The manual transmission was once the default, with automatics seen as a luxury or convenience option. Eventually, the tide shifted because the great unwashed wanted autos. Manuals are still hanging on in the market, but they’re getting thin on the ground.
Today we’re going to look at the manuals that are still available in the US market, lining them up by the number of gears. Why? Because it’s fun!
Obviously, you’re not going to find three-speed manuals on the market anymore. Furthermore, manuals tend to top out at seven speeds, with eight gears and beyond solely the purview of automatics and DCTs. Also, we’re only looking at old-school three-pedal manuals. None of that fancy automated stuff here, and the less said about CVTs, the better. Let’s dive in.
Five Speeds
There is just one five-speed manual still on sale in the United States. It’s the budget queen that you know and tolerate—the Nissan Versa! It’s been on sale since 2019 and still rocks a five-speed box, namely, the Nissan RS5F91R.
An honorable mention here to the Mitsubishi Mirage. It could still be had with a manual gearbox in 2022, but no longer. Car and Driver‘s stats page says it’s still around, but Mitsubishi’s marketing materials and forum posts indicate it’s long gone. Rumor has it you could still get one in Canada for the 2023 model year. The Subaru Impreza also had a five-speed, but it was dropped for 2024.
Six Speeds
The vast majority of manuals still for sale feature six-speed gearboxes. It’s little surprise, as most are performance models rather than budget options.
Starting with American makes, the Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing and CT5-V Blackwing get six speeds, along with the Chevrolet Camaro. Forget Dodge, though, because they’re not building any manuals for the 2024 model year. Rounding out the big three offerings are the six-speed Ford Mustang, Jeep Gladiator, and Jeep Wrangler for good measure.
Where Asian automakers are concerned, Acura kicks things off with the Integra Type S. You can have a six-speed Honda Civic in certain trims, along with the Civic Si and Type-R. The Hyundai Elantra N also gets a six-speed box, as does the Kia Forte GT. The Mazda 3 and MX-5 Miata both get six-speed boxes, too, as does the Nissan Z. The Subaru BRZ and WRX get six speeds as well. Toyota puts six gears in the GR Corolla, GR86, Supra, and Tacoma as well.
Looking to Germany, the BMW M2, M3, and M4 all get six speeds. The Z4 also gets one, too. Over at Stuttgart, the Porsche 718 is similarly equipped. As for more humble transportation, the Volkswagen Jetta, Golf GTI, and Golf R all get six-speed boxes too.
We’ll also make an honorable mention here to the Subaru Crosstrek, which lost its six-speed box for the 2024 model year.
And what of the Brits? We drove the last stick-shift Lotus ever, the Emira, and it had six glorious gears. Also, don’t forget the Mini Cooper!
Seven Speeds
Seven-speed manuals are considered a bit oddball, namely because they have to over-extend the H-pattern to fit all the gears in. Nevertheless, some automakers have gone down that route regardless.
Most notable was Porsche, which has outfitted the 911 with a seven-speed manual for some time now. It’s a hilarious shifter, but it’s not hurting sales any.
The other surprising inclusion here is the Ford Bronco. Some call it a “6+1” transmission, with six regular speeds and a “crawler” gear. In reality, it’s got seven forward speeds so we’re calling it a seven-speed manual.
Concentration
Most automakers have always converged to similar gearbox options in any given era. Today’s market is actually pretty diverse for transmission options, it’s just that options are limited when it comes to manuals.
There aren’t a great many manuals on sale today, but there are plenty of good ones. If you’ve been eyeing off any of the cars on this list, perhaps it’s time to head out and take a test drive. Vote with your dollars to show the automakers we’re not done with the manual gearbox just yet!
Image credits: Porsche, Nissan, Lewin Day, Ford, Hyundai, Cadillac
I think a Jeep Gladiator with a stick sounds pretty awesome.
I don’t know if examples are on any showroom floors, but you can order a BMW Z4 with a 6 speed manual finally.
