I was shopping for my first car and found a VW Rabbit that was within my meager budget, but it was a 4-speed stick so my dad had to do the test drive. I told him I wanted to buy it, so he drove over to an empty parking lot at the local minor league ballpark, exited the car, and told me I had 15 minutes to prove to him that I could drive it. Armed only with theory from driver’s ed class, I managed it well enough and I got the car.
That car was a piece of junk, but it was one of the “coolest” cars I could get on my tiny budget, was great in the snow (FWD with manual plus heavy diesel engine), and got well over 50 mpg on the highway. It died of a blown head gasket about 3.5 years later.
Send them to Europe to get driving lessons, I guess?
I’m kidding of course, but at least here in the Netherlands everybody is normally required to get a license based on lessons taken in a stick shift car. You can opt out, but than your driver license will show that you are only allowed to drive automatics.
As for teaching it yourself: I’d probably start with a lot of dry training: shifting through gears without the motor running, so you can do that automatically, without looking. And then find an empty parking lot (and a cheap/old car ;-p)
I’ve been getting to watching rallies and the WRC this year. Since cars used in this are supposed to be based on actual road cars, I looked to see how much they usually sell for. I found that basically none of the current rally1 or rally2 class cars (mostly small sporty hatchbacks) are for sale in the US now (like the Toyota Yaris), and many of them are even ceasing retail in Europe (like the Ford Fiesta and Hyundai i20).
When I move back to the US, I really want to buy a hot hatch as a daily driver but it looks like there are very few options left (at least for newer cars). The Toyota GR Corolla seems nice but expensive. Might end up looking for a decently priced Golf GTI or maybe a Mazda 3 hatchback or even a sporty Subaru.
A used GTI might work, but I find that so many of them (ditto for the WRX) are driven by young men who either unwisely mod them, unwisely abuse them, or just generally trash them before they get repo’ed or whatever and wind up on the used car market. I exaggerate, but only a bit. But you’ll pretty much have to go for a used one if you want a stick, because VW in its infinite wisdom is ditching the manual GTI. Most likely in preparation for shifting the entire line electric.
Mazda also ditched the manual after this year on anything but the Miata, I think. Subaru only has the WRX and the BRZ with a stick (and nothing else is remotely sporty from them, and I don’t know if anything else has a manual any more in the Subaru lineup).
I’ve heard that the automatic transmissions on recent GTIs are pretty good though, at least from a performance perspective. I’ve heard more complaints about the screen controls and capacitive buttons.
The GR Corolla looks really sexy, though I bet it would be hard finding a used one for a decent price. I’ve heard that the waiting time to order them is also very long. I like pretty much everything about that car though.
The WRX is also a really attractive car for me, though I wish they made a hatchback version. I also wish they would make the interior look a little sportier.
The dual-clutch (DSG) transmission in the GTI and Golf R is indeed the “best” one from a performance point of view. If you are like me though and prefer engagement to raw numbers, it’s still an automatic, and therefore not a member of the Church of the Third Pedal. But it is quick.
I had a WRX at one point. Great fun, but the interior was at best pedestrian and the tech even when new was sort of meh. A hoot in the snow or on dirt though.
GR Corolla is great, but pricey and hard to find as you note. For less performance but also a lot less money the Civic Si is still a nice car, and you can find used ones a lot easier. The Type R (had one of those too) is a blast to drive fast, but not the greatest around town as the power only comes on at pretty high revs up in the middle of third at the earliest.
Technically, three doors! And yeah, they killed off the regular Veloster first, then the N, sadly. It was a very cool car IMO. The Elantra N is a sedan but has the same engine and also can be had with a manual, but it’s definitely not a hatch or all that small.
I am gradually zeroing in on an Integra for my next car. Since I live in a metro area with horrible traffic, I don’t think I can go back to a manual, but I hope the paddle shifters can provide some enjoyment if and when I feel the need to control the gearing. I have never driven a car with paddle shifters, though. Honestly, I would probably only use them in snowy or icy conditions, which is the only time I really miss having a stick these days.
