sporadically, the car stalls when I put into gear. occurs most often after the car has been driven and then sat parked for a while.

I rev up the engine to get it warmed up again, put into gear and sometimes "force" the engine to not stall by hitting the accelerator as fast as possible to keep the engine going. If I can do this, then the stalling problem disappears.

Last week, I was in a tight parking space and couldn't "force"
started and then put into gear and stalled about 5-6 times. finally, just pulled the key out of the ignition, put it back in and "voila" was able to put into gear without the stall.

ugh! help, anyone?

Welcome to the forum!
It looks like the coolant temperature sensor malfunction.
I would also check your ignition components. Spark plugs, wires.
How many miles do you have on the car?

Sam

thanks, Sam, for taking the time to reply. My car has 75K miles on it. I've also noticed in the last couple of days that the engine idle is very low and a bit rough.

You might want to clean the IAC valve next. If that is gunked up it can cause the symptoms you describe.