I've scoured various car buying sites looking for one thing: a manual transmission. After about 2 months of dedicated searching, I found a G37S. Even though I don't know how to drive a stick myself, I still got it.

I've been driving it almost everyday for about a month with my dad, trying to learn. Most people say that getting going is the hardest part and changing gears is easier. For me it's the opposite. I've gotten used to where the clutch bites and can get going pretty smoothly (most of the time haha). But for the life of me I can't shift. I'm missing something. Please help.



More pics to come - eventually...

 

What specific issue are you having with shifting?

 

I guess the timing. I'm not letting out the clutch just right and feeding in the gas. It's really jerky and makes bad noises as you can imagine.

 

It's in the timing. Try giving it just a hint of throttle until the clutch is completely engaged (pedal at the top). Or start out with not giving it any throttle until engaged.

 

I'll try doing that within the week and see how it goes. Thanks.

 

Welcome to the site, the G probably isn't the best vehicle to learn to drive a stick shift as the clutch isn't the most forgiving and the extra power will amplify your mistakes. Here's a youtube google, I'd give some of these a look just get some tips, and having a visual usually helps. Good Luck and I'd stick to driving that G in safe uncrowded places for the short term.
https://www.google.com/search?q=yout...utf-8&oe=utf-8

 

I hadn't driven the car in about 5 days, and I guess that helped. I was overthinking the shifts waaaay too much, and this little break was like a reset.

 

lol I can kinda relate. When I bought my Altima 6-spd I hadn't perfected driving stick but I wanted one so bad. The salesman made me test drive it because at first I was hesitant. He ended up having to get it out of the parking spot because there was a slight grade and I couldn't get it out. Somehow I managed to do okay on the test drive but I was scared as hell. But I think the Altima was worst to learn on than the G. The shifter was very notchy and the clutch was unforgiving and lacked feeling. The G felt like heaven the first time I drove it and that was after not driving the Altima for about 7 months.

I was confident enough to drive the Altima by myself after I bought it but it took a while and a lot of stalling to get it down. But it's one of those things that it just takes practice over time. And I really feel like once you get the physical steps down, to get it smoothed out is more so a feel thing. Pay attention to that good shift you get every once in a while, pay attention to how the car sounds and try and duplicate it. For me, I learned where the catch point was and once I figured that out I do a VERY slight pause(wouldn't even call it a pause, more so a slow down in the release of the clutch pedal) at that catch point and that really smoothed out the shifts for me. But obviously don't pause too long as that will burn up the clutch over time.

But the key is practice and feel it. And smart to take a break.