I fell into this same dilemma. I had limited stick experience and highly considered a beater to practice on. I've been told every manual transmission car is a bit different and you just have to feel your way into driving it.

When I got to the dealership I did pretty well, reversed... moved it forward (tough part)... went to move it again ... stall... stall... stall... stall... stall... (friend takes over) ... revs it a bit... lovely burnt smell of clutch fills the car. I hadn't even bought the car! I take it out that night and practiced quite a bit ... along with the following morning. Now it's pretty much no problem at all, the occasional mistakes.

It really comes down to confidence in your ability and not giving up! I say just buy the Evolution, practice on another manual tranmission if you can up until you buy it... if not... just practice on the blue Evo... I did

 

I got my saleman to teach me in a lancer OZ after I bought my evo. Just talk to youre saleman, I'm sure they are more than glad to let you learn on one of those lancers. I stalled like 10 times on my evo and that was it. Go get ur evo and forget the civic. My evo is at 9K and no clutch problem. Touch wood.... . Good luck in ur decision.

 

In my personal opinion, I think the Evo is not the greatest first time manual to learn on. The clutch engages in adifferent spot then other car's I have drove.

And there are several people here on the list with Evo's with tranny and clutch problems. Luckily (knock on wood) mine has held up. 4000+ miles with ocasional racing.

I learned on a 89 toyota corola. Glad it was that car. My parents still have it, and its still working 196K miles. Clutch works still.
2nd car was my Eclipse GS-T........

Anyway, its all up to you, as someone said earlier, the Evo was his first manual, so if its what you want and have the $$ go for it, if not buy a "cheaper" car to start out.

Have fun on them hill's eitherway......

 

i learned stick in one hour....not kidding...it took me like 3 more days to get used to it tho...but after an hour...no more stalling...no more droppin clutch on high rpm...damn i m good =)

 

the evo was my first stick car. its not difficult to learn. it took me about 2 1/2hrs.

 

just rent a car for a day and learn on that!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

yea rent a car for a week! like a neon or something and drive the **** out of it so you know exactly what your going to need to know for daily driving like up hill starts with some one on ur *** etc etc = P just my 2 cents!

 

Learning the Clutch is pretty easy to get to know, but its the hills thatll kill you for the first couple of weeks.... good luck though, i wish i got an evo for my first car, but thats sweet that u are.

 

^ hahah i WISH! ... not rite now rite now, maybe later, later later hahah...

I wanna learn manual on an old car... I figure it'll benefit me better when I do get an Evo down the line... I'm sorry but STi's look hella cheesy somehow to me

O the 99 or 97 hatchbacks I see are about 5400-6500 ... maybe because of its mileage ranging anywhere from 65k to 120k =X!

 

My very first car was the evo I drive right now...I learned how to drive it in a couple weeks. I didn't really have ANY driving experience before this either..all depends on the person I guess!

 

The Evo is my first manual tranny car as well. First week was "fun" as I climbed the learning curve--stalling a bunch of times, smoking the clutch once or twice... No biggie, I'm pretty good at it now. Remains to be seen how long the first clutch will last... no matter, as I've found friends who can help me put in a new one.

I got my Evo after learning to drive stick the week before... in my friend's STi.

 

If you can afford the Evo buy it. Don't waste your money on a Civic. You can easily learn to drive a manual car in a matter of hours. Rent a manual car for a day or two. You won't regret having the Evo as your first manual car.

 

I called around and found that none of the usual rental places--Hertz, Enterprise, Alamo, etc.--carry manual tranny cars anymore.

Maybe something like Rent-A-Wreck?

 

I can see why rental car companys dont carry cars w/ clutches any more, they probably had too much transmition problems with them because people didnt really know how to drive them all that well.. Any ways i still say go with the Evo, sweet car, dont get a civic though, way too many of them out there

 

ok im 16 and i bought an evo kuz it was mai dream car since i was like 8. and at that time of course i didnt kno shiet about cars. but i thought to myself y waste money on an old car to learn off of and juss get the car i want kuz ill save money keepin it. but it being mai first car period... seriously it didnt take me more than like a week to get it down for the car its self. well i have to mentioned that i did burn out a clutch but i juss got a better one instead. thats the fun. break sumthing get sumthing new and better.