bass_twitch wrote:Why not manual?
A few reasons:
I'm lazy.
I don't think the manuals are that much more reliable than the tips, not all I know but even so how long does a clutch last under normal conditions - 100K? (pure guess by the way). Even some of the non-boosted guys in the UK were swapping out clutches and boxes every couple of years - some more frequently.
Tip boxes can be reliable if you fit a cooler - my old 4spd tip gearbox had over 340000 km's on when I sold the car and I used to drag it quite a few times a year with hard brake boosted launches which aren't supposed to be good for the TC but never caused me an issue.
If I had found a good manual I may have gone for one but i'd looked at 6 fto's and only one of those was a manual - that one had a slipping clutch and roof rust and was 7K with no movement on the price (I offered $6200 and got turned down).
I've never really had a good long enough drive in a manual fto to be wowed over a tip but I know they are supposed to be quicker, I liked the one I drove the other day until I really nailed the throttle and the car didn't go anywhere (slipping).
I'm crap at changing gear quickly and smoothly even though i've owned manuals for almost 20 years. I particularly struggled in my wifes previous car an Impreza WRX turbo, found I had to take my time for it not to crunch the gears and then doing that the revs have dropped back down.
Manual was really top of my list just for a change followed by 5 speed tip and then 4 speed.