GOLFMK8
GOLFMK7
GOLFMK6
GOLFMKV

Shifter

grambles423

Automotive Engineer
I totally agree. But, the beginner stick shift experience puts doubt in me. :)

You'll get the hang of it. Its all about practice. Just as you would riding a skateboard or skiing or anything like the sort.

You picked a very good car to start learning though. The smoothness wouldve been great when I learned on a 93 ford ranger....talk about murder. Clutch travel was ridiculous and the loooonnnngggg shifter provided for 2sec shifts. lulz
 

msm00b

Ready to race!
With my 2010 GTI manual shifter, changing from 5th to 6th gear often ends up in 4th. Anyone have that problem?



For some, DSG really is the only plausible option.
 

DenverFlash

New member
Thanks for all the input. To explain further, it's not that I don't know how to shift - I'm a 55-year-old car nut whose had numerous cars with manuals, including muscle cars. I just haven't had one where I had to push to the right that hard. It feels like a distinct notch that requires you to shift back to neutral, push hard to the right, then back. I guess it's just preloaded for easy 5-4 downshifts.
 

msm00b

Ready to race!
It's not at all preloaded and should not require any excessive lateral traction. If it doesn't smoothly transition from 5th to 6th you need to take it in to the dealership.
 

Tailwagger

Ready to race!
I'll quote myself from the other thread on shifting.
tailwagger said:
Most people shift with thumb up, palm facing their leg. On up shifts, try holding the shift with your thumb facing down, palm facing the passenger seat. Why? Because the natural tendency when your shift thumb up is to think you're moving away from your body, but in fact the tendency is to pull in toward it. If you hold the shift palm out, thumb down, you simply cant pull the gear lever towards you, it has to move outward. This is especially true on a fast 3-4 or 5-6 upshift were a mistake can cost you your motor.
This will feel a little awkward at first, but its virtually impossible to catch 2nd or 4th when upshifting from 3 or 5, if you use this technique.
 

msm00b

Ready to race!
I've never had a problem grabbing the right gear with the first hold you mentioned.
 

Tailwagger

Ready to race!
I've never had a problem grabbing the right gear with the first hold you mentioned.
Which doesnt mean you ultimately wont have one. For the record, neither had I in thirty+ years of driving sticks. Until one day coming out onto the front straight at the Glen going three wide (moving right) I pulled what I thought was straight back into fourth and found second. This is otherwise known as the infamous money shift. It only takes being off by an inch, once out of several hundred thousand properly executed shifts. It will happen when you're under pressure and focused elsewhere. Now typically on the street the mistake that most people make is to shift to 4th from 5th when they wanted to go to 6th. They get away with it as they're not anywhere near the top of 5th when they shift. But it can still happen on the street. If, as a hypothetical, you are accelerating hard onto a highway deep in third, head turned left checking your driver's mirror to see if you can merge in front of the oncoming semi looming in the right lane, its incredibly easy to pull that lever an inch toward you rather than straight back. Consider that a redline shift out of third into second will instantly send your motor to somewhere over 9 grand assuming you dont just shatter the clutch in which case you're lucky. If you're unfortunate enough to ever have something like this happen to you, two milliseconds after you hear your now twisted valves rattling around in the top of your now destroyed motor you'll know why you might have considered altering your current style. Cheap insurance against such a mishap and well worth learning.
 

Marvin

Ready to race!
I find that a lot of drivers, who have problems with gear changing and where there isn't one, (when I drive their cars), are grabbing their gear lever as if their life depended on it. Most gear changes don't require more than the slightest of pressure to move the gear lever acrosss the gait.
Similarly changing, say, from 2nd to 3rd requires nothing more than pushing the lever towards the front of the car as it will automatically go across into the 3rd/4th gear plane.
This also applies when changing down from, say, 5th to 4th and 6th to 3rd - just to use two examples. If you grab the gear knob too firmly and try to force it you sort of override its natural ability to find its own way into the proper position and this often results in wrongly selected gears.
 

NoCaution

SofaKingEuro.com
I've never had a problem, but I was taught to shift with my palm flat on the shifter. I use minimal pressure, and simply angle my hand in the direction of the next gear. If you look at the diagram on the top of the knob:

(X) = Palm placement

(6)----(4)----(2)

-----1 -3 -5
-----¦ ¬¦ ¬¦
-----2 -4 -6

(5)----(3)----(1)


So going from 5th to 6th, is as simple as placing my palm at about 10:30 and pushing in that direction. The only time I ever mis-shift is when I attempt to "grab" the shifter with my fist, and force it (usually, from 2nd to 3rd).
 
Top