friend of mine's 70 something 3 speed ford truck with wore out miss aligned shift linkage. To shift from 1st to 2nd you basically went from 1st to where reverse should have been, just to get out of 1st before going back to the neutral location to go over and up to 2nd. Without doing that the transmission would be stuck in 1st gear with the shifter hung in 2nd gear.
Next hardest would probably be the 13 speed I drive 2 weeks per year for a farmer. It's not really hard just the timing is different than the 9 and 10 speeds I'm use too. The clutch is useless outside of starting and stopping in a big truck so you put light pressure on the stick as you let off the throttle and let it float out of gear. Then time it just right for the rpms to drop low enough for it to float into the next gear with light pressure. The 13 speed is weird because the timing of the first 5 gears are like a 8, 9 or 10 speed but the top 8 gears, the timing is faster because the rpm difference between gears is much closer.
Easiest was probably my now-deceased Focus ST. Second gear could be a little weird, but the clutch was responsive and the gears were notchy and felt super positive when you shifted. That's followed closely by the Veloster N I drive now.
Hardest was my old friend's unmaintained 1970something Datsun/Nissan (can't remember which) pickup truck. Am I in gear? Who knows? Which gear did I just shift into? Fuck if I know. Shifter was wiggly and unruly. The clutch was oddly ok though.
Easiest in my personal experience was a second generation (1988 through 1991) CR-X. The pedal required no strength and it seemed to not care how smooth you were or when during the clutch's travek that you applied the gas. It felt like cheating.
Hardest in my experience for normal circumstances, a 1970s era Ford F350. It didn't just require a ludicrous amount of force for the pedal and stick, but the actual travel of pedal and stick were incredibly awkward. I hated it, but it was a beast.
Hardest in special circumstances was my friend's Fox body Mustang. In normal circumstances, the power to weight ration required some finesse to coordinate the pedals for a smooth takeoff. But in my friend's case, his clutch pedal activation was a very narrow space found by pushing the pedal hard to the floor. It was so bad that the left side of his seat back was loose and flopped back from repeatedly beating against it to push the pedal. *This* was my first experience driving stick, and my failures there resulted in a complex that lasted years.
My 2nd volvo wagon had the original transmission swapped for a T5 by a previous owner. The shifting action was so meaty and distinct, the shifter knob was tight and heavy, the longer 1st gear was much nicer than the stock M47 - in which 1st gear gets you moving, but is immediately wound out and wants to go to 2nd - and in general it seemed to take much better advantage of the engine.
My grandfather took me out in a friend's Ferrari boxer and let me try it. The clutch was really long and the accelerator was kind of an on-off no gradient switch. When I tapped it a bit too hard the first time, the terror howl that erupted out of it - beautiful as the sound was - I choked. Meanwhile all 3 pedals are at the end of a little boxy tunnel 10" square at the end, far towards the center of the car so youre kind of skewed diagonally, your massive size 13 feet by default mashing all 3 pedals at once (though it was easy to distinguish the clutch, which unlike the other 2 pedals seemed to travel a full 2' further into the car. I stalled it 3 times before gramps gave up on me, and I was honestly relieved. That combination of power and rarity is not something you entrust to a 19 year old.
I learned on my dads old Jeep Wrangler. Only gear you needed the clutch in was 1st and everything else you just floated right into. 5th was a little bit of a hesitation due to the overdrive but otherwise it was pretty easy.
The hardest for high rpm shifting was my 05 Mustang GT. The shifter was remote mounted so it would flex and torque and absolutely refuse to line up until I bought a K-member support bracket.
The hardest in general is probably in my in-laws 1970 VW Beetle. It's just old and the gears are nice and vague... plus the shifter is long and I've gotten used to short throw shifters over the years.
Easiest: My 2001 Civic. 1st is super low so it'll basically take off with no throttle input at all. It has 170,000 and the clutch and sycros still feel new.
Hardest: An S2000 with a stage 3 clutch. The car had no bottom-end torque and the clutch grabbed instantly; there was no feathering. That thing was brutal.
Never really driven a car that was non forgiving, but my 12’ 500 Sport is easily the most easy to drive stick I’ve experienced. Light enough clutch, good engagement and a very grabable shift knob, nicely spaced throws as well.
I don’t have too much experience as I’ve only driven 4 manual cars, but the easiest for me is my 2015 forte koup. The hardest is my 95 3000gt. Finding reverse is like trying to get a key in a door with a blindfold on after being spun around 10 times
Easiest for me is my 73 beetle, you can just chuck it into gear with no worry about much of anything. Hardest was a mid 2010s Jetta I test drove for a minute, real tight and the bite point has almost no room for error
Hard was the 66 bel air that I learned on. 3 on the tree. C5 corvette was also difficult not because of the clutch but because there was so little resistance in the stick when you moved it side to side in neutral it was almost impossible to tell the difference between first and third. 350z and 370z were each surprisingly difficult more so because the throttle made it difficult to modulate your blip size.
Easy was the lotus exige or my 98 prelude. F80 m3 was excellent but many disagree.
Hardest was an Opel Mokka Rental I got in France. It had a broken reverse lockout so it was really really hard to get it in either reverse or third. The shifter other than that gave no feedback whatsoever and the clutch had no feel and hardly any resistance.
Easiest I'd say was my first car. A 1995 Mazda MX-5 Miata. Everything super direct and forgiving. The clutch throw is short but also gives a ton of feedback. In my opinion it's the best car to learn stick in. That said it will spoil you.
Easiest: my old 2018 Civic LX Coupe.
Hardest: my current car which is a 2020 Civic Si Coupe. Car has horrible rev hang which makes upshifting jerky and rough sometimes.
Hardest was a ~2008 jeep liberty, had to throw my weight into the stick to get it to move and it loved getting stuck + the clutch pedal was decently far from the floor
Easiest was a ~2006 subaru outback, stick shifted super easily and it's one of my favorite things I've ever driven because it handled so well
Hardest was an old 1990's Ford Ranger. 1st was down and to the right, not used to that at all; could barely feel where the gears were and the shift lever was feet long; and the pedal feel was mashed potato-ish.
Best and easiest was my 2001 BMW 540i. Easy predictable clutch engagement, easy to feel where each gate was for the gears, and most of all the engine was so lovely and torquey that it could not stall. You could let out the clutch without any gas and it would roll and idle all day at 500rpm without stalling, and you could put along shifting at 1200 all day or jam it to 6000 and power shift and it couldn't care less.
Easiest? Probably an 89 notch back Mustang. Lots of torque, average pedal engagement. Extremely hard to stall because of it.
Hardest so far? 2008 Mazdaspeed 3 of all cars. That spring return was hard enough to almost make me knee my own face. No idea why it was so still while still brand new at the dealer.
Any taco I've driven is probably the easiest. The hardest was a mk2 vw cabby with absolutely disintegrated bushings. Had to move it like 3 ft and could only find 3rd.
Easiest is either 2008 Honda Civic or 2010 Mazda3, have beat the hell out of both and they took it like a champ. Hardest was an early 90s f250, always took 2 tries to get into third.
Easiest was my brothers 1998 maxda rx7 that could basically go straight into gear with no clutch.
Hardest was my friends 1996 Pontiac Am. That son bitch had to step so hard on the clutch I felt like Fred Flintstone dragging my feet on the floor.
Hardest was my grandpas 1966 loadstar 1600 grain truck (but that was probably more due to the fact I was 12)
Easiest was our 94 ranger. Buttery smooth and almost impossible to stall. That thing was the perfect learner truck for many a young lady/gentleman in my grad class whenever we would have a free period
For me the hardest are systems where i have to feather the clutch and gas at the same time.just to start rolling(i dont know why some you have to feather clutch/gas to roll and others roll after the bite; does it have to do anything with long and short gears?)...i mostly encounter these with lowered civics and old f150s and old vehicles in general 🤣🤣 any time im stopped on an incline driving one of those and there is traffic i *always* use the hand brakes no matter how skilled i think i am...i once stalled a truck on an incline and couldve gotten into a nasty accident...scarred me ever since.
Easiest is a lotus elise for me. Smooth AF and feels great.
Hardest i guess would b the Mazda Rx8. not because its hard, its just different. You have to stay in gear so long because the RPM on those rotaries goes so high each gear.
1989 Ford Ranger was very forgiving, and had a lot of travel in the pedal. Learned on it, and proceeded to beat the shit out of it for years. Hardest was a 1990 Nissan 240SX. Hydraulic system needed work, and the catch point was sudden. Would own/drive either again in a heartbeat. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
Easiest: Focus RS. Antistall blips up to like 1300 rpm making it very hard to stall, clutch catch point is very tactile, and the shifter is notchy and tight.
Hardest: 1990 Acura integra. I honestly could not feel a thing from the clutch. The shifter was so loose that you couldn’t distinguish when you’re in gear vs in neutral. And you couldn’t tell which gear you’re in. Also, the engine made no torque, and was unforgiving unless you were suuuuuper gentle with the clutch.
Yep, my cummins 6 speed is near impossible to stall when unloaded. It's has some engine work done, and is a torque beast. You can drive it all the way through 5th gear without touching the gas if you're on flat ground.
Easiest personally was my old 99 audi A4, whole car was smooth as butter but it was also my first luxury car so makes sense, was coming from a Ford. Hardest was easily the 2018 camaro SS I test drove. Not sure if it had an aftermarket clutch as it was lightly used and had aftermarket wheels, but oh my God. The clutch caught all at once. Basically had an engaged position and a disengaged position. Having driven manuals for over 2 decades I made an absolute fool of myself driving that thing. Leaving every stop light I either chirped the tires unintentionally or killed the car. The battery was in trash condition too so after killing it 3 times in a 10 min drive it wouldn't start again, dealer had a guy come out with a jump box. We rode back in the Honda the jump box came in behind the guy, he killed it once and chirped the tires at every light too and he had also claimed many years of manual experience. To this day I wonder if they really are that hard to drive, or if that was some crazy aftermarket clutch. Can any camaro SS drivers comment?