Updated – good call. 2025 model year it seems like.
I have daily driven a 3-speed column shift (3 in the tree), two 4-speeds (4 on the floor), two 5-speeds, and three 6-speeds. 5 is the sweet spot.
When briefly working at a car dealer (Chevrolet-Mazda), part of my job was driving the stick-shift trade-ins. I drove all the ones you mentioned, plus three-on-the-floor old trucks, and agree with the five-speed choice. Also, I learned to drive in Argentina on a “four-speed on the tree” Peugeot 404.
Not only was it unusual, but the pattern was also strange: 1st down, pulling the lever toward you, 2nd in the middle and up, 3rd middle and down, and 4th away from you and up. The Reverse was toward you and up, just on top of first, so you had to be careful—especially on worn-out cars—when upshifting from first.
Dogleg 4 on the tree – when you need to rally but need seating for 6.
Curious why you prefer a 5 speed to 6-I’ve DD’ed a 1+3 Chevy Blazer, and have owned a number of 5 speeds and most of the 5 speed cars have been geared pretty short and at 75 mph on the freeway it’s always felt like damn I wish I had one more gear to drop this from 3,000 rpm to say 2,200 to save some gas and be a tad quieter. But I”ve also never owned one, do they just seem too busy?
I guess I was mostly driving the 5-speeds around town because I didn’t have a freeway commute at the time. It was mostly hauling the kids around and back and forth to the office. Once I started driving 6-speeds it took me a bit to remember I had that top gear for the highway!
I thought the Golf R’s last manual transmission year was 2023. Did they extend it or do they just have a few unsold ones around?
2024 Golf Rs and GTIs are still available in stick and they’re doing a few limited edition packages for manual cars to part fools from their money. 2025 will be all DSG, which *looks over shoulder, whispers softly* is the better choice in the performance Golfs anyway. If you want to row your own you’d be much better served by an SI or CTR.
Honda manuals > pretty much everything short of Porsche. The GR Corolla is out there too and if you’re patient/willing to put up with a crappy interior can be had for well equipped GTI money. I think the one place the spicy Golfs excel is refinement. After all, MQB has to scale up to luxury cars.
I test drove a Honda Civic Sport hatchback and a Volkswagen Jetta Sport sedan (both with 6-speed manual transmissions) and I found that the Jetta’s manual was easier to modulate between the gears than the Civic’s. Volkswagen plans to phase out all of their manual transmission vehicles by 2030 so now is the time to get one.
Did Mini stop selling manuals?
Yes. They just introduced a new iteration of the Mini (Cooper/S/etc…) and they no longer offer the manual. Countryman is in the same situation. I think the Clubman just went out of production with no replacement.
Looks like they updated the article to include Mini under the Brits.
The hardtop still offers a stick.
Interesting. Going to the Mini USA website shows the current models that so still offer a stick. They’re tagged as 2024. But when I look at NetCarShow, the 2024 Mini range are the updated ones. Maybe we don’t get those until 2025 model year.
https://www.netcarshow.com/mini/
The GR86 should have a 7 speed as the gearing is pretty short. The rations are nicely spaced, so I wouldn’t want a dramatically taller 6th and raising the FD would slow it down too much (I have taller tires for snow and even the ~6.5% increase in gearing noticeably blunts acceleration). It’s especially weird because my old FWD Legacy had a 5-speed, about the same weight, worse aero, 100 less hp, and 50 less lbs./ft, but I always felt the taller gearing was perfect (I got low 16s in the 1/4 mile with it, which was damn good for the time and a lot better than the AWD versions) with 5th running 27mph/1000 rpm vs the GR86’s 6th being about 23/1k (the same as 5th in my ’83 GL with 1/3 the hp and 1/2 the torque). The Legacy could also smoothly pull from lower rpm than the ’86. The respective dyno charts don’t seem to reflect this, either, as it’s not like the EJ22 had a modern turbo torque curve and FWD vs RWD drivetrain losses aren’t going to eat that much difference. Perhaps it was the much better throttle response of the cable vs the GR’s e-throttle that made it feel so much more tractable and eager, but the e-throttle is programmed to open the throttle as if it had 2/3 the pedal travel, so I would think it would feel even more eager. IDK, but add this kind of comparison and speculation to the list of reasons I prefer manuals. When I have to give them up, I want straight EV, then—no BS hunting autos, terrible CVTs, or DCTs that will only make me miss the real thing more.
