New York 2015: 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata Club Unveiled

I don't think they should even offer the Club in manual, but I am shocked to see how many I see equipped that way out on the street. Nearly every one I have seen.

@mnm4ever I'm pretty sure you meant auto here.

Outside of buying a pos to learn on - since all your friends and family are lame :) - just read about it and buy the car. You'll learn. Worst case, you will burn out a clutch, big deal (and this is actually pretty hard) you can't honestly have no idea how to do it can you? If you are at all mechanical, read and look at diagrams of what a clutch actually does and it will help relate what you will be doing. Google trainers for video instruction. Good luck. Don't give up. BTW - I'm a first year millennial, but my parents didn't own an auto until I was old and already driving.

Buy it and learn. It can be done. Get a friend who drives stick to drive it home for you, and you'll figure it out. That's how I learned.

I think they offer auto as well because many just get weary of shifting. All. The. Time. In fact, I am one. And this gets worse the more traffic and stop n go you have to face in your daily commutes. I need to talk on my phone, drink coffee and eat. And sometimes read the newspaper!!! This gets very difficult if the shifting needs to be attended to constantly as well. Plus...autos are just getting so damn good. In fact I thin they are better than sticks...even the MPG is better if you let the tans do the thinking.

@TrailerTrash Autos get better mileage due to higher gear ratios, that is all. But more importantly, the difference in mpg between auto and manual of the same car is so small. It's like people buying one car only because it gets 30 mpg versus 28 mpg on a car they like better. Over 100k miles at $4/gal, the cost difference is only $952. average of 95 a year. Ironically I find manuals easier in traffic. You really don't have to shift all that much at speeds below 40 mph. And I've live on major traffic cities (LA)

@czilla - I cant even understand this... driving a stick is so easy, just do it. Heck the salesman will probably teach you right there in the parking lot if that is what it takes to make the sale. So what if you stall it a few times? Its something that takes maybe 3 days to figure out, tops. As for talking on the phone or drinking coffee, you really don't think you can do those things with a stick? It isn't as if you have you shift every 3 seconds. A Miata comes with bluetooth standard, cupholders too. Take a drink, put it down. Eating in the car is tricky even with an auto, but same thing, you take a bite, put it down, or I can even shift while holding my Egg McMuffin in a pinch. Reading the newspaper?? Thats a douche move when driving regardless, I HATE when I see people trying to do this, worse than texting while driving IMO.

I've had plenty of friends who had no experience go and buy a manual car. The salesman or someone else on the dealership staff walked them through learning quickly, and they figured it out as they went. When it's your only option, you learn really quickly. Get over your fear and just do it, you're not going to hurt the car. One of the best stories I ever heard about learning stick was a guy trying to teach his wife. She was always about 1/3 of the way there but never really got it. So one day he woke up early and took the automatic car to work, leaving her the manual. There was much bitching that morning and an argument that night, but she made it to work as well. He continued this for a week. After that she had it 100% and started taking the manual to work of her own accord from time to time. It's like the superhero stories where the rookie never really grasps their powers until they have to use them in a do or die situation. Do or die. Buy yourself a manual.

I was once in your shoes Czilla, until very recently actually. Growing up, my family never owned a stick, none of my friends had them, and now none of my adult friends had them when I thought about learning. I was constantly ridiculed for my encyclopedic knowledge of cars (to the average person who doesn't care about cars) yet I was unable to drive a stick. I knew how it was done but I couldn't do it. The hard part isn't shifting, or it wasn't for me, it was going from stop to go. I couldn't figure out how to go without stalling or jerking the car wildly. I had a few practice attempts and it was very discouraging. One day about 4 years ago I bought a crappy 3000gt with a stick and had to drive it home. I spent about 15 minutes in the dealership parking lot (after it closed, of course) trying to pull out onto the street. I eventually got it, but I definitely didn't come to a complete stop on the way home. I had trouble getting it for days after. Then, one day, I was just moving it and put it in reverse then slowly took my foot off the clutch without giving it gas and realized the car started moving on its own. For whatever reason, that was the Ah-ha! moment for me. I realized I needed to let the car tell me when to accelerate, not the other way around. I was still certainly not confident, but I no longer had to roll through stop signs while practicing. I only had the car for a few weeks but the seeds were planted. Last year I got a different car with a stick and over time got more and more confident, first driving around my neighborhood and then expanding out until I started commuting in it. It definitely didn't happen over night, but it's certainly doable - even for someone like me who is older than a millennial and refuses to learn just about anything new.