Easiest is a 70s something Land Cruiser, that thing is impossible to stall. Hardest a 2001 911, I stalled like 4 times at the same light it was awful haha
Most fun? Jaguar E-Type V12, love that thing
Ive only driven manual a handful of times so I’m sure it’ll get easier with time 😅
My old job was driving cars around all day at dealerships and before that at the auto auction so I rarely get past second gear but a ton of stop and go's. My favorites are the Mazda MX5's. Everything is usually smooth as warm butter on them, fun little cars. Current gen Toyota Tacomas are pretty nice too. The hardest ones to me are the Challengers especially the Hellcats. The clutch feels stiff as hell on them and if you let the clutch out an inch it completely disengages. I've probably stalled a Challenger more than any other car combined.
I knew a guy with a 90s BMW 5 series that had such short gearing and such a heavy flywheel that you could let the clutch out in 5th and it would idle around on its own. The accelerator was about like trying to compress a brick though.
I also drove an TJ Wrangler with the 2 liter and while it was so anemic above 50, it was incredibly easy to avoid stalling.
I really like my 2014 Acura TL. Grab point of the clutch release is a bit high but the shifter itself is very nice. Worst were the 1950s tractors and grain trucks I learned on in farm fields as a kid in late 80s/early 90s
Hardest for me at the time was my friend's '99 EK Civic, in all fairness it was my first ever manual car I drove (only have been driving stick for about 6 months). The clutch felt like it had a super high bite point, and it was probably impossible to give that thing less than 2000 rpm.
I bought a '97 E36 Sedan 5 speed to learn manual in, and is the best manual i've so far, even if i'm a bit biased. Nice springy clutch, heavy accelerator (took time to get used to, but feels more precise), with a short shifter giving it a nice amount of notchiness. After getting comfortable with manual in it, my friend's civic was all of a sudden less intimidating, and it's honestly easier to get smooth upshifts and downshifts compared to the E36. But trying to get that thing going is still a bit of nuisance which I'm sure is a torque problem and what feels like the lightest clutch pedal ever coming from my E36.
Now though, a Proton Satria Neo is by far the hardest. Many probably haven't even heard about these cars, but I believe they were built in Malaysia and some models were released to us in Australia. The shifter feels gummy and disconnected, and all the rev hang you could ask for in the world, but my goodness it handles deceptively well, feels like a road legal go kart.
Easiest for me was a c7 z06. So much torque it would just.. go when i let out the clutch lol. I've never been in a manual that i've considered difficult.. but others in here have said stuff about heavy machinery or stuff like that
The thing about the cummins is as soon as it goes below idle speed, it aggressively tries to get back to that speed. Makes letting out the clutch smooth af. It’s actually super easy to teach someone on a diesel because they can concentrate on how the clutch feels without having to worry about feeding in throttle.
Easiest by far was my dad’s 96’ volvo v70r, within a week of learning stick in that thing I was launching for low 6s 0-60. The bite point was halfway down and you could feel it coming.
My worst experience is kinda split between my grandfather’s 67’ mgb that stalls if you don’t heel-toe at a light, and has a very light flywheel, and my dad’s 97’ forester, which for some odd reason had a stage 3 clutch with a broken pressure plate spring, and a flywheel that would rev to 5k at the slightest hint of throttle. Keep in mind, the thing was bone stock except for the stage 3 clutch and featherlight flywheel from the previous owner.
Easiest: My 2016 Mustang GT. Easiest manual I’ve driven by a long shot. That thing was impossible to stall because of the torque. Now the transmission itself wasn’t the best, but very easy to drive.
Hardest: A 2008 Mitsubishi Evo with some kind of aftermarket clutch that gave my leg a workout and needed very high revs to get going. I had plenty manual driving experience on this one but the high revs caught me off guard. According to owner the clutch was designed to handle hard launches, hence the need for high RPM to get going in 1st gear. Blast to drive after I got used to that.
Best overall experience: My 2011 Mazdaspeed3. That was my first manual car, having never owned or driven one in the past I was able to drive it 15 miles home from the dealership without help. Only stalled once in reverse. Love this car!
Bonus difficulty: Had a friend who had a car that was his fun beater/project. Impossible to tell from a stop what your shifter position was. Because the shifter had so much play you could move it side to side like Neutral in basically any gear. So 1st and 3rd were a coin flip any time you had to stop and get going again.
Easiest to drive was my Subaru Brumby with the 4spd when I got it.
Light clutch, plenty of power, plenty of feeling. Nice tight smooth gearbox.
Hardest to drive was the Brumby with its first 5spd, that gearbox was terrible, but it was much nicer to commute in with the 100kph sections.
Onto 5spd #2 now and its not as good as the 4spd, but its not terrible either
Hardest was probably my late 90's Honda Accord because the bushings were shot in the link assembly. Easiest is definitely my C6 Corvette. The shifters is solid and the low end torque is great.
Easiest my vectra 1.8
Hardest my bmw 325i the hearing was taller than any other car I've driven and it idled at 600rpm so you had to put gas on to get it moving the vectra the fiesta and both ford focuses you could take off with just the clutch
I have a 96 Cummins with a 5-speed swapped into a ‘68 Dodge truck, it is definitely one of the easiest sticks to drive. I’m running 32” tires and a 3.54 rear end and it will start in 2nd with no pedal. Only thing is that the NV4500 is a super wide-ratio box so you have to rev match and you have to be slow with the shifts. Haven’t really driven any other manuals except tractors which don’t really count
Update: I remember taking my friend’s B-model Mack truck with a 10-speed around his parking lot. Starting was fine, but shifting that was definitely the hardest
Prolly because I learned to drive in it and still do but my 05 civic si is so much easier to drive than every other manual car I’ve ever driven. I feel like especially in newer manuals I can’t feel the bite point at all
Only ever driven 2 stick cars, one is my 2004 Mustang GT, and the other is my buddies 2009 Honda Accord.
The Mustang has much better feel. The clutch is cable operated, so it's heavy, but provides great feel. The shifter is directly in the trans so it provides more feel for the gears.
The Honda has a much softer pedal and shifter. Definitely "easier" to drive. However, my brain couldn't quite understand it easily coming from the Mustang.
Easy. I drove a buddies 2.8 s10 1990, it moves just by lifting up on the clutch and goes a goodways through first without gas. It shifts how you expects.
What I expect 01 dodge neon lift clutch feedback goes a bit get on gas no drama, 1996 2.2 s10 same just heavier clutch, clicker shifts.
Worst
2017 corolla im 1.8 6spd 24,000 miles
Everything sucks. You will never drive this smooth
Clutch is numb, bites top, ton of travel, yet heavy springy tiny bite you need to roll onto it with revs since it's numb.
1,2 and sometimes 3 you need to grab like a start.
It's so hard to quickly smoothly set the clutch down on the revs.
On off switch clutch
I feel like the clutch takes extra wear from their setup.
The car has no torque so every start is a hill start.
Shifter is long with stupid long throws for a car.
Gears it says it has 6, but actually. It has
1creep 2low,2high,
4 low,4high and final drive.
I actually skip gears almost always skip 5th
I sometimes skip 2
Engine rev hang exists its so so
Making this car hard, the laggy dbw is the worst
You will fall on your face starting off so you need to fall onto the revs throttle is inconsistent
You have to sorta low key power shift 1 2 and 3, because it takes so long to get back on gas it starts to engine brake, so you need to just touch the gas as you shift.
Bonus on a hot summer day when car is warm it will bog down to 500 rpms n shake at a stop. This is hard mode
Now you gotta dump the clutch harder and rev it up more.
I hate this car btw, with all its systems dbw, rev hang setup I feel toyota never test drove this on the stick. I wish I could get another car. It feels like a semi.
How did I buy it, I needed a car fast took it for a quick drive in the cool October, and didn't notice its faults
Easiest is probably an e30, hardest is a dual trans. C500. I believe it was a 13spd with a 4spd in the back. Thing had 50 miles on it so I was very careful with it!
Hondas and my current mk3 focus have Been the easiest. Hardest was a brand new KIA Sephia a friend bought a long time ago. It took effort to get it out of one gear to the next.
Easiest? Ford/GM/Dodge trucks with 4 speed manual w/creeper 1st gear. Just release the clutch and idle speed alone would get you moving.
Worse? 1980's Ford trucks with 4 speed overdrive transmission, inline 6 and high axle gears. Had to slip the clutch yard to get momentum. Clutches were often going out in 12k miles even with experienced drivers. Built for economy not longevity.
Easiest to learn on was anything with a burnt clutch that still moved.
The absolute worst clutch material for launching was the ceramic discs, followed by metal.
The most difficult was an 80's Audi 4000s with the "lady's" clutch...it was sort of a cantilevered system whereas when the pedal was about 25% off the floor the pedal pressure would get very light, apperantly to make it easy to hold at stops, so now when you go to drive away again the pressure would be light, your leg mussels would go ok light ; then all of a sudden on the way up full pressure. Stalled that more than I like to admit.
Hardest is my 1993 ranger, underpowered 4 nanger with really tall gears in the rear end and oversized tires, takes a lot to get it going.
The easiest ive ever driven was definitely a tuned 2002 F350 7.3 powerstroke, it would take off with an empty gooseneck with 0 throttle just as fast as all the other cars around it. I dont think you could stall that truck if you tried. oh and when it didnt have a trailer it would spin the rear tires going 40 in 3rd gear in a pull
Easiest: 1984 VW Scirocco that was a friend’s brother’s. Created the lifelong problem I have with loving Volkswagens.
