>>Neutral at lights? A VERY bad habit. Almost inavitably causes those
>>waiting behind to miss the green light.
>
>Obviously an individual opinion. No problem for me whether I'm first in line
>or further back, to get into gear and be off. Easy to anticipate the flow in
>the cross direction and get into gear or be on the way to doing it when my
>light goes green. I think too many people do something other than "drive"
>when they are on the road, the ignition on. Paying attention makes a big
>difference, Driving is a full time job, I think, but not that difficult if I
>just pay attention.

Problem is, most don't. You can see them getting into gear AFTER the
light turns green. These particular folk are roadhogs.

>I have always shifted into neutral at a stoplight in all my manual
>transmission vw's... it's a hold over from the old T2 days when I was taught
>that holding in the clutch would wear out the clutch cable faster (they wore
>out fast enough asit was).

My 66 T1 worked fine without a clutch when the cable broke... drove
it to work for a couple of weeks like that.

>so the habit was established long ago and I
>still do it.  no problem slipping her into first when the light changes or
>just before.  I think you'd have to be pretty inept to fumble around with
>the stick long enough to seriously hold up traffic.

Most drivers ARE inept. And with short-period light, even a second
can mean you miss the green.

As far as throwout bearings are concerned, that shouldn't be the
other drivers' problem...
--
Andrew Grebneff
165 Evans St, Dunedin 9001, New Zealand
<andrew.grebneff@stonebow.otago.ac.nz>
Seashell, Macintosh, VW/Toyota van nut