[jcp123]

Cheater bar FTW!

Congrats on learning stick! You'll eventually get addicted, IMHO. I was ambivalent about stick until I learned...and I am decidedly on the "manual only" train, my Echo is the last car, if I can help it, with automatic I'll ever own.

I recently started driving big rigs...I had to re-teach myself stick to get through 10 non-synchronized gears. Your "regular" manuals with synchros seem like cheating by comparison. If you have a trashed synchro as you indicated, it'll just be a learning experience