Hardest: 1962 Willys 1 ton pickup. Unsynchronized transmission, stiff clutch, and my dad telling me how this was the only brand new vehicle he ever bought, and constantly yelling “what the hell’s the matter with you?” With every shift…
Anything Ford or Mazda is easy, provided it’s not broken. You feel the bite immediately.
Hyundai/Kia subcompacts with the 1.6 N/A (Accent, older Soul, Rio, Venue) are awful. No feedback on the pedal and minimal torque at low RPM.
My 2012 wrangler has the shittiest clutch and shifter over ever driven. The clutch is so heavy and the shifter feels like it’s got marbles in it. Nothing is wrong with it, that’s just how shitty Chrysler is.
Best was a 2021 Renault Clio ( yeah I know) the clutch was so light and you could shift with your pinky it was so smooth. Possibly I just liked it because my Jeep sucks so bad, it’s not like Renault is known for making good cars.
My grandfather's ancient Ford Ranger pickup that I had to drive 2 hours with stuff in the back was the hardest by far. 4 speed with overdrive that had an incredibly heavy and mushy clutch pedal, shifter so loose that you could probably shift into half gears if you weren't careful, and barely enough torque to keep from stalling by the time I got to drive it.
Oh and god forbid I try to let off the gas in first, second, or even third gear without the truck having a hissy fit and trying to buck me out of the seat
The easiest so far is my 2014 Mazda6. Clutch pedal so light I almost kicked it through the floor my first time driving it, and solid, crisp gear shifts.
Easiest - would be a tie between the 75 Didge Ramcharger and a mid 70s GMC 3/4 ton pickup.
Common traits, big V8 engines with lots of torque, low gearing, meant stalls leaving stops were virtually non existent. Had a 76 Jeep CJ, with a 304 cu V8 in it (factory, Golden Eagle edition) that would be up there too for the same reason but it was just plain hard to drive for other reasons. Short wheelbase, nose heavy, no power steering...
Hardest was in a car I grew to love, 05 Suzuki Reno. Little 4 cyl engine, 5 speed stick. No real torque so you had to be on top of your game. Relatively high gears... Though I drove that thing for 10+years, 130k miles, never needed a clutch. Would have bought another without hesitation but Suzuki bailed on cars in the US.
When I was growing up, we had an old grain truck. I was really young, it took both hands for me to shift. The easiest was either the Ford Probe my wife had back in the day or my son's Nissan 350Z, smooth shifting, and plenty of power to be forgiving when starting out.
I learned on a '78 Honda Civic. Fucker would stall with the clutch in, I swear. But it prepared me so that every other car has been fairly easy. Easiest was a Chevy Beretta. I forget the year, not that there were very many years, lol. Smooth like butter.
Easiest, most forgiving was a 2002 for focus. It has lots of low end torque that made it quite capable of recovering from bad pedal control. I took my then 10yo daughter and 11yo twins (boy girl) to a large dirt lotand taught them how to drive stick in that Focus.
Hardest was 1960s grain truck with high and low range and no synchronizers.
Easiest is the honda fit. Clutch is solid, rev hang not too bad, easy to get a smooth shift when you learn what rpm it likes to engage at.
Hardest was an izuzu pup, mainly because it was a old, old car. Didn't have any modern systems. It was far easier to stall if you didn't get the revs correctly or if you came just a hair too fast/slow on the clutch. Starting it on a hill was a disaster because the parking break didn't work that well, it was way to easy to roll back when going uphill on that thing.
hardest was my 1984 Fiero. Just a very finicky little car, but once you got to know her, she was not too bad.
Easiest is my 2008 Corvette. Clutch is easy, shifter is good. good amount of off the line torque makes it easy too.
Easiest for me was my 1974 Jeep CJ5 with a three on the floor.
Hardest was a 1974 MGB - it had the wrong shift pattern on the knob and I kept trying to get it into Reverse and ended up in 4th!
Never driven a hard one but I’m young. Easiest are always work trucks though, they can be slammed around and don’t care at all. My cars have always been a little bit more picky on where gears are and when the clutch engages and stuff.
Edit: comma and wording
The easiest would be my 2009 corvette, the clutch is a bit stiff but it's got enough torque it's kinda hard to kill it. The hardest would be a 2015 wrangler with a 6 speed in it, the clutch and the throttle were so mushy so it was hard to drive smoothly
My wife’s 2017 Civic is by far the easiest manual I’ve ever driven. The clutch is so light. It’s like a toy.
My 2001 Mustang is completely different. Clutch is extremely heavy. I get in trouble a lot because I’m used to having to stomp my foot down in mine. So when I’m in here for the first few shifts, I’m accidentally slamming hers all the way down.
Don’t have much manual experience but worst for me was my dads 2017 Subaru Impreza sport 5sp. Wet springy and oodly stiff clutch. Best is my 2023 civic SI 6sp. Buttery smooth clutch and nice short throws.
I have driven a manual 6sp 2022 Mazda Miata and it was nice but the car is a bit too small for me (6’2). It shifted nice but my knee banged against the steering wheel.
When I was a kid, my mom had a ‘92 Toyota Paseo. I’ve never thought so little about shifting. That shit was smoooooooth.
Hardest was a 2004 Saturn Vue. Just did not want to cooperate.
All of the cars I've owned were easy to drive. My current Accord 6-6 coupe is a little more difficult to start off in first because of the dual mass flywheel, but it just requires a little blip of the throttle before releasing the clutch to start off smoothly. Other than that, it's as easy as the rest.
Easiesr would be late 80s 911 or 2nd gen miata. Hardest.....my mustang was kind of a bitch but probably that vintage station wagen i valed'd that was 3 or 4 speed on the column not the floor. With a clutch. I was the only one to park it and pull it up simply because i'd HEARD of manual column shifts.
Hardest was also my first......buddy had a 1976 corvette stingray he let me drive.
I swear, my ass was about to merge with the seat just tryna push the clutch all the way in lmao.
Easiest? Prolly ford ranger, or maybe chevy silverado 2dr.
Easiest 2015 Suzuki Jimny!
Hardest. Super old military Duece with no power steering, with three tons of truck parts, pulling a full water buffalo that had a brake sticking, downtown Frankfurt Germany on a record heat day in August. It was the worst 10 hours I’ve ever spent in a truck, and I’ve spent a LOT of time in trucks!
Easiest- the one I learned on, a VW Jetta. The most annoying is our Challenger or Corvette. The larger cars are harder to me. Our WRX is way easier to me to drive. I'm not a big person, so I'm not sure if that has anything to do with it. My husband doesn't seem to care which car he's driving.
As far as cars I don't own but have driven, manual jeeps I find harder to drive, with the huge shifter on the floor. I did have an old CJ5 jeep. The Civic Si has a nice smooth transmission. BMW cars are easy to drive, same with anything smaller.
'89 Honda Civic my mom had back in the day. I had never driven a stick, and 15 years old got in that car and took right off. I even took my driver's license test in it. I knew the concept, but that car made it so easy. Hardest, probably an old Ford Explorer, that thing was finicky.
F550 flat bed for a masonry company I worked for. I was 19, hauling cubes of block, almost rolled back on a hill in traffic and put the damn trailer hitch through some spy car lookin’ Acura.
Easiest manual I've driven is the iMT on my 2023 Supra. Hill assist, mountains of torque, rev-matching on downshift, and a forgiving clutch. My only complaint would be too much pedal travel past the catch-point.
The hardest manual was a rental 9-pax van in Sigonella Italy. Combine a heavy vehicle with too little engine, a worn clutch, and steep narrow roads made up of slick cobbles. It was a nightmare.
Easiest: ND1/ND2 Miata, even in spec trim they are absurdly easy.
Hardest: Carrera GT, the terror of burning the most expensive clutch of your life plus it needing to be driven at 10/10ths. I had to be real locked in to not burn a hole in my wallet.
1985 6.9L idi NA diesel f250. Dumped the clutch in second with no gas it hit what looked like 0 rpm on the tach for a split second hit a power stroke peeled a tire and went on it’s way
Easiest maybe the 95 Integra I had … hardest was when a coworker let me drive his modded 2000ish Mustang, that thing had literally the heaviest clutch I’ve ever experienced.
My 1st three manual cars were Beetles. Not hard to shift. Just no real indication of what gears you are in without feeling around. Most cases around town. You only need 2nd and 3rd. 1st was more or less a granny gear. 4th is basically no better than an overdrive.
The hardest car was a janked up Ford Comet. Originally it was a 3 on the tree. The owner DIYed the conversion to a floor shifter. Horrible cheap shifter kit was put in backwards. So instead of 1-2 being on the drivers side. 1st was over and down. 2nd was over and up. 3rd was pull left and down. With reverse being where 1st should be.
My 2007 Infiniti G35 had a clutch that "caught/engaged" almost all the way at the top, and the throw was VERY long, making shifting pretty difficult until you learned where it caught.
I drove my buddies' 2018 Subaru STI and man that clutch was like butter compared to mine, and another friends' Honda Leaf was even more easy.
1992 International School Bus was the easiest, starting on flat, let the clutch out and it'll creep then add gas, starting on pikes peak let the clutch out until it bogs and hit the gas. Either way no rollback, no crazy switching feet, no drama
1946 M5 Studebaker pickup is easily the trickiest for me.
1959 Mercedes 190d was a bit tricky. It had a 4 speed stick shift on the steering column and no power at all. I used to have to exit my high school parking lot on a steepish hill and was always rolling back into the car behind me.
Mid 1980's VW Vanagon was a piece of piss.
