Commuters driving stick

[Hanni_0176]

Originally Posted by Suberman

Well, the World is accelerating past you.

There is no doubt this car would be quicker and more pleasant to drive with a DCT.

There is very little doubt this car could be made to be quicker and more pleasant to drive if the final drive on the automatic version was lowered to match the automatic overall gear ratios to the manual overall gear ratios.

Make no mistake, automatics are dominating the market because they are quicker and easier to drive. Subaru deliberately handicapped the automatic version of this car, for obvious reasons that have nothing to do with performance.

Same reason they made it oversteer...which actually ruins an otherwise nearly perfect chassis.

The difference between MT and AT isn't a numbers game, and this isn't a numbers car. If you were concerned with numbers, you probably purchased the wrong car. This car is marketed for its driving experience, not it's impressive stat sheet, and no AT in the world is going to replace the driving experience that an MT provides. Even if the AT was faster than the MT, I still would have purchased an MT.

EDIT: And you're right, an AT is easier to drive. It's ideal for the majority of the market, where most people don't actually want to be driving in their cars, and the only reason they are in their car is to get from point A to point B. For most, that means making the car as easy to drive as possible while including as many creature comforts as possible to make the drive less of a pain in the ass. I didn't buy my car to just get from point A to point B as painlessly as possible. I bought my car because I enjoy driving and I wanted an enjoyable experience while doing that. Most of the market will be happy when the tech is so advanced that cars drive themselves, and all they need to do is plug in the GPS coordinates. I'm happy when I press down the clutch, grab the shifter and shift into gear, release the clutch, and accelerate.

[DarkSunrise]

Originally Posted by Suberman

Well, the World is accelerating past you.

There is no doubt this car would be quicker and more pleasant to drive with a DCT.

There is very little doubt this car could be made to be quicker and more pleasant to drive if the final drive on the automatic version was lowered to match the automatic overall gear ratios to the manual overall gear ratios.

Make no mistake, automatics are dominating the market because they are quicker and easier to drive. Subaru deliberately handicapped the automatic version of this car, for obvious reasons that have nothing to do with performance.

Same reason they made it oversteer...which actually ruins an otherwise nearly perfect chassis.

In this car, the manual version is both objectively quicker and subjectively more fun to drive. I think it's a win-win to go with manual, but there are other reasons to choose automatic -- traffic, shared car, personal preference, etc.

Also these cars understeer at the limit steady-state. It's closer to neutral than most production cars, but they will still understeer. With throttle, you can get power oversteer.

[SnyperSuicide]

Originally Posted by mav1178

You clearly have not been on any of the freeways when it counts.

Morning:
60W
10W
405N
110N
101 (both directions)
5N

Afternoon:
opposite direction of above listed freeways

I just wanted to note that it can take at least an hour to get from one side of the 105 freeway to the other. The freeway is less than 19 miles...

[SnyperSuicide]

Sooooo off topic (SOWWYS, please don't hate me) but @headlikeahole... NIN fan??


And howdy to another ultramarine owner.

[pasternak]

Originally Posted by AsianStyle

Yes, leaving some room (1-2 car length) is the way to go. It will allow you to shift less.

However, in the traffic I drive in. If you leave a 4-5+ car length gap in front of you. The lane next to you will quickly fill up those spots causing your whole lane to slow down. Then you create a new 4-5+ car length gap and it happens again. Until it becomes a vicious cycle, where you become the jackass holding up everyone behind you.

Yep.
If you're in the fast lane and let this happen in front of you, I will cut in front of you & flip you off. Every time.

[bdbx18]

Originally Posted by pasternak

Yep.
If you're in the fast lane and let this happen in front of you, I will cut in front of you & flip you off. Every time.

I spent the last 12 years doing long ass commutes and until today, I could still never understand the US freeway system nor its users. I never claim to practise sainthood on the freeway but why, why, why, hog the left lane and raise the BP of your fellow drivers behind you ? Even if you exert your god given right to stay on that lane, why would you even tempt the dark side of *some* drivers and risk a confrontation? If someone is behind me, I am out of that lane. Just plain courtesy.

We need to have the Euro system where (a) never go around on the right and (b) never stay on the leftmost lane unless you are overtaking.

[red bread]

Originally Posted by bdbx18

We need to have the Euro system where (a) never go around on the right and (b) never stay on the leftmost lane unless you are overtaking.