For people who question why we love stick shifts, I read something interesting over the weekend in a psychology book. It notes that when we learn to drive a car, we expand the perception of our personal existence to include the dimensions of the car. This is how we can drive down the center of a lane, while we, as drivers, are situated off-center.
I propose that when one drives a manual transmission, your sense of self is expanded to the engine, and for me, the suspension and other mechanicals in the car. I am aware-of and become part of the automobile total experience.
This is also how I could drop off my car to my mechanic, tell him three things that are wrong, and he finds three broken components. It’s hard to drive a broken car when it is such a personal experience.
THIS! This is why I love my older cars—that sense of connection that I haven’t found in newer stuff. It wasn’t just road feel or whatever, it was as if the car was an extension of myself. Unfortunately, when you no longer have that, everything less is disappointing.
Makes sense to me!
If Cars.com is to be believed, there are 139 stickshift Versas for sale nationwide. I’m not sure *every* dealer lists their inventory on that site, so let’s call it 250, or 5 in each state. Get ’em while you can. If they still sold a hatchback version, I’d already be driving one.
No surprise there. Most of the Nissan dealers in my area that have manual transmission equipped Versas in their inventory are special orders and Nissan has been keeping the inventory artificially low. The Versa is scheduled to be discontinued in 2025 as Nissan plans to replace it with an all electric sedan.
Get them while they last because they’re going,going fast!
In 2013 or 2014, at age about 77, my mother traded in her Toyota Corolla All Trac Wagon for a Honda Civic. Sad we lost that Corolla! She didn’t want to get the Civic in automatic because “it is too complicated and I’m too old to learn something new”. We got a remaindered white Civic DX that the dealer couldn’t sell. She drove that until she was about 82 or so. She passed away 2 years ago. Now I have that base model Civic with less than 20,000 miles on it. Power windows but not power locks. No AC. But a silky five speed. My 1996 Miata is going to be turned over to my niece for the summer so my brother can teach her to drive a manual.
You don’t need the Type-S Integra to get the manual. It’s available in the A-Spec trim also.
Dear God why are the details buried in paragraphs and not an easy to parse list format.
Because this isn’t Buzzfeed.
Do you want slideshows? Because that’s how you get slideshows!
It is indeed a bit of a formatting fail.
Good question!
I write for the reader who wants to parse an article over a coffee. I could have bullet pointed a list in which is better for scanning for information, but less pleasurable. It also leaves no opportunity for adding context.
Basically, I try to avoid Buzzfeed-style listicles wherever possible. But I do grant that it’s not the most effective for quick answers.
Fwiw, I like it better this way and appreciate the hell out of this on Autopian. I like reading things I’m reading, not figuring out how not to get the things I’m trying to read to stop autoscrolling or having data laid out for maximally efficient ingestion.
It’s like the manual version of an internet article – the satisfaction’s in the doing.
Appreciate you sharing the thought process. I personally find it harder to process information like that. Perhaps because I read Autopian at work and trying to take a break from figuring out what people are asking for in their multi paragraph emails lol
Also, it’s amusing that the spell checker for the comment’s flags Autopian as an incorrect spelling.
Blackwing is the only result anyone should care about. Sure you could buy a Nissan or some dumb truck, but…
What a sad state of affairs.
Help me Autopian commentariat! I want a big, comfortable sedan with a manual gearbox and lots of torque. I want it to be 1996 or newer. Is e39 my only option? It’s getting very difficult to find one without 200k+ on the clock. I briefly thought the answer might be Acura TL, but it seems the manual-equipped cars are at the center of a sport based on cutting the springs and slamming them into stationary objects. Besides, life is too short for transverse V engines.