The main pleasure for me driving stick is that I don’t have to wait for an auto to pick a gear. They always want to start in second and when you really need acceleration, like pulling out into unrelenting traffic, that half or full second of delay throws me off. That said, I live in a city that almost never sees standstill traffic outside of an accident, I totally get not owning a manual because of that.
Paddle shifters are a sort of personal preference kind of thing I think. I had them on my S5, and never used them. Just felt weird, and honestly, modern automatics are really smart compared to slushboxes of yore.
For basic daily driving without ice or snow, I cannot imagine using the shifters except maybe on a windy backroad or perhaps a sharp freeway ramp, but that is just not a situation I find myself in very much in this area.
I still consider myself a member of the Church of the Third Pedal (my current car is the only automatic I’ve ever owned), I just no longer attend services. :)
Yeah, I saw that it has some good reviews. Definitely looks like a good value for money and more practical than many other sporty compacts. Though I think I will probably try to find something with an automatic, in case my wife wants to drive it.
The Elantra N looks interesting, though for some reason a “sporty Elantra” just feels kind of weird to me. Don’t really care for the styling compared to similar Toyota or Honda, but its engine and handling is supposed to be really good.
Yeah, the Elantra’s look is an acquired taste. It’s a bit weird, but the go-fast bits are supposedly quite nice. Whether or not Hyundai reliability, especially the engine, is on par with other makes depends I guess on who you ask. I would not be worried about that though.
The Si I think can be had these days with an automatic? I know the Civic Sport, etc. has that option. Honda’s shifters though are some of the best in the business, so it would be a crying shame to get a CVT over the stick IMO. But as always, everyone’s needs are different!
The 2024 Subaru BRZ looks like a fun little car, but its back seats are laughable. I don’t even know if my 8-year old would fit in them. I know that the back seats aren’t exactly a big priority in a car like that, but why even include them?
I test drove a 2024 Civic and Accord this weekend. I was hoping for a sporty feel from the Civic.
Steering felt good, acceleration was surprisingly ok considering it’s a CVT, brakes felt great, and the car really cornered well, felt nimble and zippy. Nice.
Until I went over some bumps. And then got on the highway and felt even more bumps on the highway. Like a lot of “Sports” cars, it’s got a sports suspension that lets you feel every bump on the road. Just in the 20 minute test drive, I was exhausted from feeling thrown around by all those bumps. Sheesh. I just don’t understand how people can stand these sports suspensions.
The Accord was basically the same car, but more comfortable. The suspension felt more like the 2024 Impreza I test drove last week, thank god. But it didn’t have the chrome dials and knobs that the Civic had. So basically $3000 extra for slightly more space, less cool dashboard, but a hell of a lot more comfortable ride.
Any of you ever had a car with a sports suspension? How do you stand it?
I’ve got a 1995 Mercury Cougar, which is basically a fancy-lad muscle car. It’s got all the niftiest tech 1995 had to offer, lux appointments all around, but’ll still kick you in the pants off the line with its V8. Most fun car I’ve had access to. Sadly hasn’t been driven much since the pandemic. The radiator fan stopped working and when lockdown happened, getting it fixed lost urgency. I did put clear corners on it when I first got it, though. Really improved the look of the front end:
My mid-life crisis I ran for around 6 years. Honda S2000, what a car! Beautifully balanced it would pootle around behaving like any other 2 litre rear wheel drive sports car with a perfectly acceptable performance. Get the revs between 6k and 9k though and not only would it wail like a banshee but it would go like an absolute rocket up to and beyond 125 mph. Put a literal smile on my face every time I drove it.
Electric roof, climate control and a decent boot space as well…
I had to exchange this for a company car when I got a new job (couldn’t afford to keep it and pay tax on a company car) which turned out to be a 1.6 Vauxhall Astra diesel…what a come down!
