Automatic
Manual
Yep. Motor was junk, and so was Chryslers' accessories they strapped to it. Distributor was notorious for going bad, and at $400 just for parts, it sucked. My wife had one. Wanted to drive it off a bridge, but decided not to.
Current results: 17 votes
Automatic: 9
Manual: 8
I have to say that surprises me a bit! I would have thought the ratio on an owners forum would have tilted a bit more towards the manual.
I learned to drive on a 05 aveo stick shift and my first/current car is an 08 aveo automatic. At the time of purchase it never really bothered me what trans it had as long as it went from point A to B :P
But from my experience I would lean towards an automatic just because having a manual is somewhat of a chore it's one extra thing to pay attention to but maybe it's a generational thing. Would make sense to me to have one if I was hauling a load or lived in a mountainous state but ohio is pretty flat like a pancake.
Wow this is interesting, I thought it would be 2 to 1 manual vs auto. I happen to own 2 automatics, but only due to peer/partner pressure. I should point out I have 2 stick shift (non aveos), but nobody I hang around happens to know how to drive a stick. So after years of the hassle of being on trips, and me being the only one that could drive a stick, I gave in and went to automatics for my daily driver/trip car. So convenience won over good economy LOL. I personally prefer a manual any day, but it can be a hassle, as most people generally never learned to love a manual. - As if this is something that is difficult to learn LOL Im sure I am not the only one that taught myself how to drive a manual (on the fly during a test drive no less!) before I was old enough to get my license. Changing times?
Based on the various threads I've read here over the past few years, it feels like there have been roughly about the same number of manual and AT. But that's just an unscientific, gut feel on my part.
Our family has one of each - my manual '05 and my daughter's '06 AT, so no change to the poll from our votes.
Yep, and it's been a gradual but steady change for a long time. When I started driving 50 years ago, the manual tranny ruled the road. A/T had been around for a while, but they generally were only available on luxury autos, and cost fairly big $$. Back then, almost everyone I knew drove a manual.
But over the years the balance has tipped way over to Automatic. When we bought my wife's Kia 4 years ago, there were almost no manual trannys on the lot. Although my daily driver has always been manual, we generally buy A/T for my wife. And that's also usually the long trip vehicle, so I do drive A/T, and don't have a problem with doing that. And in spite of how much I like manual trannys, I have to admit that if someone has to drive a majority of stop-and-go (which I've never had to do), a manual would probably become mighty tedious in a short amount of time.
Although it's become much more solid over the years, it still bugs me that A/T can be affected by electrical issues, in addition to mechanical ones. As an example, a number of recent KIA/Hyundai models have a systemic tranny temp sensor failure (same bad sensor used in all). So if this sensor goes bad in our KIA, I'll have to drain the ATF, pull the valve body cover, replace that stupid sensor, reseal with RTV (no solid gasket available), and refill the ATF. Nothing wrong with the tranny, but lots of work just the same.
But with a manual, if the driver know how to shift and doesn't abuse them, they will generally last the life of the vehicle, as mine have. And no hairball electrical gremlins to mess it up, thank you very much! Well that's certainly been a useless rant, because there's no stopping the march of the A/T. Not too many years from now, a manual will probably need to be special ordered because dealers won't ever stock them on the lot.
No need for any polls once that happens
06T200 (11-04-2015)
I drive a manual and will only ever drive manual. All my cars have been manual, 1971 VW bug, 1974 VW bus, 1976 VW bus, 1969 VW baja bug, 1981 VW Vanagon, 1994 Subaru Impreza, and a 1996 Ford Bronco and soon to be a 1990's Suzuki Sidekick.
Last edited by Merlins_Holden; 11-01-2015 at 11:57 PM.
Mine has a manual, I selected it specifically for that reason. I've had much better luck with a manual in the snow.