The problem I had with the car the first two weeks wasn’t the car’s fault, it was my fault. I was not driving stick correctly. Instead of feathering the clutch while giving it gas, I neglected to give it gas. I’ve learned to feather very gently to avoid stalling, but this would only get the car moving fast enough to engage the clutch completely (get off the clutch pedal) if the road was perfectly level (or downhill). If the road was at all uphill, the car would install stall. I learned this the hard way, at a red light that turned green. 20 cars behind you honking.
I also had my cousin Tomasz give me a quick lesson near his house in Glen Cove NY on a pretty steep road. Kind of like trial by fire, but i got it eventually (good thing stalling doesn’t do any real damage to the engine).
Tags: mr2