Learning to Drive a Manual Transmission: A Guide for Beginners

If you're interested in leasing or buying a Mazda MX-5 Miata with a manual transmission, but have never driven a stick before, don't worry – it's not as daunting as it seems. However, learning to drive a manual transmission requires practice and patience, and it's essential to find a supportive instructor or friend who can guide you through the process.

The dealer is unlikely to let you try driving a Miata with a manual transmission without any experience, so it's best to seek out a willing friend or family member who has some experience with driving a manual. "No learning how to drive a manual is not something you do by correspondence or watching a YouTube video," says Gabe. "You have to get behind the wheel and practice." This means finding someone who is patient and willing to help you learn, rather than trying to teach themselves through online tutorials.

Teaching yourself to drive a manual transmission can be challenging, as it requires a good understanding of the clutch, gear shifts, and engine RPMs. As Gabe recalls from his own experience, "You can get the basic idea of swimming, but driving a manual is an art and science that requires practice." He also notes that the clutch in older cars can be quite heavy, making it more challenging to learn.

One advantage of modern cars is that the clutches are lighter and easier to use, which makes learning to drive a manual transmission slightly less intimidating. However, even with these advancements, it's still essential to find an experienced instructor or friend who can provide guidance and support.

If you're considering buying a used Miata, you may be able to negotiate with the seller to let you practice driving on their car before purchasing. This can be a great way to gain experience without breaking the bank. "You might as well just bang through it," says Gabe's friend Ryan, but this approach should only be attempted if you're willing to replace the clutch soon.

Driving a manual transmission requires coordination between the driver and the vehicle, particularly when shifting gears. This can take time and practice to master, especially for beginners. As Ryan notes, "You have to feel it – there's a lot of feedback from the car that helps you learn."

Finding a supportive instructor or friend is crucial when learning to drive a manual transmission. This person should be patient, willing to guide you through the process, and able to provide constructive feedback. They should also be understanding if you stall the car – it's all part of the learning process.

In today's digital age, finding someone to practice with can be challenging due to COVID-19 restrictions. Gabe suggests using online platforms like Facebook Marketplace or even renting a car to gain experience without breaking the bank.

Ultimately, learning to drive a manual transmission requires time, patience, and practice. While it may seem daunting at first, the rewards of driving a stick are well worth the effort. With the right support and instruction, you can master the art of driving a manual transmission in no time.

**Tips for Learning to Drive a Manual Transmission**

* Find an experienced instructor or friend who is willing to guide you through the process

