Here’s a question: If you take a boring car — like, say, a 2005 Saturn Vue or a 2010 Ford Escape — and you add a five-speed manual transmission, is that still a boring car, or is it now legitimately cool? In my opinion: It’s now legitimately cool. Hear me out.
Back in April of last year, I wrote “I Can’t Stop Obsessing Over These Two Manual Ford SUVs: Which Is The Better Buy?” One of the vehicles I was obsessing over was, somehow, a Mazda Tribute:
But this wasn’t just any Tribute, because behold:
That’s right. It’s a Mazda G5M-R five-speed stickshift bolted to the unkillable MZR engine! The tan interior, the stout powertrain, and that stick — it turned an otherwise boring machine into something cool!
I feel similarly about my diesel, manual Chrysler Voyager. Am I remotely interested in second-gen Chrysler minivans? Not really (I’m a first-gen fan). But you throw a stickshift in there (along with a diesel), and now it’s a seriously a cool machine:
What about this second-gen Ford Explorer. Kinda boring, right?
But oh wait, we’ve got a Mazda M5OD!
What about this Ford Aerostar that was the inspiration for this article? Folks on Facebook are going crazy over it right now.
Surely they wouldn’t care if it were just an automatic Aerostar:
But behold; the M5OD makes yet another appearance!
How cool!
What do we think about this Mazda5 minivan?
I think it’s fine. Not really all that interesting to me, except!:
A five-speed minivan! That’s legit!
I think PT Cruisers look cool in their own way, but would I ever buy an automatic model? Never, ever. In fact, with an auto, I don’t find it remotely intriguing. But slap a stick in it:
I’d totally roll in a five-speed PT Cruiser!
To me, a stickshift can make the difference between cool and wack. It’s partly because on many cars, the stick removes what can be a major/expensive failure mode, and in part because it makes the vehicle more engaging to drive. What do you think?
Photos: Craigslist
There is a difference between something being made cool vs. cool-er…
None of those cars are cool because of the manual, they are just slightly cooler.
This discussion seems to be revolving around Detroit 3 vehicles. Were the older automatics really that horrid or are we looking at everything through an enthusiast lens?
Kinda, though it depended on the model. I did find the first-gen Focus to be nearly undriveable with an auto but a delightful scamp with a manual. Generally if you had under 200hp you didn’t want to touch an auto up until pretty recently.
My teenage best friend’s parents had a 5MT Aerostar and a 5MT Probe GT.
The 5 speed in the Aerostar had absolutely no trouble lighting the rear tires on fire. It took an otherwise boring van into something much more interesting to drive.
The Probe on the other hand was downright scary fast (for the time)
My IS300 5-speed was the jewel of my eye. It was slow as all hell, but man was it fun.
DT: “we need to increase post engagement. Deploy emergency article.”
(well, I mean, I guess it worked if I’m commenting?)
I drove a 4-speed (auto only) ’97 Econoline-150 conversion van for 7 years, and now I drive a 2012 Prius v.
I wished the van had a couple more gears, or else I wish everything (that needed a transmission) had an eCVT or similar. I love this thing. Never drove a manual and I don’t feel a particular draw to it, so a lot of car culture for me has been a sort of “I guess I can respect it, but it’s not for me”
You’re running the wrong website if you are expecting a lot of disagreement on this one I think David. Personally I couldn’t agree more, but sadly almost no “regular/boring” cars were made with manuals in the 20teens and now we are in the 20s they are good as extinct. Which means in another 10 years they will all be Uber rare holy grails.
My first minivan was also my favorite: a 1989 Voyager, 2.4L with a five-speed stick. (We selected the stick option when ordering the van to save the extra few hundred bucks it took to get an automatic.) 249,000 miles without a major problem.
Not one of our several subsequent practi-boxes — all automatics — has come close.
Manuals are cool because once you learn how to use the clutch and gearshift you can drive any car in the world. Knowledge is power. Picture this – the sexiest person you have ever seen comes up to you at the bar and hands you the keys to their 911 to drive back to their place and you can’t because you never learned to drive stick!
