The weather was nice this weekend, 68 degrees on Saturday... That means it was 0 degrees with a -20 windchill about a week ago, and yesterday it got up to 68. Ohio is crazy and usually freezing and some type of wet. It doesn't compare to the MN tundra though.
Thanks for the info. This is good to know, going into potentially buying a car, what current owners like/dislike about it. So the trans isn't that great huh? I know what you're saying about sloppy shifts... I've driven quite a few manual cars and none really pop into mind as being "great" shifting. Off the top of my head, here's the manuals I have extended (more than 1 drive) experience driving.
1991 300zx n/t 5 speed
1995 Eclipse gsx awd 5 speed
1992 VW Corrado VR6 5speed
1992 Camaro Z28 5speed
2003 Mitsubishi EVO 5 speed
2002 Acura RSX-S 6 speed
1996 Honda Accord 5 speed
2003 Honda S2000 6 speed
2004 VW GTI 5 speed
2002 BMW 540i/6 speed
So that's quite a few different types of manual transmissions. Of all those, I'd say the bimmer 540 was the smoothest/easiest/best shifting of the bunch. The camaro or accord were probably the worst. I've never driven a toyota/lexus manual. I rode in a supra TT manual a few years ago, but I didn't get to drive it. I would think the RWD setup would make the trans shift easier, as I've found to be the case with rwd cars.
You have more experience than me, by a couple decades I imagine, so I wonder what cars would you say, in your experience, had GREAT manual transmissions?
I guess I'm keeping my ever-plummeting-in-value benz for now. It's getting me from point A to point B. I can't deal with it being worth like $10k in this market. The car was $58k brand new in 2000 (have original window sticker) and now it's worth 1/6th of that, I bought it for $14k about a year ago. It's really so much car for the money. It'd be really nice to have it working 100% and I'm just going to have to dig in and find a way to DIY some of the maintenance on it.
The IS300 is a nice car though... I am searching for a manual IS within 25 miles of here to go test drive and I will post back here with my impressions after that.