@duffman13 I did this to my wife. Now she refuses to buy an automatic.

@Land Ark This is a good tip. In a parking lot practice getting the car moving in 1st gear (reverse is fine but not needed) WITHOUT the gas pedal. It let's u concentrate on the clutch and how it relates to the engine and it's engagement point. Once this is learned, it becomes the point were you apply gas. While learning it will stall likely. Of it bucks, press clutch back in and go slower on the release. This also keeps you from learning a bad habit of "gas then slip clutch" which sticks with many many people and is bad form and causes unnecessary wear

I bought a Fiesta ST despite only having maybe a couple hours seat time in a manual car. It'll take you a few days to learn, but it's worth it. And you won't damage the clutch unless you're really quite abusive.

Check out a Cars and Coffee meet if you live in/near a city that hosts them. I'm sure someone would be willing to give you a lesson.

In the age of the Internet, you can find dozens of sources on how to learn how to drive stick - how the transmission and clutch work and proper ways to go about using them, all the way up to race techniques such as heel-toeing. The information is there. 90% of getting good at driving stick is practice, though. Just get one and do it. People who talk about ruining a car by not knowing how are grossly exaggerating. If the 5 speed car I bought at 18 made it to 160k miles on the original clutch, even while also teaching others to drive stick, as well, it's really going to take a lot to cause serious damage. Like anything else in life, if you want to do it, you have to try, otherwise you're just making excuses. Alternatively, if you want an auto, just buy an auto and ignore what everyone else thinks. Buying a Miata in general is an exercise in ignoring others' opinions (and I love mine).

My college buddy bought an S2000 and drove it home without first learning stick. He said he stalled it about 2-3 times on the way home. Read up on the concept and try it. If you're even slightly coordinated with your hands and feet, you should not be burning up clutches anytime soon. A good first exercise is to get the car rolling without using the gas pedal. Everything else is much easier.

I concur with everyone else. You just have to take the plunge. I didn't have anyone teaching me either the first time, but I had it about 95% down within an hour. That last 5%, getting rolling uphill, took a few extra days. It's worth the experience. You'll never want to go back.

@TMA1 I disagree. I leased my first stick in my 30s. regal GS. Now I lease a cmax. And am planning on leasing a m235 in the summer.. auto. The only thing that makes me think about getting a stick is ego... some sort of need to be validated by the internet fanboi's that look down on people that look at autos.

I learned how to drive a stick by buying a [new at the time] 1990 Honda CRX Si and driving it 60 miles home. I'd suggest learning on an old Honda.

On the flip side, if everyone drove like an auto does, they would downshift anytime they needed to accelerate and still ride their brakes on downhills. I think what you are seeing is just poor driving. And the cure for that go way beyond just looking at a tach when driving an auto. I see people in auto only cars trying to merge at slow speeds and won't accelerate. The reason people focus on clutch engagement is that for a beginner, that is the most overwhelming issue. And it has more safety concerns, such as making a left out of a lot or across traffic, than the other issues you raise.

@See 7 up Mmmm...no I'm not just seeing poor driving - I have ridden with people like this - they don't know that you need to be in like second or third gear at 5k or 4k rpm with a larger or smaller displacement engine, respectively, to pass somebody on a busy two-lane road. They're going 45 in fifth or sixth gear and they think they're just going to floor it. Focusing on clutch engagement is for when they finally get into an MT car...I'm talking about paying attention to how a good AT handles these situations, in an AT car, BEFORE getting into an MT car.

@Fordson Western culture is founded upon monotheism and solipsism. Accordingly, western minds tend to believe that a single optimum answer exists for every question. This is fallacious thinking. Its ubiquitousness should not be mistaken for validity.

@319583076 Whatever. I'm saying that in addition to understanding how to shift, you need to understand WHY you shift. Not a single optimal answer...it's a step in a process. Back to this Miata Club...they have everything covered except more power. I understand these cars are not about power, but unless a car has an absolutely ridiculous amount of power already, I believe the supposed sport model needs more power than the regular one.

They don't spec the dampers for those who will replace them. Let the spec Miata builders start with a base model. Give me a Bil over a lowly KYB or even a Koni any day. I really like a monotube though. The dampers should be like every other Billstein everywhere, able to be rebuilt and revalved to suit. Sounds like a perfect club sport equipment.

Not everyone races. I'm keeping my Club's Bilsteins until they are worn out.