Renting a manual car

yeeha

yeeha

Active Member
Joined
Jun 17, 2008
Messages
151
After searching around it seems that there aren't any companies in the US that rent manual transmissions cars. Orbitz has an option to search for manuals but it never returns any results by me. I'm tempted to make my next car a manual but I've only had limited experience with them and no longer know anyone who would be willing to lend it to me.

Short of the exotic rentals everything I've found are automatics. And I'm not fond of the idea of buying a junker manual just to test it out for a couple days.

Does anyone know of a place where I could rent a manual?
 
Just look for anyone with crappy Hatchbacks and Subcompacts, they're usually bought in stripper base models with manuals. However, that's how it works here, don't know how it goes there.
 
Hertz apparantly rents an entry level manual Toyota Yaris and Corolla (Auris) in the US...
 
Jens said:
Hertz apparantly rents an entry level manual Toyota Yaris and Corolla (Auris) in the US...
Click to expand...

Where did you find that out? I've looked at the online listings for a number of Hertz locations by me and everything I've seen is automatic including the corollas. I haven't seen a Yaris listed though.
 
My understanding is no one rents manuals in the US anymore with the potential exception of "rent a wreck" which I've never actually seen.
 
yeeha said:
After searching around it seems that there aren't any companies in the US that rent manual transmissions cars. Orbitz has an option to search for manuals but it never returns any results by me. I'm tempted to make my next car a manual but I've only had limited experience with them and no longer know anyone who would be willing to lend it to me.

Short of the exotic rentals everything I've found are automatics. And I'm not fond of the idea of buying a junker manual just to test it out for a couple days.

Does anyone know of a place where I could rent a manual?
Click to expand...

Thats exactly why you're probably going to have a hard time finding a rental car with a stick. They don't want to be replacing the clutch every five rentals because not enough people can properly drive a manual car.

The only option I can think of is rent-a-wreck or something similar, where you have a better chance of getting a beat to hell, manual, Kia Rio. And as a bonus, those places are usually cheaper.
 
Have the dealer teach you. It shouldn't take more than half an hour to be able to drive it on the road safely.
 
Hehe.. I guess in Europe it would be really hard to find a car with an automatic gear box, except upper class with a big motor.

But what are you afraid of? You'll get used to driving a manual in like no time. Millions and millions of people do it. You just have to give it a try. And if you drive (rent) just any manual car it won't help you too much. The exact feeling of the clutch is different from car to car.

I drove never anything else than a manual, but when i drive other peoples car i also have to get used to it. Sometimes the clutch comes very very late.. sometimes very very soon. Me and my mother have the same car model, and the clutch on her's feels different than mine (cause she has 100.000km more on her car than I on mine).

So renting a manual won't really help you.
 
Last edited:
Most car rental agencies in the US no longer stock manual transmission cars. Too many of them were getting destroyed for just this purpose, or by stupid people (Britney Spears overrevving the Ferrari comes to mind.)
 
Last edited:
argatoga said:
Have the dealer teach you. It shouldn't take more than half an hour to be able to drive it on the road safely.
Click to expand...

Some dealers won't, but some dealers should let you drive as long as you "know how to" drive a manual, plus they'll help you iron out any bumps in your technique (it's their car after all).
 
A friend of mine learned to drive manual from a car salesman when she went to buy a new car. It's amazing how helpful some car dealers can be if they think its going to make them a sale.
 
Back when I was younger and my mom was getting her Odyssey serviced, they had a manual, 4 cylinder, 4x4 Tacoma on the lot that I was looking at and a salesman approached us and he offered to teach me how to drive a stick and said it'd only take 15 minutes. It doesn't hurt to just ask. Just go to a used car lot or a CarMax even (not a Porsche/Ferrari/Supercar dealership- they usually don't like people without large bags of cash).
 
Penske rents manual transmission commercial trucks, as does Ryder.

As an added bonus, you get to learn how to deal with 30 feet and 6 tons of truck at the same time!
 
EyeMWing said:
Penske rents manual transmission commercial trucks, as does Ryder.

As an added bonus, you get to learn how to deal with 30 feet and 6 tons of truck at the same time!
Click to expand...

Those are not, by any stretch of the imagination, cars. :p
 
Spectre said:
Those are not, by any stretch of the imagination, cars. :p
Click to expand...

They ride nicer and have more responsive steering than a lot of cars I've been in (To name and shame, most 1990's GM products except the big 3800 sedans) - and accelerate faster (empty), too. It's only once you put things in them that things get un-carlike (I once spent 15 minutes with my foot welded to the floor trying to hit 55mph with a load that was actually slightly over GVWR - but I'd burned off enough fuel by the time I hit the weigh station that I was just barely under)
 
Last edited:
Do you have some sort of driving school there, seems like a more viable option where they can teach you how to drive a manual.
 
Thanks for the advice everyone.

I have no doubt I'll be able to pick it up relatively quickly. My thought behind renting a car was to get a fair amount of time to get used to it. Also I wanted to drive it back and forth on my daily commute to get an idea of what it would be like as I routinely sit in stop and go traffic. Won't give me a perfect idea as I'll still be getting use to a manual but it would be better than just a test drive at the dealership.

I will have to give rent-a-wreck a call as they don't have much info online but they do sound promising. I have actually looked at Ryder and Uhaul (I'll have to check Penske). Neither listed manuals on their websites but maybe they just don't advertise it. A car would be preferred though. Getting a dealership to teach me/just going for a test drive anyway will have to do if I can't find a rental. There may be schools around but they are probably pricey.

Realistically, it will be quite awhile before I get a new car but was just browsing car sites over vacation which got me wondering about all of this.
 
Make sure you are of the required age, IIRC most rental companies don't rent or at quite a premium if you are <25.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top