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Automotive News & Views The Future Of The Manual Transmission
5809 messages, Last post on Dec 03, 2009 at 12:30 PM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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Replying to: steve_ (Sep 02, 2009 11:44 am) 
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Replying to: steve_ (Sep 02, 2009 11:44 am) I learned shifting on a VW Beetle with a light clutch and a nicely located floor shifter which was relatively easy and fun. Having driven a column shifter car (early 60s Saab 95) I can see why people abandoned manually shifted cars in droves during the 1950s. My Mom used to tell me she couldn't understand why I drove sticks and I'd tell her that the nice full-synchro floor shifts in my cars were light years ahead of the non-synchro (column-mounted) 3 speeds she drove back in the day. I'd ask her to just drive one of my cars but she never would. I might add that a console mounted Automatic, especially with good software backing it up, is light years ahead of the old column mounted automatic shifters.
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Replying to: andys120 (Sep 04, 2009 11:34 am) I like the placement of automatic shifters on the dash, but I guess I'm in a minority there. I'd rather have the knee room instead of a big console between the front seats. Part of my wife's shattered left fibula isn't healing very fast, so we may be out of the manual transmission market for good at this point. 
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I saw this article in the loca rag. link title The web site is link title
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Replying to: ruking1 (Sep 05, 2009 3:01 pm) Manual equipped cars other than the very very budget models always command a better resale price if you sell it private party. And they sell within hours or days, because of a large pent-up demand among enthusiasts. Also, classic cars are almost always manual. Nobody wants an automatic, well, ANYTHING from the 50s or 60s. Or even the 70s and 80s if they can manage it. A good case in point is how old Mercedes from the 70s are nearly worthless with automatics. Not because they are worthless per se, so much as they are just impossible to actually sell. Even new, go look at the prices for a Celica or a Mustang. Automatics sit and sit and sit and the manuals are literally gone in 48 hours or less every time.
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Replying to: plekto (Sep 05, 2009 11:47 pm) Not true! Anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of 1950s classics knows that practically every American collector car of the period was sold with an A/T, most were not even available with manuals.. Chrysler 300s, T-birds, Cadillacs and other A/T cars of the era are highly desired by collectors. Some 1960s classics like the Buick Riviera and T-bird were only available in A/T form yet are still highly collectible. Even A/T Mustangs and Camaros will sell well if they are in good condition. 1970s Mercedes were almost all A/Ts except for some 280SLs and some low end cars.
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| I learned how to drive a manual in a 1967 Camaro RS 3-speed. Once I learned that, the manual Datsun, VW, Escort, Corolla and Accord that followed were a breeze! Stopped driving manuals after kids arrived... now they're older and one of our cars is an '08 Mazda 3 (not the happy face!). Great car and I love it w/the manual. | |
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Replying to: andys120 (Sep 06, 2009 3:42 am)  The value and desirability of the same classic car with a manual versus an automatic if both were offered is almost always higher(and sells quicker). And the Mercedes from the 70s... well they did make manuals of almost every last model. Finding one can be nearly impossible, though. When one does come up for sale, like an imported(not gray market but their old overseas delivery option from the 70s and 80s) S class with manual I saw last year, it's gone immediately for the asking price.
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Replying to: plekto (Sep 06, 2009 9:18 am) They may have made manual versions of every model but imported almost none and I don't think there were any stick-shift S class or Rl07 SLs except for gray market cars. Those 2 models account for most of the really desireable '70s era Benzes. |
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While this is a very small current population VW's both gassers and turbo diesels list (6 spd) manual transmissions as the standard offerings. The same is true of the Audi line. Needless to say lines that do not offer manual transmissions are more the exception than the rule. |
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