PERHAPS. This assumes that there isn’t anything infuriating about the implementation of the stick or that the car isn’t a Nissan Altima.
As this is mainly the domain of car enthusiasts, I expect most will say “yes”. I’ll say it depends on the car. A slushbox automatic is perfect in a luxury yacht because of the smoothness. A twin-clutch automatic is perfect in a supercar for the quick and precise shifts. A manual works in places where you don’t need to shift fast and want an easily repairable transmission, like vintage muscle cars and pickup trucks.
Grandpa was a WWII veteran and taught my dad to double-clutch (synchronized manuals weren’t a thing until the 60s) and drove Jeeps during the war and VW Beetles after it. My grandfather told my dad back in the 70s, “Don’t bother buying a manual. Automatics are just as good as manuals these days.” Sounds like sacrilege today, but that was the attitude of a regular person who wasn’t a car enthusiast.
Agreed! I had a 96′ Neon with the stick shift, a friend got one with the automatic, which they only had a 3-speed, it was so so much worse. What was fun and agile with the fairly numb shifter, was a tedious noise machine with the auto.
I drive on mountain roads in the French Alps on a regular basis, and I wouldn’t want an Automatic there…
the main reason : I wouldn’t be able to downshift on that 200m long straight line with clear view to get ahead of that RV that’s been blocking me for kilometers.
( or worse on that twisty stretch of road called the Gorges de l’Infernet where if you know where to look on the cliff you can see what’s ahead almost a km away, and just downshift and get ahead of a whole line of RVs or people that don’t know the road )
For me it’s stick for as long as they are available… I’ll make do with automatic with paddles ( or a stick to move up and down ) that gives me a bit of control… but t’s not as good as full stick.
( and yes a Renault 4 style stick won’t be an issue for me if t comes down to that, once you’ve driven an Estafette ( loaded with 9 people and camping + climbing gear or empty ) for several hundred kms nothing with a stick will surprise you. )
I seriously considered a beat-to-crap 2004 Hyundai Accent as my next car because it was dirt cheap and a manual fastback coupe. The manual made it cool, if it was an automatic I wouldn’t have considered it at all.
My 2006 Saturn Vue (without the Honda V6 ????) is a ton of fun to drive with the stick. My wife likes to remind me it’s not a race car- but it still feels exciting to drive around town.
I felt the same about my 1982 Honda Accord with a 5 speed and a hatch. Purchased in 1996 ????. It was fun to drive the back hills in that thing!
My 2016, 5 speed manual, rear engined, rear wheel drive, smart car is a blast to drive. Everyone who has been behind the wheel of my car has thought it was a blast. Of course it is, it is like a tiny, low power, 911, and yes, the stick shift has a lot to do with it. I bought it new and wouldn’t take anything but a stick, I was lucky to get it as very few smart cars with manual transmissions ever made it to America. Heck, very few smart cars made it to America period.
Manuals I have owned:
1972 Ford Pinto (4 on the floor)
1978 Ford Econoline (3 in the tree)
1987 Honda CRX (5 speed)
1989 Toyota Camry (5 speed)
1997 Toyota Tercel (4 on the floor)
2004 Honda Civic (5 speed)
2005 Honda Civic (5 speed)
2011 Subaru Impreza (5 speed)
2016 Honda Civic (6 speed)
2020 Honda Civic Sport Hatch (6 speed)
Going hard trying to prove crappy cars are cool with a manual aren’t you?
Nothing could have made the Pinto or Tercel cool.
My bad aren’t cool!
I’d be totally fine with a 4-speed Pinto or Tercel.
One of the most fun to drive cars I’ve ever owned was my $400 1978 VW Rabbit junker. It was a gas 4-speed manual hatchback, and brown – I nicknamed it the “Rabbit Pellet” -which I suppose gets it about 2.5 times the way to the holy grail “brown manual diesel wagon.” It was the quintessence of having a lot of fun driving a slow car fast.
