Hello all,

I'm confessing right at the beginning to being a hopeless transmission snob! I would personally rank the interaction with a manual transmission to be probably the MOST enjoyable part of driving (as it also relates to the drivetrain in general). Unfortunately, my disease afflicted me from a young age as I was exposed only to Honda's during my formative driving years (the 1990's), which has in turn, nearly ruined me!

Anyway, in all seriousness, I would say that, based on what I've heard from various reviews and forums about Subaru's manuals, it was perhaps the one factor that kept me from pre-ordering an 818 (along with the fact that we couldn't specify a coupe at this point). I didn't want to build a vehicle and then have something like a clunky gearbox significantly diminish my enjoyment, since, that is really what this is all about to begin with. Just wondering if any of you guys had any direct experience comparing WRX gearboxes to some of the ones listed below OR, as a technical side question, I was wondering if the shifter/transaxle combination would be affected by driving the rear wheels only.

My personal list, based on experience, of best shifting transmissions

1. Honda S2000
2. 1988 CRX Si (very close to 1st place)
3. 2008 Civic Si
4. 2010 Miata (very close to 2nd place)
5. 2009 Mazda 3 (haven't driven the skyactiv yet, hear it's great)
6. 2004 Civic Si (really light and precise, just not enough feel) (tie) 1984 Honda Civic (very heavy clutch!)
7. 1991 Nissan Sentra SE-R
8. 2001 Porsche Boxster S (overrated by auto-journalist, throws too long and occasional binding)

Well, that's it, any feedback would be greatly appreciated.