Don't go on that for your decision. I have the manual and live in NYC. Yeah it sucks to be on and off the clutch during some rush hour traffic, but the control you get with MT is worth it, you will not be able to make those short bursts of speed on the Grand Central to pass an annoying cabbie or fly down the FDR w/the automatic.

 

You should avoid downshifting as much as possble until you're really comfortable with the process...its easier to damage the tranny downshifting than upshifting.

Example: If youll need to be stopping for a red light up ahead and you're in 3rd or 4th gear, you're better off pushing the clutch in and shifting to neutral since the brakes will stop the car just fine. Once you shift to neutral you can let the clutch pedal out and just use the brakes to come to a stop.

Once you get better you CAN downshift through all of the gears (4-3-2-1) when comming to a stop, but this is really unnessary in city driving and puts more wear and tear on the tranmission's parts.

Really you should never downshift into 1st gear if the car is moving faster than walking speed....too hard on the tranny and extremely unnessesary. If you're going around a tight tight corner out in traffic, 2nd gear should be as low as you need to go. Anything above 5mph its fine to use 2nd.

I wouldnt cruise at less than 2500 if you're in 3rd or higher, or you really wont have any power to accelerate quickly. So you have to choose the correct gear for how fast the car is moving.

If you do lots of city driving you might regret the MT sometimes. my last two cars over the past 6 years were manual, and frankly I got sick of rowing gears in a commuter car. Also alot more diffcult to talk on the phone or drink a soda, and easier to look like a dumbass if your out with a date.

 

If you're worried about resale, go AT.
If you want more enjoyment, MT.

 

Seriously, the Sport Shift is nothing great. I drove my friends 04 TSX and an 05 TL with it and yea, I'd rather that to a regular automatic but its nothing like a manual. The feeling of just sliding the shifter back and forth in SS mode just doesn't compare.

 

NOOOOO WAY!

I had a Sentra and it was stick, i navigated through pennsylvania to and from work at a ski resort, all because it was stick, no snow tires!

my dad has a bmw 528 stick, he does better in the snow than some asses with SUVs who don't know how to drive. throw snow tires on it, and he can anywhere.

stick is FAR safer in the snow. autos SUCK. except i'm getting an auto TSX cause the woman won't learn manual

 

once you learn how to drive stick, you don't even realize you're doing it. so in rush hour, it's not any different than someone used to auto. it's second nature.

GET THE MANUAL! come to hoboken, i'll teach ya

 

damn shame he bought a "GTO" speaking of "badges" (if you saw that post)

talk about making a sweet car ugly. this ranks right up their with the Dodge Charger mishap, but the Charger is still worse.

 

i feel that driving a manual makes you more aware of your surroundings because, let's face it, you have to be. you're always prepared, more alert, and thus, a safer driver. you'll find yourself knowing when to break or accelerate around some idiot who loses control or pulls out in front of you. you master downshifting. and as for hills....


i learned to drive stick in ocean city maryland while on vacation....FLAT as the great plains...

go home that weekend, begged my dad to let me take the car, go to pick up my girlfriend who lives at the top of an incredibly steep grade, and whamo....no choice but to figure it out. took 20 minutes, but once i did that, never had a problem again.

every now and then i have a brain fart and stall going in reverse, but it rarely happens. i'm gonna miss the manual tranny, still secretly holding hope i convince the woman to get the manual

 

i agree. sport shift should not F'ing exist. it sickens me to even discuss it

 

I'm at the point where i can go to mickie d's, put the soda between my legs, and eat a burger in the other hand, knee on wheel, shift with free hand.

sometimes, i have chicken nuggets, and then i need sauce, so i need to dip the nugget in the sauce, all while shifting.

this is when it's good to have a passenger who understands how to shift for you. they listen to the engine, when it hits the right whining level, you clutch, and they shift. it's harmonious. what a wonderful thing.

GET THE STICK. oh and you don't have to worry about talking on the phone cause you have the TITS: HANDS FREE BLUE TOOTH.

 

I live in bayside too... what hills? lol get the 6MT i regret getting 5AT... and also please buy it at RALLYE! not paragon!