When I was a teen in the late ’90s, I drove a 1987 Oldsmobile Cutlass Calais with the 2.5L Iron Duke 4cyl and 5-speed manual transmission as my winter beater. Although it was the same N-Body platform that underpinned the Grand Am and Skylark, it was really unusual to have a manual trans in an Oldsmobile. I don’t know that I would call the car “cool” (I wouldn’t), but it definitely was much more interesting because of the manual trans. And despite having nearly 200k miles on it at the time, it was mechanically un-killable. I bought it for $500 and drove it for a few years, then sold it to a friend for $500, then it was sold to another friend for $500 who ultimately did kill it by off-roading it and punching the rear shocks through the trunk.
I seriously thought that was an A-body car, like a trim of the Cutlass Ciera. Talk about a naming fail by Roger Smith-era GM. When even someone who grew up with those cars around can’t tell them apart imagine how the general public felt.
The Cutlass started as an A-body, then became a G-body, then became an N-body.
On the first date with my now fiancée, I told her that I drove a lime green Kia Soul. She made a face so I quickly added that it was a manual as if that made it cooler. She then laughed and said “I didn’t know they even made those as manuals”. She still jokes that her thought was “ew he’s a Kia Soul weirdo” and that she almost ghosted me. But I guess I was endearing enough for her to overlook that, since she’s still with me! (The Soul is not)
Easier to get you to replace the car than the boyfriend? FYI just getting started. Soon none of your single male friends will be around. None of your cool toys, furniture or clothes will remain. She is already picked and started to pluck you. Hope you like game night with annoying deutsch bros and Karen’s. If what I learned by watching TV is true.
Ok incel ????
Congrats on the eventual nuptials!
The manual transmission is the reason I purchased my Cruze. It lets the turbo engine shine, at least for my taste. Having removed the resonator ahead of the airbox allows for some intake noise to escape and bypass valve noise when shifting at high load. Hearing the gears on the third shaft whine a bit adds to the character. The admittedly slightly flawed manual is known to do that. The automatic is still fine but feels generic.
I agree, when I needed another vehicle a few years ago, I got a 98 Mazda B4000 (Ford Ranger) mostly because it is a stick. Never would have bought it if it had the auto. I’ve had 3 4×4 Ranger V6 5spds over the years and while not fast, they are more engaging. I’ve had a few other manuals over the years:
68 International Scout
80 Triumph TR-7
88 Audi 80 Quattro
98 Wrangler
95 Mustang
94 Explorer Sport (ex-s)
85, 93, and now 98 Ranger (or Ranger based)
I’m the same age as SWG, I used to get bored with my vehicles a lot more often….
I once owned a base model Celebrity wagon with the Iron Duke 4, and a 4 speed manual. Not something I ever considered owning, I was more into VWs at the time. But it was fun to drive without an automatic sucking the life out of the drive train.
ABSOLUTELY FUCKING NOT. Manuals do not automatically (ha!) make anything cool, in the same way that anything 2 door and RWD is not cool just because of it’s layout. Volvos are not Swedish BMWs so stop trying to make them out at such.
They’re still minivans which suggests you’ve got nothing to do in the evenings. In which case buy a fucking television.
Agreed, it does not necessarily make it cool, but it does make it more fun to drive. I.e. An automatic in a classic muscle car is still a cool car, but a 4 speed is better; and that Princess Cruiser up there an automatic is deeply uncool now, but a five speed would be better.
As a side note, when the Cruiser originally came out a friend of mine’s mom pre-ordered one in green with the manual because she thought it was cute. She used it as a replacement for her 1990 silver ford ranger with a pink squiggle stripe down the side. It was so very nineties.
I just picked up a dirt-cheap Ranger that needs some things…because stick
“What do we think about this Mazda5 minivan?”
I think $3800 for that with 158k on the odo is a fair deal.
I believe they hold up well, too
They do.
Unless it’s lived in the Rust Belt. They have the ’00’s Mazda rot issues.