Airplanes and control cables

[MK-84]

Fw190s had rods, but most WWII aircraft had cables.  The main difference as I understand it is that rods don't stretch as the aircraft ages whereas cables do.  So a new Fw190 and Spitfire both have tight, precise controls, but a war weary Fw190 and Spitfire will have a Fw190 with tight controls and a Spitfire with sloppy, mushy controls if the cables have not been tightened recently.

Totally true, you can notice this even in FWD cars that we drive

Some vehicles have cables, say a saab900 (which you can break too)  and as they age there is a very noticible slack.
Others, say a 93 Honda civic, use rods, and that provides a much firmer and controlled shift.

[Tilt]

Early Lavochkins (La5, La5F) had cables and these were largely changed to rod actuated systems thru the La5FN and finally realised on the La7. Control (particularly elevator) responce was reported to be improved although this went hand in hand with the replacement of cloth covered control surfaces (on aeleron and elevator) with aluminium alloy.

[Seanaldinho]

You wouldnt lose control of both but you wouldnt be able to take your hand off the stick because the tension from the other cable wouldnt hold it in equilibrium anymore.