A Tale of Two Accords
V6, leather, auto to I4, cloth, 5MT
not my cars but you get the idea!
I first experienced the joy of a manual transmission way back when I was seventeen. My parents (European immigrants) felt that although they were satisfied with automatics my brother and I should learn stick. At lease turn in of their 1995 black Accord EX V6, they decided to get a short 1 year lease of an 1997 Accord LX with a manual. My brother and I were excited to learn and quickly bonded with the car. This seemed remarkable in light of the significant horsepower and interior trim differences. Yet, I found that ultimately the power didn't matter compared to the sheer mixed joy and shame as I got each shift right and as I stalled the car, again, and again, and again.
I stuck with it and gradually felt everything getting better, stronger, more confident and easier. And as a short-term lease of course eventually we had to give up the car. My Mom picked up then her early 2000s VW Beetle, and that's when I realized something was missing that I couldn't get back any other way.
I dealt with occasionally driving that car (and experiencing early 2000s VW reliability!) until I finished college. My parents graciously gifted me with a lease of a new car. I realized then that I was going to once again have a stick-shift! I found myself in a 2006 Honda Civic EX with the 5-speed manual.
The Handshake
I knew then I had made the right choice, and quickly found that the unmatched control, feel, and pulse the stick-shift granted the car was now inseperable from my driving. I loved how much it helped me grow as a driver. I would experience several trials with this car that tested my car-control to the ragged edge, including a winter road-rage incident with a truck that could have killed me by ramming me off the road but instead properly downshifting allowed me to regain traction and avoid a very bad incident. From this, I became convinced that everyone must drive stick to be truly safe, and that led me to evangelize: "The stick-shift is the safest way to drive, with the least distractions and the most control". I became somewhat unpopular with normal folk
3 years passed quickly and lease end happened, and here the dream took off. I wanted a BMW since my father had an E28 525i briefly in the 80s. I found, as likely some of you did, that I could have a used BMW for the same price as another new Civic. I loved my Civic and was nervous about getting too much car too fast, but one test drive of an black on black, burl walnut trim E46 2005 330xi sealed the deal. The car had two minds, a mind for comfortable luxury cruising, and a mind for ripping your face off with a snarly I6 and snick-snick shifts. So quiet and then so loud! I practically bought it on the spot. She came to be known as Heidi.
First Love Lost
What's an SUV?
With a true RWD biased chassis, mind you certainly not S704 (later), my joy at driving and my skill skyrocketed. I began experiencing the joy of properly revmatched downshifts, the urge to spin the engine out to 6000 daily, and finding that fully controlled engine-braking literally made winter driving as fun as summer, especially once you could kick the tail out! I was set to have that lovely car for eternity. I learned to wrench on that car, first for cost savings and then for joy. And then of course life had to remind me that nothing lasts forever.
In 2014, my house and garage flooded after we lived there only 2 years, a first for the house and the area during the most severe thunderstorm I am ever likely to experience. Both I and my fiancee's cars were decimated by three feet of water. My pride and joy, my first BMW, was unsavable and I had to bid good-bye to my first love. I salvaged the weighted ZHP shift knob which represented the only mod I ever got to do to that car.
Oh, did I mention that the flood happened literally ONE WEEK before I was set to get married?! The wedding was a destination wedding with a whirlwind of preparation, a solemn gathering, a fun party and afterparty, and then the very next morning my new wife and I sprawled on our beds with laptops, cellphones and Autotrader desparately negotiating with insurance companies for a good value for our lost cars and hunting down the next ones. I was sure I would never have another love quite like Heidi again...
The Silver Medal
Enter Edna. It took three weeks of hunting once I got back in Cleveland, but then I found her in New Jersey. A 2011 335i RWD MSport 6MT. I was a fool, thinking I was "settling" for this 30,000 mile CPO, in Oyster over Titanium Silver with Burl Walnut (I wanted black over blue with aluminum!). I wanted RWD because I felt that was the only way to grow my driving skills further. I wanted MSport because I had been on enough forums by now for all of you to proselytize the magic of the BMW sports suspension, option S704. I named her Edna because I thought the E90 was ugly and I never wanted one while I had my E46, I wanted to go straight to the F30. As it happened, the love grew over time, and taught me a very valuable lesson that beauty is only skin deep but love goes much deeper than that.
Edna taught me what a truly balanced RWD chassis was. Edna taught me that the new turbo era of BMW may have lost some soul, but gained some astonishing capabilities in return. I felt her shrink around me in the corners. I learned the first inklings of weight distribution and balancing the car on the throttle, honed my revmatching to an art form and taught me how important steering feel is in planting the car exactly where you want it. And as much as I love her, Edna set the stage for the decisions that I made.
