>>>>Jake, you are the man! As far as Allie, daughters were invented to teach their fathers humility. I can stand her occasional disapproval. It's an unspoken two way pledge we have between us. Plus she suggested I get an automatic transmission, which is what she knows how to drive ;-)
>>>
>>>getting a sports car with automatic is NUTS...
>>
>>When I did my first daughter-driver-lessons, automatic wasn't even mentioned. She passed with flying colors and the officials' jaw dropped ("such a young girl driving stick, and so smoothly!"). And then she bought a Nissan 240SX, vintage 84 or 93 or something. The commute to her first job was about 3 miles :).
>
>I learned to drive a stick and every car I drove or owned was a stick until almost twenty years later. I was suddenly driving in city stop and go traffic for an hour each way on hills and decided I wanted an automatic! Since then, I miss driving a standard when I'm driving in the mountains....there is nothing like the control you have. I've only driven one once in a while since and it really is like riding a bike. Whenever I drive one, I do miss it, but the feeling eventually goes away. :)

As my wife can only drive automatics we've always had them and as a lot of my driving is urban automatic is the only way top go anyway. But I do remember on motorcycles the pleasure of getting brake acceleration and gear perfect on a corner.