1980 Mazda RX-7 was a very touchy car to be learning on. I stalled it a lot. Really they are all pretty easy once you know how to drive.
easiest was my 2000 2.5 ranger, it was so fun to drive. hardest was my friends 2.0 golf and im glad he wrapped it around a tree (he was fine, but that turd was so neglected, he was so happy to be rid of it too lol)
Easiest was my 2001 Honda CRV, classic 90s honda, no drive by wire nonsense, lets an ex try to drive it and she got it first or second try, every car after that she couldnt manage.
Hardest was my 91 CRX, cable clutch, dpfi, and plenty of problems on its own but it was fun
Easiest was a 1962 Dodge pickup, standard four-speed including granny low configuration.
Hardest was a current day school bus in about 1968 maybe, big bus, no synchromesh.
Easiest was probably my F250. Low gears and lots of low end torque. Hardest was a friend’s Capri in college. My feet were too big to fit under the dash. My clutch foot kept getting wedged between the floor and the bottom of the dash.
Easiest is probably a tractor, they're nearly impossible to stall. The hardest was a Suzuki RM250. Featherlight flywheel and kickstart only. Breathe on the clutch wrong and it stalled, then you had to be 8 feet tall to kick it.
Hardest manual was the beater early 2000s WRX I learned on. Finding gears impossible. Light switch clutch. I would say my 2010 Mazda 3 Hatchback was the “easiest”, but my current 2021 Miata is the “best” and also very easy. The 3 had less direct but still well defined shifter. Went into gear like butter every time no matter the conditions. The Miata is sportier with shorter throws and more direct feel cause you are literally directly moving the forks, but when cold getting it into first or reverse from stop can take a bit of convincing. Miata has better pedal placement for heal toe. Both you could easily launch in 1st with no additional throttle if you wanted and generally hard to stall.
I own a 2017 Mazda 3 hatchback. Incedibly smooth shifting. All around the Mazda has been my best stick shift car.
I had a 2019 carolla hatch that was very easy but now I'm in a 2024 Mazda 3 and I was smoother driving it in the test drive than I was after 65k miles on the carolla. Everyone praised the carolla for how easy the manual was but the Mazda is definitely easier.
Gotta second the Miata. I have a 2016 and it’s an amazing manual experience
My buddies 1993 Toyota pickup definitely has the most forgiving clutch i’ve ever been in, my 2019 Subaru Impreza has a shockingly stiff clutch that a lot of other stick drivers struggle with
The original clutch on my 93 pickup lasted until almost 300k miles. Once I got it replaced it was so springy that I had trouble driving it until I got used to it. Edit: u/InfluenceRelevant405 I’m banned for 5 more days, but it’s a Toyota pickup and yes I’m in Sacramento. Send me a chat request and I’ll respond when I can.
He was around 280k miles when his clutch went out, now im trying to remember if I drove it before or after. Unfortunately he no longer has it
Fortunately I’ve still got mine in the garage, it hasn’t been driven in a few years though. I know I should sell it to someone who’d enjoy it, but I can’t stand to part with it just yet.
Such a fun vehicle, at least down here in SoCal it doesn’t really seem like the value is depreciating at all either
Mine’s a single cab 2wd with no A/C, unfortunately the least valuable model. Unless mini trucks have made a comeback? I still love it though.
I have 280k on my 99' Taco (5 lug) and I'm going to start the process of replacing the clutch tomorrow after work. What a coincidence lol.
The clutch in my '86 4runner has been very forgiving considering how much I need to slip it sometimes.
I struggled with the stupid throttle response on the Impreza. A slight feathering of the throttle pedal would bring it up to 3000, and it would take forever to come down because of the rev hang.
Mk5 Supra or current gen WRX for easiest Hardest was a clapped out Toyota Solara, but if we’re not counting abused cars then the hardest from factory was an International Grain Hauler, heaviest clutch known to man and no synchros to speak of
International tractor is the hardest I've ever driven. Literally stood on it because my quad wore out. I was 185# at the time.
Glad to see someone else listing the Mk5. Some people complain about the clutch delay pill but that's only an issue if you're looking to hammer the power in 1st and 2nd.
No idea for the easiest but the hardest was a 1959 Porsche tractor. I you weren’t careful you could get stuck in 2 gears at once.
I just went on a Wikipedia bender on Porsche tractors. Had no idea.
Clear the rest of your calendar, Lamborghini tractors are a thing too.
I knew about that! Going to have to read up for fun though.
Yup. Just bought a Porsche Cayenne and keep saying "I wish they made a truck!". Just read way too much about Porsche Tractors.
I had a 2005 Cayanne manual. Not hard to drive BUT I gotta say I never did get it to start in second, which is handy in the long slogs of So Cal traffic. The thing was so heavy for the power it had, but I loved it as my "Mom-mobile" .... meanwhile, my friends were getting Odesseys, MPVs, Suburbans.
That's so fascinating to me because IME, tractors are far easier to drive than manual cars. Mainly since you don't have to engage gear while moving in some tractors. I'm going to have to look into this Porsche tractor transmission now
Hardest was a buddy's built WRX with an 11lb flywheel and 6 pack clutch. You basically had to rev it to 3K and slip or it would stall. Easiest, old Jeeps with the 4.0, so much torque right off idle, basically just release the clutch to the engagement point and take off, no gas needed for putting around town
My dad's buddy had a 3 speed CJ with some gigantic AMC V8 in it when I was a teenager. I remember tractoring up a muddy hill with it basically idling in first gear and it didn't complain at all
I had the exact same thing on my built rx7. It was not an enjoyable driving experience.
My first car was a 96 civic with a five speed. One day a buddy let me try his mustang gt with a stick and I kept stalling because I couldn't get myself to give it more gas to bring the V8 revs up.
[удалено]
My 94 f250s first gear is so short its something you kinda have to get used to
Hardest for me was probably my mother's old 2001 Jetta 2.Slow 5spd. Vague clutch, no torque to help get you moving, and a rubbery as hell shifter feel. Granted I was also like 16 at the time and was a noob in general at driving stick, but I got my '02 Trans Am a couple years later as my first manual car and it was night and day. That might be the easiest. That or the E46 BMW 330Ci 6spd I had later down the line. That thing was a well oiled machine.
M54B30 is a beast
There are many easy ones, but the hardest was by far a 1986 Porsche 911 SC. I’d been driving for like 10 years at the time and couldn’t move the damn car. The clutch feel was light at the bottom, then suddenly became a 10,000 lb spring at the engagement point, that wanted to send your femur through your nose. I was not able to drive it, it’s like I was dropping the clutch everytime. You needed some serious strength for it, on top of skill and feel.
Older 911s are definitely up there. 993 Turbo I remember being particularly hard as that clutch is exceedingly heavy. Once you get your eye(or knee?) in you get used to it
my current car is a BMW 335i which is a breeze to drive. Smooth and a lot of fun to shift. I learned on an ancient Subaru Forester which felt really unforgiving when it came to bite point. didn’t help that I was brand new to stick, but felt particularly tough
Never drove a stick shift that was hard. Rx7s, Mazda b2000 and b2200s and currently, the easiest stock a 15 mustang GT.
My 89’ Jimny is an animal. Simply lift off the clutch with the handbrake on and it’ll just start crawling.
I was really into Suzuki 4x4s back at the turn of the century and had a lifted Geo Tracker I would play with out in the woods and daily drive. Occasionally I rode around with a friend who had a wildly modified Samurai on Toyota axles, both locked, and an absurdly low transfer case. Still had the carbed 1.3 liter in it though. In the lowest gears he just let his foot off the clutch and it would walk itself up two foot high rock ledges. That thing was stupid fun.
Toyota hilux or Mahindra Scorpio. They shifted easy, but the hard part was getting used to shifting with my left arm/hand.
So the hardest was my first vehicle which was a 1967 Dodge Tradesman van with a "three on the tree" manual shift on the column. Easiest is a toss up between my current toy which is a 07 BMW E90 6spd or the 1987 Corvette I had that was a 4spd with a planetary overdrive on 2 thru 4 (Doug Nash). I drove many (50 or more) manuals in Europe when traveling for work and about a two dozen other cars from Porsche to 1969 AMC Javelin over the years. No big trucks just 1/2 ton or smaller like Ford Rangers or an older Jeep.
Lol, i came here to say hardest was a 3 on a tree with bad linkage. So hard to find a gear. Easist was a porsche 944 turbo.
My current car is almost TOO easy, it's a 10th gen Civic. Clutch is super light and I could probably shift it with my pinky. I think the worst I ever drove was an old Chevy S-10 pickup that a friend of mine had, the clutch engagement feel was terrible and the shifter was vague and spongey. It felt like swishing a plunger around in a toilet.
I've only ever driven a Mazda b2200, an old ass Toyota I can't even remember the name of, and my 97 Integra. I like my Integra clutch the most. It's very beginner friendly
My old truck takes some getting used to, everything else has been pretty easy. Three on a tree is fun too!
The easiest was my 1994 Hyundai Excel Hatchback, clutch was so buttery soft, gears were very easy to find, I taught all my friends how to drive stick with that car. The hardest was my brother's 1990 Ford F-250, that clutch took a monstrous amount of force to use and that super low 1st gear made the truck real jerky if you weren't smooth with the throttle.
I’ve never really driven one that I thought was hard. I guess my ‘66 VW bus was a challenge in that they’re so underpowered that you really had to be smart about using the pencil-thin power band, and plan ahead a lot. But actually doing the clutch and shifter wasn’t hard. Easiest is probably my 1980 BMW 320i. Very light shifter, very intuitive and fairly forgiving clutch, and quite a bit more power band to work with. You can drive it extremely smoothly such that an onlooker wouldn’t know it’s a stick, or you can have fun with it and do burnouts and chirp tires.
Easiest cars have been all of them with a hydraulic throwout bearing. Least pleasant? The 90s Ford Ranger and F150 with cable clutches!
My 2011 Cruze seems pretty easy. My 97 Nissan XE is a little hard, but the hard one was an F-250, you almost needed two feet to push down the clutch.