GTO
Not a sedan, but maybe also not a dealbreaker. The real problem is it’s unobtainium.
Pontiac G8 GXP or Chevy SS.
I think manuals were rare. The troglodyte in me thinks all GMs should have Corvette engines, all Fords should have 5.0s
And here we have 3 different skins on the same unobtanium car.
Saab 9-5 aero?
I had forgotten about those, good catch.
Once upon a time I really wanted a 9000 Aero. That interior gets me. I’m sure there are some good ones out there still, but I also think the time that good ones change hands on the open market is over.
If the OP considers the TL to be full sized, then the Saab 9-3 could enter the conversation. Available with a 6 speed in both Linear and Aero trims, but the Aero is the one to get.
The TL is at the smaller end of what I’m looking for, but I think it’s still got a few inches on a 9-3 in every dimension. About 500 pounds too, and in this particular case, that’s a good thing.
The E39 is classed as a midsize with good reason.
2018-21 or 22 Honda Accord Sport 2.0T. Way faster than they need to be. And boatloads of room.
BMW E60 535I, 545I, 550I (gonna go out on a limb and say they are unreliable)
Chevy SS (admittedly hard to find).
Buick Regal GS (roomier than you’d think).
Caddy CTS-V (no roomier than an E39, IIRC)
After that, you’re sucking it up and buying an automatic, or doing a swap.
I am a manual transmission fan that went automatic because of the paucity of good options that fit my family. But I regret not getting an Accord Sport.
I think truly full size cars with manual gearboxes are truly extinct, even delving deep into the used market. There is one exceptionally good condition ’00 740iL listed that might be worth the effort of a swap, but I personally don’t value the stretched wheelbase of the limo model.
I’d consider the V6 Accord, but the tubo-4 doesn’t do it for me. Probably because in my book “lots of torque” really means lots of torque available under 3000 RPM, within 500 ms after opening the throttle. Also, probably not a good reason, but the Accord puts me off for the same reasons a Camry does. It’s just so… ordinary.
I need to check out the Regal GS, that one flew under my radar. Thanks!
https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a15078684/2018-honda-accord-sport-20t-manual-test-review/
From the review:
“The turbo engine’s rush of torque between 1500 and 4000 rpm gives the driver the impression that the new car is quicker than its measurements, but all that output will light up the front tires in first gear.”
The accord may be an ordinary family car to some, but it is one with a stick and usable power. And more is only a tune away…
I really need to be looking at these, if only because having one extends the time window I can have a manual daily into the future by decades as compared to a Clinton or Bush era German car.
I remain skeptical that the torque delivery will be what I want, though.
1996 Impala SS Manual Swap for the win.
https://threepedals.com/impala-manual-transmission-conversion-faqs/
If you’re still looking at TLs, the 07-08 Type S or the next gen SH-AWD models (if you don’t mind a lil ugly) can still be found clean and with a stick. Here’s a 2010: https://www.truecar.com/used-cars-for-sale/listing/19UUA9E59AA000860/
I think the Infiniti G37 and also came with a stick too
Dat beak, doe…
It’s crossed my mind that I should suck it up and buy a beak-era Acura. I don’t have to look at it from the driver’s seat… happen to know if that torque vectoring system is a high-mileage liability? I expect there are lots of friction clutches in there.
Should probably look at the Infiniti’s… In the past they always just seemed to age so poorly. May have more to do with the owners than the cars.
They really did mess up the looks that gen, but the refresh in 2012 does fix it some if one pops up! I believe the only issues this gen suffered from was the v6s were known for burning oil, and power steering failure. The diff fluids need to be changed every few years or whenever the maintenance minder tells you too but otherwise I personally haven’t heard of any issues with the AWD system.
Definitely give Infiniti a try if you can find one near; it may be the funner car. Plus all the hooners with the autos probably kept the price down
I would focus on the 2004-2008 3rd Gen TLs with the 6 speeds.