* Practice regularly to develop your skills and build confidence

* Start with a modern car that has a lighter clutch

* Be patient with yourself – it takes time to learn

* Don't be afraid to stall the car – it's all part of the learning process

* Consider renting a car or practicing on a friend's vehicle before buying

**The Benefits of Driving a Manual Transmission**

* Improved fuel efficiency

* Increased control over the vehicle

* Enhanced driving experience

* A sense of accomplishment and pride in mastering the art of driving a stick

**Common Challenges When Learning to Drive a Manual Transmission**

* Stalling the car due to poor coordination or lack of practice

* Difficulty shifting gears smoothly

* Over-reliance on the clutch, leading to premature wear

* Feeling anxious or stressed when trying to master the manual transmission

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis week we give our first impressions of the 2021 chevy suburban suv talk about the long-term reliability of turbocharged and direct injection vehicles and how subscription costs are starting to creep into the automotive world next on talking cars hi everyone and welcome back to another episode i'm john linkove i'm ryan pezelkowski i'm gabe shanghar and you know for this week in news we're talking about something that i think everyone has some familiarity with it's subscription fees uh you know you're you're paying monthly on spotify you're paying monthly on netflix you're paying monthly you know on the you know you're playing among us or you're playing uh roblox and you get fees you know constantly hitting you up if you want something well that's moving to cars it's already been here but gabe tell us a little bit about where the industry is going with these you know subscription features basically for your car so this is not a new thing uh gm had onstar service for years now and uh and that requires a monthly subscription and from what we understand it's a service that people particularly of older demographics appreciate because uh the new world of digital may be uh a little unfamiliar to them and they prefer talking to a regular person if it's a like a concierge service um and you know uh just like you said i mean we've all gotten used to uh spotify streaming music and netflix streaming movies and uh the car industry wants to follow that as well because you buy a car and then you you go away for three or six years until you you're ready for your next car so from a business point manufacturers are going to want want to keep you like keep milking you to ensure a steady stream of income but here's where i draw the line hold on when it comes to safety i think that shouldn't be a thing i mean if you paid up front for advanced safety features and if there's an emergency uh call notification let's say you're in an accident airbags deploy and uh the sos button in the car calls first responders that shouldn't be uh subject to monthly fees as well well you know you touch on safety and that's kind of a thing where so far the you know tesla's talked about having features like that you know you can subscribe in you know you could you could subscribe into some of their self you know what they are calling their their let's just say they're autonomous semi-autonomous partial autonomy systems cadillac with super cruise also has that where you get a three-year free trial and then all of a sudden it may cost extra on the window sticker you know because of ours was was purchased our ct6 was purchased uh you know a while ago but you know it brings up some things you know ryan you know perhaps you touch on it of either nickel and diming but also you know what happens when you're the the next buyer you know the first buyer gets it then then what happens with a used car or you know are why are you paying for the feature up front anyway yeah so there's a lot of unknowns right i mean if you you get this car from someone that has you know a subscription going at some point it runs out you have to uh re-up um it is it's a it's a it's a foreign land i mean right now when you buy a car with the stability control or whatever it always has that it's a hardware thing this sounds like it's going to be more of a software thing i think more to the point though for me is you know a lot of people buy cars specifically to save money so you they buy it without all the frills because they just want a car that way to save money but i i don't think there's going to be a a cost savings here because all these cars essentially are going to be equipped with all this extra uh technology right so that you can you can pay and turn these on with switches so i don't think it's not really going to help um those people um i don't i don't know i think it's important to uh that manufacturers are upfront with customers so nothing should be hidden there shouldn't be any surprises and customers need to agree or not agree to it uh i mean for instance uh bmw just uh had uh the wireless car play uh that they required a monthly subscription for that and that uh people resented that so they uh they backed off yeah that's that that's a big example of you know they charge you 300 to get the feature to be able to use wireless card player carplay in general and then all of a sudden charging you 90 or charging you excuse me you know per year as an additional fee um you know so keith barry he of the uh you know talking cars as well as uh dressing like a deer like mike monticello look it up on on youtube um you know he gave a great story on consumerreports.org and it's up there and it really talks about a lot of these things such as you know will a man will a dealer be unscrupulous and add a subscription in in into you uh your your car payment without telling you right now it seems to be a big thing with luxury vehicles because so many of them are released it becomes an easy thing to just kind of throw in like wow it's another three bucks a month so you can have heated seats that work versus the heated seats that you buy in your car that aren't activated which is the potential down the road i think that we at consumer reports are worried about um it also makes it you know for me it makes the finance an insurance guy a little bit of a a you know the next step of worry because now not only are you going to be hit up with the vin etching and the you know the scotch guarding but like hey why don't you add a couple more things in so that that is the potential down the road there's more information on consumerreports.org a great article by keith and you know check it out write something in the comments let us know what you think about this with that we're going to move over to the vehicle of the week which is a big suv it's the 2021 chevrolet suburban the big the big daddy suv if you will because this is a massive truck like the tahoe that uh that we we've initially purchased um it's a toy redesigned uh we got a 2021 four wheel drive premier uses the 355 horsepower 5.3 liter v8 10 speed automatic transmission uh the manufacturer suggested retail price 68 300 to that we added the 4485 dollar premium package which includes such nice cds as panoramic sunroof adaptive cruise control enhanced automatic emergency braking rear pedestrian alert rear camera mirror and washer head-up display couple trailering things trailer brake controller hitch guidance and trailer blind spot warning which is pretty cool um add in the uh all weather floor mats for 2.95 destination charge which is to me a little staggering 1 295 and we're at a 74 375 chevrolet suburban um it's a big daddy uh ryan give us some feelings on it i know you tow a ton with your boat and you know this sounds right up your alley even more so maybe than the tahoe um it's a little too long for me it's a it's