manual/stick shift
 

question arises again and again :D

I got a 2013 auto limited BRZ

i live in NYC with b2b traffic all day. My job requires lots of traveling so most of time im stuck in traffic.. i got a hole in my carpet under the brake pedal..because thats where my foot is most of the time.

New facelift is here, maybe time to trade in brz for a stick shift brz.

Would it be stupid for me to do so? Hows the wear and tear from stick brz in the situation i described above versus an automatic?

The carpet savers are cheap, and the carpet is even cheaper.

I have a manual and carpet saver (factory floor mat) is quite worn in areas below both the clutch pedal and brake pedal. 26000 miles on my 2015 FRS.

So if you buy a manual...you get two holes...LOL.

Suggest you stay with the auto trans if you do, as you've stated, drive constantly in stop and go traffic. With a manual your left leg and left knee take a beating in stop and go. Same goes for LA traffic.

In NYC I'd be more worried about the outside of my car. Typical there to see lots of dents on sides of cars. Also there, drivers who parallel park, use the front or rear of their car to push cars backwards or forwards to make a space for themselves.

The autos are pretty nice. I daily in some stop & go but mostly creep below 10 in places and open up to 70 in others.

Done properly, I don't think there's much more wear and tear on a manual.

Be good at creeping forward without gunning it.

I spend a LOT of time shifting between first-second-first... I've never owned an auto so I don't really think about it.

Can you borrow someone's manual for a few days? You'd get a pretty good idea driving any old manual.

I drive a manual. Wore through my floor mat in less than 6 months, and I only had like 5k miles. I put a piece of rubber kitchen mat under it to keep from going through the carpet.

I had been driving manual for past 20 years. It does not bothers me with LA traffic. Driving auto in traffic made me sleepy, manual kept me awake. Also, you can just put the gear at first gear and just use left foot to control clutch to glide at stop and go traffic without using right put much (i still use my right foot for brake and acceleration if needed). funner i guess

i got dings on side panel(rear) and... scratches..front/rear bumper already but you are right how they push your car.. I never touch anyones bumper btw, all damage caused by other assholes


I will be focusing on getting private parking before i make a move for next car because i already learned the hard way.

i might just wait for rs3..if it ever comes out ( i know NOT RELATED LOL)


fuark it, going to just keep saving for house lol


edit: yes i do feel sleepy as hell when driving auto in traffic but thanks for the bluetooth subaru, i just make a call to friends/family while driving to keep me up

As others have stated, I think you get wear either way. The better question is how is you tolerance on using your left foot. Sitting in traffic, my left knee would start to ache after having to work the clutch for 30 mins straight, even with the stock clutch which is one of the lighter ones I've used.

It's called parking by braille. I've watched people do crazy damage to car doing it and then just drive or walk away. Once I called someone out on it because he completely wrecked the other cars front bumper, grill and headlights then just walked away so I left him with two flats and a busted headlight.

I personally say manual all the way. I live in DC and daily drive with traffic and still love being engaged in a manual w bored and sleepy in a automatic. I definitely notice I pay more attention and am a better driver with a manual, any day of the week in any condition. If you drive properly I would not be worried about wear.

Also a DC area guy that drives manual. You get used to it, and carpets are cheap. You either want to drive manual, or you don't.

Plus, reducing feeling sleepy by driving manual > reducing feeling sleepy by talking on the phone. one makes you more engaged, one makes you less

What shoes are you guys wearing that will punch a hole thru the carpet, wooden heel dress shoes?

I've even seen some people that have made holes on rubber car mats and have always wondered how that happened.

Maybe try some shoes with a curved up driving heel? You can always swap shoes before walking into the office.

I drive manual in LA and it's fine (seems to be what you want to hear anyway). Basing your decision off of floor mat wear and tear is pretty insane but, if you must, I replaced my stock mats with Lloyd mats (purchased through Works) and they're holding up insanely well... no wear spots at all after about 10k miles.

I'm kinda torn. I originally was going to say I wouldn't want to get a manual for daily commuting through rush hour in NYC. But then I realized, traffic sucks no matter what and working the clutch in traffic is kinda second nature to me now. Automatic is definitely easier for traffic in NYC though.

As for the wear and tear on the floor mats.. You're gonna have that same hole in the carpet under the brake pedal, having a manual wont change it much. You probably wont have a second hole under the clutch since you shouldn't be riding your clutch anyway. If you're stopped for more than a few seconds, you should just be in neutral and off the clutch.

The area I experience bumper to bumper most is on the ramp from Williamsburg bridge on to east bound BQE. Once you get over the first hill up, its all downhill so I usually just stay in neutral and use gravity to roll me forward lol.

And really, if you're worried about wear on carpet but hate Weathertech mats (I'm assuming), then try the 3D Maxpider mats. I switched to those and they look a lot better.

Yeah no lie. I had never seen those rubber bumper guards until I visited a friend in NYC where half the people have them and asked WTF they were. Mind blown.

Yep I've got one of those too. Except I keep mine in the trunk when I'm driving. I only flip it out when I'm parked in populated areas with shitty drivers (like all the fucking idiots in Flushing).

I also have a small rubber bumper license plate frame on the front. Helps a bit for assholes who back straight into me when parking. Already witnessed one Honda parked up against my front bumper. Would've cracked something if I didnt have the rubber plate frame. When I let off the parking brake in my car, it rolled backwards away from the Honda.

I couldn't do it, I'd take my emergency window punch tool and have a fucking field day with that guy's car.

It was in my usual parking garage, and I had to get an attendant to move the Honda due to the layout of the garage so that I could get out.

