Presto123

As long as my left foot works I'll probably never drive an automatic again.

S14 to S2k

00civicsi and ralper,

i'm guessing you guys only want to buy brand new cars? something that's not FWD, manual, and in between econo and luxury does seem like it's hard to find brand new.

only thing i could think of is the genesis coupe. (maybe 2.0 with options and still be around 25k?) i'm glad hyundai is improving and i'm starting to see a lot of genesis' on the road. i never thought this day would come but i can't say i wouldn't buy one just because it's a hyundai lol.

another car i can think of is the new v6 mustang...300+ hp and still gets decent mpg i heard. but i'm not sure if i would still buy a ford..

other than these i can't really think of other mid-class rwds that come in manuals. i would personally go with the wrx though.

orangebarius

integra gs-r
integra type r
rsx type s
civic si

i know a few of these were already stated above, but the gsr and rsx type s werent.

00CivicSi

I'd prefer to buy new, primarily because if I'm going to keep it for 10 years and put 200k+ miles on it, I would prefer to pick the colors/features I want.

Unfortunately, the cars you mentioned are coupes. Having two Civic coupes and the S2000 in the driveway, I can say with certainty that a sedan is in order for its utility. The WRX, while having more doors, isn't really much bigger than a Civic.

Lately, my search has drifted into used cars. It's a shame what Subaru has done with the new Outback, but we did testdrive an '08 Outback 2.5XT with a MT. This particular example wasn't exactly clean, but it seemed to be a decent option. I've also started looking at ~'08 5-series Bimmers. The 'Bangled' 5s have grown on me the last few years and if I could get a clean 535Xi with less than say 40k miles and a MT, I might try one out.

All-in-all, I find the whole thing just frustrating. I've driven economy-class cars (Civic, Corolla, etc.) long enough, but I don't like the direction that the average sedan has gone (getting too big).

It's a dilemma, that's for sure.

ralper

I too want to buy a new car. I tend to keep them a long time and I want to make the choices.

I don't mind front wheel drive in a daily driver, but I want a small, lightweight, nimble, fun to drive car with a manual transmission. I very quickly get bored of boring cars and driving them becomes a chore.

Like I said before, I'm probably going to buy another Si but I am going to look at the Hyundai and Kia. I might also consider a MINI but when I test drove one in 2006 it had terrible throttle lag and I can't stand that.

It's very difficult to find what I want with a manual transmission. I really do like the Si an awful lot, but I wish my choices weren't so limited.

R3DS2K

manual trans used to be better than automatic back in the days of slug boxes. now with the ability to make automatics shift faster than manual have cost less. automatics are the future of almost all cars.
really fast drag cars have built auto that shift faster and the same every time with out drivers error as much compared to manual.

true sports cars as we know it for their manual trans are slowly disappearing and the new age of semi auto and autos are the replacements

badboy00z

Driving manuals will be a lost art in the future. Lol

ralper

In terms of racing you are probably right. In terms of driver involvement and pure enjoyment, there is no substitute for a real manual transmission.

Hopefully there will always be some cars available for those of us who appreciate the fine art of driving a manual transmission.

ralper

Maybe, but I don't think so. I think there will always be some of us who appreciate the fine art of driving a manual transmission.

I for one, in my 40 years of driving, never really learned how to drive an automatic.

badboy00z

When everyone who knows how to drive a manual dies, it would be a lost art.

Most of the kids today will probably never learn how to drive one.

If you put me in a Ferrari or any other car with flappy paddles I wouldn't know how to get it going. Lol