Stick-shifters Unite ...

[FASTBMW]

Even my mom drives a stick shift boxer and she's 60!

[Adam]

I watched a highway race between two M3's on racingflix...one had SMG the other stick. Everytime they shifted the SMG pulled ahead slightly and the stick driver is a friend of mine who knows how to shift a stick. Even so, I like manuals better for the driver involvment that you can't get with an auto.

[Ronzi]

It used to be that the argument for the manual transmission was performance-oriented, i.e., better acceleration, less power loss, no inappropriate upshifting in corners, etc.
With the advent of newer automatics these criticisms have largely been negated, to the point where in at least some applications performance is superior.
The pro-manual argument has now been reduced to touchy-feely. More driver involvement, a real sports car should have a manual transmission, my mother drives a stick.
The manual transmission will be a relic and an artifact in my lifetime, and I got my Medicare card last week.

[Porschekid]

Funny that 90% of the world uses manuals while 90% of America uses automatics. I remember walking down the streets in Rome and maybe 1 out of every 20 parked cars was an automatic. I wonder if it's because of fuel economy, repairs, control, or what.

[denverpete]

Originally Posted by Ronzi

...The manual transmission will be a relic and an artifact in my lifetime, and I got my Medicare card last week.

Hey Ron, what's a record player????

[SD987]

Funny that 90% of the world uses manuals while 90% of America uses automatics. I remember walking down the streets in Rome and maybe 1 out of every 20 parked cars was an automatic. I wonder if it's because of fuel economy, repairs, control, or what.

- Porschekid

I think its because Americans are generally lazy and shiftless...get it? He said "shiftless".

I'll be here all week, folks...

Originally Posted by SD987

Funny that 90% of the world uses manuals while 90% of America uses automatics. I remember walking down the streets in Rome and maybe 1 out of every 20 parked cars was an automatic. I wonder if it's because of fuel economy, repairs, control, or what.

- Porschekid

I think its because Americans are generally lazy and shiftless...get it? He said "shiftless".

I'll be here all week, folks...

When I was walking around in Rome a few years ago, 90% of the moving vehicles I saw were mopeds and scooters. They drive like crazy!!

[MNBoxster]

Hi,

Well clearly, it's a very polarized issue. It seems for many, you'll have to pry their Gearshift Knob from their Cold, Dead, Fingers as they go the way of the Dinosaur...

I mean, Automatics... they're not just for your Buicks anymore... at least so sayeth Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini, BMW, Mercedes Benz, Audi, Aston Martin...

Happy Motoring!... Jim'99

the other day my nephew came to my house and found one of my vinyl record, he is sixteen and had never seen one before, kids these days!! computers and Ipods.

As for the tiptronic, i always like it for the everyday drive, no fuss and easy to change gears in manual position, in fairness i probably never used it in auto only, the only draw back was when driving on the track in sharp bends, as the steering wheel would be at some stage on the wrong way to change gears (selectors on steering wheel) and the inability to change gear when wanted due to the safety gap in gear changing (impossible to gear down to 2nd from 3rd coming into a bend for exemple) when arriving too fast, and beleive me this was a pain as you would come out of the bend in the wrong gear and had to gear down to go again!
real painful

[BuffaloBoxster]

Originally Posted by olly986

the other day my nephew came to my house and found one of my vinyl record, he is sixteen and had never seen one before, kids these days!! computers and Ipods.

I'm starting to wonder why I have endless shelves full of CDs when I have them all in an iPod which is about the size of a pack of cigarettes. I'm happy to not have those things taking up space anymore...

Change is good, you just have to keep on top of it.

Next you'll be telling us about black and white TV :P

[eslai]

I'm waiting for a digital format that's both portable and audiophile-quality. MP3s really screw up the sound stage and highs no matter what compression setting I set them up with. The day all audio distribution happens on MP3 files instead of a plastic platter will be the day I roll up into a fetal position and rock myself gently into oblivion.