Focus on getting the nicest, newest one you can.
I’ve put 60k miles on a (125k -> 185k) on an 06 TL 6MT, and it’s been a joy to drive, and doesn’t have the beak.
There was a point a while back I “made up my mind” to do exactly that, but I gave up wading through roached out TLs. I suspect the only clean ones going on the market now will be doing so due to the owner’s death.
G35/37 sedans with a manual are hard to find, but do exist. Less likely some clown has roached it out with cheap mods too.
as an e39 owner, I am not aware of anything else that truly compares. I still get offers for it at gas stations. At this point, I am driving it until it dies. saw141414 on the way to work this morning.
Volvo s60 too small for you? It meets the comfortable stick criteria in spades.
Would likely be OK… but I’ve never seen one.
Not even never seen one for sale. Just never seen one with a stick anywhere.
My Volvo mechanic has sold nearly a dozen of them over the years. They are out there. The reason I hedge is that rear seat legroom sucks in the S60. If you don’t need that, everything else is great. 2003-2009 is the model year range to search.
Ah, you said “S60”, but my brain went to “V60”. S60s are around but always seem to be beat. A good clean one would maybe be OK, but going down to that size class opens up other possibilities.
Cadillac CTS-V series. Stock 400 torque & hp. Reliable and a little more roomy than the E39. Find a nice one for around 20K
This is the dream, but I’ve only ever seen one listed, and for almost double that price.
These I haven’t looked at them for quite a while. You are right you cant even find one now and if you can they’re in the $20s.
If the current gen WRX wasnt butt ugly Id be getting one with a stick, It would be my 4th Subie stickshift in my lifetime (2 WRX 1 Sti and a Forrester). Im looking to get a more practical car from my current and I always like to have one manual and one auto in the garage.
“Some call it a “6+1” transmission, with six regular speeds and a “crawler” gear. In reality, it’s got seven forward speeds so we’re calling it a seven-speed manual.”
So I actually take a big issue with this, it drives me nuts when people try to throw away the distinction between a road gear and a granny gear, which is a real and practical distinction.
1st gear is the gear you first put it in when you go to accelerate normally when the light turns green. 1st is NOT the lowest forward gear. You can have forward gears lower than 1st, and they’re called granny gears, or deep reduction, or low range, or whatever.
So there are seven forward gear ratios in the Bronco transmission(not counting the lower gears available in the transfer case), but there are only six speeds that you will ever use in normal driving. Hence “six speed, plus a granny gear.” If you count all possible forward ratios, including the transfer case, it’s more like ten different forward ratios. But you aren’t calling it a 10spd, because you’d never use those four super low ratios during normal driving.
It’s the same as my Jeep J10, which has three gears you normally use plus a granny gear, not counting the lower ratios available in low range.
You wouldn’t say the Wrangler and Gladiator have 8 speed manuals, even though, through the use of low range, they have two more gears lower than 1st.
It’s a 14-speed. Bronco is the WINNER!!!!
That’s true, I was just counting useful and sequential gear ratios, but there are 14 unique ratios.
You could say, “this grinds my gears.”
I hear ya. The NP435 in my 2WD F-250 is really a 3 speed with a low gear. I do use low on the street occasionally when stopped on a steep hill or in tight parking lots. Otherwise it’s only for crawling around the field.
The shifter ball had no pattern but I found one at a flea market that has L 1 2 3 R in the right pattern that fit.
It’s really nice in parking lots.
Shifter has seven, I write seven! At least until NIST defines an exact ratio that “doesn’t count” as a real gear.
I mean the shifter has eight gears on it actually. But you only use six going down the road normally. Why do you draw the line at seven?
And why does an Australian need a definition from the US NIST? But there is no gear ratio that makes it a granny gear or not, it depends massively on the weight, rear gearing, and power characteristics of the vehicle in question. It’s a practical application distinction, not a quantitative “doesn’t count as a gear if it’s shorter than this”.
