Have you ever switched cars temporarily, then finding it fairly slower than you can remember? Is it possible to feel that after driving an automatic for a few days? That’s exactly how a close friend “felt” after servicing his car.
Recently one of my friends who drives a (proper) 2010 manual transmission BMW M6 took his car into a local dealership for a minor repair and scheduled service. He was having a small issue with the driver seat. The seat track was acting up when moving the seat backwards or forward. At the same time, the car was up for an oil change, so he had the dealer change the oil and filter.
Normally, dealerships give out loaner cars from their lot for customer use. In my friends’ case, this particular dealer was out of BMW loaner cars, subsequently putting him in a Dodge Journey cross over rental car from Enterprise Rent-A-Car. He drove the Journey without complaints, he suggested that it was “pretty quick for a minivan”, comfortable, and easy to drive.
Everything went smooth, as planned. Three days later, he picks up the M6. Seat was fixed and the oil change was done. Car washed and detailed to perfection. After driving the car home, he calls me up complaining that car is not accelerating as fast. He complained that the rear tires are not loosing traction at certain speeds in second gear as he remembers it. Is this even possible, a Manual Transmission BMW M6 a slower car after a basic oil change? After going back and fourth trying to figure out what could be wrong. He swung by my place, picked me up to go for a ride. As we drove through some back roads, I was watching his driving style closely. I could immediately tell that he was driving the car improperly, almost lazily.
Shortly it was my turn to drive. After a few minutes of ripping through the gears, the car seems exactly as I remember it. So I started laughing out loud joking that I needed an hour of driving to be able to tell the difference. Here is what we concluded… The rental car was equipped with a V6 engine and an automatic transmission. Driving was effortless, as the automatic transmission was selecting the perfect gear under acceleration without much driver input, like having to down shift to a lower gear to get the car going quick. Once he picked up the monster M6 from the dealer, my friend became too lazy to down shift to the proper gear for placing the car in the optimum RPM range. Nearly every car needs a perfectly placed gear to get it up and going quickly, that’s even more true for a manual-equipped high revving V10.
In reality, that M6 will absolutely destroy most car offering from many car makers, let a lone a family hauler Dodge Journey. If the M6 was equipped with a 7-speed SMG transmission, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation as gear selection becomes automated and thoughtless. Going back a few years, I can remember a similar experience. It seems to take some of us a couple of days to “remember” the perfect shift points of manual transmissions after driving an automatic for a few days. Despite that, give me a manual transmission over an automatic or a dual clutch any day.
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