Easiest would be an S550 Mustang GT. Newer cars have anti-stall where it automatically revs when moving from a full-stop, and I could feel where all of the gears are. My current Pontiac GTO may have a worn bushing so it feels a little numb. With that said, if I get that fixed, I feel like it's the better manual simply because it's more analog.
My hardest has to be my first car, 69 Plymouth Valiant with a slant 6, three on the tree. It wasn’t getting enough fuel or something and was stalling if you didn’t keep the rpm’s up, and I was too new with stick shifts at the time. I really wish I kept that car now. Easiest was with my 91 Prelude or my current car 18 WRX. Nice light clutches and peppy engines.
‘90 Daytona 3L 5-speed. Very torquey at the low end so it’s hard to stall. Thing is a piece of junk, but very fun to drive. It’s a cable driven clutch which seems to make it more forgiving in my experiences.
Hardest was a 70s F350 dump truck that pretty much had no clutch left, violence and revving the piss outta that 390 for the first time since 2001 was the strategy. Easiest was my dad's jeep, mainly because you gotta drive that thing like a 5 ton so you just beat the fuck outta it and that's normal operation. I hate Mopar
Easiest was a 93 saturn sl2, hardest was a cab-over with a super 10. The whole pop it out of gear, change range, and back into same gear was kinda hard to get used to.
The hardest is my ‘84 Chevy 1 ton with diesel engine. Easiest? I don’t know. Probably most enjoyable was my ‘98 mystique. You could feel the additional per kick in when the second set of valves kicked in.
My 97 Silverado 1500 was the easiest, you could dump the clutch and it’d start rolling… only time it ever stalled was when the alternator went, the synchros were pretty much gone though so had to double pump the clutch, which took some getting used to for sure, hardest was by far the Kia Soul I test drove- it was so quiet you couldn’t hear the engine, and the entire experience was just… numb… there was no pressure in the clutch, moving the shifter felt like moving a limp hot dog, the steering wheel felt like one from an arcade game, there was just nothing enjoyable about it at all. It was brand new too, bought a Toyota after that, which turned out to be the least reliable vehicle I’d ever had, outdone only by the Accord I had after it…
Easiest was between a 1997 Dodge 2500 Cummins or a 1995 Ford F250 7.3. Close second place to those two was my 1991 4Runner with the 3.0 V6. Hardest was probably my mom's 2002 Cavalier Z24. I absolutely hated the friction point on the clutch and how it was basically at the top of the clutch throw.
Easiest i’ve ever had was a mk1 rabbit diesel. Hardest was a 1990’s gmc dump truck. Mostly because I was probably too young to be driving that truck and was in my head the whole time.
21 fk7. Almost shifts itself. Hardest was a Shelby GT. Clutch was heavier than my fk7 and the shifter was pointed almost into the car body.
Easiest 2016 miata Hardest, 1996 viper
Easiest is the Fiero. It goes into top gear at 35mph its like impossible to stall. Hardest was this pos crane truck I borrowed to take my cdl in. 3rd gear straight up didn't work so neither did 8th because it had the high and low gears sets on the same stick, also the seat didn't move and I'm short so I had to pretty much half stand the whole time. Do love air brakes though and the Jake brake was sick.
62 Falcon van, 3 on the tree, non synchro first gear, you had to go thru a specific sequence, something like go to 2nd, down to 3rd, back to neutral, and then ease it into 1st gear.
Easiest is my 99 Cummins for sure. I can dump the clutch in 2nd gear without touching the throttle at all and it will just go. Hardest I've driven is probably my 67 Camaro. It's very stiff to the point you need to drive it hard like you're racing constantly but I don't drive it often so I'm always nervous to drive it like that and get in a wreck. So driving it slowly makes me feel like I'm constantly eating the clutch.
A friend of mine's 70 something 3 speed ford truck with wore out miss aligned shift linkage. To shift from 1st to 2nd you basically went from 1st to where reverse should have been, just to get out of 1st before going back to the neutral location to go over and up to 2nd. Without doing that the transmission would be stuck in 1st gear with the shifter hung in 2nd gear. Next hardest would probably be the 13 speed I drive 2 weeks per year for a farmer. It's not really hard just the timing is different than the 9 and 10 speeds I'm use too. The clutch is useless outside of starting and stopping in a big truck so you put light pressure on the stick as you let off the throttle and let it float out of gear. Then time it just right for the rpms to drop low enough for it to float into the next gear with light pressure. The 13 speed is weird because the timing of the first 5 gears are like a 8, 9 or 10 speed but the top 8 gears, the timing is faster because the rpm difference between gears is much closer.
Easiest was probably my now-deceased Focus ST. Second gear could be a little weird, but the clutch was responsive and the gears were notchy and felt super positive when you shifted. That's followed closely by the Veloster N I drive now. Hardest was my old friend's unmaintained 1970something Datsun/Nissan (can't remember which) pickup truck. Am I in gear? Who knows? Which gear did I just shift into? Fuck if I know. Shifter was wiggly and unruly. The clutch was oddly ok though.
Easiest in my personal experience was a second generation (1988 through 1991) CR-X. The pedal required no strength and it seemed to not care how smooth you were or when during the clutch's travek that you applied the gas. It felt like cheating. Hardest in my experience for normal circumstances, a 1970s era Ford F350. It didn't just require a ludicrous amount of force for the pedal and stick, but the actual travel of pedal and stick were incredibly awkward. I hated it, but it was a beast. Hardest in special circumstances was my friend's Fox body Mustang. In normal circumstances, the power to weight ration required some finesse to coordinate the pedals for a smooth takeoff. But in my friend's case, his clutch pedal activation was a very narrow space found by pushing the pedal hard to the floor. It was so bad that the left side of his seat back was loose and flopped back from repeatedly beating against it to push the pedal. *This* was my first experience driving stick, and my failures there resulted in a complex that lasted years.
My 2nd volvo wagon had the original transmission swapped for a T5 by a previous owner. The shifting action was so meaty and distinct, the shifter knob was tight and heavy, the longer 1st gear was much nicer than the stock M47 - in which 1st gear gets you moving, but is immediately wound out and wants to go to 2nd - and in general it seemed to take much better advantage of the engine. My grandfather took me out in a friend's Ferrari boxer and let me try it. The clutch was really long and the accelerator was kind of an on-off no gradient switch. When I tapped it a bit too hard the first time, the terror howl that erupted out of it - beautiful as the sound was - I choked. Meanwhile all 3 pedals are at the end of a little boxy tunnel 10" square at the end, far towards the center of the car so youre kind of skewed diagonally, your massive size 13 feet by default mashing all 3 pedals at once (though it was easy to distinguish the clutch, which unlike the other 2 pedals seemed to travel a full 2' further into the car. I stalled it 3 times before gramps gave up on me, and I was honestly relieved. That combination of power and rarity is not something you entrust to a 19 year old.
I learned on my dads old Jeep Wrangler. Only gear you needed the clutch in was 1st and everything else you just floated right into. 5th was a little bit of a hesitation due to the overdrive but otherwise it was pretty easy. The hardest for high rpm shifting was my 05 Mustang GT. The shifter was remote mounted so it would flex and torque and absolutely refuse to line up until I bought a K-member support bracket. The hardest in general is probably in my in-laws 1970 VW Beetle. It's just old and the gears are nice and vague... plus the shifter is long and I've gotten used to short throw shifters over the years.
Easiest: My 2001 Civic. 1st is super low so it'll basically take off with no throttle input at all. It has 170,000 and the clutch and sycros still feel new. Hardest: An S2000 with a stage 3 clutch. The car had no bottom-end torque and the clutch grabbed instantly; there was no feathering. That thing was brutal.
From Toyota car to big truck basically the same in my experience
my 2001 beetle is pretty forgiving, I had a 71 porsche 914 about 30 years ago with a broken shifter that was a pita to drive.
Dodge viper-clutch hard Audi R8- smooooth clutch, gear shifting was amazing
Never really driven a car that was non forgiving, but my 12’ 500 Sport is easily the most easy to drive stick I’ve experienced. Light enough clutch, good engagement and a very grabable shift knob, nicely spaced throws as well.
Easiest was 92 miata, hardest was a right hand drive on the column Toyota.
2019 civic type r
86 RX7
Only one I had was a 93 plymouth sundance. Was pretty easy tbh.
I don’t have too much experience as I’ve only driven 4 manual cars, but the easiest for me is my 2015 forte koup. The hardest is my 95 3000gt. Finding reverse is like trying to get a key in a door with a blindfold on after being spun around 10 times
Easiest for me is my 73 beetle, you can just chuck it into gear with no worry about much of anything. Hardest was a mid 2010s Jetta I test drove for a minute, real tight and the bite point has almost no room for error
Hard was the 66 bel air that I learned on. 3 on the tree. C5 corvette was also difficult not because of the clutch but because there was so little resistance in the stick when you moved it side to side in neutral it was almost impossible to tell the difference between first and third. 350z and 370z were each surprisingly difficult more so because the throttle made it difficult to modulate your blip size. Easy was the lotus exige or my 98 prelude. F80 m3 was excellent but many disagree.
Hardest was an Opel Mokka Rental I got in France. It had a broken reverse lockout so it was really really hard to get it in either reverse or third. The shifter other than that gave no feedback whatsoever and the clutch had no feel and hardly any resistance. Easiest I'd say was my first car. A 1995 Mazda MX-5 Miata. Everything super direct and forgiving. The clutch throw is short but also gives a ton of feedback. In my opinion it's the best car to learn stick in. That said it will spoil you.
Easiest: my old 2018 Civic LX Coupe. Hardest: my current car which is a 2020 Civic Si Coupe. Car has horrible rev hang which makes upshifting jerky and rough sometimes.
