It is also sometimes possible to get going on a slick or icy surface by directly using a lower (numerically higher on the shift knob) gear rather than having the wheel(s) spinning in first gear, the tallest of the forward gears. A car with a manual transmission can possibly be made to crawl out of the predicament by using third or fourth gear as the driver lets out the clutch with extra throttle to overcome stalling. This goes for 4x4s too, which seems lost on some of the folks I know today who don't have the background experience that earlier generations of drivers have had.