{"id":37829,"date":"2020-03-14T06:00:10","date_gmt":"2020-03-13T21:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/?p=37829"},"modified":"2021-07-28T21:09:14","modified_gmt":"2021-07-28T12:09:14","slug":"manual-transmission-fun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/en\/entry\/manual-transmission-fun\/","title":{"rendered":"Let\u2019s Say It Again: Manual Cars Are Fun!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Driving a Manual<\/h3>\n

Ever since my first car, a BMW 320i with a manual transmission<\/a>, arrived at our home, I\u2019ve been driving it pretty often. It\u2019s hard to believe, but it\u2019ll soon be a year since I took delivery.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This 320i isn\u2019t an M Sport or any other performance-focused trim\u2014it\u2019s a completely standard model. Once I got used to driving it, I found myself thinking, \u201cThis is a little underwhelming\u2026<\/strong>\u201d more and more often. The engine is quiet and the ride is comfortable, which makes it a great family car. But after driving the Boxster, I\u2019d often get back into the 320i and think, \u201cWow, they really are in completely different leagues.<\/strong>\u201d (Though I know I shouldn\u2019t compare them in the first place.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Still, there\u2019s no denying that a manual car is fun.<\/strong> After driving the 320i for almost a year, I\u2019ve come full circle: even if it\u2019s not a sporty model, driving a manual is a pleasure. Every now and then, my husband says, \u201cI\u2019m not taking the NISMO to work today, so you can drive it if you want.<\/strong>\u201d I think it over\u2014and end up taking the 320i after all.<\/p>\n

Finding Joy in Everyday Driving<\/h3>\n

We used to take family drives over moderate distances and head to places like Fuji Speedway and Hakone Turnpike, so we had regular chances to enjoy driving somewhere out of the ordinary.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Back then, I didn\u2019t feel the need to seek out driving excitement on everyday errands or school pickups. But I\u2019m pregnant now, so I won\u2019t be able to go on long drives for a while.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m in the stable middle stage of pregnancy, so it\u2019s not that a long drive is completely out of the question. But when I was pregnant with my older daughter, my husband and I decided that being past the early stages meant it was a good time to drive all the way to Mount Fuji (we had an SLK 350 back then)<\/span>. We came home via Nagano and Ishikawa, and the trip left me so exhausted that my morning sickness came back.<\/p>\n

Needless to say, my doctor gave me a stern talking-to at my checkup (-_-)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not as young as I was then, and I\u2019d rather avoid long drives while carrying a baby.<\/p>\n

So lately, aside from grocery runs and picking up the kids, I hardly drive at all. I spend each day navigating traffic lights on the same city streets, covering maybe five kilometers round-trip. But making those familiar roads as enjoyable as possible has become really important to me.<\/strong><\/p>\n

And that naturally makes me want to drive a manual.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I\u2019d love to take the Panamera out, but using it for slow city driving feels like overkill\u2014and I don\u2019t want to add miles to the odometer just for the sake of it. The Boxster is out, too: with two kids, we\u2019d be over its seating capacity. So the 320i is the obvious choice.<\/p>\n

I drive the 320i every day now, and I\u2019ve even got to the point where I can drive it perfectly well in rain boots or regular boots. (Though driving shoes would be better, of course.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Why Driving a Manual Is So Much Fun<\/h3>\n

What makes a manual so enjoyable? An automatic is easier, smoother, and more fuel-efficient, so on paper it seems like the obvious choice. But I keep choosing the manual because I\u2019ve fallen for the fun and satisfaction of being in control of the car myself.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a little like playing a sport<\/strong>\u2026<\/p>\n

I used to be really into snowboarding for a while. At first, I fell constantly. But little by little, I learned how to shift my weight and move my body. When I finally managed to ride forest trails and advanced runs, it felt amazing.<\/p>\n

Driving a manual gives me a similar feeling.<\/p>\n

Getting through a gear change smoothly is especially satisfying, and I can\u2019t help grinning. Being able to find little moments of joy and excitement in my everyday driving is really precious to me right now, when longer trips aren\u2019t an option.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When we talked about replacing the Panamera with our next car, I did wonder, \u201cThey\u2019d end up serving similar purposes\u2014maybe we should sell the 320i instead\u2026<\/strong>\u201d But I\u2019ve decided that, for now, I want to keep taking good care of my beloved 320i.<\/p>\n

