Quote:
Originally Posted by Shizuma
I hate how MT people seem to be obsessed with saying this, does ABS take away from the driving experience because you no longer have to pump the brakes like you used to? Of course not, or maybe automatic starters as opposed to the hand crank starters of the old days. Manually shifting gears is no more a part of the experience of driving as pumping the brakes is when you stop, or any other feature of the car that's been made automated over the years. If you like being forced to manually shift your car 100% of the time then more power to you, but having an automatic doesn't take away from the driving experience for those of us who could care less about having to shift the car ourselves all the time. I know I've never once felt oh, this car is no fun because I'm not constantly having to depress a clutch all the time.
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I have owned around 20 cars. Up until my last one, they were all manuals. I bit the bullet and bought a BMW 335d with an automatic because they don't offer a manual in that car. It was a fantastic automatic. Predictable, quick, smooth. But every single day I drove it I felt my soul being sucked away just that much more. So even though it was ridiculously fast (chipped with ~540tq), it just didn't do it for me because shifting matters that much. So I sold it and bought a BRZ. I don't miss the BMW one bit.
So you see, while we MT freaks might be a little crazy to you autotragic drivers, we are the more passionate drivers and we know what we want. How often do you find an automotive journalist say they'd prefer the automatic....like almost never. There's a reason for that.
And yes, ABS does take away a little bit of the driving experience and feel, but the benefits outweigh the cons in almost all cases. I have raced non-ABS vehicles and my brain just cannot process fast enough to pump to avoid lockup in all situations. My brain can, however, process fast enough to shift. So I wouldn't really say this comparison is valid.