What's your advice for someone driving their first manual transmission car?

If you release the clutch slow enough, in most cars you can get moving just with idle engine.

Practice in a parking lot if you can, and just do that over and over until you understand the friction point.

Getting moving from a dead stop in first or reverse is really the only hard part of driving a manual, shifting up through the gears from there is trivial.

Learn to shift based off the sound of the engine, dont stare at the tachometer.

If you already know how to drive, learning manual isnt so hard. You are going to stall it out, you arent hurting anything but your pride when you do.

People will be annoyed with you and honk at you when you stall at a traffic light or something. Know and accept that fact. Do not mind them. Take your time to do things right. With time you'll gain muscle memory and you won't have to think about it at all. Until then, don't mind the impatient drivers.

Except one short mention about riding the clutch, I haven't seen this yet... Get into the habit of completely removing your foot from the clutch pedal whenever possible. Even just lightly resting your foot against the pedal can wear your clutch out prematurely. Cruising on the highway: remove your foot from the clutch pedal and rest it on the floor. Sitting at the lights: put the car in neutral and release the clutch. Put your foot on the floor until you're ready to go. Also, it's ok to coast to a stop with the clutch pedal depressed, but you have much more control if you downshift to a stop and you will extend the life of your brakes, too.

Don’t step on the clutch with just your toes or the ball of your foot. Push down with the entire length of your foot. It’s easier to control it that way because you’ll be lifting/depressing the pedal with your knee movement instead of ankle.

Also, don’t ride the clutch, even if you think you’re just resting your foot over it lightly. That still puts pressure on the pedal. Rest your foot on the dead pedal when not shifting.

Don’t rest your hand on the shifter (applies to automatics too).

Use engine braking to your advantage.

you can't spend too much time practicing in a big empty parking lot.

If you stall and everypne starts getting angry, ignore them and do your thing slowly and safely.

There's already plenty of good advice here. The one that I think is missing is that the clutch pedal probably has like 10 inches of travel, but it only cares about 1 inch of it. All the rest is just slop. You need to figure out where that zone is, and get good at hitting the start of that spot quickly.

Once you can get to the start of that zone reliably, then you can start working on how fast you release the clutch through that zone. The more power you're applying with the throttle pedal, the faster you can release the clutch through this zone.

One I haven't seen here yet. If your battery dies, you can usually get the car rolling (neutral with people pushing, or turn down a small hill) and once moving a bit you can throw it straight into second gear and hit the gas and it should cause the car to start and you can drive it to a destination to replace the battery (or just let it charge the battery if you left the headlights or interior lights or such on and let it die on accident). No second car/jumper cables required.

Keep the radio/music off. It's much easier to hear the engine and how the clutch engaged while you are getting used to your new clutch

Keep at it.

Nothing really to it, you just need time and lots of practice to build up the "muscle memory" for it, until it becomes little more than a reflex.

You've gotten a lot of solid practical advice, so I'll take it to theory.

Learn how it works and what happens when you push that clutch in and let it out.

Here's a video with a lot of detail and animation.

practice letting off the clutch by going to an empty parking lot and try to release the clutch in 1st gear without stalling and without gas

then remember that your clutch foot and the gas foot are a 50 / 50 team

so for all the force you put on one, you need to take from the other

dont be afraid to use the parking brake on hills to help you get into 1st when your at a stop

Lots of people talking about clutch work so I'll mention something else - how to use the gearstick. Sounds a bit of a silly thing to talk about but how you do it can actually help.

I've seen various inexperienced drivers shift by grabbing the gearstick tightly and pulling it around in that same tight grip until it's where they think the next gear should be. This usually works for getting around but it makes it hard to know what gear you're actually shifting into and when it's properly engaged - particularly on boxes that don't give much feeling through the gearstick. One person in particular was repeatedly struggling with hitting the wrong gears (particularly when other things were happening) until I suggested they change this behaviour.

I recommend instead keeping a relatively loose grip on the shifter and considering changing gear a quick three part motion instead of a single one. Say for example that you're shifting from second to third in a typical 5 speed H pattern - the three parts are you pushing up to move out of second (which you don't need a tight grip for as it's just pushing the shifter with your palm), centring the gearstick to below third (where you only need a loose side grip - there's minimal force involved and keeping loose lets you feel the springs pull it where you want to be), and pushing upwards into third. Your grip should be changing a bit depending on what part of the shift you're in and what gears you're moving in/out of, I find this does help with improving feel and accuracy.