this thing is massive i i would like to say though those all-weather floor mats for 295 are worth it they're beautiful and they work nice um now that the suburban's uh another um near and dear one to me my mom had a 95 suburban and um i mean this is like an american icon vehicle you know i can remember so many fond memories of going to vermont skiing and you know towing my sister had a horse we had a horse trailer towing the horse trailer i mean it was a do-it-all um you know american uh vehicle and it's changed a lot like if i think back at the interior quality and just driving um you know that vehicle it was not this vehicle this is a very refined beautiful car i mean it's it's the interior is a huge step up even in the past few generations i think it's a major step up it's beautiful it's you know it's it's smooth power that v8 is and it sounds glorious i mean we could just talk about those nice exhaust tips they leave us the four a quad exhaust out the rear it's it's a beautiful vehicle but it is massive and it's super expensive it's become a vehicle i think you need to really have a reason to own something like this you know you need a big family you need to be you need the ability to tow you need to have to tow um it's just there's a lot of other vehicles out there that are potentially smaller with similar interior space i mean some of these unitized body cars that are more car you know car like interior space is impressive where these body on frame vehicles are really high the floors are up real high and you you can lose some of that interior space that being said it's still it's still enormous but if you're not towing and really needing that truck like um ability um there are other options out there gabe how how is this one such a big improvement though they change the suspension significantly you know and i mean our you know ride quality alone is is is better right yeah so it finally enters the modern era with independent respection and whereas previous suburbans were kind of an enclosed silverado pickup truck this uh suburban is truly a flagship in terms of interior quality in terms of driving experience i mean it's super quiet it's uh it feels like a luxury car and and you can see why the seventy four thousand dollars it might be justified for this ultimate uh family vehicle and an ideal long cross-country trip uh kind of a car one thing i'd say though that uh is really important is we got the premiere the premiere comes with uh gm's uh magnetic ride control which uh does wonders for steadying the the vehicle it's uh it makes the ride more composed it makes the handling more responsive and compared to the tahoe that where we don't have the uh that kind of suspension it makes a difference one thing that we can't not mention is the uh electronic uh gear selector which uh it's you know requires some getting used to it's hard to do parking maneuvers reverse drive uh reverse drive without looking that's a bit of a pain and of course it's a tall vehicle and it takes a little bit of a climb to get in and another thing i i took the suburban to brooklyn and that tall hood blocks uh your view i mean it can block pedestrians easily so it becomes uh quite a liability to have such a big vehicle in an urban setting you know you touch on the hood and it really is a thing i mean standing in the garage at work with uh with chris jones one of our techs uh at the test center and you're looking at these things and i mean they're massive i'm six feet tall and it feels almost as if it's up to my head um i couldn't imagine doing service on that you know it's it's it seems like you know you're going to need a you know carts to come you know to surround the vehicle and so a tech will have to step up you know two or three steps just to start getting in there which which is nuts um just to do some some simple fluid changes you know just to fill it i i agree ryan i i went to high school in a carpool that someone had a suburban it was just a rough and ready vehicle and it was the suburban was its roots was it was a truck it wasn't a luxury vehicle and today you know these the suburban the yukon xl they get to this this point of people i know say well i might look at a range rover or i'll look at the suburban or the tahoe you know they don't even consider the escalade which is the cadillac escalade which is coming and it's going to be you know crazy expensive and crazy luxurious with the same you know similar capabilities um you know it is surprising you know you you can get a rough you know much more lower lower price one um that's you know a little more of a work work truck type but it's a steady vehicle it drives really nicely but driving it around town is really hard and like you alluded to ryan like you mentioned you know it's so big now that you really do need it like a five or six person family huge towing you know because there are so many three-row suvs that can that can fit a a a five-person family you know even even a six-person family you know for day-to-day operation um so we have some information on the suburban consumerreports.org it's in our test program so check back to another episode uh for our final final findings on it we wanted to take a quick second to tell you about a new initiative we're introducing on the podcast which is our talking cars donation program for those of you that don't know consumer reports is a non-profit organization and we're able to do all of the work we do including anonymously buying our test cars and producing this show through memberships to our website and magazine as well as through donations what the talking cars donation program will do is allow loyal talking cars fans to support the show assist in supporting the cost of producing the podcast as well as support all of the work cr does to keep consumers safe you'll be able to contribute either as a one-time donation or on a monthly basis even five dollars a month really helps go to cr.org give talking cars and find out more and with that we're going to move over to the quest and answer part of the show keep them coming talking cards at icloud.com send videos send text questions you know we love them we go through them we we need a you know a big bunch of questions so we can do some uh all question shows coming up soon um so for this one we're gonna start out with a question alex from montreal a video question rolling hi talking cars a famous youtube car mechanic says to avoid cars with turbos direct fuel injection all-wheel drive and hybrid engines he says the repairs can be really expensive so what do you think if i want to buy a new car that's going to last 15 to 20 years like my old cr-v should i avoid these technologies thanks a lot so is it possible gabe to avoid new technology uh you know when in a car it's really hard these days when you buy a new car to not have a turbo engine or any of the new technologies that are used to maximize fuel economy but what we're finding that it's not really technology based uh the reliability indicator is more tied into a brand and if you look at toyota hybrids for instance we know that they can go half a million miles uh with just needing oil changes and tire changes pretty much and um so it's it's more about who makes the car who makes the technology and uh not so much uh about the technology itself ryan how this is this has been something you know people talked about for years right i mean you know the whole like oh i gotta get something much older it's simpler it's much better but is it really so i mean if it's it is a fact of uh and i guess nature right i mean the more complicated something is the more the big greater chance for um you know things to go wrong right you know we touched on it before it's hard to find vehicles like this you know simpler