So finally had a chance to go a test drive a Camaro SS with the manual transmission. I also treated today as the final test drives of the car as I drove both the 8 speed auto along with the manual.
Drove an automatic 2SS first to get used to the car again. It had the magnetic ride suspension and dual mode exhaust. Drove the way I remembered( amazing). The LT1 is in my opinion the better sounding engine than the Coyote. Not going to get to much into it in this post since I already detailed my thoughts on it. So now onto the manual transmission....
The manual transmission car was a 1SS with only the dual mode exhaust. So it had normal dampers which was perfect because I did also wanted to see how the Camaro drove on the standard SS suspension. The Tremec in the Camaro is a whole lot better than the stick that is in the Mustang GT. Like I posted before, the Mustang GT would buck when getting the car moving and in the 1-2 shift. Now that is still mostly my fault being inexperienced and I am sure
@D.T. will come back saying he doesn't have those issues with his GT, but the only issue I had with the Camaro was bucking with getting the car moving. The 1-2 shifts were smooth. Later after I gave my mom a chance to drive the Camaro, we figured out why I had such an issue with getting it going and having it buck. I was just popping the clutch out too soon. After that, launches were a lot smoother. Pretty sure if I would go and drive the GT again, probably could solve the bucking getting it started issue at least since I was probably doing the same thing( couldn't change drivers in the Mustang because the Ford dealer kept their Mustangs with no freaking gas in the tank so had to keep the trips short).
I absolutely loved the rev-matching feature the manual transmission has just for the sound. Downshift and the car automatically blips the throttle and sounds freaking amazing. Hill starting was a bit of an issue, but decided to use the parking brake trick to help out. Since the parking brake is electronic, just set it when you come to a stop at a red light and when it turns green, you can just release the brake without worry of rollback and the parking brake will automatically disengage when it senses forward motion.
I did stall it a few times at the beginning and I apologize to the one person that was behind me after I stalled it twice in a row.... Three things I didn't like about the manual transmission. First, it is hard to find 5th gear. When I first got in the car, I just rowed it through all the gears just to see where the gates were, and I went to go to 5th gear and consistently found reverse instead. Which goes into the second complaint.... There is no manual form of reverse lockout. All the sticks I have driven had a way you had to move the shifter to put it into reverse( whether it was to push down on the shifter or pull up). Now I am sure the Tremec does have a reverse lock out as I was driving it, I would go all the way over to the right I obviously didn't destroy reverse by mistakingly shift into it looking for 5th, it would stop and I would push up to put it into 5th gear. So when the car starts moving, I bet it automatically will open/close a solenoid that blocks the shifter from going into reverse. I would like the manual lockout where I would have to do something to get it into reverse. But it would be something I would get used to. Though when I wanted fifth, I was very conscious about shifting into reverse by mistake so much, I would end up downshifting back into 3rd gear( benefit of the rev-matching feature was being able to immediately know I downshifted to 3rd instead of upshifting to 5th as I heard the car blipping the throttle). Third thing I hated is the classic 1-4 skip shift feature. As soon as the car would be out of warranty, would get a skip-shift eliminator.
Side note on the experience, the magnetic ride suspension is absolutely worth the money. As noted above, the manual transmission car didn't have mag ride. Went on the same roads and hit the same bumps as we did with the automatic car that had mag ride. The standard suspension isn't horrible. But the car was able to absorb the bumps better with the magnetic dampers even in track mode. You could absolutely tell the difference. Who knows if there is a noticeable change in times on a track, but the magnetic ride control certainly helps with making the Camaro a better daily driver.
Come February or so, all I will have to do is walk in, negotiate the deal, and order the car. I am still leaning towards the automatic. I had an absolute blast in the manual transmission Camaro and AFM is disabled in the manual transmission version. I am not against it per se, but the Gen IV Small Blocks had oil burning issues which went away if the person disabled AFM. Not sure if GM fixed it with the Gen V Small Blocks, but it would be one less issue..... But as I was driving the car, I definitely was more focused on shifting, the clutch, etc than operating the rest of the vehicle( sorry to the person I blinded with my high beams). Now I am sure this would go away as I get 1-2 weeks of experience under my belt and it would become second nature. The big issue though is still what I posted a few pages back. Will I still enjoy the manual transmission 5-7 years down the road and will I be able to tolerate stop and go traffic with it? It is a very easy manual transmission car to drive now that I figured out how to initially get the car moving, but doesn't change the fact stop and go won't be fun. And the fact I am constantly checking behind me cursing the people who stop right on my bumper giving me no room for any potential roll back......
Still got 3 months to decide. And if I do end up keeping the Saturn, would definitely tip the scale towards the manual transmission. But if it will be my daily driver, I think I would still choose the automatic transmission.
). I am looking pre-owned only. it is the year range that will vary a lot here to keep in say the $50-55k price range.