Ah, I\u2019d love to drive an air-cooled Porsche again soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Driving a Manual Ever since my first car, a BMW 320i with a manual transmission, arrived at our home, I\u2019ve been driving it pretty often. It\u2019s hard to believe, but it\u2019ll soon be a year since I took delivery. This 320i isn\u2019t an M Sport or any other performance-focused trim\u2014it\u2019s a completely standard model. Once I got used to driving it, I found myself thinking, \u201cThis is a little underwhelming\u2026\u201d more and more often. The...","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":17430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_locale":"en_US","_original_post":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/?p=17386","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[203],"class_list":["post-37829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nocar-nolife","tag-bmw","en-US"],"yoast_head":"Let\u2019s Say It Again: Manual Cars Are Fun! - Porsche Owner's Blog from Japan<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Discover why driving a manual is so much fun\u2014from the thrill of smooth shifts to the everyday joy of being in control behind the wheel.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/en\/entry\/manual-transmission-fun\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Let\u2019s Say It Again: Manual Cars Are Fun! - Porsche Owner's Blog from Japan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Discover why driving a manual is so much fun\u2014from the thrill of smooth shifts to the everyday joy of being in control behind the wheel.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/en\/entry\/manual-transmission-fun\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Porsche Owner's Blog from Japan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/panameralife\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-03-13T21:00:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-07-28T12:09:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/IMG_3179-800x533-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"533\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Let\u2019s Say It Again: Manual Cars Are Fun! - Porsche Owner's Blog from Japan","description":"Discover why driving a manual is so much fun\u2014from the thrill of smooth shifts to the everyday joy of being in control behind the wheel.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/en\/entry\/manual-transmission-fun\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Let\u2019s Say It Again: Manual Cars Are Fun! - Porsche Owner's Blog from Japan","og_description":"Discover why driving a manual is so much fun\u2014from the thrill of smooth shifts to the everyday joy of being in control behind the wheel.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/en\/entry\/manual-transmission-fun\/","og_site_name":"Porsche Owner's Blog from Japan","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/panameralife\/","article_published_time":"2020-03-13T21:00:10+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-07-28T12:09:14+00:00","og_image":[{"width":800,"height":533,"url":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/IMG_3179-800x533-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/en\/entry\/manual-transmission-fun\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/en\/entry\/manual-transmission-fun\/"},"author":{"name":"","@id":""},"headline":"Let\u2019s Say It Again: Manual Cars Are Fun!","datePublished":"2020-03-13T21:00:10+00:00","dateModified":"2021-07-28T12:09:14+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/en\/entry\/manual-transmission-fun\/"},"wordCount":772,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/en\/entry\/manual-transmission-fun\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/IMG_3179-800x533-1.jpg","keywords":["BMW"],"articleSection":["Our Car Life"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/en\/entry\/manual-transmission-fun\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/en\/entry\/manual-transmission-fun\/","url":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/en\/entry\/manual-transmission-fun\/","name":"Let\u2019s Say It Again: Manual Cars Are Fun! - \u30dd\u30eb\u30b7\u30a7\u304c\u308f\u304c\u5bb6\u306b\u3084\u3063\u3066\u304d\u305f - \u30aa\u30fc\u30ca\u30fc\u30ba\u30d6\u30ed\u30b0","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/en\/entry\/manual-transmission-fun\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/en\/entry\/manual-transmission-fun\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/IMG_3179-800x533-1.jpg","datePublished":"2020-03-13T21:00:10+00:00","dateModified":"2021-07-28T12:09:14+00:00","description":"Discover why driving a manual is so much fun\u2014from the thrill of smooth shifts to the everyday joy of being in control behind the wheel.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/en\/entry\/manual-transmission-fun\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/en\/entry\/manual-transmission-fun\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/en\/entry\/manual-transmission-fun\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/IMG_3179-800x533-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/IMG_3179-800x533-1.jpg","width":800,"height":533,"caption":"\u8eca, \u6728, \u9053\u8def, \u5c4b\u5916, \u8def\u80a9, BMW, 3 Series, F30"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/en\/entry\/manual-transmission-fun\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\u30db\u30fc\u30e0","item":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Let\u2019s Say It Again: Manual Cars Are Fun!"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/","name":"Porsche Owner's Blog from Japan","description":"A Porsche owner's blog from Japan: driving, maintenance and ownership of cars such as a 964, 718 Spyder RS, 981 Boxster GTS and Taycan Turbo GT.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/#organization","name":"Porsche Owner's Blog from Japan","url":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/unnamed.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/unnamed.jpg","width":512,"height":512,"caption":"\u30dd\u30eb\u30b7\u30a7\u304c\u308f\u304c\u5bb6\u306b\u3084\u3063\u3066\u304d\u305f"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/panameralife\/","https:\/\/x.com\/Mina_Panamera","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/mina_porsche\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCoyAW0ifcnk05Iryf7-bkhg"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panamera-life.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}