demise of manual transmission (and other car-search obstacles)

[Daisy]

There's one huge problem no one is mentioning with driving a manual.    It's hard to get someone to drive your car home when you've had a few too many.  In college my wife had a manual and I've found that the kind of people that are sober enough to drive your car on a Saturday night, are also the kind of people that don't know how to drive a stick.

Ah the old manual-car-driver-alcoholic syndrome...

[greaper007]

There's one huge problem no one is mentioning with driving a manual.    It's hard to get someone to drive your car home when you've had a few too many.  In college my wife had a manual and I've found that the kind of people that are sober enough to drive your car on a Saturday night, are also the kind of people that don't know how to drive a stick.

Ah the old manual-car-driver-alcoholic syndrome...

Hey, it's been a good 10 years since this was an issue.   But in my early 20s I'd occasionally run into this.   You'd be the dd and drive someone home in their car, but when it was their turn they didn't know how to drive a stick.   It was always a predicament.

[LouisPritchard]

I'll add another recommendation for a Subaru WRX. They don't come in automatic, are available in a 4 door hatchback, and isn't too hard to find for sale used.

Might look on ebay as well. When I bought my WRX in 2009 I could fedex a car across the country for under a grand, open transport was around $500. Might be cheaper than buying local, but then you give up the test drive aspect. Worked well for me, but I bought mine at 1 year old with 10K on the odometer, and knew exactly down to the color what I wanted.

[gooki]

Spork - I had a Subaru briefly - it was ok, but I was much more loyal to my '89 Camry wagon. Dang I miss that car.

Fuck yeah, those Camry wagons were great. This is the only car my parents bought new (1989, manual, twin cam Toyota Camry wagon). They put 380,000 km on it and the only part to ever fail was the fuel pump.

[GuitarStv]

There's one huge problem no one is mentioning with driving a manual.    It's hard to get someone to drive your car home when you've had a few too many.  In college my wife had a manual and I've found that the kind of people that are sober enough to drive your car on a Saturday night, are also the kind of people that don't know how to drive a stick.

Ah the old manual-car-driver-alcoholic syndrome...

Hey, it's been a good 10 years since this was an issue.   But in my early 20s I'd occasionally run into this.   You'd be the dd and drive someone home in their car, but when it was their turn they didn't know how to drive a stick.   It was always a predicament.

I've tried to explain to a sober person while drunk how to drive my manual car.  Suffice it to say, they eventually got it in first and we made it home by staying under 40.  If I had been parallel parked this would have been another matter. . .

[greaper007]

There's one huge problem no one is mentioning with driving a manual.    It's hard to get someone to drive your car home when you've had a few too many.  In college my wife had a manual and I've found that the kind of people that are sober enough to drive your car on a Saturday night, are also the kind of people that don't know how to drive a stick.

Ah the old manual-car-driver-alcoholic syndrome...

Hey, it's been a good 10 years since this was an issue.   But in my early 20s I'd occasionally run into this.   You'd be the dd and drive someone home in their car, but when it was their turn they didn't know how to drive a stick.   It was always a predicament.

I've tried to explain to a sober person while drunk how to drive my manual car.  Suffice it to say, they eventually got it in first and we made it home by staying under 40.  If I had been parallel parked this would have been another matter. . .

And all it cost you was a new clutch...

Funny story, the second time I drove a stick was a 26 foot box truck for a 3 hour drive in city traffic.   I was working construction in my late teens and my boss told me to pick up a truck in Cleveland and drive it to western NY.    I showed up at the place expecting an automatic (with his 10 year old son in tow), and there was a stick.   

I found that once I got it into first gear it drove like a dream.    And it had an air horn to boot.   That got me over my fear of manual transmission.

[meyla]

I just want to put in another vote for a Toyota Matrix or Pontiac Vibe. My sister has the Vibe and my mother the Matrix, and they are great newer-model cars with manual transmission and good mileage. They are small enough to be a great daily driver and big enough to fit most of the things that wouldn't fit in a sedan but don't require an SUV. I think they're pretty cute looking, too!

If I may brag on my 99 Accord coupe, I get an awesome 30 mpg in my daily commute and much better on the highway. It has 220k miles on it and every single thing in it works except the passenger's side automatic door lock. Doesn't burn a bit of oil, runs cool and quiet. If you were in the market for something older than 10, I would tell you that it doesn't get much better than what I have.

[neighbor]

something ate my post… :(

I looked again at the SF Bay Area craigslist and ended up finding a 2006 Scion Xa with 105,000 miles on it for a decent price (lower than comparable ones in my area). After considering whether we really need all the cargo space a bigger wagon would have, we decided "probably not that often" and went with a smaller car. It fit all my criteria - I think the person who said, "they come in waves" was right on.

Thanks for the great conversation folks… and definitely, the Vibe/Matrix was a contender :).

[TeresaB]

There's one huge problem no one is mentioning with driving a manual.    It's hard to get someone to drive your car home when you've had a few too many.  In college my wife had a manual and I've found that the kind of people that are sober enough to drive your car on a Saturday night, are also the kind of people that don't know how to drive a stick.

Ah the old manual-car-driver-alcoholic syndrome...

Hey, it's been a good 10 years since this was an issue.   But in my early 20s I'd occasionally run into this.   You'd be the dd and drive someone home in their car, but when it was their turn they didn't know how to drive a stick.   It was always a predicament.

Yeah, but then the pro is that if you don't want to lend someone your car you can just be like "Of course! Do you drive stick?" and then they say no, they don't and you say, Oh, bummer, then no.