This is bullshit. First off, if you’re in the kind of traffic where you’d want to keep the first, the slushbox will almost always keep the first (or even just creep) anyway. Second, shifts in and of themselves don’t decrease the life of the trans. Third, if this happens just after starting, you’re just going to needlessly rev a cold engine. And fourth, you’re going to burn a bit more gas this way.

There is one case for manual mode in traffic: engine braking while going downhill is great. Aside from that, I’m not convinced.

Late to the party, but I love driving my classic GT car through the hilly countryside.

But there’s one particular stretch of highway that I used to love the most. It sort of dives in a tight-for-a-highway “S” curve into a forested valley. Taking that curve in a sweeping motion in a GT just feels so right.

Sadly, they reduced the speed limit on that stretch of road to 80 km/h (50 mph) and tend to post a police car at the bottom of it. It was great while it lasted.

The interesting thing is how they managed to squeeze so little power out of such massive displacement.

Driving-wise, they suck. All the power of a Volkswagen 4-pot with none of the eagerness to rev. Plus, they must have come from the factory with an oil refinery, otherwise I don’t know how anyone was able to afford to fuel them.