The Turning Point
Let's briefly discuss the NA vs turbo inline six. The NA six had a fantastic sound that you heard all the time because you needed to rev her to 4000 to get any usable power, hence shifting was not just fun but necessary to get the full measure of that engine. The turbo-6 has torque early on, so simply planting your foot down usually gives all the thrust you might need in daily driving. And while this is convenient, you tend to downshift less because of it especially on the highway. I realized that the turbo-6 era was naturally not as well suited to the stick-shift as the NA inline six was. And as my career took me to new places, traffic increased and made daily driving my stick more of a challenge. Still, I resolutely stuck with it, knowing I could never have the same car control and fun to drive factor with an automatic.
Then one day, that changed. I had to bring Edna to the dealer to have the Takata airbag recall done. They set me up for the day with a slightly better than base loaner, an F30 328xi Sport Line. I'm not expecting miracles, I'm grateful for a decent car to get to work in. Still, I'd heard by now of some of the former stick-shift faithful abandoning their perfect gearbox for this new-fangled ZF 8-speed. I figured, let's throw it in sport, throw the lever to the side and see whats up. Of course, I would drive it exclusively with paddles!
The first thing I noticed is that paddles shift MUCH faster than me. That made sense but what I didn't realize was just how much fun fast shifting can be! Bang, a gear! Bang, another gear! It was almost immediate, and I suddenly realized that here was a thing my car, no matter how good I was at it, simply could not do. I had my next surprise when I stopped manually shifting and just left it in S mode. The car upshifted and downshifted exactly as I would have done if I was manually controlling it! The same corners, the same downshifts, the same patterns! It was as if it was reading my mind! Not to mention without constant focus on gears, you can improve your steering and lines and focus on your braking and throttle techniques!
I came away from this experience thoroughly impressed but not yet willing to put my trust in technology. No, the final act of this begins with the birth of my son.
End Of An Era
I had come to love Edna, and hoped to keep her forever. Why wouldn't I? She proved to be just as wonderful as dear departed Heidi, a trusted steed and friend on those wonderful drives we used to have. It's easy to make promises to yourself when you're younger, like say when you sign up for forums saying, "I will drive a stick for life."
Children change EVERYTHING. I heard the clarion call of SUV, SAV, crossover, I refused to listen. I knew I could comfortably keep my son secure in his carseat in my E90, maybe upgrade to my lifelong dream of an E39 M5 for more space if needed. And I was all set to do that but something kept nagging me. My wife didn't drive stickshift and despite many attempts at learning didn't want to break my car learning on it. Then, she had two not-at-fault accidents in the span of two months and I realized I no longer had a choice. I needed an automatic for my wife to drive and I needed the safest car possible for my son.
Four doors was a necessity, that left out the M2 Competition (absolutely the finest fun-to-drive BMW sold today). Active Cruise had proven itself to me on several long trips in other people's cars, so that was now required and that reluctantly killed the F80 M3 (and I could never choose the DCT over the stick in that car!) I drove the 540xi, the X3 M40i and the G20 Sport Line and MSport XDrive (M340i wasn't out yet). I loved the 540 but it just felt too big for me. I was shocked how much I loved the X3 M40i but it drove even more its size than the 5. And while the toys on the G20 330 were great, I wasn't ready to give up the glorious BMW inline-six. So the M340i almost selected itself by default, but it took drives of both the RWD and XDrive versions and a comparison with the C43 AMG (which some of you may recall) for me to realize, this is OK.
I am finally at peace with my decision. The wait was agony and the realization that I can have half the cake and eat it too is good enough. I'm super excited for ownership, I feel the M340i will go down in history alongside the 1M and the M2 Competition as one of the all time great modern BMWs. I'm hoping to read this again in five years and see if that actually happened.
And who knows? Kids leave the house someday. There might still be a manual M2 Competition, an E39 M5, an E46 M3 or a Z4M in my future! Thanks to all of you who stuck through what is likely the longest post I will ever do!
Now as I pass into a new phase of my driving career, an acknowledgement of the change I have accepted is warranted. I am no longer StickForLife. Henceforth I shall be known as -EndOfAnEra- . To the rest of you diehard manual lovers both secure and conflicted with your choices, I only say - try a ZF8 or DCT. You may be surprised what you learn.
Remember when I salvaged that ZHP shift knob? Heidi's final gift to me will now live on in all my future cars, safely ensconced in the glovebox as a reminder of how I got to where I am now.
