Yep.  Tactile systems are pretty damned reliable now, and most outlast touch screens or screens in general.  

Eh.  Lots of us don’t mind sticks in traffic.  I prefer their crawl speeds and one-foot driving over autos a lot of the time.  

Love the Caddy recommendation, but for once, I’m going to be cliche - Buy a Miata, save the rest in case things take longer to repair. Lightly used, new, whatever - they’re great for LA weather, fun to drive, cheap to operate, and cheap to purchase, and the extra cash will be handy.  

Two - the Bronco and Wrangler Rubicon 2 door, and then one I own (Camaro) but would never buy again.  My 65k Camaro has more issues than the same-age BMW I own that has 6x the miles.  

I’m pretty much done buying American as it is. So, no - probably not. Not one of the American car makers makes something I want, excepting the Rubicon 2 door and Bronco. Don’t want trucks or big SUVs, and the few remaining cars (cadillac? Corvette?) either suck/do nothing for me or I have one (Camaro).

Oh.  It’s that much worse.  Go drive one.  It’s really that much worse.  

Contour SVT was underrated, but should have gotten the bigger motor imho.  Also, the interior had...  fall apart issues at times.  

Because touch screen!  Because fancy!  Because we don’t know how car interiors or driving work!  Because the laser eyeballs will do it, you don’t need to drive!  Autopilot! 

It does,they’re just not always great.  Lots aren’t. 

Eh.  Wiper controls are on a stalk still.  And most other things are buttons too.  Unless it’s music or nav. 

Who knew muscle memory actually mattered?  We’ve only been training people on how to do this (with slight variations) for what, 100 years? 

Why add the complexity though? Dragon is reusable. Parachutes are cheap, simple, and stupid-well understood.

Because the shuttle was a really good idea, after all - expensive, extremely hard to maintain, marginal safety rating, no way of really aborting a failed launch, complex... Yeah, that’s the idea. Gliders have problems.

Eh. That’s what the wife’s car (35i X3) is for :D  Also does a great job of handling the “aww hell, 3' of snow again” days (about 10 per year).  

Hills?

I buy a new car every 4 years, give or take a year (2004 SVT Focus, 2007 Nissan Frontier, 2013 ZL1, 2016 Wrangler).  Every one had a manual transmission.  About 75% of the used cars I buy have manual transmissions.  CPO (dailys) - 50/50. 

6'1, 235 lbs almost all muscle.  :)  You make it work if you really want it to work.  I drive a 99 Miata right now - have to take off my shoes, but it works.  :D  Shaq drove a Testarossa. 

I don’t know.  It’s high on my personal list of options for next year (either I buy a Bronco or a small fun car and keep the M as a daily, or I buy a Porsche and a cheaper winter beater), but somehow I ALWAYS forget it. 

I love the ZF8, but it’s not a stick - and all the others have sticks as an option (have the ZF on my M550 daily).  Sadly, 2 + AWD = auto only. 

I want a 2 door WRX; don’t need 4 doors, don’t need the hatch, but love the rest.  Ah well.  I’d do the Toyobaru but at 7000 ft, it’s...  well, REALLY bloody slow.  Fingers crossed for 200HP Turbo for the next generation.