But this comes from education, and we 'Muricans just don't like that. I used to work in Germany and the only time I passed a car (illegally) on the right, I looked over in anger, after driving behind them for a long time in the far left lane, and it was two GI's. I laughed and immediately cooled off.

I don't recall where I read it, or who said it, my mind says it was Brock Yates, but I recall a quote that if you drive where you never cause anyone to slow down unnecessarily, you're doing it right. I try to live by that.

[Manic]

Originally Posted by ML

Why does it matter if another car get in front of you? If anything that would relieve the congestion. just give them space too.

Actually, I ended up doing a paper on this in college. Some sosh shit for GE, but it actually makes congestion a lot worse. When lanes are already at a crawl, everytime a car switches lanes because of a perceived opening, they slow down the car behind them, forcing them to create a larger gap.

Conversely, the opening left by the merging car is quickly filled in by the car following, negating any sort of relief created by this action. End result, no one gets to their destination any faster; traffic becomes progressively worse for everyone.

The real trick to relieve congestion is to have everyone maintain an actual 3 car length between everybody. It's the constant full stop braking that really exacerbates the amount of cars on the road. But, if this gap between cars existed, the braking would surely be minimized. Rather, instead of everyone trying to hit 50mph average, if they dropped that 10-15mph, it would actually make everyones commute faster and smoother.

But people are dumb and would never agree to such cooperative driving mentality.

[strat61caster]

Originally Posted by Manic

But people are dumb and would never agree to such cooperative driving mentality.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Suugn-p5C1M"]Shockwave traffic jams recreated for first time - YouTube[/ame]

As good as humans are as control systems, we do have some shortcomings.

[Pekingduck]

Originally Posted by rawrmatty

First of I’m a huge fan of this forum and be over looking in the shadows for about 2 months now and just recently had the guts to finally make a user name

Anyways I had some questions regarding the FRS commuters here on the forums. I am currently in the market for a FRS since I got in an accident about 2 months ago. Nothing serious just re-ended and you know how the rest of that goes.

I am really interested in getting the Manuel transmission but have concerns that the commute from work since I hit mild to heavy traffic daily would affect that. If any Manuel transmission commuters can let me know about their experiences with this it will help me greatly!! I’m not too experienced with manual transmission but I feel getting this care they’re certainly no other choice haha...

Do you guys recommend going auto for commuters or suck it up and buy the Manuel?

If anyone lives in Southern California and drives on the 210 east/west i would be greatly appreciated on your experiences on this freeway since you probably know it’s crazy at times...

Thank you in advance

I drive Monday thru Friday in rush hour on the 210 for one hour and I have no regret. I have a bucket seat to

[shellslinger]

I drive every morning on the 605S FWY towards cerritos with my FRS and have no issues dealing traffic

[SirBrass]

I've driven a manual as a commuter for 4 & a half years. My "fun" car is also my only car.
It really isn't that bad as I plan & time my commutes to spend the least amount of time in backed up traffic as possible & as much of the trip on freeway. I make sure my regular direction of travel is the opposite of the heavily trafficked route.

Basically I make sure I only occasionally hit heavy (backed up) traffic & moderate traffic only for short distances.

That makes driving stick no problem. I also shift lanes, finding a way (if safely possible) through that moderate traffic to get out in front of the slow moving mass of idiots (the folks who don't like driving & would rather their cars do all the thinking & driving).

My commute is 25-30 minutes each way. Over 40mi daily round trip.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

[SirBrass]

Originally Posted by Suberman

Well, the World is accelerating past you.

There is no doubt this car would be quicker and more pleasant to drive with a DCT.

There is very little doubt this car could be made to be quicker and more pleasant to drive if the final drive on the automatic version was lowered to match the automatic overall gear ratios to the manual overall gear ratios.

Make no mistake, automatics are dominating the market because they are quicker and easier to drive. Subaru deliberately handicapped the automatic version of this car, for obvious reasons that have nothing to do with performance.

Same reason they made it oversteer...which actually ruins an otherwise nearly perfect chassis.

Two words. Contra mundum.

That's Latin for "Who gives a crap what the world thinks? The world is full of it."

Arguing from the majority is a logical fallacy, just as trying to argue about the "inferiority" of the 86 using numbers is a logical fallacy.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

[hmong337]

As far as I'm concerned, manual transmission is the only option for this car.