 

^^getting at rallye, I go to school in cornell. I'm there most of the year.

 

its true. Once you are good with stick you can seriously multitask while you drive. I always try to pull over though if someone calls me on the phone etc because I dont think its safe to get too distracted while driving.

I always laugh when someone I know who drives MT gets into an auto,...and you catch them reaching the the shifter or searching for the clutch that is not there,.lol. I have done it too.

WERD to the SS,......its NOT even close to being like a real manual. A guy I know thinks its practically the same thing. I tell him its not even close, and he is on crack for wanting it LOL. The one or two times I have tried a SS it felt so WRONG.

GET STICK

 

Why not?

 

Always drove a stick before my TSX and frankly, I have to think about the mechanics of driving a stick to explain it. It just becomes so second nature you don't even think about it. It is like breathing, your body does it while you are busy doing other things.

I learned to drive a stick as a 16 year old. My dad took me to a cemetary and let me loose. Gravel drives, which are more forgiving while you are learning, lots of turns and things and hey, if you hit someone, the odds are they are already dead!

But now living in a large city with bad traffic and my knees are shot, so I really appreciate the auto. And I even like the sport shift, for those few times I want to better control the shifting, like an on ramp. Not as precise as the stick but the TSX auto is so good with so little time laging you don't mind it.

 

Obviously you've never been stuck on the 405 or the 110 at 5:30pm. It is not just getting used to it like an auto. Not when you clutch constantly and never get past 2nd gear. Try it for a few weeks and see how sore your left knee gets.

 

no offense, but my 24 yr old knees only hurt after a game of rugby.

 

My first new car that I purchased was when I was 21 and it was a MT. Although I had some minimal practice before hand, I mostly learnt how do drive one on the way home and over the next few days.

I taught my sister, my first wife and my daughter how to drive a stick. I taught them all by learning on a slight grade so that they could get the feel for the clutch by letting it slowly in and out. Once you have learned the feel the rest was easy.

I ordered an AT. My driving will be communting and long drives and my racing from a street light days are long gone. For the times that I want to have fun I will use the SS.

Nothing wrong with choosing either transmission, both are great, but don't let the "unknown" of driving a MT be a deciding factor. In a few days you will be good and in a couple of weeks you will be almost an expert.

Have fun.



Excited

ps ( I noted that our forum automatically changed my age to 50 after my birthday. Anyway of making me 19 again)

 

Learning on a slight incline or decline?

I recommend learning on level ground or even a slight decline to help get you going a little bit.

Practicing on a incline is overrated. Once you get level ground down cold, going up an incline is pretty easy.
I've never used the handbrake method either. On the steepest incline of maybe 10-15 degrees, I only roll back a few inches, maybe half a foot.

 

The clutch will do that if you are riding the clutch with a gear engaged while driving. I had a friend who had this bad habit and it was impossibile for him to get out of it.Used to change the clutch every 20.000miles.
I recommend you make sure your foot is resting on the dead pedal ALLWAYS between shifts. In short time will become second nature.

What he meant by keeping your foot on the clutch was for the situation when you have to stop and you want to be super ready for a quick start. So stop, press the clutch, put it in first and release whenever it's time to go.
However I do this only when I anticipate the cluth won't stay pressed for too long. For instance at a red light wait for yellow, then put it in first anticipating green.
A mechanic told me once that nothing major can happen but when a gear is engaged and the clutch is pressed there is a bearing spinning. This bearing is a dry one and may wear with excessive use.

 

driving in nyc is nothing, go drive/park in san francisco with a 6mt - that is fun!

Oh, and get the 5AT - stop listening to these 6MT pansies!

 

I always found that as you let the clutch go out you would climb the slight incline and as you pushed it back in you would go back down the incline. You would learn the right pressure to maintain staying in one place and also the pressure to go up or down the incline. That helped one to get a "feel" for the clutch. It worked for the three of them and also my brother.

I guess there is more than one way to learn how to use a stick, that was a successful way for me.



