What I would like to know is; how many people here have ever driven a TRUCK?!

I've driven plenty of trucks and I've driven a good number of MB's with sticks. I find NO similarity.

If you have a little stick shift experience, you can tell very little difference between the MB transmissions and any other. In fact the difference in the MB and many American muscle cars put the MB AHEAD in shifter feel.

The old muscle car transmissions were external shifters that were mounted on the transmission itself, while MB shifters until very recently, were external shifters mounted to the body.

My personal idea about all this shifter speak is that for years car magazine reporters comment on shifters and use words like "vague." The reason they comment on such things is that MOST car magazine articles are written by Journalists. They're skill is wordsmithing. Many of them know very little about cars so they have to resort to things like the light switch being difficult to reach or the "shifter being vague."

If you can't drive an MB stick shift comfortably then you don't have enough stick shift experience. Go find yourself a car with a slush-o-matic.

My $0.02,


BTW, I agree that the M103 is not the end all engine of all time, but it is a pretty decent powerplant. The BMW sixes are decent engines as well, but they aren't the end all engine of all time either.