The seeds of the destruction of my gold-star level history of exclusive manual transmission car ownership started on the day of the 2017 total solar eclipse. The combination of a manual transmission and 9 hours of stop and go traffic returning to Chicago from southern Illinois permanently negatively affected my left sciatic nerve.
Getting old can kind of suck… but I bought an EV… so I skipped right over automatic transmissions and went right to no transmission.
Well they still have a transmission, but it’s just a gear reduction and differential, without multiple gear ratios.
It is a transmission, it just isn’t automatic or manual. It just transmits. Very zen.
It is very zen! Being in stop and go traffic in an EV isn’t even stressful. It’s wild how calm inching forward can be when you don’t have to deal with a clutch or surges in 1st gear in an auto juust barely switching to 2nd only to slow down again.
One pedal driving mode in my Bolt has transformed my relationship with Chicago traffic.
I agree, it was a pretty profound experience that was not expected at all and hard to explain to those who haven’t experienced it.
The lack of vibrations at idle also probably helps reduce fatigue as well.
Hot take: EVs also have manual transmissions – you do have to manually select every gear change….
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the reduction gear permanently engaged in most EVs? Your only selection is whether the motor turns clockwise or counter-clockwise.
The Porsche Taycan (and the etron GT?) actually do have a 2 speed transmission. I’m not sure if it works like a conventional automatic but it definitely isn’t a manual.
Let’s face it, America’s been getting more shiftless every year.
It’s a clutch move by these manufacturers to keep making manuals for those row yer own stalwarts.
The stick-to-itiveness of some buyers is impressive.
From malaise to just plain lazy?
These sorts of things tend to happen sequentially, you know?
Americans are lazy and also like to eat a lot. It’s harder (though not impossible) to eat a Big Mac while driving stick.
How am I gonna dick around with the radio if I have to drive stick??
All 4 of my vehicles are manual so I guess I am helping keep them alive although they are far from new so maybe not. I have 2 six speeds and 2 five speeds.
When driving one of the 5-speeds, do you habitually go for that phantom 6th gear?
It hasn’t happened yet, but I have clutched in, pulled it out of fifth and then gone “Hol’ up”. Luckily I mainly drive the 6 speeds in town so I rarely go to 6th. And both of the 6 speeds are Miatas so that helps me keep track of it. When one of the Miatas had a 5 speed and the other had a 6 that was more confusing.
I recently sold a 6 speed manual, and only have my 5 speed left as a shift your own. I constantly think I have another gear to go.
That’s ok, when I drive my wife’s van I go for a shift lever that isn’t there. I also sometimes go for a clutch when starting.
I do that as well, minus the clutch since I have all my clutch safety switches bypassed
“I have all my clutch safety switches bypassed”
For the love of God, why?
Clutch when starting is one thing (I do that too); clutch when wanting to gradually decelerate in the left lane at extralegal highway speeds, and finding the brake pedal instead because the toebox is so narrow, is another
Well, technically you do have one more gear to go, but the results while at speed won’t be pleasant…
tldr; 5 speeds for engines with good torque, 6 speeds for small engines.
A good balance is 5 speeds manual if the engine has good torque where you can push the engine from low rpm with no issues. 6 speeds manual is good for compact cars with short gearing, my old Nissan Versa had 6 speeds and it was perfect for the small engine. 5 speeds on my Honda Insight is so painful, I don’t even use 5th gear unless I am going flat behind a big truck or downhill. 5 speeds on my Ford Ranger is also good, I can even start on second gear.
Replace “good torque” with “wide powerband”.
My f150 with 300ci is very torquey but has a very narrow happy rpm range and barely gets away with just 5 gears. Semi trucks have outstanding torque but an extremely narrow powerband, and little power compared to their weight, and use 10-18 gears normally.
Compare to my Accord which has decent torque but a very wide powerband, and if I want, I can comfortably drive it around using only 2nd and 5th gears. 5 closely spaced gears is honestly overkill for that car.
