Hi guys just got my 08 Civic Si yesterday. This is my first car I have owned that is manual. My name is Cody I'm 21 and I'm from Northwest Indiana (Chicago Region) and so far I'm loving the car. I traded in my 09 Scion tC automatic and I can tell you I'm sure glad I did. The Si is such a better car you can't really compare them. I chose Honda cause I wanted a good FWD car that is reliable and gets good gas mileage. Plus I heard that they are really good to learn how to drive manual with. Prior to buying this car I had maybe a total 1 hour of seat time in other peoples manual cars. Prior to going to the dealership I havn't touched a manual car since I was 16. I told the salesman I hadn't driven a manual in a few years and that I wasn't comfortable on the road with one yet. He was very cool about it and took me to an empty parking lot and I took over from there. Got in the car and was immediately driving it around in first and second gear. Within ten minutes I was on the roads with it driving through residential areas for about a half hour getting up to fourth gear. After that the salesman wanted to challenge me in moderately heavy traffic and I did that like a pro for about twenty minutes. Out of my test drive I only stalled the car once but it was only because I was trying to find the catching point of the clutch and it happened about 30 minutes into the test drive. Another thing is I drove in heavy rain the entire time. So after I bought the car I had an hour ride home from the dealership and it was still pouring outside. I stalled a few more times on the way home but only cause I was driving in stop and go traffic and I was very tired. Still got to get used to taking off in first smoothly but that's my only problem. I know I'm not hurting the car just makes you feel really dumb when you got people laying on the horn behind you but it makes you learn fast. Took it out driving this morning and stalled a few more times but I'm determined to get it down. I can already tell I'm getting better but it's gonna take a lot more seat time. My buddies are amazed at how smooth and easy of a car it is to drive and told me I made the right choice for a begginners car. Another thing is on the way home the car popped out of third gear into nuetral but I'm not sure if it was error on my part or the car. It hasn't done it since but it gave me a good scare for a secord. Anyways I look forward to being an active member on these forums and meeting lots of other Honda Civic owners.

 

Welcome to the forum. I remember learning manual years ago. Once you learn it, you will never forget how to do it. I didn't actually get the "hang" of it (rev matching while down shifting etc) until I was driving manual for ~6 months.

Good to hear you made the switch. Manual is sooo much better than AT in my opinion.

Just keep an eye out for that 3rd gear pop out. If it continually happens, there may be a problem with the transmission. Good luck with the new car.

 

Yeah I'm on day three now and havn't stalled anymore. Taking off in first gear is getting easier and I'm gradually getting faster at it. I havn't really messed around with rev matching yet but I have tried it a little bit in the lower gears and I do alright at it. I did a little research on the 3rd gear popping out and it seems like its common on the 08 model. I would hope it wouldn't have trans problems. It only has 51k on it.