with the way its going, soon we might be like the US of A, where a manual stick works like an anti-theft device.
on the other hand, i once drove a friends' MyVi manual at peak hour in KL, that was crazy. Alot worse than driving my own car, which is a manual too. Something wrong with the placement of the clutch i think, my left leg got a good workout after that. Also, the gear stick wasn't smooth as well, even in 1st gear! Had to roll the car abit to go in gear, kinda like how one would do in reverse gear.
But i love driving my old trusty manual car, feels at home
p/s: an auto is great too, especially with a pedal shifter. (NFS mode on)
probably he didn't even know how to adjust the myvi's clutch because the stock setting was way too high....aching heel.....
and yes if difficult to engage 1st in myvi just direct shift into 2nd...lightweight body+plenty of torque at low rpm...also help reduce gear shifting time because of short 1st gear ratio...