Long story short: I’m (24M) American, and I’m visiting my long-distance Romanian boyfriend for the first time soon. In Romania, most cars are manual - including all the ones owned by my boyfriend’s family (I’ll be staying with them). I’ve never driven a manual before. His dad told me he can give me a quick lesson, and that I’m welcome to use their cars if I want; otherwise, I can rent an automatic. I don’t have access to any manual cars here in the U.S. to practice on, so I’m not sure what to do.
There’s some of that, but you really do get a feel for the car, where it likes to be, how it likes to be treated/driven, where its limits are, and so on. As others have said: it absolutely does help you forge a more detailed perception of what your car is doing, and where the limits really are.
oh i know, i learned to drive on manual since most cars are manual here, i just haven’t owned one myself.
that said, with electric power-steering and throttle-by-wire, there’s no feel to get. it’s all just dead, no matter how fun the clutch is.