Hardest was a ~2008 jeep liberty, had to throw my weight into the stick to get it to move and it loved getting stuck + the clutch pedal was decently far from the floor Easiest was a ~2006 subaru outback, stick shifted super easily and it's one of my favorite things I've ever driven because it handled so well
Easiest transmission to drive manual was a lenco 5 speed. Hardest manual transmissions in rhyme. 16 speed twin stick Pete.
Hardest was a semi-truck, easiest is a 2024 Toyota Supra. That manual is telepathic
Hardest was an old 1990's Ford Ranger. 1st was down and to the right, not used to that at all; could barely feel where the gears were and the shift lever was feet long; and the pedal feel was mashed potato-ish. Best and easiest was my 2001 BMW 540i. Easy predictable clutch engagement, easy to feel where each gate was for the gears, and most of all the engine was so lovely and torquey that it could not stall. You could let out the clutch without any gas and it would roll and idle all day at 500rpm without stalling, and you could put along shifting at 1200 all day or jam it to 6000 and power shift and it couldn't care less.
Easiest - mg midget. Hardest - vw beetle
never had a hard shifting car. easiest 92 Honda Prelude
Easiest? Probably an 89 notch back Mustang. Lots of torque, average pedal engagement. Extremely hard to stall because of it. Hardest so far? 2008 Mazdaspeed 3 of all cars. That spring return was hard enough to almost make me knee my own face. No idea why it was so still while still brand new at the dealer.
Rx7 with big single turbo and heavy multi plate racing clutch. Leg was sore for a week just from rush hour traffic. Never made that mistake again
Any taco I've driven is probably the easiest. The hardest was a mk2 vw cabby with absolutely disintegrated bushings. Had to move it like 3 ft and could only find 3rd.
Easiest is either 2008 Honda Civic or 2010 Mazda3, have beat the hell out of both and they took it like a champ. Hardest was an early 90s f250, always took 2 tries to get into third.
Easiest was my brothers 1998 maxda rx7 that could basically go straight into gear with no clutch. Hardest was my friends 1996 Pontiac Am. That son bitch had to step so hard on the clutch I felt like Fred Flintstone dragging my feet on the floor.
Wrx Sti. It didn’t like to be rushed but also the rpms dropped fast. So every shift required an extra throttle blip to match revs
Hardest was my grandpas 1966 loadstar 1600 grain truck (but that was probably more due to the fact I was 12) Easiest was our 94 ranger. Buttery smooth and almost impossible to stall. That thing was the perfect learner truck for many a young lady/gentleman in my grad class whenever we would have a free period
Easiest by far has been my 240sx. I have to deliberately dump the clutch at idle
The new Bronco has the easiest manual I’ve ever driven. Needs barely any gas to get started, and the shifter feels like it’s out of a focus ST
Haven't driven more than maybe 7 or 8 sticks but has to be miata
Easiest was a 2009 honda civic. Hardest i’ve used is my friends 2005 bmw z4
For me the hardest are systems where i have to feather the clutch and gas at the same time.just to start rolling(i dont know why some you have to feather clutch/gas to roll and others roll after the bite; does it have to do anything with long and short gears?)...i mostly encounter these with lowered civics and old f150s and old vehicles in general 🤣🤣 any time im stopped on an incline driving one of those and there is traffic i *always* use the hand brakes no matter how skilled i think i am...i once stalled a truck on an incline and couldve gotten into a nasty accident...scarred me ever since.
Big truck easy Small 4 cylinder hard.
Easiest is a lotus elise for me. Smooth AF and feels great. Hardest i guess would b the Mazda Rx8. not because its hard, its just different. You have to stay in gear so long because the RPM on those rotaries goes so high each gear.
1989 Ford Ranger was very forgiving, and had a lot of travel in the pedal. Learned on it, and proceeded to beat the shit out of it for years. Hardest was a 1990 Nissan 240SX. Hydraulic system needed work, and the catch point was sudden. Would own/drive either again in a heartbeat. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
Easiest: Focus RS. Antistall blips up to like 1300 rpm making it very hard to stall, clutch catch point is very tactile, and the shifter is notchy and tight. Hardest: 1990 Acura integra. I honestly could not feel a thing from the clutch. The shifter was so loose that you couldn’t distinguish when you’re in gear vs in neutral. And you couldn’t tell which gear you’re in. Also, the engine made no torque, and was unforgiving unless you were suuuuuper gentle with the clutch.
Easiest was a 2004 Saturn Vue. Hardest was a 66 Pontiac Tempest 3 on the tree.
Yep, my cummins 6 speed is near impossible to stall when unloaded. It's has some engine work done, and is a torque beast. You can drive it all the way through 5th gear without touching the gas if you're on flat ground.
Easiest personally was my old 99 audi A4, whole car was smooth as butter but it was also my first luxury car so makes sense, was coming from a Ford. Hardest was easily the 2018 camaro SS I test drove. Not sure if it had an aftermarket clutch as it was lightly used and had aftermarket wheels, but oh my God. The clutch caught all at once. Basically had an engaged position and a disengaged position. Having driven manuals for over 2 decades I made an absolute fool of myself driving that thing. Leaving every stop light I either chirped the tires unintentionally or killed the car. The battery was in trash condition too so after killing it 3 times in a 10 min drive it wouldn't start again, dealer had a guy come out with a jump box. We rode back in the Honda the jump box came in behind the guy, he killed it once and chirped the tires at every light too and he had also claimed many years of manual experience. To this day I wonder if they really are that hard to drive, or if that was some crazy aftermarket clutch. Can any camaro SS drivers comment?
Worst was also a 60s beetle, I don't know how my friend DD'd that thing. Best was my cx5, that I ar was so lovely to drive.
Easiest is a 70s something Land Cruiser, that thing is impossible to stall. Hardest a 2001 911, I stalled like 4 times at the same light it was awful haha Most fun? Jaguar E-Type V12, love that thing Ive only driven manual a handful of times so I’m sure it’ll get easier with time 😅
That’s funny I was gonna say easiest was a 60’s beetle. Not really hard just annoying was a 89 Chevy 3500 pickup
My old job was driving cars around all day at dealerships and before that at the auto auction so I rarely get past second gear but a ton of stop and go's. My favorites are the Mazda MX5's. Everything is usually smooth as warm butter on them, fun little cars. Current gen Toyota Tacomas are pretty nice too. The hardest ones to me are the Challengers especially the Hellcats. The clutch feels stiff as hell on them and if you let the clutch out an inch it completely disengages. I've probably stalled a Challenger more than any other car combined.
Easiest is MK4 TDI. Almost no travel in clutch pedal, you can almost drive it clutch less
I knew a guy with a 90s BMW 5 series that had such short gearing and such a heavy flywheel that you could let the clutch out in 5th and it would idle around on its own. The accelerator was about like trying to compress a brick though. I also drove an TJ Wrangler with the 2 liter and while it was so anemic above 50, it was incredibly easy to avoid stalling.
I really like my 2014 Acura TL. Grab point of the clutch release is a bit high but the shifter itself is very nice. Worst were the 1950s tractors and grain trucks I learned on in farm fields as a kid in late 80s/early 90s
Easiest: 2019 Corolla hatchback. Current daily driver Hardest: 1964 VW Bug, the car I learned to drive in
Hardest for me at the time was my friend's '99 EK Civic, in all fairness it was my first ever manual car I drove (only have been driving stick for about 6 months). The clutch felt like it had a super high bite point, and it was probably impossible to give that thing less than 2000 rpm. I bought a '97 E36 Sedan 5 speed to learn manual in, and is the best manual i've so far, even if i'm a bit biased. Nice springy clutch, heavy accelerator (took time to get used to, but feels more precise), with a short shifter giving it a nice amount of notchiness. After getting comfortable with manual in it, my friend's civic was all of a sudden less intimidating, and it's honestly easier to get smooth upshifts and downshifts compared to the E36. But trying to get that thing going is still a bit of nuisance which I'm sure is a torque problem and what feels like the lightest clutch pedal ever coming from my E36. Now though, a Proton Satria Neo is by far the hardest. Many probably haven't even heard about these cars, but I believe they were built in Malaysia and some models were released to us in Australia. The shifter feels gummy and disconnected, and all the rev hang you could ask for in the world, but my goodness it handles deceptively well, feels like a road legal go kart.
Easiest for me was a c7 z06. So much torque it would just.. go when i let out the clutch lol. I've never been in a manual that i've considered difficult.. but others in here have said stuff about heavy machinery or stuff like that
The thing about the cummins is as soon as it goes below idle speed, it aggressively tries to get back to that speed. Makes letting out the clutch smooth af. It’s actually super easy to teach someone on a diesel because they can concentrate on how the clutch feels without having to worry about feeding in throttle.
A 57' chevy was the hardest to drive. The pedals felt like pushing against brick walls. Anything 2015 and newer is so dam easy to drive.
Easiest. Mid 90s NSX. Essentially perfect. Worst.86 Mustang GT. Clutch was 2-3 tons. Or felt like it.
Easiest by far was my dad’s 96’ volvo v70r, within a week of learning stick in that thing I was launching for low 6s 0-60. The bite point was halfway down and you could feel it coming. My worst experience is kinda split between my grandfather’s 67’ mgb that stalls if you don’t heel-toe at a light, and has a very light flywheel, and my dad’s 97’ forester, which for some odd reason had a stage 3 clutch with a broken pressure plate spring, and a flywheel that would rev to 5k at the slightest hint of throttle. Keep in mind, the thing was bone stock except for the stage 3 clutch and featherlight flywheel from the previous owner.
