Manual Transmission Cars for 2020

The other thing that blows is color choices it seems. At least on any vehicle I'm looking at.

Of course I currently have an orange vehicle and yellow vehicle.
 
That was one of the bummers when I got my current daily driver, only auto if you wanted AWD, now it does have a really good paddle shifters, but I still prefer stick shy of a full on double clutch paddle rig, which wouldn’t be too practical anyways.
 
I picked up the one in the foreground a few weeks ago. 2019MY 6 sp manual.

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EdFred said:
The other thing that blows is color choices it seems. At least on any vehicle I'm looking at.

Of course I currently have an orange vehicle and yellow vehicle.
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Yeah, tired of all the blacks, silvers, and grays. Yuk.
 
Having owned more than a dozen manual transmission cars, and, of course, dozens of motorcycles, I don't know what the obsession is with MT. Autos are quicker, get better fuel mileage, and can be lots of fun, and if you get stuck in major traffic ... no contest. Give me steering that connects me to the road; that's worth all of the MTs on the planet. I dislike the "game controller" feel of many modern cars' steering.
 
Kenny Phillips said:
Having owned more than a dozen manual transmission cars, and, of course, dozens of motorcycles, I don't know what the obsession is with MT. Autos are quicker, get better fuel mileage, and can be lots of fun, and if you get stuck in major traffic ... no contest. Give me steering that connects me to the road; that's worth all of the MTs on the planet. I dislike the "game controller" feel of many modern cars' steering.
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Same reason people are obsessed with blue knobs and/or red knobs, and planes without them (FADEC, Diamond DA62, Cirrus) aren't flown by real pilots. I see very little value in the blue knob as I've never felt the need to "shift gears" in flight.. the 182 I occasionally rent basically has like 3 settings.. but in the car I do appreciate that feeling of being connected to the car and the road. I also hate on an auto when it shifts gears when you don't want it to, and inability to properly downshift

But pragmatically, autos are "better" by any objective means.
 
Kenny Phillips said:
Having owned more than a dozen manual transmission cars, and, of course, dozens of motorcycles, I don't know what the obsession is with MT. Autos are quicker, get better fuel mileage, and can be lots of fun, and if you get stuck in major traffic ... no contest. Give me steering that connects me to the road; that's worth all of the MTs on the planet. I dislike the "game controller" feel of many modern cars' steering.
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It comes down to "if I have to explain, you wouldn't understand." You mention technical aspects. Yes, autos are quicker, these days get better fuel mileage for the most part (didn't used to be the case). Can be lots of fun? Well, it's more that some cars are lots of fun, and in some cases the autos don't detract from it, or in the case of very high performance vehicles, make them easier to control with drive-by-wire.

It's just one more "feel" and control of the vehicle and the man-machine interaction. I agree with you that I want good steering feel and I dislike cars with poor steering feel. I also want good brake feel, I want a good connection between the gas pedal and the engine.

If for you it's not a big deal, no problem. But for those of us for whom it is a big deal, the lack of availability is a problem.
 
Looking through that list, it's good to see that a lot of performance/sport vehicles still have manual transmissions available. It's disappointing to me that the list isn't longer, and that Ferrari and Lamborghini don't have manual transmission offerings.
 
Some of these 'take rates' are artificially depressed by the combinations the manufacturers offer. The Accord for example is only available in the basic 'Sport' trim and you better like the color silver or white.

Heck, it's getting harder to find a real automatic transmission or even a keyed ignition. This week I have a rental with both: a base model Hyundai Elantra ;-)
 
Nissan 370Z is only available in stick in the base coupe and NISMO trim. Not the convertible. :-(
 
The problem is small low power engines are emasculated by an automatic. I suspect higher performance engines are as well, but you don't notice and get gains elsewhere from the computers. I only drive small cars (anything else seems like the adult car to me) and this usually small engines. Don't want an automatic. Hell, the DCT managed to emasculate the 2 liter engine on the Honda Goldwing!
 
NEED @Ted DuPuis INPUT:

Sequential constant mesh transmissions, vs. non-sequential constant mesh transmissions. Vs. sliding gear transmissions.

