The car is at the dealer. At first I thought MAYBE I wasn't putting it all the way into gear or some other human error factor was involved but that was not the case. At the point of engagement sometimes, sometimes not it pops out of gear instead of grabbing like all the other manuals that I have driven since the 70s. I can defeat this by going with a little more throttle or using 2nd where applicable. The dealer called and said the tech can't get it to pop out (wow that's a surprised) so I'm going up there after work and give him a demonstration. I will write back with the outcome. I do really love this car so not to start addressing a "end game" strategy yet but if they can't clean up this issue it's going to be a tough call