Been a great 3 months of ownership, but still have a lot to learn. I'll make an update video at the 6 month period to see if I still love driving a manual on a daily basis. Let's me know if you want to see a 3 month ownership review/update. Love driving this car but there's some minor quirks about the VB that I'm beginning to not like.

Been driving manual for about 11 years and i must say that i never will go back to automatic. Owned 3 cars and they are all manual transmission.

Bought my 03 wrx in wellesley right off rt 9 and drove it back to worcester 9 years ago not knowing how to drive stick. what an experience lol. still driving it to this day i love it

Love the car. I did almost the exact same thing. Bought a 2023 WRX premium in Ignition Red last May with no stick shift experience. Now, after 12k miles, I can say I am a pro lol

I daily my 23’ WRX in Dallas. After 8 months of ownership I can 100% agree about the planning and awareness of traffic. Having owned several manual transmission vehicles, my experience is a bit different, but I do not mind being stuck in traffic for 45 min and enjoy trying to eek more MPGs out of it. My best combined MPG was 26.1 calculated after a week of driving.

Great video! I actually just picked up a new 2023 WRX last Saturday, and it’s my first manual transmission. One thing that I’ve noticed is that driving a manual can be very “feel” oriented. It’s so much fun learning all of the nuances that make a manual transmission such an engaging experience!

Great update, glad you’re enjoying it!

Anyone can learn to drive manual, but not everyone has the patience to learn. My mom could only afford a manual at age 46, and she taught herself in week, then fell in love with it. That made me fall in love with it so my first car was a manual and I learned in a week

I'm 47 years old man now. I drove a stick shift back when I was 14 years old. it was my dad's brand new Sedan 1982 Mazda 626. Since then I have always driven stick-shift Vehicles. only in the last 10 years, my last Vehicles were Toyota automatic.

Would love to get regular updates on your experience with the wrx 👍🏻

Give it a year you will be automatic at driving manual. Seriously I don’t even think about it while doing it now but it takes time. Three month in I remember still using my head now it’s all reflex

i did the same thing man, i decided after failing to learn on friends cars that i would just take the plunge. i bought the wrx and forced my self to learn and daily. its been about 7 or so months for me

Honestly VB gen is nice, VA gen is more raw and I personally own a VA WRX and since I work at Subaru dealership, I do a lot of PDIs on VB gen. The only thing I don't like about VB is not about the big screen, the clutch is the one. Clutch is a little bit too light for my opinion (or may be because I have ACT clutch on mine) but I would love to have a bit for feeling on the clutch.

great vid really help me hearing a new angle

have to dissagre when your tired and exhausted. Once you get used to it and it becomes second nature, you can really enjoy the lower gears. After long days at work nothing feels better then getting to cruise in 3k rpms and feel a the turbo spool once you give abit more throttle. You feel even more connected and the car is just carrying you home and makes it more dramatic and emotional event.

I’m also relatively new to manual driving and I’m relatively comfortable with upshifting and I’ve gotten to the point where I can do it smoothly. However, downshifting still is a bit stressful at times. When I typically downshift, I depress the clutch, shift into the appropriate lower gear, and I then hold the clutch at the bite (engagement) point to get the engine’s RPMs to rise. This is the most comfortable way for me to downshift, but I have heard some people say that is damaging the clutch. I started to practice with rev matching when I downshift by blipping the throttle, but I’m not very good at it yet and I’m not confident in my abilities to do it smoothly just yet. Sometimes I rev match downshift pretty good, but in other cases, I blip the throttle too much or not enough. I’m still working to get better at rev match downshifting, but my question is this. Do you think that it is okay to do the basic rev match by downshifting and holding the clutch at the bite point to do a smooth downshift (while I downshift, my foot is off of the gas so I shouldn’t be excessively heating up the clutch).

When learning anything new, the brain works harder. But eventually, it's just instinct Personally, I hate automatics. They make me feel like a slob Think of the roads like a really dull roller coaster. If you need to stop on an incline, time it so you stall at the perfect spot without touching the brake. Long downhill section? Leave it in 3rd or 4th without touching the brakes. etc, etc

Love the channel Mike, the new WRX will be my first manual car and I was wondering if you think I would be okay with driving it home from the lot? I understand 1st to 2nd is difficult, but once you get going is it still challenging?

I agree 98% with everything you've described. Its like an extension of your body at some point & its just like being with a woman,byou start of slow and smooth and keep the rhythm in sync

4:28 Why the attitude towards Neutral, as if it were something to avoid...? Neutral is always fine. It's never a bad habit. It's only bad if you want the engine to drive your wheels, because, in neutral, it won't. That's it. If you want to know, I'm a 48yo European who has never driven an automatic.

11:00 This will go away with more time. It was only difficult because it's still a new experience and you are having to actively think about what you are doing. It will eventually become muscle memory and you will be shifting without even realizing it.

Watched this again … money shift is when you’re driving hard and go to change up and slot a lower gear not the higher gear than drop the clutch and buzz the engine … ouch!

Learn what the engine and clutch and gears do and the diff too … road speed and engine speed … accelerating the engine drives the diff and car, coming down gears the diff and car drive the engine revs. Learn how to go back a gear to accelerate by blipping the accelerator and revving the engine while in neutral or clutch disengaged (pedal down).

Manual is great but high traffic areas make it challenging. I drive my manual Veloster N Monday-Thursday then my automatic work van Friday-Sunday. Traffic is tough where I live in San Diego.

How american