1. Sequential constant mesh transmissions: Motorcycles, and some older racing car transmissions.

2. Non-sequential constant mesh transmissions: Your modern run of the mill manual transmission.

3. Sliding gear transmissions: Old school transmissions.

School us. I'm confused even, slightly. But that's easy to do.
 
steingar said:
The problem is small low power engines are emasculated by an automatic. I suspect higher performance engines are as well, but you don't notice and get gains elsewhere from the computers. I only drive small cars (anything else seems like the adult car to me) and this usually small engines.
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The automatics, particularly the CVT's have really improved. Supposedly, they are more efficient, and with programmed shift points, they are faster.

I like my 6 speed manual Accord. I put >250K miles on each of the last two manual Accords I owned with no transmission or clutch drama. Properly driven, a manual transmission/clutch combination is hard to beat for low maintenance.

More fun to drive too.
 
Sac Arrow said:
NEED @Ted DuPuis INPUT:

Sequential constant mesh transmissions, vs. non-sequential constant mesh transmissions. Vs. sliding gear transmissions.

1. Sequential constant mesh transmissions: Motorcycles, and some older racing car transmissions.

2. Non-sequential constant mesh transmissions: Your modern run of the mill manual transmission.

3. Sliding gear transmissions: Old school transmissions.

School us. I'm confused even, slightly. But that's easy to do.
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Sequential vs. non sequential , the big differenceis a matter of the shifter and shift mechanism, not the transmission itself.
Now, the transmission in motorcycles and race cars are different from those in a normal passenger car, in that the ones in race cars and motorcycles don't use synchronizers while the ones in passenger cars do. BTW, big trucks traditionally used non-synchronized transmissions as well.

I could try to explain this with a lot of words, but there's a nice animation here:

Here's another video where two guys kind sorta explain the difference between the transmission in a passenger car and a sequential racing transmission


You don't have to watch the whole thing, but do look at the way the two transmissions engage their gears. The motorcycle and racing transmissions engage the active gear on the side of the gear, where the synchromesh transmission in a street driven vehicle engages the active gear around that gear's periphery, and has a cone shaped synchronizer that matches the gear's speed to the shaft's speed so you avoid that crunching sound you sometimes get with a non-synchronized box.

About that old-timey sliding gear transmission: In the second video, you can see the street car transmission uses a shift fork to move the engagement mechanism onto the selected gear, In a sliding gear transmission, the shift mechanism slides the entire gear into its partner on the other shaft. In all the other transmissions we've looked at, the gears stay meshed the entire time, it's just that one pair is engaged to both shafts while the vehicle is moving, while for all the other gear pairs, one of the gears is freewheeling.

Once you digest all this, we can talk about conventional hydraulic/planetary gear automatic transmissions, dual clutch automated manual transmissions, and constantly variable transmissions. And then, if you want, we can look at the electrified CVTs that hybrid cars use.
 
With the new automatic transmissions MPG is better than a manual and who wants to shift through 8-10 gears.
 
Clip4 said:
With the new automatic transmissions MPG is better than a manual and who wants to shift through 8-10 gears.
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Not a big suprise as the shift points are optimized to show a low fuel consumption in the testing protocol imposed by the goverment minders. I dont consider it a given that marginally better performance in the EPA cycle translates into real life fuel savings.

Shifting through 10 gears with a unsynchronized range-shift transmission is kind of a pain. Shifting through six gears in my Honda Accords with their short-throw shifter design is a breeze.
 
Depressingly short list but we already knew that. My lone automatic car out of 4 which is a dual clutch PDK has been annoying me enough lately that I’m thinking about replacing it with one of the cars on that list.

I really dislike automatics. All of them.
 
ktup-flyer said:
CVTs have no shift points. Worst transmission ever made. :nono:
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True about no shift points. When you're driving one, the engine sound and <generally> flat RPM sound is really strange. But they are outstanding at gaining the most performance/efficiency from a drivetrain.
 
Clip4 said:
With the new automatic transmissions MPG is better than a manual and who wants to shift through 8-10 gears.
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Not necessarily. It depends on how well you understand the mechanism and utilize it to maximize fuel economy.

I recently got almost 50 MPG on a 20-mile trip through the mountains (there are some odometer pictures somewhere on this forum) using a combination of ethanol-free gas and hardcore hypermiling. The car (2016 Kia Soul) is rated at 26 MPG. I regularly get around 35 using my regular driving style, which leans a bit toward hypermiling.