GM LS-powered cars have great torque, and a 6 speed manual. The 6th gear is a .50 overdrive gear, which is why one can get 30+ mpg highway with one.
I have a Camaro SS with a 6mt. There is no way on this earth it gets 30 mpg unless I were to lodge my front bumper into that of a tractor trailer and drive 55 mph the whole way.
I can get 25 mpg if I go slowly, and work very hard at preserving momentum, but it’s a miserable way to drive. It usually gets about 22mpg on the freeway if I’m driving a a rapid pace.
Maybe a Corvette can get 30, but those have a seven speed and better aero in the later years.
I got a little over 27 in my M6 ’98 Formula on the one road trip I bothered to check the eco. I also had a ’00 A4 Formula that got around 22 pretty consistently.
Corvette is exactly right; a friend had a C5 M6 and could get 30 on road trips. Meanwhile our friend with a A4 Firehawk with 4.10 gears got about 16.
I love my 10th gen Civic Si. FK8 next, if they are cheap enough.
I saw an FL5 this weekend. They really are nice looking. Some folks are grumpy that they’re so understated but I think they look great, and WAY better than the FK8, which Clarkson aptly called “the car they wouldn’t stop designing”. I feel like as a professional in my 30s and soon to be dad I’d look silly in an FK8, but no one would bat an eye at an FL5 in the work parking lot.
They’re even slowly but surely coming down to earth price wise. Lightly used ones are selling for about original MSRP, and while some local dealerships have new ones listed at MSRP I doubt they’ll sell you one at that price.
I’d love to go test drive one but I think I’d leave with it if I did and a new car is decidedly not in the cards financially right now. But in a few years? Itll be on my list for sure…and while I originally opined the huge price hikes, at MSRP it’s a pretty good deal compared to the rest of the market. You’re looking at paying about 60k or more for similarly practical stuff that can outperform it.
I picked one up at MSRP on leap day. The key was the dealer had been sitting on it most of the winter (NE Ohio) and they had just received another one. I don’t know how reproduceable that situation is, but it can be done.
By the time I’m shopping again they may be on to the next generation, but we’ll see. I’d also prefer an automatic for daily driving in DC but I’m willing to suck up rush hour hell in a manual if the car is special enough, which the FL5 is.
I’d rock a blue FL5 all day, they give off great 997 911 GT3 vibes. I really want a convertible for my next car though so I might have to wait.
Yeah that electric blue is an excellent color and is probably what I’d go for as well
I have the opposite view, I much prefer the Gen10 over the Gen11. The 11’s look so generic, like someone melted the styling over the nose – devoid of character to my eye.
We’ve a few FK7s on my street; every one of them a dad with school-age kids.
You’re entitled to your opinion, but the Tooner look just isn’t my style.
Having driven 3, 4, 5, and 6 speed manuals, as well as 4+1 and 4+2 electric overdrives, I can state categorically that a 5 speed manual is the correct number for a street car. 4 for driving, 1 for highway cruising. Anything more results in extraneous shifting.
Agreed. 5 is best. I find myself wanting an overdrive gear in my 4-speed and tend to skip gears in my 6-speed.
Addendum: IF I were lucky enough to have an overdrive in my 4-speed, then that OD would be active in both 3rd and 4th (if it’s working properly) and the car would technically be a 6-speed. If the lockout switch is broken, it would be a 8-speed!
My Austin Healey has electric OD in 3rd and 4th. You can use 3OD but you don’t.
Right, but you could…
In a TR3, you can use electric overdrive in all 4 forward gears! But you don’t.
I’m inclined to agree. I’ve only driven 5 and 6 speeds but the 5 just felt right. Maybe if you’re cruising on the Autobahn or something a 6 speed would make sense but for American roads that you’ll rarely exceed 80 on 5 is perfect.
I drove a ’97 Trans Am across west Texas, and 6th gear let me cruise at 80+mph with the engine just barely clicking over at 2k. And I got nearly 30mpg with the AC on! Six speeds forever!