Excited

 

stick at cornell is tough....i know, i went to lehigh. but it's no big deal. like i said, once you know how, it's second nature. get the stick

 

ummmm, never stuck? i live outside of nyc. it took me an hour to go 1 mile one morning. trust me. i know traffic. i know LA is worse, but i still cant comprehend how it gets worse than what it's like here....

the ONLY time i get frustrated, is when i'm on the ramp to 495 coming from hoboken.
the ramp is about 3,000 feet, and it's uphill. it usually takes about a half hour to get to the top of the ramp, and then merge. that is literally the only time i've not liked driving a stick.

i've been on the NJ Turnpike numerous times where i'm lucky if i get out of first gear. but i STILL prefer stick. once you go stick, you just cant go back.

 

The new BMW 3's have an "auto parking brake" feature that allows you to keep the clutch in on a hill without rolling backwards if you let off the brakes. Pretty cool...always wanted a feature like that.

 

Sounds like a yuppy feature, one of the best things about MT is the sense of pride you fet from your ability to do it. I don't want something making it easier for me.

 

and so it goes, they yuppy features will trickle down, to the eventual elimination of a real manual transmission driving experience. i just hope it doesn't happen in the next 25 years. by then i'll be pretty sick of driving and won't care anymore

 

 

 

Not sure if i'd try to start our engines in 3rd. However... with the autos you can still start from 2nd. Just move the stick over to sport shift, and while stopped shift up so that the # on the dash reads 2. You can start with that gear.

 

not the same as using the manual transmission....

 

Could someone explain to me why I'd want to start off in 2nd? Or 3rd?

 

I guess on the icy road or snow, starting in 2nd gear provides a more linear torque vs. RPM curve. In another word, the increase in the torque is less abrupt. So it is less likely you spin your wheels.

It's only my guess. I have VERY limited experience driving in cold climates.

 

Oh ok. I live in AZ. What the hell is this "snow" thing I keep hearing about?

 

i dont know why anyone would want to start in 2nd, and definitely not in 3rd.

 

It looks something like this:




Excited

 

Three pedals, two feet. Sounds like juggling.

Find someone with a manumatic, an automatic transmission set up so that you can more easily manually shift it, to get the feeling of shifting without the clutch, and when to do it.

When you're shifting for real, though, slow things down, but it's really not that hard. My father took me to a shopping mall, at night, and within a few minutes I was shifting up and down from in our 1969 Jaguar E-Type 2+2. Piece of cake.

This thread makes me think of the "How to Juggle" book I read, which started with, "Take a bean bag in your hand, and throw it on the ground 10 times, because you will be dropping one often, so you should get used to it, but also ... you're mind knows that you've got a bean bag in your left hand, and it knows that you have just thrown another bean bag up with your right hand, and you know that you're supposed to catch it with your left hand, but there's already something in your left hand, and ... PANIC." Well, I found driving standard much easier than juggling, but hopefully you'll see the analogy.

 

Great thread!

One thing that hasn't yet been mentioned (?) is the satisfaction you'll get when you have mastered the heel/toe downshift while exactly matching revs while pulling into your neighborhood. Your neighbors will think "wow - now that guy can DRIVE".

Oh yea - for those of you that don't have a clue what I'm talking about - get that TSX out to a race track (WITH AN INSTRUCTOR) and REALLY learn how to drive your car. You will be a MUCH better driver, and will fall more deeply in love with your car!!!

Try a BMW CCA or Porsche Club event - instruction is great as are the people.


Now, back to my regular scheduled evening work: deciding between an '06 TSX 6 MT Nav or a used 330i Perf Pkg to replace my big fat gas guzzling truck!

 

Sometimes I regret getting the 5AT but it is by far the nicest automatic available. The shifts are sharp, quick, smooth and the rev limiter is the same as a MT. You can go well into the red and have lots of fun. It's aggressive when it downshifts to first, I wish the downshifting to 2nd on the highway was better though.
Also, just remember it only takes one accident. Get whatever you feel more comfortable with. You won't be disappointed, the car is very well engineered.

 

As already stated by someone else, more traction and less wheel spin in slippery conditions.
Never started in 3rd.