Clutch in, downshift.
This is a world for manual lovers. There’s something about being in control of a car with a gearbox.
Self-taught Manual Driver.
My first time experience driving a manual.
For starters, my first manual transmission car was not a BMW. It was an ’04 Audi A4. I bought it for $1,500 and it needed a crap ton of work. Of course at this point, I hadn’t started working on my own cars yet (just oil changes, which don’t even count). So my time with the car didn’t last long but I learned how to stall and how not-to-stall in that car.
My first time stalling was on a hill that was at a 15° angle. It was right around the corner from my house (about 60 feet away) when all of a sudden the car jerked back and forth really hard. I’m in the car by myself, holding up cars behind me with no idea what to do. I put my hazards on and sat there, listening to the clicks. At this point, I wanted to leave the car there and say “to hell with it” but this was my new daily.
I figured out how to turn the car back on (without stalling), and managed to drive around the neighborhood. I kept practicing every day (while driving to work) until eventually, I got the hang of it. After a very short period of time, I realized that I was obsessed with driving manual transmission cars. A few cars after that one, I bought a ’17 BMW 340i xDrive with a 6-speed manual transmission and the rest is history.
Here are the interior pictures of the Audi. This was one of the cleanest interiors I had ever seen at the time I purchased the car. I really, really miss this car. I always wanted to buy another one to experience long-term ownership.
