Hi Everybody Just Got A Shiny Black Aygo Fire!

[AshyC84]

Hi Guys,

I have just purchased a brand new black Aygo Fire.

I am still only on my provisional liscence and have had 20 lessons so can only go out with my partner to practice at the moment.

I am doing my lessons in a 1.5 Clio Diesel and the first thing that I have noticed is that Im struggling to strat off without stalling. The clutch seems to need a lot more elevation and i need to put a hell of a lot more revs on.

I was hoping you guys could help me out by letting me know and many revs you normally put on when taking off in 1st. Anything past 2 sounds to loud but anything less than 3 and i cant seem to get it started.

Im off out to practice first thing in the morning so any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

Ashley

[Raistlin]

It just takes a few goes to get used to the biting point of the clutch, when you find it and you are ready to go give it a little more gas and you are off.

Listen to the engine tone change as you get to the point.

[Grayedout]

Its all a matter of feel and there is no fixed revs for pulling away as it depends on what you are trying to do at the time. If you are trying to get away quickly then you will want more revs initially and raise the clutch quicker but if you after a steady start then less revs and slowly raise the clutch.

You must learn to raise the clutch steadily and as its starts to bite then slowly give it more throttle at the same time as raising the clutch.

All about practice, practice, practice!

[Colin J.S]

Like the others have said, it's just a matter of practice........generally all diesels operate at lower revs and are more difficult to stall than petrols...you will soon get used to it ;-)

Welcome to the forum ;-)

[ColinB59]

At the risk of going slightly off-topic, there's an interesting point here about how driving is taught these days. When I learnt <cough> years ago, rev counters weren't common and I was taught to listen & feel the car's reaction to setting the gas and raising the clutch. But when my daughter was learning last year and I took her out in my Aygo for practice, she was really struggling with setting off and hill starts - turns out her instructor had told her to set the revs to a particular number on the tacho and then raise the clutch. But my Aygo+ doesn't have a rev counter (I've never needed one because I learnt to drive without it ...) so she found it difficult to get the revs right. Personally I feel it's wrong to emphasise the use of the rev counter like that - any driving instructors on here like to comment ?

AshyC84: as the others have said, it's a matter of getting used to how your car feels by practicing in it, don't worry before long you'll wonder why it ever seemed so difficult ! Then you can really enjoy your Aygo !

[Raistlin]

What's a Rev counter... :)

Far too old for these modern gadgets

[eygo]

when i have had a diesel in the past i found if you let the clutch out slowly you could move off from idle speed no extra revs,

you can have your car at the redline and still move off slowly as you can use the clutch to control your speed,

there is no reason why you cant move off at 1500 rpm if you find you are stalling then you are releasing the clutch too quickly

for the revs that your engine is set at ,remember as you are releasing the clutch you should be slowly putting your foot down on the accellerator,

dont worry about stalling one day it will just click into place and you will wonder why you found it so dificult to do,just keep practising you will

get there soon.

[AshyC84]

Thank you for all the feedback guys.

After more practice i am getting there.

A few interesting points have been raised...re revs...i totally agree i have been taught to get revs up to 1.5 but when i got in with my partner she was saying to just feel it.

The more i have practiced the less revs i need its a case of getting the clutch right.

Also re moving without touching gas in diesel..this is true i have been taught reverse corners and park and i dont even touch the gas.i told my dad and he swore blind that i was wrong and that its not possible to move on a flat without touching the gas..made me feel really small but i know for a fact that you can!!!! not in petrol car tho.

By the way how great is the aygo for a small car it drives great...i love it.

Thanks again guys

[Colin J.S]

Lol, why do Dads do that????????? My Dad taught me to drivge many years ago and I used to dread every minute, I was petrified of stalling his car or crunching his gears....I had proper lessons in the end and felt so relaxed in comparison..

I'm a Dad myself now with 2 teenagers who want me to teach them......I have quite a short fuse and the worse thing I could possibly do is end up shouting at them which would destroy their confidence!!

Maybe I should bite the bullet and pay a proffesional to teach them ;-))

[AshyC84]

Lol tricky one but yeah pay for an instructor so that they are taught how to pass for the current methods and regulations i think.

A lerner knows if they have made a mistake...what we need is reassuring that its normal to make mistakes and be told the correct way...and be praised when we do it right the next time lol.

Also so annoying when instructor says take your foot of the break and you havnt even got your foot on it!!! Or betteryet when they say..mind the curb..watch the curb..then 5 mins later they say...your not in france move closer to the curb.....happy days

[AshyC84]

Oh by the way on the subject of dads..when i was asking him about the moving without touching the gas he actuallyasked if i was sure it wasnt an automatic.

Dad: are you sure there are 3 pedals

Me: yes

Dad:are you sure, definately 3?

Me: yes dad i am 28 and have had 21 lessons and i passed my gcse in maths, im definately sure

[Duce D]

When i learned to drive 8 years ago (wow that makes me seem old) one of the first things i was taught was to move the car forward in 1st with no 'Gas'. It was to teach you were the biting point was i think. It was in a petrol Micra which idled at about 500rpm.

Its not that hard to move the Aygo (and the Jazz) without using the accelerator. I just don't know if it is particularly good for the engine or clutch?

[ColinB59]

Now children, gather round and pay attention and I shall tell you about a device called the "choke". All cars have one of these, back in the olden days you used to have to operate it manually by pulling a little knob on the dashboard (no sniggering at the back !). Nowadays it does it's thing automatically so you don't even know it's there. When you start a modern car from cold the engine management system will mimic the old-fashioned choke by raising the revs above idle and changing the air/fuel ratio - if it didn't do this the engine wouldn't run very well if at all. As the engine warms up these settings revert back to optimum. So, in all this talk about driving without setting the gas, when you start from cold it's entirely possible that the engine will be running fast enough that you can set off without stalling. I used to have a micra that would quite happily do 10-15 mph from a cold start without me touching the throttle at all. But when the engine's properly warm it'll be a different story.