Well that was odd...

worst was going from GMC box truck to BMW.. 1st on the truck is where reverse is on the Bimmer...

ReverendDexter wrote:

friedgreencorrado wrote: Good thing you have a dead pedal. I drive automatics so seldom (and they're usually borrowed) that I forget the brake pedal in most of them is *wider* than normal. I catch that stupid thing all the time when my left foot goes on its "phantom limb" type search for the clutch.

Heh, wife (then-gf) rented a Miata once. It had the automatic with the flappy-paddle shifters. Now, I'm used to automatics, but not ones that you shift. So, after taking it out for a hot-lap around the neighborhood, I come back in to our gravel driveway, go to push the clutch in, and immediately lock up all four wheels. Mind you, she was in the car when this happened, and thought I had tried to bounce her head off the dashboard intentionally :eek!: hahahaha. Bouncing between the Bronco and Mazda5, I've been catching myself grabbing for controls that aren't there. I try to set the foot-parking brake and column-shift the Mazda and I reach for the dash shifter in the Bronco.

RevDex, I haven't driven one with the paddles yet..but I have a sneaking suspicion that I'd be really bad at it. IMO, it's one thing for the guys with only 120deg of steering wheel travel to use them, but once the wheel has enough travel to go "hand-over-hand" to negotiate a tight turn, that's a completely different situation.

That being said, the Grand Caravan my family rented on our California tour (flew into San Jose, drove down to Pasa Robles) last year had one of those "dashboard sticks" for shifting the stupid slushbox from one gear to another, and it worked better than I'd ever thought it would down the PCH. I kinda dug it, but I don't even want to think about how much dough it would take to repair the thing after all my abuse.

My worst was trying to down shift to 2nd in my Mother's Taurus. Muscle memory issue on that was so bad I had to pull over and work my arm out.

I just bought a 2011 Focus with a 5 speed...after 25+ years of Mopars being the only stick cars I've driven, I keep trying to jamb the shifter left and forward to go into reverse. At least they put the headlight switch in the same spot as the one in my old Barracuda!