vehicles because we're you know we're just pushing through time with more and more complicated vehicles they're more complicated but they're safer i think people forget too though is some of these older vehicles that went a million miles it didn't do that without proper maintenance it didn't do that without some issues i mean let's face it in general if you maintain a modern engine and uh vehicle it's going to go a long ways um you can't neglect it you know like gibb said too if you check our you know pay attention to the reliability um data and things that we we can provide you can weed through i mean there are cars out there that are not as reliable i will not last as long it's something to um pay attention to yeah like you said i think about the talk about fuel economy and people saying oh well they should build that honda crx because that got 40 plus miles per gallon and the thing weighed you know it was like a paper mache vehicle compared to today's cars you know right the safety features and the convenience features and they they still had things that broke like you said so very interesting question thank you thank you alex um our next one comes from kevin from harrisburg virginia and he says my wife and i recently won a raffle where we get to choose a toyota vehicle up to 34 thousand dollars as the grand prize we are an all ev household that are planning on selling whichever vehicle we select to maximize our prize value which model and trim would you recommend us choosing so i'm going to throw this to ryan first to shake things up what do you what do you got for us um so this is kind of an interesting question right i mean um you know if it's if he wants to maximize the value um the good news is it's already a toyota so that's a good thing you want to pick something that's popular obviously you know there's a few things that you think about too i don't know if this includes um you know the taxes and the fees or how that all works out but if you're gonna if they're gonna go ahead and get a vehicle and then try to sell it i would grab a tacoma find a tacoma that's um right around that you know price range depending on all those uh unknowns of the taxes and stuff like that um tacoma's super popular and it'll hold its value even if you kept it for a year or two it's a good point that's a good point gabe what do you think yeah i did some homework for for this guy and uh with the tacoma sr extended cab not the crew cab with a v6 and four wheel drive you slide it in right under that thirty four thousand dollar uh threshold and and the tacoma is known for holding its value uh beautifully yeah i it's scary we all agree i mean you know i look at the tacoma too just in the sense of you know harrisonburg virginia you know you're gonna be you know there's an outdoorsy element to that i mean you especially if he doesn't want to do something where he kind of has a maybe takes a bias of liking evs and more green vehicles you know you could you could find a rav4 i don't think a hybrid you know you you can go in that route just because it's a super popular vehicle um but again my question was also with taxes and and fees and what you have to pay and sale you know you have to pay sales tax you have to do you have to register it and then immediately sell it um some sometimes raffles like that they actually allow though there's an offer of uh just a cash value of maybe a little it might be a little less than that 34 um but it might actually work out as a wash uh right you know and the less hassle of you having to acquire this vehicle then get rid of it you know well and especially and you know we're lengthening the question but yeah i want to throw this to gabe especially with kovid you know selling a car now not necessarily something everyone's going to be comfortable doing i mean gabe you went through selling a used vehicle right and you know that you put some restrictions on on how to do that right uh i just sold my in-laws bmw 5 series and uh i said to people up front uh look i'm not going to get in the car with you for a test drive you're not going to drive the car by yourself without me so uh that's uh the way it's gonna be contactless uh and uh and people you know some people say okay best of luck bye uh and some people were okay with it so yeah so good luck kevin let us know what happens especially if they have that cash option that would be that'd be pretty cool um our next question comes from rick from chesapeake virginia who says having the storage space for a second set of tires is great if you can do it however this is not a reality for everyone if space is an issue what are the best options for storing a tire to avoid creating flat spots on its side on the floor upright with one point of contact on the ground or how it used to be done in the old days tying a rope around the tire and suspending it from a beam in your garage ryan our tire tire expert extraordinaire what have you got for us on this one um so yeah great question and he's right i mean a lot of people um are you know they have this issue where do i store these tires um you know that there's a little unknown here i'm not sure if these tires are mounted or unmounted when he's taking them off you know some people have a whole other set of wheels so they have their tires mounted on the wheels and they pull that wheel off they put the next one on and as a package right some people actually go through the trouble of having them dismounted because they didn't want to you know maybe spend extra money for the wheels extra set of wheels in either case um you know we store tires in our tire building when we're testing we've had tires in there for years actually on their side stacked up four high there's nothing wrong with that you know when if there's not mounted on wheels there is a there is a potential for them to they kind of crunch together a little bit and that bottom those bottom tires actually the beads will actually get a little closer together not bad but when they go to mount them the next time around they might have a little trouble um get the blasting of the beads out because they're so narrow and there's so much air escaping maybe not something to even worry about flat spotting on modern tires especially off of the vehicle not an issue either you know if you have four random places in your garage you could stick these tires and that's what fits go for it the big thing about storing tires is keeping them out of sunlight and just the weather that's what you know degrades rubber over time you know you could dangle them from your beams if that works for you you know the only thing that i would actually say not to do is stack a bunch of stuff on top of them if you do stack them in a pile don't use it as a table um you know the side walls are more delicate than the tread area um areas so you know a puncture or something would be good you don't want any sharp objects or heavy weight on them so no no covering him in a tarp and put him outside but also no convincing your your your partner that a coffee table tire would be good correct yeah i would i would keep them inside if you can absolutely i mean if you have to put them outside um definitely cover them absolutely cover them with a tarp or something um they sell little covers for tires like that um and those covers are even good to use indoors excellent excellent well let us know rick take a take a photo of your uh your final tire solution and tell us uh you know your your final setup of your tires and let us know uh what happens with it because it would be pretty interesting to see see what you do i remember doing that and uh you know one of the reasons we found a house with a basement was wanted to store track tires and uh winter tires and all that stuff so our last