New Yaris Owner

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by vaironl

Hello everyone,

I just got a Yaris with the help from my family and wanted to come to the forums and see what everyone else is talking about.
I got the 5 speed 2 door coupe windows, locks, and side mirrors are manual but I don't wine about it. I'm also learning how to drive manuals as well so I feel I might mess up the clutch a bit, I'm not the worst thought and you gotta start somewhere. If you guys have any advice please let me know. I'm glad to be part of this community.

Welcome. The only 2 suggestions that occur to me off the top of my head are:

1. Pay attention re keeping your tires inflated. Increasing PSI has more of an effect (positive) on MPG than any other car I've owned (and of course the converse is true as well). Many of us inflate our tires above the PSI rating on the tire...some of us by 3-5 PSI and a few fanatical people over 20 PSI.

2. One member posted a test that you can put your clutch through to judge its 'health'. I have found this to be quite valuable. If you search 'clutch test' that post will probably come up as a hit.

[vaironl]

Originally Posted by nookandcrannycar

Welcome. The only 2 suggestions that occur to me off the top of my head are:

1. Pay attention re keeping your tires inflated. Increasing PSI has more of an effect (positive) on MPG than any other car I've owned (and of course the converse is true as well). Many of us inflate our tires above the PSI rating on the tire...some of us by 3-5 PSI and a few fanatical people over 20 PSI.

2. One member posted a test that you can put your clutch through to judge its 'health'. I have found this to be quite valuable. If you search 'clutch test' that post will probably come up as a hit.

Thanks for the tips. I dont plan on checking for clutch life since the car only has 27k miles on it and a family friend helped us buy it. Now a couple of my friends have told me I did a bad decision by getting a newer car but again my parents wanted a car with less chance of breaking up.We've had bad luck with those.

Do you have any dos and dont on manual? I've checked a couple of threats arguing against using the parking break to not roll on a hill and putting it in gear when parking to prevent it from rolling. I wonder if those will damage anything?

A little from me so you guys can know my prior experience.
I learned for about 1 hour on a mazda 2 and an old jeep and relative to those I feel the gas takes a bit to make the revs go up and the clutch catch point still takes me a bit to get it precisely.

Pardon the horrible grammar

[Absolutely Red 12]

Originally Posted by vaironl

Thanks for the tips. I dont plan on checking for clutch life since the car only has 27k miles on it and a family friend helped us buy it. Now a couple of my friends have told me I did a bad decision by getting a newer car but again my parents wanted a car with less chance of breaking up.We've had bad luck with those.

Do you have any dos and dont on manual? I've checked a couple of threats arguing against using the parking break to not roll on a hill and putting it in gear when parking to prevent it from rolling. I wonder if those will damage anything?

A little from me so you guys can know my prior experience.
I learned for about 1 hour on a mazda 2 and an old jeep and relative to those I feel the gas takes a bit to make the revs go up and the clutch catch point still takes me a bit to get it precisely.

Pardon the horrible grammar

Hillside clutching.

With your right foot on the brake, release the clutch slowly until you feel a slight engagement (don't stall). Then quickly slide your right foot to the gas pedal, push the gas immediately, as you release the clutch.

Until you master it, if it keeps you from stalling, parking brake use, is perfectly fine.
Too much arrogance around here!!