for you guys and gals who play with stick

[Furious]

for all you manual drivers out there. which gear do you leave your car in?

i typically leave it in 2nd, reasons is that i know im in 2nd all the time, 1st can sometimes be confused with reverse (say in a situation where you might have been in a rush) and also i heard its less load on the 1st gear which is much more fragile than 2,3,4,5 (and you lucky guys with a 6th) is there any truth to that.

i heard that your suppose to leave it in 1st when on a very steep decline because its a forward gear , and 2nd for a steep decline. also wanna know if there is any validity to this..



what do you guys do and why?

[woobiee]

what do you mean leave it in your car? do you mean when its parked?

if im one a fairly level area, i leave it in neutral with the ebrake engaged.

if im on uphill, i engage the ebrake and put it in 1st
if im on a downhill i engage the ebrake and put it in R

[Furious]

Originally posted by woobiee@Jul 3 2003, 08:31 PM
what do you mean leave it in your car? do you mean when its parked?

if im one a fairly level area, i leave it in neutral with the ebrake engaged.

if im on uphill, i engage the ebrake and put it in 1st
if im on a downhill i engage the ebrake and put it in R

yup parked i thougth that implyied Andy. hehehehe :P (actually my mistake)

[MrM3]

haha i was a little confused aswell :P in my garage or any level area/parking spot i just leave it in neutral with the ebrake, but on a slope facing upwards i put it in 1st, facing downwards i put it in R, same as andy B)

[cam540]

Mine is almost always in 1st, I only use the parking brake if the hill is steep.

[BlackTape]

there are no hills where i live so neutral and ebrake very lightly... not to hard cause im scared its gonna snap.

[nosuchsol]

First gear is always going to take a heavier load than the other gears through multiplication of torque. However, most are engineered to handle this without any issues.. still learning the bmw though. Plus mine is an auto(it's tough going from all manual cars to an auto but I'm not missing the manny right now)

[Ski]

I always slap mine into reverse..