In fact, I've never gotten less than 25 percent over EPA rating in any manual-transmission car I've owned. Usually I did better than that. My 2012 Soul was rated at 27 MPG, and I usually got about 38 MPG. My 2001 Saturn SC was rated at 29 MPG, but I never got less than 40 MPG. Etcetera.

The other thing I like about manual transmission is simplicity. I had to junk one vehicle and sell another for a song for no reason other than that the automatic transmissions needed work whose cost would exceed the cars' values, and an automatic transmission is one of the few parts of a car that I can't fix myself. Most professional mechanics won't even touch them. A manual, on the other hand, is delightfully simple.

Unless it were for some reason such as a hybrid system where it's simply not practical, I'd go through the rigmarole of importing a manual-transmission car from Europe or Asia before I'd buy a new car with an automatic.

Rich
 
I prefer a manual. Far more control. I even prefer them in traffic. I can accelerate quicker, no lag time, and hit gaps much more easily. I live in Atlanta, so traffic is pretty much a constant.
 
Just bought a 2015 vw passat tdi (diesel) 6 speed manual and chipped it to 190hp/350ft lbs of tq.

Funnest car I’ve ever driven. Steering and brakes feel like it’s on rails and glued to the road. It’s no vett, but the diesel torque is awesome.

Power band almost close to flat from 2500-4200rpms, and lots of torque from 1500


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RJM62 said:
N..., and an automatic transmission is one of the few parts of a car that I can't fix myself. Most professional mechanics won't even touch them. A manual, on the other hand, is delightfully simple.
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Surprisingly many aren’t that bad to rebuild. The issues usually are around needing a very beefy bench, GOOD organization skills, and a big press for most of them for the bearings. Especially older designs without way too much computer involvement just aren’t that difficult.

But... it also takes a lot of TIME and that’s why most mechanics avoid it. Book time is hard to beat on them and that’s why the trans guys just charge a flat price that’s fairly high.

Moving the bastards around is one of the biggest problems. That and a handful of specialized tools.

I don’t want to tackle it myself, but occasionally it’s fun to pull up a YT video of anyone doing it who does it for a living. Methodical and organized and always a few little tips and tricks that would help anyone doing the type of trans they’re working on. Usually the trick to getting the wiring harnesses unplugged and pulling sensors out without damaging them.

Ordering the right rebuild kit is also crucial and those guys know the part numbers by heart. They always have extra ball bearings for the valve bodies and such lying around when they drop one and it rolls into never never land somewhere too. That one can bring a small shop or home gamer to a halt for two days. Ha.

All sorts of carburetors are a lot harder and more fiddly to rebuild than many of the popular transmissions. And I’ve done those. But those are going away for small engines, they just sell you a whole new one that isn’t adjustable because it meets California emissions standards.

And therefore runs like crap at my altitude. LOL.

And not too many big engines using them anymore either. :)

Dropping carb parts on the floor is worse than dropping transmission valve balls though. Ha.

Ahhhhh. Never mind. Both suck really. :)

Stacking plates and frictions in an auto is pretty easy.

There were some manuals I’ve watched rebuilt that I wouldn’t want anything to do with though. Weird ass assembly order and gear location if you didn’t have pictures.

Lots of time and parts cleaning and patience.

The other thing the experienced rebuilders have is eyeballing which parts are out of spec and worn even if they’re not supposed to be. Adds a lot of time if you have to look it up and use the calipers on a bunch of stuff.
 
Love my 2006 Miata with 6 spd. Can Get 40 MPG touring Glacier park with it.
 
Electric power steering (or “assist” as it sometimes strangely called) is an abomination. Combined with runflat tires, makes one think there’s zero connection between the steering wheel and the road.

Cheers
 
We just rented a Renault Twingo in Paris. Hadn’t drive a stick since I sold my Toyota pickup in 2004. It was kind of fun.
 
Dave Theisen said:
We just rented a Renault Twingo in Paris. Hadn’t drive a stick since I sold my Toyota pickup in 2004. It was kind of fun.
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Renault. Such a weird company with wild history. Dead family members after WWII, an assassinated Chairman... nothing says Europe better than that! Ha.

But everyone needs a Le Car! LOL!

https://jalopnik.com/le-cheapest-classic-car-ever-is-a-1-600-renault-le-car-1784540998

And not too many remember that they won Motor Trend Car of the Year with the Alliance once ... here in North America... :)
 
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