question comes from gil and gil says i'm always so impressed by the mazda mx-5 miata i would like to lease or buy one with a manual transmission but i've never driven a manual i think i know the basic idea but do you have any suggestions on how to learn do you think a dealer would let me try to drive it or should i bring a friend who already has experience with a manual gabe so at shenhar automotive uh and gil shows up wanting to drive a miata without uh knowing how to drive a manual what do you think you're gonna let him out gail with all due respect if you told me you get the basic idea of swimming i'm not going to throw you in the pool and see what happens so uh no learning how to drive a manual is not something you do by correspondence or watching a youtube video i have a little bit of experience with that i taught my wife how to drive a manual and we're still married and my kids how to drive emmanuel uh years ago um a friend's son told me oh i i i've driven manual before and uh so okay i said let's go and uh at the first traffic light we stalled and as traffic mounted behind us i had to get out of the car and apologize to people i'm sorry new driver so there's no such thing as knowing the the basic idea of driving a manual there's an art and science to it and practice uh so you better find a friend that that will be nice enough to let you uh practice on on their car yeah i would say the dealer is not going to let you do that or the minute you have some stalls unfortunately they're going to probably want to run you out of the dealership and they won't you know they just are going to worry about damage um you're not going to destroy the car with a couple stalls or hard stalls but you know they're not going to do that so i would certainly bring a friend um you know if you're looking by a used one it the clutch is already worn depending on how old the car is you know maybe the the person selling it would let you because with knowledge like you're gonna have to replace the clutch anyway soon so you might as well just kind of bang through it but that could be expensive with the gearbox i had a similar situation drove from washington dc to florida somewhere in georgia we pulled off i said i'm beat you know my car's a manual i let my co-driver who said he could drive it drive we didn't make it down the on-ramp to the you know from the rest stop and i had to we had to pull over the side because we were you know like a bronco down there so ryan you know your your thoughts on it um yeah so it's like gabe said there's uh um there's a lot of feel to it that's that's how you learn you have to you have to you have to do it right you're not gonna ruin a car um unless you do something real crazy you know you also want to avoid that situation where you you do if you went to a dealer and they somehow let you drive it and you you do have trouble you want to get away not have that bad experience right because then it's gonna it's gonna live with you forever you know um and you know you'll lose some confidence and whatnot um but you know you wanna be with if you could find a friend um that has a car like this unfortunately in these times of covid um you know you you don't want to just jump in a car with anybody otherwise i'd say you could actually put a you know if you could put a listing on facebook marketplace or something looking for you know willing to pay someone to help um let me drive their car or something right now that's not a good time to do that yeah i would think even renting a car would be a challenge to find a rental that's an automatic that's not an automatic um you know one benefit is clutches are pretty easy and light today these days you know this isn't a spring clutch you know a heavy clutch from the 60s 70s even the 80s some of these cars had you know some some some heavy clutches so you know a good day you know you could get the friction point you could learn the feel of friction point and there'll be some gear grinds but um you know just find a really good friend and you know offer him a couple meals or something else so but with that we're gonna wrap up this week's episode thanks for watching as always send us your questions text video talking cards at icloud.com check the show notes below for more information on what we talked about thanks for watching and we'll see you next timethis week we give our first impressions of the 2021 chevy suburban suv talk about the long-term reliability of turbocharged and direct injection vehicles and how subscription costs are starting to creep into the automotive world next on talking cars hi everyone and welcome back to another episode i'm john linkove i'm ryan pezelkowski i'm gabe shanghar and you know for this week in news we're talking about something that i think everyone has some familiarity with it's subscription fees uh you know you're you're paying monthly on spotify you're paying monthly on netflix you're paying monthly you know on the you know you're playing among us or you're playing uh roblox and you get fees you know constantly hitting you up if you want something well that's moving to cars it's already been here but gabe tell us a little bit about where the industry is going with these you know subscription features basically for your car so this is not a new thing uh gm had onstar service for years now and uh and that requires a monthly subscription and from what we understand it's a service that people particularly of older demographics appreciate because uh the new world of digital may be uh a little unfamiliar to them and they prefer talking to a regular person if it's a like a concierge service um and you know uh just like you said i mean we've all gotten used to uh spotify streaming music and netflix streaming movies and uh the car industry wants to follow that as well because you buy a car and then you you go away for three or six years until you you're ready for your next car so from a business point manufacturers are going to want want to keep you like keep milking you to ensure a steady stream of income but here's where i draw the line hold on when it comes to safety i think that shouldn't be a thing i mean if you paid up front for advanced safety features and if there's an emergency uh call notification let's say you're in an accident airbags deploy and uh the sos button in the car calls first responders that shouldn't be uh subject to monthly fees as well well you know you touch on safety and that's kind of a thing where so far the you know tesla's talked about having features like that you know you can subscribe in you know you could you could subscribe into some of their self you know what they are calling their their let's just say they're autonomous semi-autonomous partial autonomy systems cadillac with super cruise also has that where you get a three-year free trial and then all of a sudden it may cost extra on the window sticker you know because of ours was was purchased our ct6 was purchased uh you know a while ago but you know it brings up some things you know ryan you know perhaps you touch on it of either nickel and diming but also you know what happens when you're the the next buyer you know the first buyer gets it then then what happens with a used car or you know are why are you paying for the feature up front anyway yeah so there's a lot of unknowns right i mean if you you get this car from someone that has you know a subscription going at some point it runs out you have to uh re-up um it is it's a it's a it's a foreign land i mean right now when you buy a car with the stability control or whatever it always has that it's a hardware thing this sounds like it's going to be more of a software thing i think more to the point though for me is you know a lot of people buy cars specifically to save money