stick shift?

luvgravy

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 30, 2004
Location
Ingersoll, Ontario
TDI
2004, Jetta TDI Sport 5-speed, Spice Red w/ ESP, Side Air Curtain, Sunroof
Piece of cake. I went 6 months without driving stick. I know it's not a huge length of time, but I found the manual tranny on the TDI very easy to work.
 

Elinsky

Well-known member
Joined
May 16, 2001
Location
Maryland
TDI
Used to own 2001 Golf 5-speed, black
I went 20 YEARS without driving a stick, before I got my Golf TDI in 2001. I went into the dealer intending to test-drive an automatic. They didn't have any, so the salesman encouraged me to try the stick instead.

One great thing about the diesel engine with stickshift is that it's easy to start moving uphill with no rollback, without touching the handbrake and without smoking the clutch. Getting started uphill was the thing I disliked most about stickshift.
 

tjl

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 19, 2001
Location
California, USA
TDI
2001 Golf GLS
[ QUOTE ]
how easy is it to relearn stick shift on a TDI?

[/ QUOTE ]

The a4 cars with the ALH engine are among the easiest to drive a manual transmission on. Just letting the clutch out slowly from a dead stop allows the car to smoothly start forward (even with no foot on the accelerator); it will idle along in first moving forward with no need to press the accelerator.
 

TDITig

New member
Joined
May 18, 2004
Oh soo nice to hear!

I drove a stick shift for about a year right after I got my liscense. I loved it, especially my mom's Jeep that was very easy to shift. But we got me an automatic because it was easier, so since about 1995 I have driven auto. My bf took me around a parking lot in hopes to getitng me used to a stick again- and I did alright... but Cincy is hilly.

I am thinking about getting a stick shift TDI since autos are hard to find.

keep the comments coming /images/graemlins/smile.gif
 

o2photo

Well-known member
Joined
May 25, 2003
No problems driving this stick. My job requires me to drive at slow speeds around properties, about 5-15mph. With my Nissan p/u, there was always lots of clutch play to keep it at that speed without stalling. To my amazement, the TDI will idle in 2nd right at 10mph without any throttle or clutch down OR up hills. It really was nice. On flat surfaces even I would be able to ease the clutch out without any throttle and get going. I say this because it makes it *really* easy to drive in heavy traffic. If you stall it, you're trying awful hard to stall it.

Marc
 
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