Reminds me of the (related?) contention for most uses, 17 inch wheels are about the perfect size.
The wheel wars are getting absurd. There are very few applications that you could ever need more than 18 inches for…and saddling vehicles with bigger wheels/less sidewall from the factory is not only impractical but also wasteful.
My Kona N has 19s and they’re ridiculous. DC potholes have caused bubbles in one of the factory P Zeros and the OEM size Eagle Exhilarates I currently have on the car. I’m fortunate that I haven’t lost a rim and I’ve already had to do an alignment 18 months into owning the car.
It gets worse too, pretty much all German luxury cars can be equipped with 20s, 21s, or even 22s from the factory. In any practical application all you’re doing is making your ride worse and sacrificing expensive tires pretty much every 6 months. It’s so dumb and wasteful.
It’s always interesting to me that the casual buyer seems to like the big wheels when they’re buying the car, but then not so much when it comes time to replace them – I see a lot of tire brands I’ve never heard of on the bigger wheels as the car hits its second/third owner.
But, but, but BIG WHEELS. — Adrian
Dang, you’re lucky. The only 5spd car I have that can comfortably do all speeds from 5mph-80mph is my Cherokee. My 5sps Honda is at like 3700rpm at 80mph and could use another gear. My 5spd f150 couldn’t cruise faster than 65 until I regeared it, and now 1st and reverse are taller than I like, because what it really needs is a wider spread with more gears.
Five speeds with that wide of a gear spread do not exist, or make sense, on all cars. There are definitely cars that would like more than five gears, even without Autobahns.
When I’m just cruising, I like having 6th gear. Yes, 1-5 come with their own brand of fun, but highway speeds at 2000 to 4000 rpm are nice sometimes. Makes up for the rest of the time I spend flogging the I6, getting it to gulp fuel like a V8. Same on the bike: at that point, I’m not there for throttle response, I’m there for a gear I might not have to change for a 100 miles.
My Toyota economy car with a 5-speed runs above 3k rpm at 70mph. The speed limit is 70; by the time I go 75mph we’re buzzing at 3500 rpm. A 6th gear would be awesome if it would let me cruise on the highway at a lower engine speed.
Or just wider gear spacing. The little engine doesn’t make much power but it has a wide powerband. I want either a 6-speed or a taller 5th gear.
I love my 5-speed BMW.
i-6 is happy doing 3500 rpm for days. I kinda wish I had one iwth the 6 speed, but have to admit nothing wrong with the 5 speed varient
For most cars with decent power and a fairly wide powerband, 5 might be the right number. If you’re in a heavy truck, it becomes immediately apparent why they have 10-18 gears. For anything with a narrow powerband and little horsepower relative to its weight(this describes most of my cars), you need as many gears as you can get.
When I had a Maxima with a big V6 and a six-speed, I generally shifted 1-2-4-6.
Or you have a six-speed and pretend 5th doesn’t exist (which is pretty much what I do with my Fiesta ST – skipping from 4th to 6th or 6th to 4th is my ordinary manner of driving)
Cylinders, gears, or sodas: five is the right number.
5 cylinders (or any odd number) has just never seemed right to me – no balance. I can’t express an opinion on odd soda counts but I would agree that 5 craft beers or bourbon shots would be perfectly reasonable.
Well, 7 speed manuals don’t look to much fun. Those slots would be tight. But then, 10, 13, 15, and 18 speed transmission style shift patterns are too complicated for most car drivers to enjoy.
The Bronco’s is simpler than Porsche. The Crawler gear is in the lockout section with Reverse: Up for R, Back for C (Which still feels a little illogical, sometimes). It’s only ever useful (but very much so) while off-road or stuck in traffic.
Ehh, dogleg shift patterns are really normal and almost every heavy truck has 1st(or the lowest granny gear) left and down, with reverse left and up right above it.
So really the only two pickups with an MT are the Gladiator and the Tacoma? That blows my mind!