so you they buy it without all the frills because they just want a car that way to save money but i i don't think there's going to be a a cost savings here because all these cars essentially are going to be equipped with all this extra uh technology right so that you can you can pay and turn these on with switches so i don't think it's not really going to help um those people um i don't i don't know i think it's important to uh that manufacturers are upfront with customers so nothing should be hidden there shouldn't be any surprises and customers need to agree or not agree to it uh i mean for instance uh bmw just uh had uh the wireless car play uh that they required a monthly subscription for that and that uh people resented that so they uh they backed off yeah that's that that's a big example of you know they charge you 300 to get the feature to be able to use wireless card player carplay in general and then all of a sudden charging you 90 or charging you excuse me you know per year as an additional fee um you know so keith barry he of the uh you know talking cars as well as uh dressing like a deer like mike monticello look it up on on youtube um you know he gave a great story on consumerreports.org and it's up there and it really talks about a lot of these things such as you know will a man will a dealer be unscrupulous and add a subscription in in into you uh your your car payment without telling you right now it seems to be a big thing with luxury vehicles because so many of them are released it becomes an easy thing to just kind of throw in like wow it's another three bucks a month so you can have heated seats that work versus the heated seats that you buy in your car that aren't activated which is the potential down the road i think that we at consumer reports are worried about um it also makes it you know for me it makes the finance an insurance guy a little bit of a a you know the next step of worry because now not only are you going to be hit up with the vin etching and the you know the scotch guarding but like hey why don't you add a couple more things in so that that is the potential down the road there's more information on consumerreports.org a great article by keith and you know check it out write something in the comments let us know what you think about this with that we're going to move over to the vehicle of the week which is a big suv it's the 2021 chevrolet suburban the big the big daddy suv if you will because this is a massive truck like the tahoe that uh that we we've initially purchased um it's a toy redesigned uh we got a 2021 four wheel drive premier uses the 355 horsepower 5.3 liter v8 10 speed automatic transmission uh the manufacturer suggested retail price 68 300 to that we added the 4485 dollar premium package which includes such nice cds as panoramic sunroof adaptive cruise control enhanced automatic emergency braking rear pedestrian alert rear camera mirror and washer head-up display couple trailering things trailer brake controller hitch guidance and trailer blind spot warning which is pretty cool um add in the uh all weather floor mats for 2.95 destination charge which is to me a little staggering 1 295 and we're at a 74 375 chevrolet suburban um it's a big daddy uh ryan give us some feelings on it i know you tow a ton with your boat and you know this sounds right up your alley even more so maybe than the tahoe um it's a little too long for me it's a it's this thing is massive i i would like to say though those all-weather floor mats for 295 are worth it they're beautiful and they work nice um now that the suburban's uh another um near and dear one to me my mom had a 95 suburban and um i mean this is like an american icon vehicle you know i can remember so many fond memories of going to vermont skiing and you know towing my sister had a horse we had a horse trailer towing the horse trailer i mean it was a do-it-all um you know american uh vehicle and it's changed a lot like if i think back at the interior quality and just driving um you know that vehicle it was not this vehicle this is a very refined beautiful car i mean it's it's the interior is a huge step up even in the past few generations i think it's a major step up it's beautiful it's you know it's it's smooth power that v8 is and it sounds glorious i mean we could just talk about those nice exhaust tips they leave us the four a quad exhaust out the rear it's it's a beautiful vehicle but it is massive and it's super expensive it's become a vehicle i think you need to really have a reason to own something like this you know you need a big family you need to be you need the ability to tow you need to have to tow um it's just there's a lot of other vehicles out there that are potentially smaller with similar interior space i mean some of these unitized body cars that are more car you know car like interior space is impressive where these body on frame vehicles are really high the floors are up real high and you you can lose some of that interior space that being said it's still it's still enormous but if you're not towing and really needing that truck like um ability um there are other options out there gabe how how is this one such a big improvement though they change the suspension significantly you know and i mean our you know ride quality alone is is is better right yeah so it finally enters the modern era with independent respection and whereas previous suburbans were kind of an enclosed silverado pickup truck this uh suburban is truly a flagship in terms of interior quality in terms of driving experience i mean it's super quiet it's uh it feels like a luxury car and and you can see why the seventy four thousand dollars it might be justified for this ultimate uh family vehicle and an ideal long cross-country trip uh kind of a car one thing i'd say though that uh is really important is we got the premiere the premiere comes with uh gm's uh magnetic ride control which uh does wonders for steadying the the vehicle it's uh it makes the ride more composed it makes the handling more responsive and compared to the tahoe that where we don't have the uh that kind of suspension it makes a difference one thing that we can't not mention is the uh electronic uh gear selector which uh it's you know requires some getting used to it's hard to do parking maneuvers reverse drive uh reverse drive without looking that's a bit of a pain and of course it's a tall vehicle and it takes a little bit of a climb to get in and another thing i i took the suburban to brooklyn and that tall hood blocks uh your view i mean it can block pedestrians easily so it becomes uh quite a liability to have such a big vehicle in an urban setting you know you touch on the hood and it really is a thing i mean standing in the garage at work with uh with chris jones one of our techs uh at the test center and you're looking at these things and i mean they're massive i'm six feet tall and it feels almost as if it's up to my head um i couldn't imagine doing service on that you know it's it's it seems like you know you're going to need a you know carts to come you know to surround the vehicle and so a tech will have to step up you know two or three steps just to start getting in there which which is nuts um just to do some some simple fluid changes you know just to fill it i i agree ryan i i went to high school in a carpool that someone had a suburban it was just a rough and ready vehicle and it was the suburban was its roots was it was a truck it wasn't a luxury vehicle and today you know these the suburban the yukon xl they get to this this point of people i know say well i might look at a range rover or i'll look at the suburban or the tahoe you know they don't even consider the escalade which is the cadillac escalade which is