Agree with the other posters about clutch work. A small hill or parking lot with an incline may also help with clutch feel / practice.

That is what helped me get a better feel for using a clutch.

When you start the car on uphill roads, press release the clutch slowly and press the accelerator at the same time. Balance it.

Most modern cars have hill assist, but it might still be a help to use the handbrake when starting on a hill, or at least know how to do it.

A looooong time ago I learned to drive.

Figuring out the clutch was just a single driving lesson. He took me to a road which was basically a long hill with no traffic around. He got me to head up the hill in first gear, then to slowly start depressing the clutch until we stopped moving. Then he got me to just play with lowering the clutch more (we slowly start to roll back), lifting the clutch (we start to crawl forward), adding some more throttle and then catching and holding it on the clutch again, rolling back slightly, crawling forward slowly, and again, and again - all while listening to the engine note so I could hear just before we stalled. We spent about half an hour on that hill and by the time we left it I had pretty much mastered holding the car on the clutch.

Lots of good advice in here for the basics. Only one I'll bother repeating is to get used to your clutch by slowly releasing it and getting the car moving without touching the throttle at all.

Also never downshift into first. This is a bit of a soft rule since it can be done, but the speed you need to lose before you do is a lot more than any of the other gears. If it's a 6 speed, this might even apply to 2nd gear to a degree. To figure out when it's safe to downshift to first, redline it in first and check your speed. Never do it at or above that speed as a hard rule.

For intermediate techniques:

When shifting while moving, let off the gas a bit before pressing the clutch. The idea is to smoothly stop accelerating to reduce the jerk you'd normally get from going from accelerating, clutch (decellerating), back to accelerating once in the next gear. Your passengers will appreciate it if you can get this timing down, though if you're on your own, it doesn't matter as much since you can anticipate the changes in acceleration.

On the opposite end of that spectrum, practice speed shifting once you're comfortable with clutch timing and gear positions. It's the same motions as a normal shift, just aiming to do it all as fast as possible. It'll give you better acceleration when you need it (very noticeable if you compare one and the other when accelerating beside another car from a stop light).

For stop and go traffic and traffic jams, instead of maintaining the same distance from the car ahead of you, try to figure out a constant speed you can maintain and let the cars ahead of you do the pull up (away from you) and then brake to a stop (while you slowly catch up to them). If you can find the right speed, you can stay in first gear instead of needing to get in gear, move up, then clutch. The "getting the car moving without throttle" skill from earlier can help here and sometimes you can go a while in a jam without touching the gas pedal. It'll reduce the wear on your clutch and brakes if you can drive in a way that uses them less.

And an advanced technique:

Clutchless shifting. If there isn't a lot of force on the gear, you can pop it into neutral without the clutch quite easily. And by force I mean if you aren't accelerating or engine breaking. Getting into another gear is harder but also possible. The hard part is that you need to match the engine speed with the transmission speed for the gear you want to shift into. If they match, it'll just slip in. But matching is easier said than done, since the car is decelerating and the engine also changes speed very quickly with no load. If the speeds are far from a match, it will feel like the gear just isn't there. If they are kinda close, you'll be able to find the gear but it will grind when you try to put it in all the way. If they match closely, it'll just slip in as easily as it slipped out to neutral.

Why would you want to know how to do this? Well, for one, it's very satisfying to do properly. But I was very glad I could do it when my clutch died. I was able to drive for another week without a clutch because I was competent enough with clutchless shifting. Note that if you need to do this, you have to turn your motor off when you stop (unless you're on a downward slope), put it in first and start it in first gear to get moving again (which feels awful and is awful for your starter and probably not great for the whole drivetrain, so get it serviced asap but this might at least save you from needing a tow).

The hardest part will be learning how to properly feather in the clutch. Find an empty parking lot and practice stopping fully then starting out with someone who has driven stick before and can give you feed back.

