Capn’ Mike is back from the Middle East. Our Road Test Editor has been busy looking for something tasty to take to his next posting in Germany. MS reports that the manual Mercedes 300 is a diamond in the smooth, offering more on-tap torque than its auto-equipped sib. It’s also a depreciation lover’s ideal whip. Not only is the manual transmission dead, but cars so equipped are a drug on the market, and it ain’t cocaine. In fact, I know of automotive journalists who can’t drive stick. After trying any of the new-generation paddle shifters, you can see why they don’t bother. At the risk of reigniting the debate over the zen and the art of the manual transmission, a properly sorted paddle shifter is wikkid pissa fun. Click, clack, track attack. But then, so is not getting your car stolen; and car thieves are just as stick ignorant as the general population. OK, peace of mind isn’t “fun.” But there’s nothing worse than waking up to find your car’s been lifted. Unless you paid for the service– which is very, very wrong and I don’t know a guy who knows a guy who can make it happen. And yes, the audio quality sucks today…
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Looks like a Zonda…with all it’s rivets and blingness.
What is a Mercedes 300? Reminds me of some NYT article talking about some hedgie guy, saying he keeps a “Mercedes-Benz 500” at his vacation house. S500? CL500?
My dad had a Manual 1988 Mercedes 240D he imported from Germany. In 1991 he was at a friends house in Pontiac, MI and he started it up to warm it up, before he left. As soon as he got back inside the house someone got inside and took it. He ran out after him and he said what surprised him the most was how well this guy could drive. A cop drove by around that time and my dad tried to get him to stop, but being Pontiac, he just kept going.
TEXN3 is correct. It’s a Zonda. Well done.
You guys are on fire with the podcasts lately.
I’m diggin’ it; they break up the corporate monotony.
Robert there has been a white Checker for sale here where I live in Valdosta for like the past 6 months, I think or did I see that near my parents in Kentucky. All I know is it’s sat in the same parking spot at a ghost town strip mall forever. Probably doen’t have an engine but you don’t want that anyway.
You should do a TTAC project car out of my Cadillac, so at least something interesting comes out of it before I set fire to it.
@ like.a.kite: probably an older model, before they switched the letter being in front of the numerals (early 90s). A 300/400 is essentially what an E-class is now. A 500/600 is essentially what an S-class would be referred too. That is a very, very, very brief and vague breakdown though, and mainly relevant to the US market.
Any true enthusiast will acknowledge that the flappy paddles are better for racing, but for cars that are only for the street, it’s stupid, and makes you look like a douchebag with more money than sense. Adding flappy paddles is 10 grand or more on exotica, over $4K for Bimmers and Porsches, and cost usally $100 to the $1000 you pay to get a slushbox, if it’s a conventional automatic.
I love the click of a fat shift-knob in my right fist and a meaty wheel in the left hand. There’s no substitute. Does that sound too sexual? Self-sexual?
Captain Mike said C300 Manual in the podcast, as in the new C-class.
Rev Junkie,
Paddle shifters are not all about douchebaggery or posturing. There are some of us who grew up driving and loving manual transmissions and the control/involvement/fun they afford, but who now live in dense urban areas where traffic makes a manual either torture and/or impractical. For example, I managed to stick with manuals (no pun intended) while living in Boston and NYC, but when I moved to DC I found roads that are snarled with unbelievable amounts of traffic about 50% of the time. Driving a stick in 15 miles of parking lot conditions gets old very quickly. So when I bought a new GTI I went with the DSG, which allows me to shift for myself when traffic is light and to let the car do the shifting when it’s not. Not to mention the benefits of the DSG’s increased quickness over the stick. At approx. $1000 after dealer negotiating, it was money well spent.
Likewise, there are people whose spouses can’t/won’t drive stick. Paddle shifted (or other means of self-shifting a slushbox/automated manual) transmissions give these people some options.
What’s not to like about a stick? They’re cheaper to buy (usually). They’re easier to maintain. They aren’t that difficult to drive. The learning curve isn’t that bad. And they force drivers to pay attention. I read a post somewhere on another forum once where the poster said he’d never drive a stick because it was too hard to drive while you were talking on the phone. ‘Nuff said.
The only time I dislike driving a stick is in stop-and-go traffic, and it’s not all that bad. The rest of the time it’s pure joy.
I haven’t bought a car with an automatic yet (my first one nearly was, but I’m glad I was swayed) and I hope to keep that streak going as long as I can.
rook rike rice
I can appreciate paddle shifters, they let you quickly use lower gears in an emergency (if they let you shift near redline at least) and there’s no denying how much faster they must be on a racetrack (or so I’ve read). I still won’t spend my own money on one though, even with a stick shift’s depreciation. From my experience the conventional torque converter auto can be matched by a stick for a good launch (but won’t every be time obviously), but looses the plot from that point on, while the DSG and automated manual systems are absolute crap at low speeds (in manual mode at least), while outperforming the manual once the pace is increased. Honestly though, even if the DSG was superior in every situation I still wouldn’t consider it unless they let me rev match my own downshifts. That’s right where I draw my line.
