I have long been a cyclist and have felt very comfortable doing distances of up to 40 miles daily to get to places. However, most people don't think this is a great idea and one of them is my close uncle that is a sports car fan for many years. Since last year, he has urged me to learn how to drive manual - which is something i believe all guys desire to learn in their lifetime. I've been looking to buying a used car from the start based on my simple mechanic experience with bicycles. Also working on a car is something i really would like to know how to do since i'm quite the hands on person.Initially I was setting my eyes on a 5 speed civic, something proven to be reliable and relatively easy to drive and pay for. But as months pass by i've been sent links to civics around $4-6k and all of these prices were out of my budget and beyond my checking account. So one day (a week past my birthday) my uncle spots an old integra for just $3000 on craigslist and immediately i was interested because i could actually buy it CASH. Price usually is the motivating factor behind a lot of my purchases - but an integra should be better than a civic, i thought. So i agreed quickly and said I was interested and my uncle sent an email.
Afterwards, with a lot of doubt that we would get the car, we got a reply back from the seller and my uncle decided to take some time to come down to sunnyvale to check out the car with me. So it was 7pm and I brought a close friend of mine, who owns a GSR integra, to head towards DeAnza College to meet the seller/car. Both of them saw the posting on craigslist and were pretty excited to check out the car since it looked clean, but i kept them skeptical and alert for any problems that may come with the car.
When the sellers arrived, we took a look at the car and were amazed at how great it looked, they inspected all the obviously places and the interior. When we got into the car for a test drive i sat in the back while my uncle gave it a basic test on the road and freeway. After we test drove it, we had a team meeting, and both of the experts i went with agreed nothing was wrong and i should just GET IT. These two were deep honda fans and should know more about cars than i should so i fully agreed on their judgements and if they say to buy it, i definitely would. At first, i thought the car looked abit outdated and "not my style", but the whole experience of buying this car made me appreciate it more as time went by.
Of course there was a problem right after we agreed that we wanted the car, the owners wanted the money immediately because they had a line of people who agreed to purchase it tomorrow morning if it was not sold. Desperate for cash we only came up with a little over $1000 and had to scramble around for money from family/friends nearby. Well nobody seemed to have that much cash around except my mother who ultimately came in to help. My uncle was willing to drive all the way back to san francisco and back to get the extra money - something that told me this was a great deal. So we told the sellers we had the money and agreed to meet in the morning @ DMV around 8am to cover paperwork.
The next day the original owners transferred the title over to me and gave me their keys and remote. I had no experience with manual beyond just the parking lot about half a year ago so i was really rusty and needed some practice. My neighborhood friend across the street examined the car own his own and agreed that it was a great purchase and sort of helped me re-learn how to drive the 5speed transmission. After the first few turns and stops i was pretty nervous and stalled a few times and annoyed about 2 drivers ... but i made it back to the driveway and was ready to learn how to drive the following weekend with my uncle in the hilly streets of San Francisco.
A friend of mine who claimed to know how to drive manual come over sometime the next week to check out the car and brought one of our friends along. I knew these two for a long time and i knew they would give that predictable habit of theirs to bash on people's stuff. So they came and gave their little lines and i remained cool about it and ushered them into my car and let my friend take the car for a spin. Immediately, as my friend got into the car, he admitted he didn't know how to drive that well and .... i was somewhat not shocked. I guess i knew this guy long enough to expect something like this to happen - so i endured his revving of the engine to start the car on first gear and push the car past 25 on first gear. I do not believe i saw him shift beyond the first gear before we needed to stop again and turn.
Anyway, it was dark and they seemed to have seen enough of the car and the friend that drove the car agreed it was a nice buy while the less interested friend remained a bit skeptical. After the drive we went out for food and stopped by an auto parts dealer to see if an old friend of theirs still worked there. I got to get his phone number and he agreed to check out my car someday when he was free to fix any problems and offer service. And on the days ahead i was researching on car parts to buy and forums on the integra to research more on my car. On the day before the weekend with my uncle - i drove the car around just to make sure i remembered how to change to the first gear and get it moving - and then i went to san francisco to train the next day at 6:30AM on a sunday.
The training was about 2h30min and time flew by pretty quickly and we went all over the city and onto the freeway to less populated areas. One stop we made was to a krispy kreme and I finally got the see one of these for the first time. The entire time, it was me who was driving and i was very surprised to see myself drive so easily and well. My uncle thought i knew how to drive already and had confidence in me enough to give me a grade of B+ after we were all done.
I just took it for a spin yesterday with my sister to get some food at the nearby KFC - since this was something i could not do on the bike. Well getting the chicken wasn't the great highlight of the experience but i finally thought i nailed the first gear down with a technique i figured out taht day - it was to pivot with the heal and use your toe to let go of the clutch slowly and smoothly. I now remain skeptical if that was the proper way to drive and if this was not a good practice.
