A relationship made in a factory, a boardroom, and a cube farm

I've been reading up a little on car engine transmission types*. I was raised on the easy-to-manage straight dichotomy between automatic and manual. Until today I'd always assumed my passionate defence of the manual made me a 'control freak', but I've discovered that my relationship to my car is more complex than that. I've also for the first time applied many thoughts on design to cars. I'm not sure I can explain this properly in one go, but I'll give it a try.

Disclaimer: I don't do 4WD or off-road driving. It's all suburbs and freeways in my universe.

Other disclaimer: This wants to be an essay, but it's just going to be a rough old blog post, so it's long AND disorganised.

One more disclaimer for luck: I don't know what the hell I'm talking about.

Last disclaimer: No more disclaimers. It's a blog FFS.

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