Long story short: I’m (24M) American, and I’m visiting my long-distance Romanian boyfriend for the first time soon. In Romania, most cars are manual - including all the ones owned by my boyfriend’s family (I’ll be staying with them). I’ve never driven a manual before. His dad told me he can give me a quick lesson, and that I’m welcome to use their cars if I want; otherwise, I can rent an automatic. I don’t have access to any manual cars here in the U.S. to practice on, so I’m not sure what to do.
Hondas (90s) have been the easiet manual to get moving I’ve ever seen. You practically can’t stall them. (Toyatas too, 90’s Corollas are something else).
And I disagree with the truck - those can make learning harder. One of the hardest I’ve ever driven was a Ford from the 90’s. Heavy as hell clutch that was too small, terrible gear ratios so starting off was a bitch, with big gaps between the gears so you had to run out each gear until you ran out of revs.
But I’ve also driven old trucks with granny gears - an extra-low gear below first for getting moving with a heavy load. Those you just let off the clutch and the truck moves at a walking pace.