I have recomended that my friends avoid non paddleshifting autos like the plague as well, I wouldn’t want to try and sell a crap 4-speed as used in 10 years time, not when paddles are quickly becoming compulsory (see honda fit).
I tried a paddle shift thing once and wasn’t impressed. It was a bit like having sex with a condom on; in theory just as exciting with added safety benefits, but in practice lacks sensitivity and you’re in trouble when the thing breaks.
I own a 5-speed car, an automatic and a paddle-shift car and they each serve well in certain driving scenarios… As for the car with column paddle-shift, it’s great just so long as you’re not turning the steering wheel hand over hand such as when you might be autocrossing. Let me explain…I would much rather have ONE up-down paddle-shifter on the floor so I could ‘paddle-shift’ with my right hand and steer with my left hand all the time, much like when I autocross the 5-speed car. With column paddle-shift, when you’re turning the steering wheel hand over hand through the twisty bits, and you need to shift up or down, you have to switch hands quite often. The paddles move with the steering wheel so I frequently find myself ‘hunting’ for the paddles and trying not to cross my hands up…if you own one, you know what I’m talking about…If you upshift with your right hand, you are steering with your left…a second later if you have to downshift, you have to suddenly switch control hands and steer with your right hand and downshift with your left…I find it all a bit tedious while autocrossing or whenever I find myself in a hand over hand driving situation but yes, on a winding road or in urban congestion it sure is nice to have the option of sporty shifting or switching to full automatic when the congestion spoils the fun. Again, I’d much rather just have it on the floor given my choice.
I can’t stop laughing from the title, “Name That Knob”… hahahaha!
So no more cheerleader pics, but we get contests like this instead, huh? ;)
And uh, no…I’m not going to name it. My policy, “to each his own”, has served well, though I’m nearly on the floor laughing….
Oh my G*d. “In fact, I know of automotive journalists who can’t drive stick”: That’s one of the most disgusting things I have seen written on this site.
An automotive journalist who can’t drive stick should just give it up, I say. I’d even go so far as to say if you can’t double-declutch, then you shouldn’t be writing about anything at all automotive.
What’s the new equation? Corruptability + technical incompetence + sloppy dressing habits + dudeism + good writing skills = automotive journalist? It sure looks like it.
At the risk of being flamed by La Raza, I’m going to point out that if Farrago’s chief anti-theft strategy is that thieves don’t know manual transmissions, he has no experience with Mexican thieves.
The last time I had a car stolen it was from a neighborhood that is 90% Mexican now, and was about 50% Mexican then.
The Omaha cop who took my report diplomatically pointed out that my vehicle was probably “headed south, never to be seen again” because most people who were born in the US wouldn’t steal an MT car unless it was a “high-line Mercedes or something like that,” and that a vehicle like mine (a stickshift ’84 Caravan) wouldn’t be worth much “in the States”. Anything to avoid actually saying the “M” word.
Proof of how scared local politicians were, back then, of offending the ” undocumented immigrant” (what we used to call illegal alien) lobby and the meatpacking industry. Their spines are no doubt Jell-o by now.
HI All it’s been a while….
i’m ashamed to say this but i’m one of the auto journalists that grew up on automatics, however i did munch gears in a manual whenver i had the chance, especially during my short stint as a Valet. i always liked the idea of a manual, and when faced with my first supercar test drive i was dreading that it be a manual, but it had paddle shifters, somehting that made me feel like i knew what i was doing. etc….
however on a recent vacation trip to brazil, i was faced with nothing but manual rentals, that is if i was ready to shell out 200 dollars a day for a ford fusion or 400 for an edge. scratch that. got my hands on a Chevrolet Prisma with a manual cogbox and as i deduced no syncro on the reverse gear. so everytime i had to stick in in reverse, i would put all my force on the clutch and still it would do the awful grrrrrrrr sound. horrible. but in anycase after about a thousand kilometers i found myself very smooth on the shifts be it up or down, and after another thousand a week later in a Renault Sandero, i’m seriously considering a manual car now for my every day runner. especially if in teh near future a reasonably priced car will be offered with start stop because i deal with a lot of traffic on my commute.
in any case, i think automatics are the way to go for an everyday car and if you dont really care about the craft of driving.
if you want to pretend to care but really cant bother, paddle shifter is the way to go.
if you want to be the type of driver that puts on his gloves on a sunday morning while warmning his mill to the correct temprature while having a cup of tea. i guess a manual is an obligation not a choice, but again, porshce just launched the PDK that trumps all the above….. in my humble opinion that is….