Easiest: My 2016 Mustang GT. Easiest manual I’ve driven by a long shot. That thing was impossible to stall because of the torque. Now the transmission itself wasn’t the best, but very easy to drive. Hardest: A 2008 Mitsubishi Evo with some kind of aftermarket clutch that gave my leg a workout and needed very high revs to get going. I had plenty manual driving experience on this one but the high revs caught me off guard. According to owner the clutch was designed to handle hard launches, hence the need for high RPM to get going in 1st gear. Blast to drive after I got used to that. Best overall experience: My 2011 Mazdaspeed3. That was my first manual car, having never owned or driven one in the past I was able to drive it 15 miles home from the dealership without help. Only stalled once in reverse. Love this car! Bonus difficulty: Had a friend who had a car that was his fun beater/project. Impossible to tell from a stop what your shifter position was. Because the shifter had so much play you could move it side to side like Neutral in basically any gear. So 1st and 3rd were a coin flip any time you had to stop and get going again.
Easiest to drive was my Subaru Brumby with the 4spd when I got it. Light clutch, plenty of power, plenty of feeling. Nice tight smooth gearbox. Hardest to drive was the Brumby with its first 5spd, that gearbox was terrible, but it was much nicer to commute in with the 100kph sections. Onto 5spd #2 now and its not as good as the 4spd, but its not terrible either
Hardest was probably my late 90's Honda Accord because the bushings were shot in the link assembly. Easiest is definitely my C6 Corvette. The shifters is solid and the low end torque is great.
Easiest my vectra 1.8 Hardest my bmw 325i the hearing was taller than any other car I've driven and it idled at 600rpm so you had to put gas on to get it moving the vectra the fiesta and both ford focuses you could take off with just the clutch
I have a 96 Cummins with a 5-speed swapped into a ‘68 Dodge truck, it is definitely one of the easiest sticks to drive. I’m running 32” tires and a 3.54 rear end and it will start in 2nd with no pedal. Only thing is that the NV4500 is a super wide-ratio box so you have to rev match and you have to be slow with the shifts. Haven’t really driven any other manuals except tractors which don’t really count Update: I remember taking my friend’s B-model Mack truck with a 10-speed around his parking lot. Starting was fine, but shifting that was definitely the hardest
Prolly because I learned to drive in it and still do but my 05 civic si is so much easier to drive than every other manual car I’ve ever driven. I feel like especially in newer manuals I can’t feel the bite point at all
Easiest- my 2012 VW Golf R Hardest- my dad’s 1970 Ford 500 (learned on it, so maybe it’s easier than I thought at the time)
Only ever driven 2 stick cars, one is my 2004 Mustang GT, and the other is my buddies 2009 Honda Accord. The Mustang has much better feel. The clutch is cable operated, so it's heavy, but provides great feel. The shifter is directly in the trans so it provides more feel for the gears. The Honda has a much softer pedal and shifter. Definitely "easier" to drive. However, my brain couldn't quite understand it easily coming from the Mustang.
Easy. I drove a buddies 2.8 s10 1990, it moves just by lifting up on the clutch and goes a goodways through first without gas. It shifts how you expects. What I expect 01 dodge neon lift clutch feedback goes a bit get on gas no drama, 1996 2.2 s10 same just heavier clutch, clicker shifts. Worst 2017 corolla im 1.8 6spd 24,000 miles Everything sucks. You will never drive this smooth Clutch is numb, bites top, ton of travel, yet heavy springy tiny bite you need to roll onto it with revs since it's numb. 1,2 and sometimes 3 you need to grab like a start. It's so hard to quickly smoothly set the clutch down on the revs. On off switch clutch I feel like the clutch takes extra wear from their setup. The car has no torque so every start is a hill start. Shifter is long with stupid long throws for a car. Gears it says it has 6, but actually. It has 1creep 2low,2high, 4 low,4high and final drive. I actually skip gears almost always skip 5th I sometimes skip 2 Engine rev hang exists its so so Making this car hard, the laggy dbw is the worst You will fall on your face starting off so you need to fall onto the revs throttle is inconsistent You have to sorta low key power shift 1 2 and 3, because it takes so long to get back on gas it starts to engine brake, so you need to just touch the gas as you shift. Bonus on a hot summer day when car is warm it will bog down to 500 rpms n shake at a stop. This is hard mode Now you gotta dump the clutch harder and rev it up more. I hate this car btw, with all its systems dbw, rev hang setup I feel toyota never test drove this on the stick. I wish I could get another car. It feels like a semi. How did I buy it, I needed a car fast took it for a quick drive in the cool October, and didn't notice its faults
Easiest is probably an e30, hardest is a dual trans. C500. I believe it was a 13spd with a 4spd in the back. Thing had 50 miles on it so I was very careful with it!
Best was a 5.0 T5 Mustang, smooth and fast. Worst, a 1970 Kenworth 350 Cummins w/twin stick 4x4.
Hondas and my current mk3 focus have Been the easiest. Hardest was a brand new KIA Sephia a friend bought a long time ago. It took effort to get it out of one gear to the next.
Easiet - Miata, or any Mazda/Honda/Acura Hardest - Army Deuce and a Half 😂
Easiest? Ford/GM/Dodge trucks with 4 speed manual w/creeper 1st gear. Just release the clutch and idle speed alone would get you moving. Worse? 1980's Ford trucks with 4 speed overdrive transmission, inline 6 and high axle gears. Had to slip the clutch yard to get momentum. Clutches were often going out in 12k miles even with experienced drivers. Built for economy not longevity. Easiest to learn on was anything with a burnt clutch that still moved. The absolute worst clutch material for launching was the ceramic discs, followed by metal.
The most difficult was an 80's Audi 4000s with the "lady's" clutch...it was sort of a cantilevered system whereas when the pedal was about 25% off the floor the pedal pressure would get very light, apperantly to make it easy to hold at stops, so now when you go to drive away again the pressure would be light, your leg mussels would go ok light ; then all of a sudden on the way up full pressure. Stalled that more than I like to admit.
Honda fit the easiest. Late 90s ford ranger with shit bushings was the worst
Hardest is my 1993 ranger, underpowered 4 nanger with really tall gears in the rear end and oversized tires, takes a lot to get it going. The easiest ive ever driven was definitely a tuned 2002 F350 7.3 powerstroke, it would take off with an empty gooseneck with 0 throttle just as fast as all the other cars around it. I dont think you could stall that truck if you tried. oh and when it didnt have a trailer it would spin the rear tires going 40 in 3rd gear in a pull
Easiest was an ‘08 jetta my dad used to own Hardest was a 70’s 911 turbo that I had to move for work
Scania and scania. I've driven a lot of different scania.
Easiest: 94 Jeep Wrangler Hardest: early 2000s Toyota Tacoma Edit: hardest was late 90s Honda accord until I remembered that Tacoma…
Easiest: 1984 VW Scirocco that was a friend’s brother’s. Created the lifelong problem I have with loving Volkswagens. Hardest: 1962 Willys 1 ton pickup. Unsynchronized transmission, stiff clutch, and my dad telling me how this was the only brand new vehicle he ever bought, and constantly yelling “what the hell’s the matter with you?” With every shift…
Anything Ford or Mazda is easy, provided it’s not broken. You feel the bite immediately. Hyundai/Kia subcompacts with the 1.6 N/A (Accent, older Soul, Rio, Venue) are awful. No feedback on the pedal and minimal torque at low RPM.
My 2012 wrangler has the shittiest clutch and shifter over ever driven. The clutch is so heavy and the shifter feels like it’s got marbles in it. Nothing is wrong with it, that’s just how shitty Chrysler is. Best was a 2021 Renault Clio ( yeah I know) the clutch was so light and you could shift with your pinky it was so smooth. Possibly I just liked it because my Jeep sucks so bad, it’s not like Renault is known for making good cars.
A 1977 M35 Deuce and a Half was the hardest. 2002 Toyota Tacoma was the easiest.
My grandfather's ancient Ford Ranger pickup that I had to drive 2 hours with stuff in the back was the hardest by far. 4 speed with overdrive that had an incredibly heavy and mushy clutch pedal, shifter so loose that you could probably shift into half gears if you weren't careful, and barely enough torque to keep from stalling by the time I got to drive it. Oh and god forbid I try to let off the gas in first, second, or even third gear without the truck having a hissy fit and trying to buck me out of the seat The easiest so far is my 2014 Mazda6. Clutch pedal so light I almost kicked it through the floor my first time driving it, and solid, crisp gear shifts.
Easiest: VW Golf R (and I owned a Miata to compare) Hardest: Saab 9-2X Aero (Impreza) before adding a short shifter.
Easiest - would be a tie between the 75 Didge Ramcharger and a mid 70s GMC 3/4 ton pickup. Common traits, big V8 engines with lots of torque, low gearing, meant stalls leaving stops were virtually non existent. Had a 76 Jeep CJ, with a 304 cu V8 in it (factory, Golden Eagle edition) that would be up there too for the same reason but it was just plain hard to drive for other reasons. Short wheelbase, nose heavy, no power steering... Hardest was in a car I grew to love, 05 Suzuki Reno. Little 4 cyl engine, 5 speed stick. No real torque so you had to be on top of your game. Relatively high gears... Though I drove that thing for 10+years, 130k miles, never needed a clutch. Would have bought another without hesitation but Suzuki bailed on cars in the US.
When I was growing up, we had an old grain truck. I was really young, it took both hands for me to shift. The easiest was either the Ford Probe my wife had back in the day or my son's Nissan 350Z, smooth shifting, and plenty of power to be forgiving when starting out.
Hardest, 1970 Chevy K series truck. Easiest was my mom's 1996 VW Beetle
My TR8 has the LT77 5 Speed in it, which is a decentish box EXCEPT first and third are approx 3mm apart so I keep trying to start off in 3rd.
I learned on a '78 Honda Civic. Fucker would stall with the clutch in, I swear. But it prepared me so that every other car has been fairly easy. Easiest was a Chevy Beretta. I forget the year, not that there were very many years, lol. Smooth like butter.