Accidentally stopping the engine is no shame. Whatever anybody thinks. Focus on not making collisions. You can always just start the engine again. Nothing bad happened. Collisions are the real headache and what is important.

Speed is controlled with the gearbox and engine, brakes are for stopping (this is broad advice, obviously)

Don't push in the clutch and coast when you're stopping, you should be engaged in case you need to throttle out of a situation

Starting out in second gear can sometimes help prevent your tires from slipping on slick pavement. Also useful if you ever drive a pickup truck with a "granny" [first] gear, which is only intended for getting you moving from a dead stop under heavy load.

Vehicles with manual transmissions have a backup starter if you find yourself with a dead battery. If you can get it rolling, you just put it in at least 3rd or higher and let the clutch out . Should normally start right up.

Learn how to stop and start going up a steep hill. Depending on where you live, it may not happen for a long time. But when it does, you'll want to be prepared. It's done with a quick but smooth motion. You "feather" the clutch, allowing it to drag enough to hold the vehicle in place but not so much that it stalls the engine. Then you let off the brake and simultaneously accelerate and let the clutch out until you're moving up hill. Takes a little practice but not too hard to get down.

Hill starts. Pedal timing for take off from standing. There's a little dance to learn, @Hossenfeffer@feddit.uk hill start advice should see you learning it.

Parked or driving, you've got to be able to take off while facing uphill without rolling back. You don't want to roll back into the person behind you. Also a good reason not to pull up too close behind others on a hill.

You can use the emergency brake to keep from rolling back if your car doesn't have any built in rollback protection.

Just pull the e-brake with your hand, and reduce it at the same rate you engage the clutch when pulling away up hill. Easy peezy.

Otherwise, just make sure you get really good at not riding your clutch for any maneuvers. It's easy to burn them out if you're using your clutch to make up for bad driving habits.

Try not to cruise in neutral. Better to be in gear whenever possible to reduce brake wear/make it easier to brake and ensure you have power to the wheels when you need it (e.g. an emergency situation).

Also, as fun as popping the clutch is, it’ll eventually kill your car.

Some advanced stuff since everybody else probably already covered the beginner stuff:

When you get the hang of driving stick, which you will pretty quickly, you can try matching revs on downshifts to smooth things out and then you can try heel toe with matching revs.

When you get really good you can shift gears without engaging the clutch just by rev matching, but don’t try that til wayyyy later. Can mess up the gears.

Don't money shift it, pay attention to the road.

Don't money shift it. That's when you feel like racing and you slam it into second from first, then from second into what you think is third but is actually first again.

When approaching a light or stop sign, smoothly press down the clutch and break pedal together. If it's a red light where you might be for a while, pop the gear into neutral and let go of the clutch.

I was taught (rightfully or not) that holding down the clutch too long can damage it.

Everything has been said here

I just wanted to say welcome to the club! Driving will be fun again :)

You're going to drive it without lessons? Is that legal where you live? I'm confused about the question

just buy a new clutch. you'll use it.

Driving is complex. Knowing what to pay attention to when takes time to learn.

I recommend not trying to drive a manual until you’ve already learned the basics in an automatic. In my opinion, learning to drive AND learning how to handle a manual transmission is too much at once.

Don’t stall.

Honestly, my advice, unpopular as it might be, is that unless you plan on riding a motorcycle you should probably get an automatic transmission car instead of learning on a manual transmission. Manual transmissions--in the US, anyways--are largely relegated to performance vehicles where people want them. But the hard truth is that automatic transmissions do a better job at driving efficiently and keeping the engine at a safe and ideal load than any driver with a manual. And it's a lot less hassle for most of the driving that people tend to actually do. For instance, it's uncommon to have a cruise control on a manual transmission car, which makes long drives more tiring, and stop-and-go traffic puts less wear on an automatic transmission.

If you plan on riding a motorcycle though, you must learn to use a clutch, because all non-electric motorcycles use a clutch (usually a wet clutch, but Ducati uses a dry clutch); manual transmissions are lighter and more compact, and weight matters a lot on a motorcycle.

I say this as someone that learned to drive on manual transmissions, and exclusively had cars with manual transmissions up through about 2022.

Next time, get an automatic.

That's a skill that won't apply for much longer. If possible, don't learn.