coming and it's going to be you know crazy expensive and crazy luxurious with the same you know similar capabilities um you know it is surprising you know you you can get a rough you know much more lower lower price one um that's you know a little more of a work work truck type but it's a steady vehicle it drives really nicely but driving it around town is really hard and like you alluded to ryan like you mentioned you know it's so big now that you really do need it like a five or six person family huge towing you know because there are so many three-row suvs that can that can fit a a a five-person family you know even even a six-person family you know for day-to-day operation um so we have some information on the suburban consumerreports.org it's in our test program so check back to another episode uh for our final final findings on it we wanted to take a quick second to tell you about a new initiative we're introducing on the podcast which is our talking cars donation program for those of you that don't know consumer reports is a non-profit organization and we're able to do all of the work we do including anonymously buying our test cars and producing this show through memberships to our website and magazine as well as through donations what the talking cars donation program will do is allow loyal talking cars fans to support the show assist in supporting the cost of producing the podcast as well as support all of the work cr does to keep consumers safe you'll be able to contribute either as a one-time donation or on a monthly basis even five dollars a month really helps go to cr.org give talking cars and find out more and with that we're going to move over to the quest and answer part of the show keep them coming talking cards at icloud.com send videos send text questions you know we love them we go through them we we need a you know a big bunch of questions so we can do some uh all question shows coming up soon um so for this one we're gonna start out with a question alex from montreal a video question rolling hi talking cars a famous youtube car mechanic says to avoid cars with turbos direct fuel injection all-wheel drive and hybrid engines he says the repairs can be really expensive so what do you think if i want to buy a new car that's going to last 15 to 20 years like my old cr-v should i avoid these technologies thanks a lot so is it possible gabe to avoid new technology uh you know when in a car it's really hard these days when you buy a new car to not have a turbo engine or any of the new technologies that are used to maximize fuel economy but what we're finding that it's not really technology based uh the reliability indicator is more tied into a brand and if you look at toyota hybrids for instance we know that they can go half a million miles uh with just needing oil changes and tire changes pretty much and um so it's it's more about who makes the car who makes the technology and uh not so much uh about the technology itself ryan how this is this has been something you know people talked about for years right i mean you know the whole like oh i gotta get something much older it's simpler it's much better but is it really so i mean if it's it is a fact of uh and i guess nature right i mean the more complicated something is the more the big greater chance for um you know things to go wrong right you know we touched on it before it's hard to find vehicles like this you know simpler vehicles because we're you know we're just pushing through time with more and more complicated vehicles they're more complicated but they're safer i think people forget too though is some of these older vehicles that went a million miles it didn't do that without proper maintenance it didn't do that without some issues i mean let's face it in general if you maintain a modern engine and uh vehicle it's going to go a long ways um you can't neglect it you know like gibb said too if you check our you know pay attention to the reliability um data and things that we we can provide you can weed through i mean there are cars out there that are not as reliable i will not last as long it's something to um pay attention to yeah like you said i think about the talk about fuel economy and people saying oh well they should build that honda crx because that got 40 plus miles per gallon and the thing weighed you know it was like a paper mache vehicle compared to today's cars you know right the safety features and the convenience features and they they still had things that broke like you said so very interesting question thank you thank you alex um our next one comes from kevin from harrisburg virginia and he says my wife and i recently won a raffle where we get to choose a toyota vehicle up to 34 thousand dollars as the grand prize we are an all ev household that are planning on selling whichever vehicle we select to maximize our prize value which model and trim would you recommend us choosing so i'm going to throw this to ryan first to shake things up what do you what do you got for us um so this is kind of an interesting question right i mean um you know if it's if he wants to maximize the value um the good news is it's already a toyota so that's a good thing you want to pick something that's popular obviously you know there's a few things that you think about too i don't know if this includes um you know the taxes and the fees or how that all works out but if you're gonna if they're gonna go ahead and get a vehicle and then try to sell it i would grab a tacoma find a tacoma that's um right around that you know price range depending on all those uh unknowns of the taxes and stuff like that um tacoma's super popular and it'll hold its value even if you kept it for a year or two it's a good point that's a good point gabe what do you think yeah i did some homework for for this guy and uh with the tacoma sr extended cab not the crew cab with a v6 and four wheel drive you slide it in right under that thirty four thousand dollar uh threshold and and the tacoma is known for holding its value uh beautifully yeah i it's scary we all agree i mean you know i look at the tacoma too just in the sense of you know harrisonburg virginia you know you're gonna be you know there's an outdoorsy element to that i mean you especially if he doesn't want to do something where he kind of has a maybe takes a bias of liking evs and more green vehicles you know you could you could find a rav4 i don't think a hybrid you know you you can go in that route just because it's a super popular vehicle um but again my question was also with taxes and and fees and what you have to pay and sale you know you have to pay sales tax you have to do you have to register it and then immediately sell it um some sometimes raffles like that they actually allow though there's an offer of uh just a cash value of maybe a little it might be a little less than that 34 um but it might actually work out as a wash uh right you know and the less hassle of you having to acquire this vehicle then get rid of it you know well and especially and you know we're lengthening the question but yeah i want to throw this to gabe especially with kovid you know selling a car now not necessarily something everyone's going to be comfortable doing i mean gabe you went through selling a used vehicle right and you know that you put some restrictions on on how to do that right uh i just sold my in-laws bmw 5 series and uh i said to people up front uh look i'm not going to get in the car with you for a test drive you're not going to drive the car by yourself without me so uh that's uh the way it's gonna be contactless uh and uh and people you know some people say okay best of luck bye uh and some people were okay with it so yeah so good luck kevin let us know what happens especially