Since I've been bashing and trashing the transmittion engagement on the US 2005 OBS It's only fair to FHI that I report that I did indeed find a 4WD 5SP car with the stick that works far worse than 2005 OBS for US. And that is the 2001 4WD 5SP Suzuki Boleno for the euro market. Not only the switches are slow but the 3rd gear is a bit offset against the 4th. Surprisingly the 4WD action is not as bad as one would expect from a normally FWD car (I'm making an assumption 100% of power goes to front on boleno and transfer occurs only when slip is detected). I did not detect much if any wheel slip on loose snow with the UltraGrips (dedicated studless winter tire). The 9 year old frame on boleno shows signs of rust. How do US 2001 subarus fair in the rust department?
My question to the group is: it is my understanding that the shift lever was directly engaging the gears in the early-mid last century cars, but at some point an onslaught of the rubbery shift linkages began with the subsequent loss of the shift feel. Could you enlighten me about the reasons for the switch.