Manual Transmission...Safety Issue!!!

[tomato]

Originally Posted by chrisj

I always pushed clutches in vehicles all the way to the floor. Habit I guess. Is this the issue with the Yaris? Not doing it far enough? I was thinking about the next one I get (one for me this time) may be a stick, but now I don't know.

Yah, that clutch wants to be pushed *all the way* and won't accept it if you're 2mm off.

I remember the night I drove that car from the dealership, I got into some serious trouble on the freeway when I had almost reached San Francisco. At some point, I downshifted to 2d to make the turn, and the gears were completely stuck... couldn't get out of the way, couldn't move the car ... ugh.... don't know how I did it but I managed to shift anyway and get going. But the next day, the car did not want to start at all. After trying a number of things, we discovered that the car wouldn't start because the mat was stuck under the pedal, and that was the problem. Turned out when they detailed the car at the dealership before giving it to me, they forgot to hook up the mats (they have holes and you're supposed to hook them into place under the seat).


I stalled the Yaris in city driving for a good couple of weeks after that incident anyway because the clutch's friction points are so different from any other car I've ever driven. Reverse was OK for me but boy, I really hated that 1st gear for **a while** and almost had to re-learn how to paralel park (even though I've done it every day for *years*) because of the pillar causing a huge blind spot

The Yaris and I are BFF's now, finally, but oh boy we had a rough start, I remember that.