Driving a Manual (Stick)

To me, driving an automatic is about halfway between driving a manual and driving a driverless vehicle.

So dull.

 

I definitely miss driving stick. Even though I have a dct transmission in my car, with paddle shifters, and it's technically faster than a stick, it's nowhere near the fun. I'm hoping my next car will have stick. Praying. I looked for one for my last car, but ran out of patience, definitely a regret.

 

I kinda miss driving stick, since it's all I drove for much of my driving life. However, having dwindling options in the price range I wanted forced me to go auto. Still, I absent mindedly keep my hand on the stick alot as I drive.

 

Yea, while those double clutch transmissions are compelling technologically, the one I test drove was boring. The paddles would get maybe a day of use, and then what's the motivation to use them? Some are motivated by the 'fastest', but it's never been my primary motivation.

 

Harder to buy a stick in the States. Sometimes it is about a lifestyle choice. My first car with stick had power locks and a power moon-roof, but wind-up manual windows. I think it also takes having done stick for a while to have it feel right. Most non-stick drivers aren't appreciative. When I hop in the Miata, it feels more natural to drive than any automatic I've owned.

 

Yea, in the USA manual transmission cars are also harder to resell. In other parts of the world, different view.

My beater is automatic, for long drives, etc, but I'm going to keep driving manual transmissions until I no longer can. It's part of the experience of driving, a perfect down shift, rowing through the gears, and for those who appreciate it, you know what I mean, and for those who don't... all good too. One day we will have self-driving cars, and maybe robot race cars with perfect driving systems will also beat human track times, but still, where is the fun in that?

 

Not looking forward to auto drive cars that much. I absolutely love driving. Miss stick every single day. I don't even mind it in traffic, makes it slightly more bearable for me. Miss double clutching and heel n toe. Double clutching is not even an option now on the newer sticks as they have Rev matching. Never drove a stick with Rev matching before, seems interesting but also seems to take away some of the fun from driving stick too.

 

Outside of cabs and similar for hire vehicles in large cities self driving cars a long ways away. To a first approximation they'll require either perfect maps or true AI in order to navigate themselves anywhere. Keeping maps that up to date is only worth it in areas of the highest population densities and I don't think true AI is coming up anytime soon either.

 

I was one of those guys that thought I'd always own a car with stick until I was rear ended at a stoplight and got whiplash so bad my neck and shoulders are in pain constantly. So PDK is the best for me unless I find a doctor that can fix me then driving a stick won't be so painful and physically taxing on road trips that I go on with the local pca club.

 

With our second kid on the way, I traded my 2008 Civic Si in for a mini-van. Before the Si, I owned several heavily modded Subaru's. The 2006 Sti with custom reflash, new coil-overs, all new suspension bits, upgraded hard piped intercooler, iconel downpipe, full catback, carbon fiber drive shaft, Gram Lite 18x10's...that was the fun one to drive....I miss manuals....

 

I definitely miss my Challenger Scat Pack with the Tremec manual. I was doing a lot of driving between the high desert and my girlfriend's place in Valencia, so I got something more fuel efficient: the Honda Accord sport 2.0 turbo. There was a stick option, but the throttle felt laggy compared to the 10-speed automatic.

 

Not all cars with a manual transmission option is done well. The E60 M5 had a stick option and was geared horribly. Too bad the SMG was also bad. I know a few guys that owned them and they really hated that car except for the engine. If it just had a great transmission option that car would have been really great.

 

That V-10 is a super sweet engine, and you can pick up E60 M5s for dirt cheap nowadays. Of course when the time comes to replace that transmission it will cost more than you paid for the car.....

 

This picture was viral. Me and some relatives in south of Brasil during the winter. The city didn’t have snowstorms like these since 1970. So we have some fun that day. This is a Volkswagen Waigon 1976 Only the braves know to change its gears

.

 

I have some arthritis in one of my left toes making clutch work painful. Shifting was fun while it lasted!

 

I would probably crash if I had an automatic.

I get absent minded easily, manual, as annoying as it can be driving in traffic, keeps me focused on the road rather than adhd-fueled mental babbling.

Driving my mom's 538xd or whatever auto BMW I caught myself doing really stupid shit because I wasn't paying a attention.

It also gave me the same faint nausea playing racing games drunk gives me.

Still getting used to my 124 Abarth though.

170bhp 1.4L turbo 6-speed has ... quirks.

They tuned it for lowrev torque - its basically flat from 2500 to 6500, like a flea-sized muscle car - but given how small the engine is below the turbine's engagement rpm the engine will just stop if you drop the clutch.

 

So here's an odd addendum to the desplazando con manuel vs. slush box

Me and another car guy buddy agree that there are certain platforms/packages that'd be either stick or shifty paddles:

Golf GTI, stick. Golf R, DSG.

Mustang GT 5.0, stick. GT350/R auto. (same for the Camaros of similar spec)

Corvette C7, Stingray or GS, stick. C7 Z06/R, auto all day every day.

BMW 240i, stick. M2 or M2CS DCT.

What else? I can think of a lot of Porsche models where the difference between "grand tourer" and "track weapon" are determined largely by shifty-gears vs. PDK/autotragic, but there's quite some debate about this among the "purists". Or is this more a question of which MFGs were smart enough to spec ZF trans and spend the time to customize the TCUs so they actually perform/feel better than a stick, with gunshot upshifts and kimi raikkonen-level rev matching?

To put it another way, would you suffer the embarrassment of getting dusted by a hick in a Demon, in your McL 275 'cause you dropped a 2-3 shifty-shift at the track?

 

I've been driving manual all my life. I've had my share of 180 degree handbrake turns and other hooligan moves but these days, an automatic here in my town in the Philippines is heaven. Heavy traffic and manual is a pain in the ass.

 

We had one of these. The model is called a Brasilia here in the Philippines.

 

^^^ So much this. Car people friends looked at me like I was a little crazy when I said something similar car shopping last year instead of "manual only". 100% agree cars like the GTI, BMW 240, or Mustang 5.0 are ideal in manual although I'm actually 50/50 on the Golf R being auto/manual. Same with the Porsche - touring car manual, track car auto, and this is only a generality that I could argue around in my head just like people do IRL. Caveat - I also have less experience driving Porsche.

As for driving stick, I don't right now due to not wanting to deal with it in traffic, but if I had 2 cars, 1 would definitely be stick. FWIW also used to ride motorcycles a little here and there and enjoyed the manual shifting aspect of it.