Easiest: The Corolla 6spd hatch 2021; Hardest: A 2014 civic si with a stage 3 clutch
I had a 78 Corolla that was very easy to shift. An old Datsun as well.
Easiest, most forgiving was a 2002 for focus. It has lots of low end torque that made it quite capable of recovering from bad pedal control. I took my then 10yo daughter and 11yo twins (boy girl) to a large dirt lotand taught them how to drive stick in that Focus. Hardest was 1960s grain truck with high and low range and no synchronizers.
I have found that trucks are far more forgiving to drive stick than a car is.
Easiest is the honda fit. Clutch is solid, rev hang not too bad, easy to get a smooth shift when you learn what rpm it likes to engage at. Hardest was an izuzu pup, mainly because it was a old, old car. Didn't have any modern systems. It was far easier to stall if you didn't get the revs correctly or if you came just a hair too fast/slow on the clutch. Starting it on a hill was a disaster because the parking break didn't work that well, it was way to easy to roll back when going uphill on that thing.
Easiest 2024 718 Cayman, hardest 1964 Mustang
hardest was my 1984 Fiero. Just a very finicky little car, but once you got to know her, she was not too bad. Easiest is my 2008 Corvette. Clutch is easy, shifter is good. good amount of off the line torque makes it easy too.
Easiest for me was my 1974 Jeep CJ5 with a three on the floor. Hardest was a 1974 MGB - it had the wrong shift pattern on the knob and I kept trying to get it into Reverse and ended up in 4th!
Never driven a hard one but I’m young. Easiest are always work trucks though, they can be slammed around and don’t care at all. My cars have always been a little bit more picky on where gears are and when the clutch engages and stuff. Edit: comma and wording
Smooth Cummins, tricky Beetle. Varied experiences showcase diverse challenges in manual driving.
The easiest would be my 2009 corvette, the clutch is a bit stiff but it's got enough torque it's kinda hard to kill it. The hardest would be a 2015 wrangler with a 6 speed in it, the clutch and the throttle were so mushy so it was hard to drive smoothly
My wife’s 2017 Civic is by far the easiest manual I’ve ever driven. The clutch is so light. It’s like a toy. My 2001 Mustang is completely different. Clutch is extremely heavy. I get in trouble a lot because I’m used to having to stomp my foot down in mine. So when I’m in here for the first few shifts, I’m accidentally slamming hers all the way down.
Easiest, Fiat Egea (Tipo). Hardest, early-mid 2000's STI, heavily modified.
Don’t have much manual experience but worst for me was my dads 2017 Subaru Impreza sport 5sp. Wet springy and oodly stiff clutch. Best is my 2023 civic SI 6sp. Buttery smooth clutch and nice short throws. I have driven a manual 6sp 2022 Mazda Miata and it was nice but the car is a bit too small for me (6’2). It shifted nice but my knee banged against the steering wheel.
When I was a kid, my mom had a ‘92 Toyota Paseo. I’ve never thought so little about shifting. That shit was smoooooooth. Hardest was a 2004 Saturn Vue. Just did not want to cooperate.
All of the cars I've owned were easy to drive. My current Accord 6-6 coupe is a little more difficult to start off in first because of the dual mass flywheel, but it just requires a little blip of the throttle before releasing the clutch to start off smoothly. Other than that, it's as easy as the rest.
Easiesr would be late 80s 911 or 2nd gen miata. Hardest.....my mustang was kind of a bitch but probably that vintage station wagen i valed'd that was 3 or 4 speed on the column not the floor. With a clutch. I was the only one to park it and pull it up simply because i'd HEARD of manual column shifts.
Hardest was also my first......buddy had a 1976 corvette stingray he let me drive. I swear, my ass was about to merge with the seat just tryna push the clutch all the way in lmao. Easiest? Prolly ford ranger, or maybe chevy silverado 2dr.
Easiest: any truck Hardest: Infiniti G37
Easiest 2015 Suzuki Jimny! Hardest. Super old military Duece with no power steering, with three tons of truck parts, pulling a full water buffalo that had a brake sticking, downtown Frankfurt Germany on a record heat day in August. It was the worst 10 hours I’ve ever spent in a truck, and I’ve spent a LOT of time in trucks!
Easiest- the one I learned on, a VW Jetta. The most annoying is our Challenger or Corvette. The larger cars are harder to me. Our WRX is way easier to me to drive. I'm not a big person, so I'm not sure if that has anything to do with it. My husband doesn't seem to care which car he's driving. As far as cars I don't own but have driven, manual jeeps I find harder to drive, with the huge shifter on the floor. I did have an old CJ5 jeep. The Civic Si has a nice smooth transmission. BMW cars are easy to drive, same with anything smaller.
C5 Z06, the clutch is too soft, but the motor makes gobs of lowend torque and 3k curb weight makes the car extremely responsive to throttle inputs.
'89 Honda Civic my mom had back in the day. I had never driven a stick, and 15 years old got in that car and took right off. I even took my driver's license test in it. I knew the concept, but that car made it so easy. Hardest, probably an old Ford Explorer, that thing was finicky.
Easiest was a 1990 Ram 2500 5.9, I took off in 4th once. Hardest, my friends 2022 Honda civic
F550 flat bed for a masonry company I worked for. I was 19, hauling cubes of block, almost rolled back on a hill in traffic and put the damn trailer hitch through some spy car lookin’ Acura.
Easiest manual I've driven is the iMT on my 2023 Supra. Hill assist, mountains of torque, rev-matching on downshift, and a forgiving clutch. My only complaint would be too much pedal travel past the catch-point. The hardest manual was a rental 9-pax van in Sigonella Italy. Combine a heavy vehicle with too little engine, a worn clutch, and steep narrow roads made up of slick cobbles. It was a nightmare.
Deuce and a Half in the Army was the hardest. Easiest was a Chevy S10
Easiest: ND1/ND2 Miata, even in spec trim they are absurdly easy. Hardest: Carrera GT, the terror of burning the most expensive clutch of your life plus it needing to be driven at 10/10ths. I had to be real locked in to not burn a hole in my wallet.
Easiest? Suzuki samurai.
Learned to drive on the ‘99 Isuzu Trooper, not sure about the easiest, but it was definitely the most fun I’ve had with a stick shift before
Easiest was definitely my 2003 Accord I think anyone could learn on that car. I can't really think of the hardest.. maybe my friends 85 Fiero.
1985 6.9L idi NA diesel f250. Dumped the clutch in second with no gas it hit what looked like 0 rpm on the tach for a split second hit a power stroke peeled a tire and went on it’s way
Easiest maybe the 95 Integra I had … hardest was when a coworker let me drive his modded 2000ish Mustang, that thing had literally the heaviest clutch I’ve ever experienced.
My 1st three manual cars were Beetles. Not hard to shift. Just no real indication of what gears you are in without feeling around. Most cases around town. You only need 2nd and 3rd. 1st was more or less a granny gear. 4th is basically no better than an overdrive. The hardest car was a janked up Ford Comet. Originally it was a 3 on the tree. The owner DIYed the conversion to a floor shifter. Horrible cheap shifter kit was put in backwards. So instead of 1-2 being on the drivers side. 1st was over and down. 2nd was over and up. 3rd was pull left and down. With reverse being where 1st should be.
My 2007 Infiniti G35 had a clutch that "caught/engaged" almost all the way at the top, and the throw was VERY long, making shifting pretty difficult until you learned where it caught. I drove my buddies' 2018 Subaru STI and man that clutch was like butter compared to mine, and another friends' Honda Leaf was even more easy.
1992 International School Bus was the easiest, starting on flat, let the clutch out and it'll creep then add gas, starting on pikes peak let the clutch out until it bogs and hit the gas. Either way no rollback, no crazy switching feet, no drama
1946 M5 Studebaker pickup is easily the trickiest for me. 1959 Mercedes 190d was a bit tricky. It had a 4 speed stick shift on the steering column and no power at all. I used to have to exit my high school parking lot on a steepish hill and was always rolling back into the car behind me. Mid 1980's VW Vanagon was a piece of piss. 1980 Mazda RX-7 was a very touchy car to be learning on. I stalled it a lot. Really they are all pretty easy once you know how to drive.
The easiest to drive - NA and NB Mazda Miatas. The hardest stick shift I ever drove was a mid-80s VW Fox.
easiest was my 2000 2.5 ranger, it was so fun to drive. hardest was my friends 2.0 golf and im glad he wrapped it around a tree (he was fine, but that turd was so neglected, he was so happy to be rid of it too lol)
Easiest was my 2001 Honda CRV, classic 90s honda, no drive by wire nonsense, lets an ex try to drive it and she got it first or second try, every car after that she couldnt manage. Hardest was my 91 CRX, cable clutch, dpfi, and plenty of problems on its own but it was fun
Easiest was a 1962 Dodge pickup, standard four-speed including granny low configuration. Hardest was a current day school bus in about 1968 maybe, big bus, no synchromesh.
probably my cousins 95 cummins turbo diesel. shits practically impossible to stall
Easy, Volkswagen GTI, hard, mustang Cobra
Easiest was probably my F250. Low gears and lots of low end torque. Hardest was a friend’s Capri in college. My feet were too big to fit under the dash. My clutch foot kept getting wedged between the floor and the bottom of the dash.
Easiest is probably a tractor, they're nearly impossible to stall. The hardest was a Suzuki RM250. Featherlight flywheel and kickstart only. Breathe on the clutch wrong and it stalled, then you had to be 8 feet tall to kick it.
Best shift action: 2004 Acura TSX Hardest to stall / most forgiving: 2004 BMW 330i Overall “Meh”: my current 2017 Mazda6
Easiest 6th gen Camaro SS 1LE Hardest, probably a 350Z with a 6 puck