The jerking you are getting at times has to do with this very thing - continuing to release the clutch at a regular rate and not just "dropping" it, while matching your acceleration speed. Sometimes, you may be getting on or off the accelerator to quickly or too slowly, or not releasing the clutch enough before accelerating. It is a much quicker motion when in higher gears, but still possible to release the clutch too quickly(or too slowly) before getting the accelerator down into the right position. Once you get the feel of the right accelerator-clutch release, you shouldn't have a jerking motion any more.
If you learn to drive a straight shift correctly, a clutch will last a long time. Maybe the life of your car. Remember to remove your foot from the clutch petal completely when not needed and to press in fully when needed. The one thing that will overheat and damage your clutch quicker than anything is dragging - keeping pressure on the clutch petal enough that it remains partially engaged and can slip and overheat - causing excess wear.
It's not a bad idea to learn on a new one, as long as you don't hit anything. At least the car is under warranty should you break something.
The clutch should last the life of the car. Unfortunately your learning to drive on a clutch that was not properly broken in could be part of the reason that you are feeling jerkiness when changing up through the gears now. When driving a stick, the takeoff in first should be as smooth as warm butter spread on bread. The gearbox is fully synchronized, that means you only really need to use the clutch when starting out. The fear of not knowing and worrying about it is your biggest stumbling block. Just do it, the car can take it!
Yes from your description you are riding the clutch when going from 1st to 2nd. The only time the clutch should be used like this is for getting away from a standstill or when manouvreing very slowly in 1st gear
took me 1500 miles of driving and grinding gears to learn to drive stick 30 yrs ago - that was the only car I ever had manual trans
I just bought a 2015 Jetta. Driven it for about a month now and did learn how to drive standard on it. Grinded gears once (horrible sound) and stalled it many times the first few days. I have now gotten the hang of driving a for the most part have smooths shifts. Sometime when shifting for 2nd to 3rd or 3rd to 4th i get a bit of a jerk feeling. What causes this? Also when getting out of 1st gear Im worried that i am riding the clutch. Usually I depress clutch and release slowly until i hit friction point, when i do i give it abit of gas and release slowly off clutch, i found the faster i take foot off clutch the more of a jerk i get. any pointers. and last is learning on a new car terrible. and how long should a clutch last?
