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Comment by carom | Hacker News Reader

Most people in the US do not drive manuals. You can get them in manuals but you have to hack some stuff, and yea, it will stall your car out if you start it in gear. In the US they are largely for convenience so you can heat or cool your car before you go out.

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No manual I have ever driven will even start without the clutch engaged, so I assume a remote starter can bypass that somehow?

I always leave my manual car in gear in the opposite the direction the car would be likely to roll if the emergency brake ever failed. (If the car would roll forward, put it in reverse. If it would roll backwards put it in 1st).

There's nothing preventing the engine from turning backwards. Engage the highest gear if you are worried your handbrake will give out.

Put it in 1st to stop the car from moving. Put it in 4th to push start it.

I’ve had most success with 2nd or rear

Same, I have used 2nd gear before, and it worked perfectly fine.

Subaru Forester and XV do that. No gear in - car starts without clutch.

Mine will.

You haven’t driven a lot of manuals then. My friend’s dad once got his hyundai up the porch starting it with a gear in.

I think that modern cars have electronics that keep you from starting the car without the clutch pressed. Cars I owned in the 80s and 90s would engage the starter when you turned the keys. Cars since then won't engage the starter unless the clutch is in.

Even my 80s and 90s cars have a clutch switch (though the 87 is Japanese, can't speak for American cars in that decade). No pedal, no start.

It’s not necessarily a good thing. Imagine stalling on the train tracks and being unable to start the engine. You could still move the car using the starter motor, but not if it refuses to with the clutch engaged.

My 2004 audi a4 def didn’t have any switch like that but yeah seems like they started installing it everywhere some time in the last 10-15 years

Just to clarify for less automobile oriented people: The clutch is engaged when the pedal is not being pressed, and disengages when pressed. Starting a manual car in gear without the clutch pedal fully pressed leaves the power train connected to the motor, and so the car moves when the starter motor turns the engine.

I am the GP of the comment, and that was my mistake. Thank you for the clarification because I did not know this. I meant, "the clutch pedal fully pressed" in my GP comment.

There's plenty that do, and in fact UK driving test examiners would frequently slip a car into gear before the candidate makes their first start. If they hop the car, it's an automatic fail, before you even get out on the road.

All the cars I've owned in Europe (all manual) had no lock out whatsoever.. No need to press the clutch or brake for the starter too work.

Having said that, when I still had a car I used to drive old cars. My newest car was a 2005 Volvo S40. But this was also perfectly capable of starting in gear and with the clutch engaged.

My first car still had a choke :)

All of my vehicles were owned in the USA, and maybe that has something to do with it? Every model of car I have driven had this -- late 80s BMW, multiple Volkswagens, and a Jeep Wrangler. Hell, the John Deere farm equipment I grew up using (tractors, old lawn mowers, etc.) all had this too.

> My first car still had a choke :)

What car? Was it a Datsun by chance?

Ah I forgot about that. All my own cars were manuals.

And I've lived mostly in countries with pretty mild climates so there wasn't any need for this. Though even in the Netherlands this could be handy in the middle of winter or summer. Beats scraping the windows.

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