Young people have no idea …

IIRC, they said it was to help the driver keep their eyes on the road. The thinking being, your eyes look down when you check a traditional instrument cluster. The Ion's cluster was placed so that your vision stayed higher and allowed you to be more aware of your surroundings.
From experience, there was something to it.

 

You drove the wagon on your driving exam and aced parallel parking, right?

 

I failed my first driving test (in the wagon) in a matter of seconds. The car was parked in this long, narrow lane in front of the building when the examiner got in. He asked me to back out and I bumped the curb. Test over.

 

But when you took and passed the exam it was in the wagon, and not the Bug, right?

 

Yes. I learned how to drive a stick, but I sure wasn't going to take my test with one.

 

I loved driving a stick.

Told my wife recently I'd to get a stick.

She told me no.

 

I want to get one, too, but my wife had the same reaction, in case she ends up having to drive it.

 

My first car was a '66 Mustang. I think my dad paid $2K for it in 1987. I sold it about a year or so ago and got $6.5K, so adjusting for inflation, I made money on it.
I learned to drive on a '77 Ford Ranger with the 3-speed on the column. I loved the feeling of slamming down from 2nd to 3rd.
I'd like to have the weight of one of those late '70s Monte Carl0s' doors in gold.

 

… that there was a time when the only good comic book movie or TV show was the 1978 version of Superman.

 

Sitting down at Pizza Hut and ordering a pitcher of beer.

 

I have a stick. My wife can’t drive it.

That was almost completely by design. I like having it all to myself.

 

Yeah, yeah.

Big talk now, man.

Wait til you get to be an old fucker like me with fucked up feet, ankles and knees and your wife reminds you and says no stick.