Long story short: I’m (24M) American, and I’m visiting my long-distance Romanian boyfriend for the first time soon. In Romania, most cars are manual - including all the ones owned by my boyfriend’s family (I’ll be staying with them). I’ve never driven a manual before. His dad told me he can give me a quick lesson, and that I’m welcome to use their cars if I want; otherwise, I can rent an automatic. I don’t have access to any manual cars here in the U.S. to practice on, so I’m not sure what to do.
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I would recommend practicing on a truck at first. The clutch is beefier and can take the punishment of a newbie, and you’ll get more of an idea of how the clutch feels when it engages.
Trucks don’t have too much to do with it. It’s completely different per car in general. I’ve driven in cars that are almost impossible to stall.
Hondas (90s) have been the easiet manual to get moving I’ve ever seen. You practically can’t stall them. (Toyatas too, 90’s Corollas are something else).
And I disagree with the truck - those can make learning harder. One of the hardest I’ve ever driven was a Ford from the 90’s. Heavy as hell clutch that was too small, terrible gear ratios so starting off was a bitch, with big gaps between the gears so you had to run out each gear until you ran out of revs.
But I’ve also driven old trucks with granny gears - an extra-low gear below first for getting moving with a heavy load. Those you just let off the clutch and the truck moves at a walking pace.
It’s less the stalling and more that the clutch is heavy duty and can take the abuse of a learner grinding it a lot more.
I guess it is like bicycling: there is a price to pay in blood 😉 My suggestion: in Romania, take a few hours of driving lessons with a professional teacher who can explain everything to you.
I think that’s overkill, he already knows how to drive.
He just needs to learn how to use the clutch. A few YouTube videos, and a few hours of practice getting used to the clutch and he should be good
Manuls aren’t super hard, but there’s definitely a learning curve you can’t avoid. Since you’ll be in a new country you’ll have enough going on and don’t want to add to any stress, I would really recommend renting an automatic.
Yeah, you’re going to stall the engine in the beginning. A lot. That means turning the engine back on in traffic in unfamiliar surroundings.
Also, if you’re going to be driving on any hills, you’ll need a separate new skill set for a manual car.
Stick to automatic, but take the offer to learn.
This. It takes a bit to figure out the rhythm, but it’s not hard once you know how it feels. If you do try it, definitely be prepared to be frustrated at least once and stall the car at least more than once (I know I did)!
Once you figure it out, though, it can be much more fun and engaging (and sometimes more annoying) than an automatic.
EDIT: that said, if you’re really concerned about it, don’t be ashamed to rent the automatic!
Are you sure you will be allowed to drive a manual car in Romania with your American license if you didn’t take the test with a manual car? I live in a different European country and here if you take the test with an automatic car, you are only allowed to drive automatic cars. You should research this.
It’s definitely different from an automatic car and requires more concentration. Once you get used to it, it’s not difficult. I was older than you are now when I learned to drive at all (which I did on a manual car) and managed it anyway.
US licenses don’t differentiate. There’s no way to tell by the license which transmission you used on the test. Shouldn’t be a problem.
For that exact reason some countries (my country included) don’t accept an American license unless you do a test here first.
Though IIRC, that applies for both manuals and automatics, because American drivers education isn’t really trusted here.
With the Geneva convention on Road Traffic they must recognize it, at least for visitors. However you are probably right if OP tried to move there and get a local license, they’d need to retest.
I have my US (state) driver’s license & my IDP, neither which specify manual/automatic, so there’s nothing stopping me from driving a manual legally. In Romania, from what my bf told me, if you pass your test on an automatic you can de jure only drive automatic as you have a marker on your license, but de facto you can drive whatever as there are no actual legal penalties mentioned in the law for driving a manual with a marked license.
When I was in Romania last year the rental company (enterprise) wouldn’t accept my US driver license…not sure if it is Romanian law or company policy though.
You also need an IDP: “U.S. citizens who wish to drive in Romania must have an International Driving Permit (IDP) in addition to the valid U.S. state drivers’ license (DL).” https://ro.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/additional-resources-for-u-s-citizens/driving-in-romania/
Ah missed you said you have your international drivers permit. You’re good then, and there’s a lot of country roads in Romania to learn on…I say give learning manual a shot :)
You might want to check the details here: I know that in some European countries, you’ll have trouble renting a car at all with an American license unless you pass a driving test in a European country first to get certified. In fact, in several countries I don’t think an American license is valid at all until you pass a test. It’s probably worth checking out the details for Romania.
Generally you are allowed to drive whatever you could at home. Since US licenses allow you to drive a manual you can drive a manual even if you never had. By contrast if you are from a country that makes the distinction you can’t drive a manual even if you have been practicing (how?) and just need to do the final test to drive a manual. (I’m not sure how someone without a manual endorsement would go about getting it in such countries, but whatever that process is)
I don’t really think there’s any “generally” here: It differs quite a bit between countries. I believe in some countries they won’t allow you to drive a manual unless your license specifies it (i.e. an American license isn’t valid for a manual).
