new manual driver - advice needed

you are probably in too high a gear and should be moving down

you are still in too high a gear, move down through the gears and use a combination of brakes, clutch and gearchanging

yes, you are right, move down through the gears

You should be slowing down the car using the gears and brakes. When you are going over speed bumps the idea is to slow down. Depending on the type of speed bump will determine how fast you can go over them, or how slow you need to take them. sometimes you can speed up slightly as you go over them but not before it.

Try to be responsible and go slow, as they are there to prevent accidents involving pedestrians. Dont ride the clutch too often or else you will wear it out. Get used to going down through the gears to slow down. Its better for the car too. will take a bit of getting used to though, and expect some high revs and shudders initially. You will get the hang of it though.

It depends on the speed bump and may take some practice but learn to approach at just sufficient speed such that if you depress the clutch and hold it in just prior to coming to the speed bump, your car has sufficient momentum just to get the front wheels and possibly the back wheels over it. If it is a really elevated speed bump, then you may only be able to get the front wheels clear before you need to engage the clutch to get enough additional momentum to get the real wheels over using the same technique. Basic rule of thumb on such speed bumps is to get the wheels over them with the clutch disengaged. It will take practice but don't obsess about clutch wear in that situation. Clutch wear occurs mostly as a result of bad habits like "riding" the clutch at stops.

Hard to say without knowing how large or wode the bumps are - but if you would typically be driving in, say, second gear in the parking lot, then just push out the clutch pedal as you reach the bump, ride over it, then resume driving in whatever gear you were in BEFORE the speed bump. You should not lose much speed over the bump. It's probably easier to do this in second gear, as first is pretty low in most cars.

And if you do slow down while driving by downshifting, make sure you 'blip' the throttle to match the revs. In other words, as you push the clutch pedal out, you rev the engine slightly to try and match where the engine will be revving when you release the clutch pedal and engage the lower gear. It's an acquired skill, and can be more difficult if your car has a drive-by-wire throttle (which yours, in all likelihod, doesn't have). Otherwise, just slamming it into a lower gear will cause excess wear and tear on both the clutch and transmission.

Dan D '04 A4 1.8Tq MT-6 Central NJ USA

Probably would have been better off waiting before buying a brand new motor until you had some kind of driving instruction and test!

Shudders on braking? Something wrong there.

You will wear clutch out.

The car has an anti-stall, even if you take your foot off the clutch and have your foot off the accelerator, it will very gradually increase the revs to prevent a stall.

As you arrive at the speed bump, you should have enough momentum (even at a slow speed) to put it into neutral, foot off the clutch and let the car go over the speed bump. Then stick it into second and go. (For a diesel stick it into first).

How can he pick a gear lower than first?

-- Mike Smith

He's probably braking but not putting the clutch back in, so it's probably kangarooing down the road.

In the UK people are more scared of learning to drive an automatic after being used to a manual, or should I say, stick-shift. We don't know what to do with our left foot when faced without a clutch!

I tuck my left foot to the right, or if I'm driving one for a few days, get into left foot braking.