Terminology issue: Manual vs. "Automatic" these days

Quote:

Originally Posted by SportWagon

Perhaps the TCS does use different parameters for a known manual transmission/clutch, but its parameters seem to be such that I find it easier to avoid stalling when attempting to start moving in the wet by turning that TCS off.

It's likely psychological - TCS kicks in and you try to manage throttle and clutch and end up fighting each other. You gotta learn to trust it and forget about managing the clutch. I had a devil of a time with TCS in my CTS-V - 400hp, RWD, crappy run-flats, and wet roads made even surface street driving feel very slippery. Once I learned to drive normally and let TCS do what it had to do, things went much better. Cars definitely never hit showrooms with "almost right" software - they have been coded to specific equipment and thoroughly tested accordingly. With the exception of maybe very early systems (eg, Mercedes) they work very well if you let them. It's not some half-assed afterthought.