Quote:
Originally Posted by Tcoat
Said it before when the whole "I feel more connected to the road and part of the car" statements come up:
Manual crank start
No power steering (or even rack and pinion for that matter)
Brakes activated by sheer brute force through cables
Manual wipers (ya manual as in a little handle you flick back and forth if any at all)
Leaf springs with no shocks
Manual choke
Manual spark advance
By the whole "connected to the road and part of the car 'cuz I shift gears" concept this is the best car ever made:
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OMG THANK YOU! After driving manual and auto, I get the same feeling. 90% of the driving I do, I couldn't care less about having an extra pedal and having to row my own gears. For those times that fall in the 10%, I have paddles or the stick to make me feel connected and they let me tell the transmission what I want it to do.
I'd say I'm decent at driving stick. I can't remember the last time I stalled a car (well, actually I can, it was when I was test driving the FRS and was trying to get a feel for the clutch) but in a car I'm driving every day, I can't remember the last time I stalled. And I felt no more connected to the FRS while taking it down the back roads with an MT than with an AT.
If you truly want to talk about "feeling connected" drive without any assists, no power steering, no ABS and as minimal help on pushing the brakes as possible.
EDIT: And so many of the responses from guys driving MT have more to do with this connected feeling rather than simply what they prefer.