if they have that cash option that would be that'd be pretty cool um our next question comes from rick from chesapeake virginia who says having the storage space for a second set of tires is great if you can do it however this is not a reality for everyone if space is an issue what are the best options for storing a tire to avoid creating flat spots on its side on the floor upright with one point of contact on the ground or how it used to be done in the old days tying a rope around the tire and suspending it from a beam in your garage ryan our tire tire expert extraordinaire what have you got for us on this one um so yeah great question and he's right i mean a lot of people um are you know they have this issue where do i store these tires um you know that there's a little unknown here i'm not sure if these tires are mounted or unmounted when he's taking them off you know some people have a whole other set of wheels so they have their tires mounted on the wheels and they pull that wheel off they put the next one on and as a package right some people actually go through the trouble of having them dismounted because they didn't want to you know maybe spend extra money for the wheels extra set of wheels in either case um you know we store tires in our tire building when we're testing we've had tires in there for years actually on their side stacked up four high there's nothing wrong with that you know when if there's not mounted on wheels there is a there is a potential for them to they kind of crunch together a little bit and that bottom those bottom tires actually the beads will actually get a little closer together not bad but when they go to mount them the next time around they might have a little trouble um get the blasting of the beads out because they're so narrow and there's so much air escaping maybe not something to even worry about flat spotting on modern tires especially off of the vehicle not an issue either you know if you have four random places in your garage you could stick these tires and that's what fits go for it the big thing about storing tires is keeping them out of sunlight and just the weather that's what you know degrades rubber over time you know you could dangle them from your beams if that works for you you know the only thing that i would actually say not to do is stack a bunch of stuff on top of them if you do stack them in a pile don't use it as a table um you know the side walls are more delicate than the tread area um areas so you know a puncture or something would be good you don't want any sharp objects or heavy weight on them so no no covering him in a tarp and put him outside but also no convincing your your your partner that a coffee table tire would be good correct yeah i would i would keep them inside if you can absolutely i mean if you have to put them outside um definitely cover them absolutely cover them with a tarp or something um they sell little covers for tires like that um and those covers are even good to use indoors excellent excellent well let us know rick take a take a photo of your uh your final tire solution and tell us uh you know your your final setup of your tires and let us know uh what happens with it because it would be pretty interesting to see see what you do i remember doing that and uh you know one of the reasons we found a house with a basement was wanted to store track tires and uh winter tires and all that stuff so our last question comes from gil and gil says i'm always so impressed by the mazda mx-5 miata i would like to lease or buy one with a manual transmission but i've never driven a manual i think i know the basic idea but do you have any suggestions on how to learn do you think a dealer would let me try to drive it or should i bring a friend who already has experience with a manual gabe so at shenhar automotive uh and gil shows up wanting to drive a miata without uh knowing how to drive a manual what do you think you're gonna let him out gail with all due respect if you told me you get the basic idea of swimming i'm not going to throw you in the pool and see what happens so uh no learning how to drive a manual is not something you do by correspondence or watching a youtube video i have a little bit of experience with that i taught my wife how to drive a manual and we're still married and my kids how to drive emmanuel uh years ago um a friend's son told me oh i i i've driven manual before and uh so okay i said let's go and uh at the first traffic light we stalled and as traffic mounted behind us i had to get out of the car and apologize to people i'm sorry new driver so there's no such thing as knowing the the basic idea of driving a manual there's an art and science to it and practice uh so you better find a friend that that will be nice enough to let you uh practice on on their car yeah i would say the dealer is not going to let you do that or the minute you have some stalls unfortunately they're going to probably want to run you out of the dealership and they won't you know they just are going to worry about damage um you're not going to destroy the car with a couple stalls or hard stalls but you know they're not going to do that so i would certainly bring a friend um you know if you're looking by a used one it the clutch is already worn depending on how old the car is you know maybe the the person selling it would let you because with knowledge like you're gonna have to replace the clutch anyway soon so you might as well just kind of bang through it but that could be expensive with the gearbox i had a similar situation drove from washington dc to florida somewhere in georgia we pulled off i said i'm beat you know my car's a manual i let my co-driver who said he could drive it drive we didn't make it down the on-ramp to the you know from the rest stop and i had to we had to pull over the side because we were you know like a bronco down there so ryan you know your your thoughts on it um yeah so it's like gabe said there's uh um there's a lot of feel to it that's that's how you learn you have to you have to you have to do it right you're not gonna ruin a car um unless you do something real crazy you know you also want to avoid that situation where you you do if you went to a dealer and they somehow let you drive it and you you do have trouble you want to get away not have that bad experience right because then it's gonna it's gonna live with you forever you know um and you know you'll lose some confidence and whatnot um but you know you wanna be with if you could find a friend um that has a car like this unfortunately in these times of covid um you know you you don't want to just jump in a car with anybody otherwise i'd say you could actually put a you know if you could put a listing on facebook marketplace or something looking for you know willing to pay someone to help um let me drive their car or something right now that's not a good time to do that yeah i would think even renting a car would be a challenge to find a rental that's an automatic that's not an automatic um you know one benefit is clutches are pretty easy and light today these days you know this isn't a spring clutch you know a heavy clutch from the 60s 70s even the 80s some of these cars had you know some some some heavy clutches so you know a good day you know you could get the friction point you could learn the feel of friction point and there'll be some gear grinds but um you know just find a really good friend and you know offer him a couple meals or something else so but with that we're gonna wrap up this week's episode thanks for watching as always send us your questions text video talking cards at icloud.com check the show notes below for more information on what we talked about thanks for watching and we'll see you next time\n"