Cape Blue

Get a 5+ Lt auto SUV - when in Rome...

joylove

Poppy girl

No brainer a automatic
The only time I miss a stick shift is when I am in San Fran and would like to hold the clutch maybe its just me!!

joylove

This is what I was worried about. 25MPH limits on arrow straight roads through the most amazing scenery. (obviously not in areas where there are pedestrians.) Phew, I was about to cancel my ticket.

md95065

Actually that's probably the one time that you really shouldn't do it ...

I did once burn quite a lot of clutch parallel parking in a very small space on a fairly steep hill in San Francisco (something which now try to avoid) but even so I have never had to replace a clutch on any of the four vehicles (all stick shifts) that I have owned in the last 25 years (one of which had over 200,000 miles on it when I finally got rid of it) .

Since the OP is looking to buy a used vehicle the "lower resale value " of a stick should initially work in his favour...

md95065

... but, in this case, "Rome" is San Jose, CA so the answer would be a Prius ...

Poppy girl

Prius not in this lifetime lol

Mr Weeze

I live in Houston, and commute on a straight freeway. I have a manual and I am so glad I went for one. I heard the same thing from lots of people about changing gear all the time but I don't notice it or get tired of it, even when I take my back up 20 mile road with lights every half mile.

I bought a used 2006 mazdaspeed6 (Mazda mps in the UK) and it was a bargain, maybe because it's manual. Ok, resale may be a bit lower but I paid less in the first place.

I've also had Audis with the DSG box and I was happy with those too, and they do have a fully auto option. I just never used them.

joylove

It's something I'd considered and BMW and SAAB have a clutchless manual (SMG) but they have a thumping great hydraulic pump for shoving the clutch and gears around, and it breaks at $800 ish just for the parts.

rbackhouse

My 2 cents/pence

Resale is only a potential issue if the car does not normally have a manual gear box.

I own a Golf GTI and Honda S2000. The manual gearbox GTI is as easy to sell as the DSG version. The S2000 never had an automatic option

Poppy girl

Its hard to sell a stick shift I had a VW Jetta 5 years ago no one would sniff at it being a manual, took forever to sell....that's why they are cheap the yanks have no idea how to drive one lol

md95065

Yes, it does depend on the vehicle - since the only cars that I have ever owned in the US have all been 2 seater sports cars it doesn't tend to be much of an issue for me - in addition to which, I tend to keep them for a long time and drive them into the ground which means that I really don't care about resale value.

Poppy girl

I am tempted to buy the new MG when I go back to the US but as you say, and I agree, a sports car has to be driven and an automatic does not really hit the spot.

joylove

There is MG in the USA? You mean the MG6?

How about a Jaguar F Type instead, should be out next month (if you have the dough )

penguinsix

Yes, I would agree too that driving up in those places would be kind of 'fun', but I was just thinking more along the lines of the 'drudgery' of the daily grind with a stick shift. Would be a bit frustrating stop and go, stop and go if the majority of his drive time was in commuter/suburb land.

Maybe he should get two cars?