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Manual Driving Lesson
One-on-one lesson in a dual-control manual car. Learn clutch control, gear changes and hill starts. A manual licence lets you drive both manual and automatic cars.
Every lesson is one-on-one, in a manual car fitted with dual controls. There is a second set of pedals on my side, including a clutch, so I can help if the car stalls or starts rolling back.
Manual takes longer to learn than automatic. There is no way around that. The clutch is the hard part, and almost everybody stalls in the first lesson. This is normal and it is not a problem. Once your left foot learns what it is doing, the rest comes quickly.
What you will learn
We start in a quiet street with the car stopped. You will practise finding the clutch bite point before we drive anywhere. After that:
Moving off and stopping smoothly
Changing up and down through the gears
Hill starts, without rolling back
Slow driving, car parks and traffic
Roundabouts, and picking the right gear before you get there
Highway driving and country roads
I explain the road rules and the signs while we drive. When we pass something learners often get wrong, I stop and explain it. This is part of every lesson and there is no extra charge for it.
Why choose manual
If you pass your driving test in a manual car, your licence has no transmission condition on it. You can drive a manual and an automatic.
If you pass in an automatic, your licence says automatic vehicles only, and you would have to sit another driving test in a manual car later to remove it.
This matters if you think you will need to drive a work ute, a farm vehicle, a truck later on, or a friend's car. If you are sure you will only ever drive an automatic, then automatic is fine.
Coming from automatic
Some learners start in an automatic and change to manual. This works well. You already know the road rules, the mirrors and the traffic. You only have to learn the clutch and the gears, so it takes fewer lessons than starting from nothing.
Log book hours in NSW
If you are under 25, a lesson with a licensed driving instructor counts as three hours in your log book. One hour with me is recorded as three. This applies to your first ten lessons.
Night lessons work differently. Only the real hour counts towards your 20 night hours. The two bonus hours are recorded as day hours.
The full rules are on the Transport for NSW learner drivers page.
What's included
Dual-control manual car
There is a second set of pedals on my side, including a clutch. I can help if the car stalls or starts rolling back on a hill.Pick-up and drop-off
I pick you up from home, school or work, and drop you back at the end of the lesson.English, Arabic or Ezidi
The lesson runs in the language you are most comfortable with. I can also explain your progress to your parents in their own language.No licence condition
Pass your test in a manual and your licence has no transmission condition. You can drive both manual and automatic cars.