Counterpoint: many modern cars don’t make the full suite of safety features available on manual cars. Subaru’s Eyesight system is great. It has adaptive cruise control, lane-following, auto-braking etc... but EyeSight isn’t available on Subaru manuals. I’d argue that the safety tech creates a safer driving experience.

I’d steer with my knee while I was eating.

“Go ahead, make a video of you eating your McDonalds meal while navigating through downtown San Francisco, and tell us about how seasoned of a manual driver you once were.”

The fact that I can tell my approximate speed from the sound of the engine alone - without having to look down at the speedometer - is a plus for manuals.  And in slow traffic, a manual driver is more likely to crawl slowly (which is best for traffic flow) than stop & go & stop & go in 3-foot increments...

Yeah, that’s an odd one to call a myth. I can eat a sandwich when I’m driving on I80, but not while maneuvering city or town streets.

They could have just posted every single current BMW model.

Yeah... 2008 was a bit of a different time.

I sold my immaculate ‘90 325is in 1998 and regretted it the second I saw the new owner get in the driver’s seat. It had H&R springs with Bilsteins, 16" BBS RS wheels, Hella H1s and H4s, genuine BMW armrest, Jim C chip, Alpine everything sound system and drove like a dream. Even worse? The new owner had it in a…

I’ve still got my ‘02 325Ci. I miss it, but it’s broken and whenever I have time to try to fix it, I don’t have money to do it. It’s been in my garage for five years now just gathering an ever thicker layer of dust.

Oh, man. My BMW story isn’t nearly as tragic, but I still regret having sold my Alpine White 5-speed 1991 325i (for $2,500!!!) to help fund the aforementioned Impreza purchase back in 2008. First new car and all that, but man, I miss the E30...

Oh man, these were truly bad. I feel like the first couple were decent, but after a few years or however long these ran, they we really bad. Real people, AKA, paid participants. 

Ack! I had forgotten about that awful campaign. 

Ack! I had forgotten about that awful campaign. 

Yep, Mk 7.5 GTI is the only answer here.

i’d drive it

Not gonna lie. My mom had one of these Bright red, manual transmission. Sporty? Hell no! Fun to drive with the top down? Hell yes! I got a lot of young ladies phone numbers kicking around in that little fuel sipper. Should it have existed? Certainly not.

Please don’t make me explain why the Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet needs to be at the top, or near the top of this list.

yeah this is 100% a thing where if I think about it I screw it up- if I look where I want to go, everything happens naturally and correctly.

What must the gearbox on the other end of that look like.