Shift Bay Area -

William Du

I recently took a 2-hour manual driving lesson with Shift, and Ben was my instructor. He was incredibly thorough and patient, walking me through every detail I needed to know. By the end of the lesson, I was driving somewhat smoothly and felt confident enough to start practicing on my own. Ben’s instruction style made the complex process of learning stick shift much more approachable. Highly recommend this to anyone looking to master manual driving—it was a great experience overall!

Michel Dembinski

Great lesson. Ben was patient and helped me progress through the levels at my pace.
Highly recommended.

Arthur Wood

This was a phenomenal lesson from start to finish. I had some previous experience driving MT cars and wanted this opportunity to solidify my skills before making a purchase. I had Edwin as my teacher for the day. From the moment you meet him, you can tell that he loves to teach. Patient, calm, and very clear with his instruction, he really put me at ease and made the experience very fun. I’ve also been fortunate enough to have a day at the Porsche experience center in Los Angeles. In my opinion, this experience with Shift Bay Area was more enjoyable due to the excellent teaching. I felt as if I came away with a new skill that I could use in the future as opposed to just doing launches in a fancy car I could never afford. Don’t get me wrong, Porsche Experience Center was a blast! But if you’re looking for a patient instructor who can help you master a new driving skill, this is the way to go.

Yudi Tan

I’ve had an amazing session with Otto today and was able to quickly master driving stick under 3 hours. We managed to cover all the necessary techniques from starting up to reversing, changing shift and uphill starts. I’d walked in expecting to stall multiple times but it turns out learning stick was a lot easier than I’d thought! The Brisbane location was also perfect — it’s a quiet area with everything needed (good slopes to learn uphill starts as well as spacious roads to learn shifting). Would definitely recommend this course for anyone trying to learn manual!

RyRy

Learning to drive a manual has always been a desire of mine but I always put it on the back burner from a negative experience I had as a teenager. But my 3 hour session with Edwin erased all the bad memories. From start to finish Edwin laid everything out for me. He was calm, clear in communication & patient, an excellent teacher. We practiced all real world scenarios & before I knew it I was smiling because I was driving in the streets up shifting & down shifting. I had so much fun that I plan to go back & do some touch up work. For anyone out there looking to add a new skill of driving a manual don’t wait. Sign up today and you too will be a 3 pedal driver!

Rachel W.

To preface, I only understood driving a manual car conceptually with no practical experience. My partner who is an experienced driver, taught me a few basics when it comes to driving a manual car, but I ultimately felt like a structured course would best serve me.

I just completed the three hour course today with Ben as my instructor....And this course did not disappoint!

Before you get into the driver's seat, Ben covers the structure of the course and what you can expect to learn during your time with him. You split time with the instructor in the driver's seat so they can demonstrate what you're working on and then have you do it, under their guidance.

Ben was engaged the whole lesson, checked in periodically to make sure I was comfortable with what I learned before moving onto the next portion of the lesson. When I made mistakes, he always remained calm and pinpointed where I made the mistake and how to correct it. Even when I had no reason to doubt myself, he didn't mind me doing an extra practice run or two before moving onto the next phase of the lesson.

By the end of the course, I felt better prepared and comfortable driving a manual car in traffic which honestly, was the part I was most worried about coming into the course.

They deserve their 5-star rating and I would highly recommend Shift Bay Area to anyone who wants to learn how to drive stick. It was the most fun I had learning how to drive...PERIOD.

Ando Nesia

This was one of the best lessons I have had. The way Ben was able to explain things, his patience and his ability to put the concepts in the east to understand concepts made me learn this without any hesitation. I strongly recommend them for any of your manual transmission learning needs

Terrence Wei

All my previous attempts at driving stick ended badly so I went out to search the best place to learn. I sure am glad I found Shift because I came out of the course more confident and with the knowledge needed to comfortably drive stick. The course is nicely structured and the instructor was on top of everything from showing me the basics to pointing out my errors and going over all scenarios I might encounter. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Shift to anyone who has a desire to learn how to be a highly competent stick driver.