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I have been driving a Ford Fiesta for 10 months and I think it is a nice entertaining car to drive.
However the automatic in this car is really poor . The car would be so much better with a manual even with its relatively low power. If an when the automatic needs service it will cost lots more than the manual to fix.
Old post, i know.
I agree. A manual transmission is a must in a lower powered car. I had a hire car Fiesta some time ago and it was very lightweight with a five speed (UK spec). Didn't even have aircon. Perhaps a little bit ashamed to say but that thing was a blast to drive. I've also hired some smaller manual toyotas, hondas, fiats, renaults similar in size and weight to the fiesta and they all were great fun. I could not imagine driving them in automatic.
Yeah, if anything OP has it backwards. The less power that a car has the more benefit there is to a manual transmission so that you lose less power in drivetrain loss and optimize what power you do have.
My 88 MT-5 Taurus is more fun to drive with the 5 speed than it would be if it was the 3.0/auto combo, even if it is a 4 cylinder ( plus it's rare, most people don't even know that Taurus sub model exists). Plus the Taurus automatics were not known for longevity. So there is longer term reliability.
you've made my car buying decision more difficult!
2015 Forester 5MT
or
2015 Forester XT (turbo) with CVT Automatic
There are conventional slush box automatics, direct-shift gearboxes that aren't automatics but shift themselves, and the CVT which may be fuel-efficient but not fun at all to drive.
I'd go with the manual transmission -- give your left foot something to do.
My 88 MT-5 Taurus is more fun to drive with the 5 speed than it would be if it was the 3.0/auto combo, even if it is a 4 cylinder ( plus it's rare, most people don't even know that Taurus sub model exists). Plus the Taurus automatics were not known for longevity. So there is longer term reliability.
True. Unless beat on, I have about never seen a manual transmission have problems, except for the output bushing/seal wearing out, and then someone continuing to drive it low on lube. Keep an eye on lube level, use the correct lube, if it starts leaking, fix the damn leak. Do that and the transola will last as long as the rest of the car. In rust country, the body will be shot before the trans has any issues.
But, while there are some great old automatics like the C-4, C-6, T-350, T-400, 727, etc, most later model automatics don't always go a half-million miles without needing serious internal work.
To me, a manual makes an otherwise less interesting car like your Taurus a more interesting car, by itself.
Been driving manual transmission cars for 50+ years (except when I rent for work travel). Would not have it any other way. My current car is a 20 year old manual suv with a rebuilt engine at 185K, the car now has 230K. Looked at the current offerings out there but none come close to meeting my needs like my "old faithful". It also doesn't help that the manufacturers put manuals only in the base models and deny access to many of the newer electronic options. Yes, the manual market may be small here in the US but it does seem like a punitive move by manufacturers to those of us who are die hard manual drivers! Manuals also allow the driver to control the car better, be more in tune with it, and get the maxiumum power from a smaller engine.
I have never owned a car with an automatic transmission. Well, actually I have, but my ex wife drives it, as I bought it for her when we were married. I prefer manual transmission for the control it gives me, and I do enjoy shifting. Maybe I am just a throwback. LOL.
I agree. A manual transmission is a must in a lower powered car. I had a hire car Fiesta some time ago and it was very lightweight with a five speed (UK spec). Didn't even have aircon. Perhaps a little bit ashamed to say but that thing was a blast to drive. I've also hired some smaller manual toyotas, hondas, fiats, renaults similar in size and weight to the fiesta and they all were great fun. I could not imagine driving them in automatic.
A former coworker whose Buick sedan was out of commission thanks to baseball-sized hail got a Justy to use while waiting. He had been driving it a while when he took three of us with him in it. Said he couldn't believe how much fun it was to drive, surprisingly peppy. This was a guy whom *nobody* would ever have thought would willingly drive a tiny Japanese car.
My BF at that time told me he had driven behind a Justy climbing the Mt. Evans auto road. He, too, was amazed at how something with such a small engine could zip up that road. Very light weight matters!
I have never owned a car with an automatic transmission. Well, actually I have, but my ex wife drives it, as I bought it for her when we were married. I prefer manual transmission for the control it gives me, and I do enjoy shifting. Maybe I am just a throwback. LOL.
Well, sure: I was a "throwback," too, being raised by a dad who learned to drive on a Model A, just about (guessing, given how poor they were back in Boston in the 1940s). Driving that old junk was an exercise in patience, curiosity, and sense of humor. They didn't exactly stop in a manner we could appreciate these days, either.
So, I inherited his general contempt for automatics wherever it was possible to have a manual. In cars growing up in the 1970s, either was possible on most vehicles. My mom, like most people with zero interest in things mechanical, would have nothing to do with manuals however. So, dad started buying automatics only with one last throwback to the manual in his 1981 Mercury Capri (Fox Body Mustang). Next one he drove was my '82 Toyota Supra, that I bought in college years later and sold to him when I was done with it.
I owned nothing but manuals until an '04 automatic, and that was a major mistake in a vehicle best described as "agricultural". Lasted 2.5 years before trade in.
Last year, after careful consideration, bought a Porsche 911 w/PDK (dual clutch), perhaps the best of the F1-style dual clutch vehicles at-current. They are still not as pure "fun" as the twitchy six-speed manual on my previous Turbo, but way easier to deal with and vastly higher performance. Yep: PDK and similar from other brands annihilate manuals in shift times with no loss of performance that used to be associated with autos. They call them "automated manuals" at this point, with two modes: full manual, which means shift with the steering paddles, or "auto manual", meaning car does all that. Switch in and out of modes on the fly w/a wrist flick, it's pretty cool.
Most of those manufacturers kept the manuals as an option, though. Those that didn't are considering re-introduction. Change comes slowly, cars like that are bought on nostalgia as much as performance. German pragmatism won't interfere with some 55 year old American punter who wants to pretend his 2017 911 C2 is a Fox Body 5.0 w/5 speed he bought new in high school back in '81.
So, times change. I do like PDK. My Xrunner Tacoma has a manual, which I wouldn't have any other way on that hot rod beast either (nor were automatics an option when they came out in 2005).
Last year, after careful consideration, bought a Porsche 911 w/PDK (dual clutch), perhaps the best of the F1-style dual clutch vehicles at-current. They are still not as pure "fun" as the twitchy six-speed manual on my previous Turbo, but way easier to deal with and vastly higher performance. Yep: PDK and similar from other brands annihilate manuals in shift times with no loss of performance that used to be associated with autos. They call them "automated manuals" at this point, with two modes: full manual, which means shift with the steering paddles, or "auto manual", meaning car does all that. Switch in and out of modes on the fly w/a wrist flick, it's pretty cool.
So, times change. I do like PDK. My Xrunner Tacoma has a manual, which I wouldn't have any other way on that hot rod beast either (nor were automatics an option when they came out in 2005).
I totally agree with all of that. The dual clutch, paddle shifter PDK trannies are much better, more efficient, and can translate the power to the wheels faster, and much better than a human. Meaning, you get better performance out of the vehicle. All that being said, I don't want one. Give me a "real" clutch and gear shift that I must manipulate. Sometimes "better" is not more gratifying. It is a personal choice, I know.
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