So I just keyed it a few times.

How do you know the attendant didn't park it there and not the Honda owner?

I broke down this fall and bought the Weather Tech floor mats. I actually like them better than carpet. It would take a while to wear a whole through those. I would tend to agree with those that recommend staying with an auto for that kind of traffic. A clutch won't make it any easier.

I broke down this fall and bought the Weather Tech floor mats. I actually like them better than carpet. It would take a while to wear a whole through those. I
would tend to agree with those that recommend staying with an auto for that kind of traffic. A clutch won't make it any easier.

A clutch won't make it easier, but like @jawn said, either you want to drive the manual or don't. Traffic is irrelevant if you do. I believe this is the reason the take rate for a manual in this car far exceeds the industry standard.

OP, only you know if you really want to do the manual. I am 95% city driving and ok with it. Once traffic clears, it makes it worth the wait.

It was parked half ass'ed and crooked almost into another parking spot on the side. Attendant wouldn't do that simply because it makes their own job harder. Plus an attendant would care enough to at least move the car up a bit after hitting someone's bumper, in the interest of covering their own ass lol.

Mmm. Best feeling is when you're stuck on a highway where 3 lanes merge into one due to an accident, and then once you finally get to where the lanes open back up. Car in first gear, foot on the pedal, shoot into left lane and just go through the gears as you accelerate with nothing in front of you :drool:

Strangly enough that was exactly what I was thinking about. Get out of my head man. :burnrubber:

I don't know if you're familiar with traffic in the GTA but there's some pretty heavy traffic here too in the afternoons. Everyone on the road is either leaving work from Toronto, or heading towards Toronto for the afternoon shift.

I've been caught in that traffic many times, it's really not all that bad with the manual, in fact you don't even notice that you're doing more work until you think about it.

3 years with a manual FRS...over 10 years driving manual cars in NYC...i don't see the problem..People always say auto because of traffic. I personally don't have an issue and yea i drive mines almost everyday (daily is300 5mt for work and 86 after work during rush hour).

Has my first manual car for about a month now. Kind of scary the first day but I'm completely loving it and don't even want another automatic.

Sent from my SM-G935W8 using Tapatalk

Being a manual driver in NYC, it's honestly not that bad. It's become so natural for me now and this is my first manual car. 12K miles later and I wouldn't go back to an automatic again....unless I have a family later down the road. :)

Driving in PHX traffic stop and go is a bit annoying while driving stick. I drive without my shoes bc I like the feel of the car and my carpet is fine. I think the ends justify the means in this case, yes stick may be annoying in traffic but everywhere else its badass and fun.

Personally I feet a Twin is just the wrong car for that application. You'll never get to experience its positive attributes, and come to loathe its compromises.

I had a question. I'm also a new manual (1st manual is the BRZ i got a month ago), and the only time that makes me cringe nowadays is when I THINK I rev matched a downshift (ofcourse, USUALLY the 3 to 2 downshift. the gear ratio diff is so big.. :( ) but I didn't, and I let the clutch out too soon. The jerk just makes me cringe so hard... I should really slip it for a half second or so and let it out semi-slowly on those downshifts since I'm not rev matching enough - but until I can get it right, do you have any tips for me?

And.. am I fuuucking up my clutch by letting it out too fast without enough revs ?

Nope your clutch will be fine. I will give my usual advice for this sort of thing. Try not to over think it every time and don't worry if you screw up every now and then. Practice will fix all of that and one day you will realize you drove all the way someplace without even once thinking about a shift.

I lived in DC for four years.

I lived in NYC for 2.5 years.

I've driven fairly extensively in Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, Boston and a few more cities known for their traffic.

I would buy a manual in any of those cities EXCEPT New York. Rush hour on 395 into DC is bad, but it's nothing compared to some of the bridge and tunnel idiocy in NYC. And it's not because of any wear on the vehicle. It's because clutch/gas/brake/gas/brake/clutch/clutch/brake/gas/brake/clutch in that kind of traffic is infuriating. It's irritating in other cities to be sure, but not to the same level as in New York.

I also wouldn't buy a car I particularly liked in NYC. I would find a used medium-sized car or small SUV that would be fairly reliable and comfortable but that I wouldn't care all that much if a jackass cab driver traded paint with it and refused to stop. I would NOT buy a twin for regular use in NYC traffic.

First tip: Don't worry about it.

Second tip: Don't try to match the revs exactly. I prefer to think of it as playing ring toss with the accelerator pedal. When you're downshifting, the revs of the transmission are coming down, and you just want to "toss" the revs of the engine up so they catch on the transmission input.

It's like jumping Mario onto one of those elevator things in the old Donkey Kong games. Nobody sat there thinking, "The elevator is coming down at 200 pixels per second, and Mario can jump up 300 pixels, so I need to jump when the elevator is exactly 100 pixels above him." You just practice it until you get the toss right, then do it by feel after that.

how do you get a hole in your carpet because of your foot?? show pic.

If you dig your heel into the carpet and pivot your ankle to operate the pedals, it will wear a bald spot in the carpet.

Fortunately I don't have this problem, because I was taught to lift my legs to use the brake or clutch. But if you drive lazy, this can be the result.

I do! Heavy work boots and a pile of miles = hole. I just put the rubber ones in there year round now.

mmmm i guess im going to have to check it out once i get home.

Yep! When in the city or accelerating and slowing down a lot I tend to pick my leg up. On my 2 hour (each way) highway commutes I get lazy and just slide my foot back and forth and ended up with the bald spot.