Car Finance / The Advantages of Buying a Manual-Transmission Vehicle
Keep Your Left Foot Busy, Save a Few BucksWhen I was in high school, driving a stick-shift car was a badge of honor. But now, my friends wonder how I've made it this far without a car that does the work for me. Automatics are now the norm, and the manual transmission seems headed toward extinction. But here are a few practical reasons why stick-shift cars might deserve a second look.
Less Expensive
Cars with manual transmission will appeal to budget-conscious shoppers, because it costs an average of $800-$1,000 to upgrade to an automatic transmission. On the higher end, buyers interested in a Saturn Astra will have to pay an additional $1,325 to drive an automatic.
Also, the maintenance of a manual transmission offers some savings. According to Marc Uchiyama, assistant service manager at Honda of Santa Monica, the fluid for a manual transmission needs less frequent changes than on an automatic. And if a manual transmission ever breaks down, it's usually because the clutch needs to be replaced, a $1,200-$1,500 repair. Compare this to the $3,000 it costs to replace an automatic transmission and the savings is apparent.
Using a recent national gas price average of $4.10 per gallon, passing up an automatic could buy you about 195-244 gallons of gas. Put another way, if you bought a manual-transmission Nissan Versa over an automatic model, the savings would be enough to pay for six months of gas at that price.
Better Fuel Economy?
In the past, most manuals offered about a 5 percent improvement in fuel economy, the byproduct of the direct-drive transmission. But looking at current EPA estimates, it now appears that the numbers seem to be a wash. Why? While an automatic version of a car has a fuel economy advantage in the city, the manual version has the advantage on the highway. When the numbers are combined, they average out to be the same miles per gallon. But as the saying goes, the truth lies within. A person's method of shifting gears can significantly alter their fuel economy.
"Keeping the engine rpm low keeps [fuel] consumption low," said Dan Edmunds, director of vehicle testing at Edmunds.com. "Some folks will put the car in Neutral and coast up to a traffic signal to drop rpm as early as possible — a watered-down version of hybrid stop/start, if you will. Drivers of automatics will not do that because the whole point of an automatic is to simply slap it in 'D' and go about your business."
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Inexpensive portable navigation systems and even cheaper smartphone nav applications are making the pricey in-dash systems offered by automakers less attractive to many consumers. But some people prefer in-dash systems because of their larger screens and because they offer more features. Plus, you never have to worry about forgetting an in-dash system at home. Finally, prices for in-dash systems are starting to drop.
Bluetooth is a wireless technology that allows two compatible devices to communicate. In the car, it lets you operate a mobile phone "hands-free," meaning you don't have to hold the device while making or taking a call or performing such functions as accessing the phone's address book. (Of course, you have to use your hands to operate certain Bluetooth features via the vehicle's controls.)
Automotive sound systems are more complex now that portable media players, hard-disk drives and smartphones are along for the ride. But the basic radio/speaker setup hasn't drastically changed, even though more speakers and more amplifier power have been added over the years.
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