The US doesn’t have licenses differentiated for automatic or manual, well, none of the 8 states I’ve lived in anyway, so there’s no way for Romania to know.
No it’s pretty general. Check out the following international treaties:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_Convention_on_Road_Traffic
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vienna_Convention_on_Road_Traffic
As a benefit of these treaties, if I so chose (and we’re rich) I could even ship my car to Europe and just drive it around (up to 6 months) without really doing anything! It doesn’t need to meet most any of the EU car rules either.
Now if I tried to permanently import it, I’d have to make modifications like light colors and such to make it legal.
But really for visitors the rules are pretty lax. You need an international driving permit which is really just a translated license.
You can forget these international treaties. No Romanian policeman is supposed to know or observe them.
Romanian law is what counts.
Soon there will be some EU law regarding driver’s licenses, but not yet.
Foreigners driving around isn’t that uncommon, especially in Europe…
Sure it’s possible that if stopped you may get hassled more than usual, made to wait while the officer asks the station what to do but there’s no real risk of anything more than that.
It takes a bit of practice. A few minutes of instruction can show you how it works, but then you will want to actually practice (maybe an hour or so) on some quiet roads before driving in traffic.
Its not hard to learn but it does take time to become confortable with it. I recommend renting a car. Driving manual car for the first time with the added stress of driving in a different county is a recipe for disaster. By all means try it. Take up the offer of that lesson, but its unwise to have to rely on a manual car for transport when you’ve never driven one before.
But also make sure you actually need a car. The US is built with fully car dependent infrastructure, so americans are taught their whole lives to just assume they always need a car. That isn’t the case everywhere, and might not be where you’re going. Be sure to check.
Takes a bit of practice to get the feel for it but it’s not too hard. 90% of the learning curve is just getting the car rolling from a dead stop without stalling
And learning how to properly shift. While the car surging and stopping was funny while I learned, you don’t want to do that on a busy thoroughfare. Just make sure to practice someplace quiet and you’ll pick it up pretty quick.
Getting the car to start rolling up a hill instead of down it backwards is also an important thing to get the hang of before someone is right behind you in traffic.
Luckily you can always fall back to a handbrake start if you need to, I’ll usually always do that if I’m driving a car I’m not at all used to and find myself in an uphill start.
Manual is for the big boys
We men just love touching shafts.
Unless you’re OK with looking foolish in front of your boyfriend’s dad, I would rent an automatic. You also have the possibility of damaging the clutch if you’re not careful.
That said, it shouldn’t take more than an afternoon to get the hang of it, so, either way.
Looking foolish? It’s Romania. The only foolish thing to do is to not try.
I mean, damaging the clutch takes a LONG TIME. I abused my first car learning to drive and it was just fine throughout the 8 years I owned it.
Depends on how bad you are. You can glaze a clutch in an afternoon.
It’s not hard. It’s just a pain in the ass.
Nah, takes you 15 minutes to learn, and just a few weeks of practice to make it perfectly smooth
If the clutch survives.
If the clutch doesn’t survive, it was already near failure anyway.
There’s always a few topics that bring the most annoying people out and manual driving is one of them.
No a learner isn’t going to destroy a clutch. You could also grind a gear a dozen times in a learner session and still not strip it.
These types of shitty comments only keep people from trying new things out of fear or embarrassments.
A learner could destroy a clutch (I’ve seen it, though it was a long time ago when clutches weren’t as good as today), but it’s not likely these days. Plus I’m not going to let a learner destroy a clutch by using a method that helps them really get a feel for it: have them get the car moving without using the gas.
Hard revving and riding the clutch out would be far harder on a clutch than the slipping needed to get moving without touching the gas.
Driving manual is not difficult, but unlike the opposite scenario, it’s not something you can learn with only short instructions.
It does take time to develop the motor skills in order do it without thinking about it. The practice wlll take maybe an afternoon or two if you do nothing else. I’d advise you to do it over more than one day to allow yourself to sleep on it and come back at it
Once you’ve learned it, you’ll never think about it again though.
Since they say they will be giving you a quick lesson… might be allright. It will most likely need some time to get used to it but you might be fine. See how the quick lesson goes? They might show you around the neighborhood for you to then drive around yourself and get used to it a bit.
It will be a whole another thing to keep in mind so be extra careful with your driving probably
Driving a manual is easy if you already know how to drive. I got my lesson from a dude who sold me my first manual. You’ll fuck up a bit but you won’t break anything.
Take the automatic if you’re worried and just enjoy your vacation
I’m teaching my 15 year old how to drive and we drive a manual transmission. She’s doing just a well as her three older siblings that learned on automatics.
